Scooter Purchase

It took some work, but I did make it out to "Scooter Alley" and ended up buying a scooter that very day. The shops along this street had a wide selection of new and used scooters and motorcycles available. I was looking to pay no more than 1 mil for a 50cc scooter, which restricted my choices to used scooters. Most appeared to be in fairly good condition, however, and I was lucky to have a few scooters to consider.

Aside from price, aesthetics also played a role in decision making. The Hyosung Rally I had borrowed from my friend was functional and practical, but not exactly cute enough for my taste. My sights quickly settled on the more aesthetically appealing retro-style Taiwanese bikes. Unfortunately, these eye candies were going for 1.3-1.5 mil. It took some searching, but after walking up and down the row of scooter stores, I had narrowed it down to two scooters.

Honda, 700,000W

Daelim Bonita, 900,000W

The salesman aptly said, "Sport and pleasure." You can guess which one I picked!

It wasn't just for looks, though. Thankfully my boyfriend was present and checked important things like mileage and wear and tear. The Bonita had a smoother start and a quieter engine as well as lower mileage.

In the end, a helmet, a bottle of engine oil, a pair of new side view mirrors and two keychains were included in the deal. I negotiated for new tires to be put on for an additional 60,000W and picked up the Bonita an hour later. From there it was a somewhat harrowing ride back to Yeonhuidong, but even heavy traffic couldn't dampen my excitement at having my very own, very cute scooter.


View Scooter Alley in a larger map

More On the Scooter Hunt

School is starting up again at the foreign school and teachers who spent their summers visiting friends and family in their home countries are once again back on campus. During this transitional period, I spotted an ad for a used 50cc scooter. Unfortunately when I called, the owner told me that the scooter, which had been sitting around for a year, had sadly expired.

I was pretty disappointed as it was really well priced (300,000 won) but the owner mentioned that there was an area around City Hall that is full of scooter shops. He had bought his two scooters in the area for around 600,000 won each, much less than I was planning to spend.

If all goes well, I'll be out there on Saturday! It sounds like I'll be able to get a feel for some scooters and find a reasonable price!

Scooter Hunt

I've never really been into motorcycles or scooters, but one of my friends lent me her scooter over the summer. Just so it doesn't sit around, she says. Well, I'm addicted. During the week, the little 50cc Daelim zips me around the neighborhood cutting errand time in half. On the weekends, my boyfriend and I hop on for breezy rides through Hongdae or Sinchon. It's pretty fantastic.

The summer is slipping by though, and pretty soon I'll have to give the Daelim back. After getting a taste for the scootering life, I don't think I can leave it behind! So the hunt begins.

The parameters of the hunt are the following:

1 mil won in funds
50cc (any higher and I'll need a license)
adequate storage
cute

Online research did not turn up much. I did find a few posts at dagSeoul.blogspot.com, though. The blog has a few good notes for a beginner scooterer. Gary Norris seems to have plenty of experience and some grounded advice. I just wish he'd post a bit more about scooters! Here is a link for a couple of his posts about scooters.

After reading what Mr. Norris had to say, I've decided not to stray too far to find a dealer. There is a little scooter dealer/scooter shop that sells scooters to quite a few of my foreign co-workers. From what I hear, they take excellent care of the scooters that they sell to school employees. Sometimes they even ride up to the campus to take care of minor issues. Considering that they also tuned up my borrowed Daelim for free, it seems to be the logical place to go to purchase one of my own. Maybe I can even sell it back to them after a year if I can't find a buyer of my own.

So it's still just research and speculations for now but in the next few days I should have more to share! Take a look at some of my hopes and dreams. Hope you enjoy. Have a happy weekend everybody!

Sym, Fiddle II, 2010

Daelim, Cordi, 2010

Daelim, Bonita

Daelim, Besbi

Kymco, People, 2011

Kymco, Yup, 2006

Sym, Mio, 2007

Aprilia, Mojito, 2006