Company News

Hello to all Partsforscooters.com wholesale customers and welcome to the first Universal Parts news letter! We appreciate you taking the time to read this. We will be sending a new issue monthly in order to provide you with up to date industry and company news.

We would like to say thank you to all of our dealers for supporting us and providing the drive and feedback to help us grow. Thanks to you we are now approaching our 6th year in business!

Don't forget to check out our New Products category to see all the latest parts we carry.

Industry News

Dealer Interview with Sargents Motorsports

Gary Sargent Jr: Co-Owner
www.sargentsmotorsports.com

Your business name and location? Sargents Motorsports in Portland, Oregon.
Tell us a little about how your business started. We were in the auto industry running "Sargents Motor City". About 8 years ago we were looking for inexpensive ATVs on the internet. We found an importer from California and started selling them. From there we transitioned into what we are today.
What type of vehicles do you sell? Street-legal scooters, motorcycles ATVs, UTVs and dirt bikes.
How were your sales this summer? Great! We saw an increase in sales across the board.

What did you sell the most of? 150cc GY6 engine based scooters sold the most. The United Motors V2S- 250R and 650R street bikes and cruisers sold really good too.
What's new that your carrying for 2009? Scooters with the new 150cc water-cooled fuel-injected engine. We will carry the CF Moto ECharm and the Diamo Turino.
What brands do you like the most? QLink, Kymco, Diamo, UM, Hyosung and Fly are our favorites.
How has the repairs service end of your business been in 08'? Really good. We hired two extra full-time mechanics.

What do you see as a trend in the imported Powersports Industry in 2009? Fuel-injection, cleaner lines, racier looks and more 250cc scooters.
When did you sign up as a dealer and how has Partsforscooters.com benefited your business? We signed up as a dealer in 2005 and with partsforscooters.com we know that our service department can get parts for any of the Chinese or Taiwanese bikes. Its easy to match parts by the categories, images and the measurements you put up.
What would you like to see us carry more of and what could we do better? We would like to see you carry more dealer supported OEM lines and after-market parts for the Kymco, QLink, UM and Hyosung brands. Other than that, keep doin' what your doin'.

 Product Reviews

Qlink Star 50

A sunny autumn day in Portland, Oregon,and I was ready to take advantage of the good riding weather. I had been looking forward to test driving the latest Star 50 scooter from QLink for quite some time.

There was talk about this scooter that could hit 50 mph bone stock with only a performance CDI. Now I'm not a skeptic by nature, but with this kind of talk I had to see it to believe it or, should I say, "ride it to believe it".
The Star 50 comes with the 1PE40QMB 50cc 2-stroke air-cooled Minarelli, a Linhai-Yamaha copy engine. It has 12" wheels with front hydraulic disc brakes and a rear drum. One of the first things I noticed about this scooter, besides the body styling, is the fit and finish of the plastic and the paint. The model I rode had a nice blue fleck paint job and a large dashboard. Attention to detail should be an important factor for Chinese manufacturers and vehicle importers. Especially if they're looking to differentiate their brand from other Chinese and Taiwanese scooters on the market. In my opinion QLink is embracing this practice.

The ride started off simple enough by cruising around the neighborhood to warm up the engine. Keeping in mind that I'm 6'5", the Star 50 actually had ample leg room and the handle bar didn't hit my knees when turning. A little slow off the start is standard with almost any 50cc model and the Star 50 is typical in that respect. It did pick up a little sooner than most I've ridden and provided some nice torque at 3500 rpms. I could tell that this scooter had some potential, so I turned onto a main street and went from a modest 25 mph at 4000 rpms to a solid 34 mph at 7500 rpms in no time. With a nice little cruise underway I was impressed with this scooter. I was ready to find out for myself what adding the performance CDI would do, so I headed back to the shop.
Removing the rear body panel to change the CDI took about 15 minutes. One issue I ran into was the three spacers that hold the rear luggage rack and body panels together. When the bolts are removed, the spacers fall into the frame and can be hard to get to. With no other problems, the CDI change was done and I was off riding again.
Taking the same route, I turned onto the main road and opened it up. I went from that modest 25 mph at 4000 rpms to 39 mph with a lot more torque. Before I knew it I had a huge smile on my face and "Breakin the Law" running through my head as the speedo hit 44 and stayed. The smile was definitely from the fact that I was doing 44 mph on a stock 50cc. I think the song was in my head because I geek out on scooters, but technically I was speeding.
I made my way to my destination which was at the top of a long hill where I could pick up those extra mph's. After traffic died down I stealthily turned onto Foster Road (speed limit 45) to see if 50 mph was possible. With a twinkle in my eye and a weird Pee Wee Herman laugh, I leaned in and watched the speedometer climb. Come on baby...44, 45, 48, and then finally the moment had arrived. The speedo pointer met 50 for the first time and then the hill was done and I went back to good ole' 44. I pulled in the lot and knew that they had spoken the truth. I liked the scooter a lot and I love the 50cc Minarelli air-cooled engines. I am a believer now that Performance CDIs can increase top end speed with no other mods. Find them in the Minarelli 50cc Performance Parts category on our site.