Over the years SYM has brought us some excellent scooters and motorcycles and they are one of the brands I routinely recommend to people looking for a quality machine. SYM ( San Yang Motors) is based in Taiwan and has been around since 1961. Suffice to say that in the Twin Cities there is a reasonably big market of people who do not want to get a motorcycle endorsement, want/need the free parking and are fine limited to 30MPHish city streets. At the time of this writing, the 50cc scooters from Honda, Yamaha and Vespa are considered motorcycles in Minnesota because they are NOT restricted to two horsepower from the factory. ![]() Not all 50cc scooters are moped-legal in Minnesota. These advantages have continued to drive moped-legal scooter popularity. On some school campuses, moped parking is far and away the most inexpensive ( generally free) and available vehicle storage methodology. One can also legally park a moped-legal scooter in most bike racks. One can operate a moped-legal scooter with just an ordinary driver’s license, no need for a motorcycle endorsement. In Minnesota, that means a 50cc or smaller engine, two horsepower and a maximum speed of 30MPH. These have virtually vanished from the USA market and now we have “mopeds” that are, in fact, really just moped-legal scooters. With some of them, one pedaled to get the moped going and then engaged the engine to cruise without pedaling. Mopeds used to be those funky half bicycle things that had pedals AND an engine. Scooters have also changed with the Genuine Buddy and RoughHouse being pretty much the only two-stroke moped-legal scooters available these days ( sniff, sniff, I miss the Kymco People 50) and other manufacturers reducing the number of models available in this market.įor those of you who haven’t read most of my other scooter blatherings ( you know who you are… the smart ones) let’s go over this whole “moped-legal” thing briefly. I am also less of a load for a small scooter these days having gone from nearly 18 stone to a bit over 13 stone in weight. This means that I had to keep the Mio at my office ( still in Minneapolis) and get all my riding done around the city. My wife and I now live in a northeastern suburb of the Twin Cities with no road to the metro without needing 50MPH+ speed capability. ![]() There have been changes since 2008, in scooters and for me. Good ol’ Scooterville in Minneapolis came through with a unit for me to have for a few days. Alliance has done a great job with SYM since the Carter Brothers debacle and I was curious to see what had changed on this cute, fun machine. Apparently the team at Alliance Powersports ( the USA distributor for SYM) pay more attention to this website than I do because they contacted me and asked if I’d like to have a look at the new Mio. Since 2008, the Mio has been my recommendation for a four-stroke moped-legal scooter. It has been eleven years since I first reviewed the Minnesota moped-legal SYM Mio scooter.
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