Pros and Cons of buying a Chinese Import Scooter: My DirectBikes Moped Review
My DirectBikes scooter
Last year I decided I was sick of my daily struggle with public transport and decided to get a moped. It would be quicker than the bus, more economical than a travel card, and would invest me with the type of ‘cool factor’ that you only get in Shoreditch. Alas, my budget wasn’t quite as big as my dreams, so I settled on buying a Chinese import scooter from import company Direct Bikes– and this is my tale.
There are many options when buying a Moped, and they range from purchasing a brand new model from a dealer, to getting a second hand version on eBay. Models and prices vary from around £500 for a used version to £1900 and up for a brand new scooter. Options do tend to get a bit more limited when your budget is low and you’re set on owning something pink (repressed Barbie fantasies) so I was a little bit stuck when searching for one. I have a full car licence, but annoyingly it was issued in 2003, which means I need to complete a CBT (a one day training course, approx £110) to ride a 50cc or 125cc scooter. Anything above 125cc required an investment of around £1500+ to get the correct licence, and I wasn’t willing to go there.. yet. The rest of the costs are negligible, as I live in London and scooters don’t have to pay congestion charge. Parking is also free in most places in central London, apart from Westminster where it’s £1.
DirectBike moped in detail
With these facts in hand I set off to buy a moped and experienced issues at every turn. Either they were well out of my price point- like this beautiful pink Vespa, or they were based in Manchester and I had no easy way of getting there. eBay wasn’t a huge help, nor was Gumtree, and then I stumbled across a site called DirectBikes. They ship all their bikes in from China, and sell them brand new in the UK at a markup. Even with their markup it was still only £649 for a BRAND new bike, plus a non negotiable £80 odd pounds for delivery. And no, you couldn’t pick it up yourself. Boo. OK, so that’s £731 all in so far.
I ordered it online.. and it didn’t go through. I rang them and they said my address had been wrong (it wasn’t) and reordered it. Same issue. Different card tried, same issue. Now my bank was calling me because they though there had been some fraud taking place and I had zero cash (frozen ) and no bike. Four days later I tried again, this time ringing them straightaway. Exact same problem. Losing hope, I got the boyfriend to try them, and somehow it went through. No apologies from them about this, and no mention of when they’ll fix their website ordering process- consider yourself warned. Read more…
