Yamaha Zuma Motor Scooter Review

by Rick Rudge
(Portland, OR, USA)

A lot of scooter riders go for the naked look of a Honda Ruckus, while others like a little bit of locking storage space that the Yamaha Zuma has to offer. I was discouraged from the Ruckus when I found out that many owners soup-up their Ruckus by engine swapping it with a Zuma's engine and calling them Zoomers.

I quickly fell in love with the Zuma's styling, the very comfortable seating, and the peppy speed of this little 50 cc. Its low maintenance, air-cooled, 2-stroke engine is unbelievably easy to work on and since it's a well established Yamaha product, it's very easy to find parts for it, both Yamaha, as well as OEM and third-party customized parts.

Outside of bicycles, I'm new to scooters and motorcycles. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get started in scooters by buying the Zuma.

Its CVT automatic transmission makes it so easy to ride, and since it's an under 50cc engine, I don't need to have a motorcycle endorsement on my license (check your local DMV for rules in your area). If you're considering buying a Zuma, I recommend getting onto the Zuma Forums web site to learn more about it.

http://www.zumaforums.net/

The Zuma has an oil injection system so there's no mixing oil into the gasoline. It does it automatically. The Zuma also has front disc brakes that have unbelievable stopping power.

A reality check: I don't know where Yamaha gets its mileage rating. I don't get anywhere near 123 miles per gallon. My actual mileage is closer to 72 MPG, which is still, pretty damn good.

My maximum speed on the flats is 37 MPH with its stock engine. There are ways of getting even more speed out of it, but right now I'm too new to scootering to be interested in that just yet.

The Zuma also comes in a 4-stroke 125cc scooter if you really need to go faster but want to keep that same Zuma styling. But, for me, I'm really quite happy scooting around inner-city traffic with my Zuma 50cc.