Kymco 500I

I did a search and found no mention on the Kymco 500I
I thought about buying one before I got the great deal on
my 2007 Silverwing.
Now my son is looking to buy and that's something that falls into his price range
Does anyone have any comments or experience with this model ?

Try Googling kymco 500cc scooter or kymco xciting.

I had a Kymco XCITING 500,great ride low power for two up, a Honda SW fair ride good power 2 up, now a used Burgman 650 best of both worlds,if the trans does not blow up. Lack of power is a bad short fall, I think the 15" front 14" rear tires make the difference on the ride. The xciting and 650 have them. You get what you pay for. For one up,the xciting takes the gold..

The big problem is, where will you find dealers when you need service?
They are few and far between. Unfortunate, because it seems they make a good product.

It appears there is a Kymco dealer 12 miles from you in Bear, DE

Kymco is a well made scooter with very good service/parts support. Several of my friends have them and are very pleased with the product (People 150cc & Bet & Win 250cc). The Xciting 500cc is a great performer also! A bit dated (2009) but here is a Xciting 500 review.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback

i have heard that they are good scooters i had considered one myself. the only reason i didnt was because of parts,and i just didnt see any of their products on the streets. whereas u do see honda bikes all over,and i know i can get parts and service all over praticaly. but i only know about what i have close by me localy. if you have service and parts or them by you then i reckon it would come down to which bike you like best.

The new BMW scooters have Kymco engines.

I used to own a Kymco Bet&Win 250. I loved it and thought the quality was great. When the Kymco Xciting came in, I went down to look at it...and was very disappointed.

The bike seemed massive, especially compared to the bike next to it. Yet even with all the exterior space it took up, it had very little storage space in it. The underseat storage was about what I had on my Bet&Win 250...and no where what was possible. The front fairing storage was minimal too. The potential was there to engineer more storage in both areas, yet it wasn't done.

The seat was lower than the Bet&Win statistically, but the seat was so wide, I couldn't get close to getting my feet down on the ground.

I left that day feeling like my Bet&Win was a much better bike.

I watched the Kymco forum on Yahoo Groups for awhile. From the comments, the 500 had the power of a 400 like the Burgman or Majesty, but the gas mileage of something more like the Silverwing or Burgman 650. Everyone was thinking that would be fixed when the fuel injected version came out. It didn't seem like it did.

I never rode one, my thoughts are just from looking at it in the dealership and reading owner's comments on that forum. But I would think you could get an excellent deal on a Burgman 400 or Majesty, especially a used one. Both bikes haven't changed much in recent years, and you'll find low mileage models for sale where basically the previous owner broke it in for you...and paid thousands of $$$ of depreciation for you.

Chris

I owned a Kymco XCiting 250 for about 3 years, just traded it in for my Swing. The XCiting 500 is very similar, tops out higher, reduced mpg's and reduced under-seat storage. I will say that Kymco's are pretty reliable and probably the best bang for the buck, since if you price similar size scooters the Kymco will usually come out as one of the lowest-priced. I wouldn't worry about technical support, the engine is not complicated and any decent motorcycle shop should be able to work on it.

What you do lose out on for the lower priced scooter is quality. IMO, the Kymco suspension was a bit on the harsh side, the maintenance schedule is a little busier, and the engine just didn't sound as smooth as my history with Suzuki/Yamaha/Honda scooters. But -- over my 3 years of owning a Kymco I never had to take it in for a repair, and DIY maintenance was not very difficult. For maintenance supplies, I just ordered everything online from StadiumYamaha.com, which had reasonable prices.

Vic

Very interesting as BMW are having the engine for thier superscoot manufactured by Kymco