What about SYM ?

When I introduced myself on obtaining my first Silverwing, I mentioned that I had been a scooter dealer in Pittsburgh for some 8 years. We sold primarily Chinese scooters and dirt bikes. At that time the demand was highest in Western PA for scooters in the 150cc class. 50cc scooters just couldn't handle the hills. Our marketing strategy was simple, handle three classes of scooters....good, better, and best.

So good class was easy...I bought "on deal" and ease of procurement. Scooter-du-jure as I like to call it. Wildfire, Roketa, Tao-Tao, et al.

For the Better class we tried to use Chinese scooters that had established some kind of marketing presence, and a warranty. CFMoto, Qlink, Linhai,

For our Best line the choice was between Taiwanese scooters from SYM or KYMCO. Pretty much a toss-up as I saw it. We went with SYM for one main reason. SYM looked to recruit the more traditional scooter shop whereas KYMCO went after the multi-lined major powersports dealers. SYM offered only scooters. KYMCO's line up was far more extensive.

The quality of both SYM and KYMCO were head and shoulders above the Chinese and remain so til this day.

Funny story.... in my second year with SYM I got a call from another dealer asking what I thought of SYM. How was the warranty service and did I have any problems? Told him I couldn't speak to the maintenance issue because we had yet had on come in for repair!

Thank God for those Chinese scooters...we made as much money fixing them as we did selling them.

I travel to Taiwan once a (pre-COVID) year for business; that is a seriously high-tech place and they make some pretty awesome stuff there. It is incredibly scooter-centric with something like 26 million population and 16 million registered scooters. I doubt that SYM or KYMCO would last long there if they made an inferior product.

SYM makes great products but the US support is terrible. I had a CityCom 300i and now its leaning behind a shed, slowly sinking into the ground. That Mike guy from SYM could care less if you need parts. Go though the dealer and you get the wrong part, and the wait times for the wrong parts are crazy long. And no option to buy a paper service manual. Like I said, SYM makes a nice product but the US importer is flat out horrible. Avoid SYM and get a KYMCO.

I had a KYMCO People 250. Parts were easy to come by, the wait times were acceptable and I had a paper service manual. Like the SYM it was great quality.

Now both brands jumped around to different dealerships constantly. So if you got parts from a local dealership it may not carry the brand, or worse vanish, by the time you needed parts again.

I have the income now were I don't have to compromise. My next fuel scooter will be a Honda ADV 150, unless something electric powered comes out. I'll still shop around for the best deal but I won't have to consider a KYMCO or SYM
because of funds. I like my local Honda dealership. I can buy a paper service manual and I know I can get parts easily.

I agree wholeheartedly. In 2008-09 scooter sales were through the roof. At one time or another I was offered every brand franchise out there. The metric motorcycle dealers gave little concern for scooter sales. Honda never seemed to know what they wanted to do. KYMCO makes a bazillion models and keeps rotating them in and out of the US market on a whim. So you could never build any model loyalty. Plus, like the big motorcycle makers, they wanted you to order 90-120 days or more in advance, and accept what they finally decide to ship you.
At first SYM bent over backwards to accommodate us smaller dealers....but that soon waned. And inversely as scooter sales slowed down, they copt'd a 'tude... as they say. I never had a problem with the scoots themselves... damn things were nearly bullet-proof.
When I finally closed down in the summer of 2014 I was in talks to "blend" my business in with the local Honda dealers. Looked quite promising because they just LOVED my profit margins, however talks came to a halt when Honda corporate told them they would lose their preferred status if they introduced non-Honda bikes to their line-up. As an aside, I wondering if I will have a problem with my Swing due to its age. I've been told some dealers will not work on older bikes.
I'm currently lending a hand to the only scooter dealer in Pittsburgh and he has elected to carry the Genuine and Benelli brands. I must say , from what I've observed they seem to be on the same par as KYMCO and SYM.

Dealers not working (or not knowing how) on older bikes is a bit of a theme across a few of the forums I frequent including VFR and ST1100 owners. Fortunately there is usually a wealth of information among enthusiasts to help out. From my limited exposure to my Swing, it is a pretty simple machine to work on and quite a lot is a common arrangement to other Hondas of a similar age; from the cam cover to the cylinder head, the layout is practically identical to my ST1300. A real boon is that the bike was made practically unchanged for many years, so I expect that Honda will continue to offer service parts for it for the foreseeable future.

A couple of years ago I spent the summer months on a fruitless search to find a SYM dealer in my region that had the new Cruised 300 in their showroom. By Autumn/Fall I'd lost interest and started looking at alternative choices. I bought the new for 2018 Honda Forza 300 instead.

Now if I'd lived over the other side of the country when the importer is based I'd have had better luck. Like Old Limey who used to be on here, he was able to buy his SYM Cruisym 300 easily because he lives in North West England. From what I've read it ticks all the boxes for him and he enjoys riding it.

Here we are nearly two years on and I've yet to see a Cruisym 300. In fact it was on holiday to Israel early the following year before I got to see my first one. SYM are massive sellers over there, especially the earlier Joymax 300, I've also seen loads of SYM scooters in Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Croatia.

The Cruisym 300 has now been dropped from the current range of SYM scooters, just like the Joymax 300 was earlier to make way for the Cruisym 300. The Maxsym 600 was also discontinued, so was the Maxsym 400, both very good maxi scooters that weren't really around long enough to get an established following amongst maxi enthusiasts.

Last year there was quite a bit of interest on UK maxi forums about the new SYM TL500 sports scooter, as it was a TMax rip off, a clone...   Some couldn't wait for the SYM importers to bring it to the UK, so they could have a 'test ride' and post about it. They're still waiting of course because it's not on sale over here.

My CityCom lost a end bearing on the variator side. It could have been from the prior owner neglecting maintenance because he rode it from Virginia Beach, VA to Kansas MANY times! I got it cheap and rode it for 2 trouble free years. I almost bought another one new and keep mine for a parts bike. But my wife never told me she couldn't reach the passenger pegs, so I junked it and went with a common brand that was comfortable for her.

I like big wheel scooters! I ended up purchasing a Piaggio Liberty 150. Great scooter but it recently popped a seal on the reduction box at 11,000 miles and destroyed its primary/secondary and main gears and all related bearings. I'm hoping it's a isolated incident. It's being covered under warranty.

But I always liked the SYM HD200. I also thought about a KYMCO People 300GT. I like the Piaggio BV350 but I'm tired of hauling my Piaggio product 100 miles one way for service work. I hate working on scooters now, easier to pay the dealer. Concerning the Silverwing, they are actually pretty simple and bulletproof. Service manuals are out there as well as new parts support and used.

Sadly Kymco are another brand that seems to have lost it's way in the UK. There was a change of importers a few years ago and you have to do a lot of research to find out what they're up to and actually selling.

The Kymco Downtown 300 was a popular scooter sold through the old importer, and it's replacement the X-Citing 400 just seemed to disappear off the radar within a year or two.

There was a lot of interest when the Kymco AK 550 sports scooter was announced, again because it was perceived as another TMax clone. A batch of them finally did arrive for sale in the UK, long after they went on sale in the rest of Europe and by all accounts it's a very good sports scooter. Although they're probably a bit too high tech for the 'I like to do all me own maintenance' owner. An added bonus is there's plenty of accessories available for the AK 550 especially if you're prepared to import them from Taiwan.

Sports scooters don't interest me in the slightest although there are a couple of 300cc Kymco scooters that I've seen over in Europe that do. and as expected neither of them are on sale into the UK.