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I got a sweet ride today--a blue moped! It has a totally rad name. Prepare yourself for... the Coolster F5 *flash!*
With the gas prices the way they are and my budget the way it is, I have been looking to get a moped for some time now. The past two weeks have been more of a intentional effort than usual though, with the start of my rigorous school schedule and all that entails, so I've become well acquainted with eBay and Craig's List. After much searching and a little heart ache with deals that fell through, I finally got the seemingly perfect one.
This great bike is produced by the ChuanL Motorcycle Company in China, which produces over 300,000 motorbikes a year, and is a very reliable form of everyday transportation with very low maintenance costs. Oil changes are more frequent in these bikes than the family car. And the drive belt may wear out after a few thousand miles of use. But compared to the cost of driving a car, these bikes are very cheap to own and operate. The Coolster is a large moped/motor scooter at 71 inches, which compares against many mopeds at just 48-53 inches. A trunk kit is included with the Coolster F5 as well, which is a $59-99 option on many brands. This little moped gets anywhere from 70-100 mpg, and it's only a 50cc, which means I don't have to have a license or insurance to ride it around Missouri. It goes up to 50 mph (that's really fast for a 50cc), so it's perfect for my life within the context of IHOP.
From now on I'll be zipping around with my awesome Chinese scooter, so watch out!
6 comments:
So cute!!
The Coolster Rules! If I could post an image I'd show you mine.
Coolster Dude
Some of the guys at work bought scooters to ride around on. I started riding my bicycle to and from work when it cost me over $40 to fill the tank in my Escort. My mom's been trying to talk me into getting a scooter but I kept telling her I was fine with the bike.
Today after I get home from work, there's a knock on the door. I open it to see my parents standing there. My mom says "We were bad." I step outside and there in the driveway is a yellow Coolster F5. They named it appropriately because this thing looks cool!
I still have to get it registered and get a tag, but I should be able to stop at the tag office on my lunch break tomorrow. I have to say, making sense of the manual can be quite trying.
I notice you posted this (about getting your scooter) last year, and I'm wondering some things. What kind of gas mileage does it get? I've looked it up online but all I seem to be getting are web sites that are selling these. My dad said the guy told him it gets 102 mpg, but online it says 70 to 100 mpg.
Are you still riding it? How has it held up? What do you think of it now? It comes with a one month warranty, but Dad said the guy told him the booklet contained information on how to get an extended warranty. It didn't. Have you had any problems with it? It can seat two people (which really surprised me being only 50cc). Have you ever ridden it with someone else on? Does having another person on affect the performance any?
Sorry for all the questions but all I've been able to find online are places selling these, and I'd like to hear from someone who's had one for a while, not someone who's going to talk it up to impress me so that I'll buy one.
Thanks for any info you can give me. :)
I owned a red Coolster F5 for a year until a very serious late April crash where I got caught far away from my home in a sudden hailstorm and skidded and got thrown hard on the pavement and still have some nagging injuries to my right leg despite wearing body armor and a full face helmet.
You have to be very careful with this bike in wet wearher like light rain or especially during even slicker and dangerous weather like the sudden hail I got caught in.
Another problem for this bike is that not every motorcycle insurance company wants to cover this bike because it has a bad safety record. And it is possible for the front wheel nut to sometimes back off and allow either the wheel bearing or speedometer to slip and jam the front wheel suddenly and cause a crash. You will want to buy a second nut and use it like a locknut to prevent this. For about 30cents this is a potentially lifesaving safety hint, especially if you are driving at 30mph or faster.
You can easily make your Coolster go a little faster by using AMSOIL Synthetic Four Stroke Scooter Oil which costs a little over $6 a quart. Your mileage will increase as well. In the CVT, use a little $11 a quart AMSOIL Severe Gear 80-90weight Synthetic Oil, this allows the CVT to really wind out and cuts wear way down. You can easily keep up with city traffic by learning to kick off with one leg and launching while turning the throttle near full and then backing off when you're going at 30mph. But I think there's a big speedometer error in these bikes so closer to 35mph is probably actually 30mph.
The Coolsters seem pretty good for a real cheap bike. But you need to be wary of the safety issues with it like brakes and a frame that could be a lot better. But the engine which is a Honda clone GY6 is very good and really responds well to use with the AMSOIL. The AMSOIL makes the Coolster as fast as any car in 0-35 city traffic.
Let's hear more thoughts on the Coolster bikes. I drive a CPI Oliver Sport 50 right now which is a two stroke. It gets a lot less miles per gallon than the Coolster and is more noisy, but it has great power due to the two stroke design. Overall the four stroke engines seem more civilized. But the two strokes have great low end power.
I have a coolster and having problems with it, and i have no manual, is there anyone that could help me with this, I would appreciate it.. My email address is lagunabeachbum@yahoo.com
Trust me, I'm not at all sure the manual would help you. I'm positive the manual was written first in Chinese by a Chinese guy, and then translated into English by another Chinese guy taking an English class.
One of the reasons I don't think the manual will do much to help you. You have to use the choke to start the bike. The manual shows a basic drawing of the bike from a side view. It says "Choke" and then points to where it is. I couldn't find it. I was looking everywhere. Turns out the choke and the front brake lever are the same thing. I finally got the bike started.
I've been riding it for two days now (I got it a couple of weeks ago but went on vacation for a week right after), but I'm liking it so far. There's a lot more play in the throttle than there should be, and while the speedometer goes up to 50 mph, I've only been able to do 40 on it. I got it to about 44 but I was going downhill at the time. Still, for a scooter, I'm quite happy with it. The guys at work seem quite impressed.
The horn is really loud, especially compared to the horns on the Honda scooters some of the other guys at work have.
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