Moto blog

2018 Kymco Xtown 300i ABS Review – First Ride

Cross town for less Credit: Photos by Michael Spain-Smith With a scooter market of less than 30,000 units from major manufacturers a year*, the USA isn’t much of a thing for scooters, and medium-displacement scoots like Kymco’s new $3,999 Xtown are even less of a thing since Honda dropped its PCX 300 and Suzuki fired its Burgman 400. I got to ride the new Kymco Xtown 300i ABS last week, a scooter that replaces two similar-sized models in the Taiwanese company’s line and offers solid value to the scooter rider that wants comfort, convenience and freeway-friendly power. For 2018, Kymco also offers the bigger, faster – and $2,000 pricier – Xciting 400i, but has also dropped the Downtown 300i and People 300i from the line.

Kymco Quannon 150 Unveiled

Taiwan-based Kymco unveiled three new products earlier this month at the International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, CA., including the Quannon 150. The air-cooled 149.3cc single-cylinder “sportbike” weighs 299 lbs and produces 14 hp allegedly allowing it to reach speeds of 72 mph. Speed is unlikely to be the main goal for beginners or commuters who purchase such a bike, but the claimed 70-75 mpg fuel efficiency will surely strike their fancy.

2018 Kymco Xciting 400i Review - First Ride

My fling with a thing Credit: Photos by Michael Spain-Smith We were snuggled into a conference room in the upscale Aloft hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, when PR man Peter Jones kicked off Kymco’s 2018 new-product launch by telling us that scooters in the U.S. market are “such a small thing, they’re not even really a thing… scooters and soccer, they’re just not a part of our culture.” But the lack of scooter culture has made Taiwanese manufacturer Kymco itself a thing. After staying doggedly in the American scooter market for the better part of two decades, Kymco has a coast-to-coast dealer network, a good reputation for reliability and value, and is basically the only purveyor of value-priced, high-performance maxi-scooters.