Aprilia SportCity 250

Awesome mid power scooter. Feels nice to ride. Has a nice thumping vespa engine. Has decent enough spares support. Tears it up in the city and will happily carry you up a motorway with a top speed of 80 mph. The way the panels fit together is a little flimsy but overall the build quality is good. A very under rated bike indeed. Don't waste your money on an x-max get the sc

its a really light weight scooter that makes easier to accelerate and easier to move also its healty for your waist bone and built quality is awesome twin brake disc makes it unbeatable in 250cc scooter category

The Aprilia Sportcity 250 is a great bike its well worth the money, I buy a new bike every 2 years and this has been the best so far, looking at getting the 300 next, if Aprilla is reading this, if you can sort out the electrics I would give you 10/10. So far I have done 14,000 miles on it and its a 07 plate, my aprilla shop are the best I have ever used, if a part dont work they just fit a new one, great bike well happy as long as the warrenty lasts then just buy a new one.

The first scooter I had here was the Aprilia SR125, and I can tell you that the Sportcity is 100% better all round than that, although I did have it 4.5 yrs, started and went OK, but the plastic was a lot worse than the S.C. so maybe they are getting better. I have had the scooter now for 2 yrs, and not one thing has, as yet gone wrong!! When I was looking for a replacement for the 125, I did a list of likes, one dislike was I did not want another Aprilia, but alas the SC 200 was the only one near, and I can say I am not disappointed, mine is the carb model and it has always started no problems, but just maybe the hot weather here helps! If I could get a little more go, say a 300 I would buy that now. Don't get me wrong the bike is not slow but as we have a very high mountain and I live up it [ most people do] it would be nice to have that 60-90 km [50-70 mph] with a bit more go to clear the traffic. I did say brakes were not bad, maybe thats not fair as they do stop it OK. I would love the linked left lever braking, better in a panic stop. Maybe my next Aprilia will be the Scarabeo 500, but that has now gone, oh well roll on new model, till then I am very happy with my 200.

Review of the Aprilia Sportcity 250. Please note that the following review was written over three different periods in my ownership. The initial impressions were in the first few days, the balance was in the following three months or so.

The Sportcity is a new model in 2007. It came to the US to replace the Scarabeo 250. I've never even seen a Beo 250, so I can't provide any thoughts on the differences or similarities between the two with one notable exception. That being the Owner's Manuals between the two are wildly different. The Sportcity's has many shortcomings by way of lack of detail, limited illustrations, and even a lack of an index! The Beo's is very complete and lacks the shortcomings of the Sportcity's.

And speaking of the manual, it's in two languages, with side-by-side columns in English and French, and so many bold face warnings and cautions that one is almost discouraged from reading it. What's not boldfaced is in a tiny font. I found the manual as a PDF file on Aprilia's site and downloaded that. I can at least enlarge it to make the tiny print a bit more legible.

As for as practical riding experience on a bike this size, I have only the Honda Reflex to compare with the Sportcity therefore my impressions of the latter have to be made with the former in mind.

When I took delivery of the Sportcity the bike had 25 miles on the clock. The dealer explained that as they assemble each new bike they take them for a thorough test ride to check for squeaks, rattles, leaks, throttle response, brakes and so on.

The ride from the dealer to my house (about 15 miles) largely confirmed what I was told. It was rock solid, the brakes worked well, and the bike performed flawlessly.

My first impressions (first week of ownership) produced some mixed emotions:

The Sportcity is clearly smaller than the Reflex. It is a bit shorter, has slightly less foot room on the floorboard, and is lighter by about 50 pounds. One issue is the seat height. It's maybe two to three inches taller than the Reflex. As a result I can only flat foot one foot at a time. It's close, but I would prefer to flat foot both sides. I'm 6 foot, with a 32 inch inseam, by the way.

The Sportcity does not have a side stand. What were they thinking! However, the lighter weight makes it easier than the Reflex to get up on the center stand.

The instrumentation does not include a tachometer. My Reflex had one, but I didn't pay any attention to it so not having a tach will be no big deal for me. The speedometer is analogue. The clock, fuel, temperature gauges, and tripmeter are digital. There's also a digital volt meter.

There's much less room under the seat than on the Reflex. My full face modular XL helmet won't fit.

The gas cap is also under the seat and feeds the 2.4 gallon tank. (The dealer claims it should be good for 70 mpg. I got 62 with my Reflex and a friend claims 65 on his. (A real gripe - the octane recommendations in the owner's manual are in European ratings - not US. Some folks on another board said to go with 87 and switch up if it pings. Sigh.) After several fills my gas mileage calculations have crept up to 73MPG.

The battery lurks under a panel at the front of the floorboard.

There's a very small two-sided "glove box" inside the front leg shield. The skimpy tool kit resides there and takes up a goodly share of the space on the right side. For the smokers, you can squeeze a pack of cigarettes into the same area. However, that's also the location for the cell phone plug-in, so pack accordingly. The left side is almost useless-maybe the registration and insurance cards?

Immediately above the glove box is a swing-out bag holder, but the owner's manual almost discourages you from using it - swinging weight, you know.

The rear rack is a plastic/heavy vinyl-type material. The warning sticker places the weight limit at 15 pounds. I'll probably get a top case for it because of the cramped under seat storage. After all, one has to have a place for the rain suit, walk-around hat, tire repair kit and such.

The next impression was the ride. Smooth, describes it very well. There's a bit more spring travel, but those 15 inch wheels are really what does it. Much smoother riding than the Reflex.

The Sportcity is fuel injected and makes for very smooth throttle response. Even though both have 250cc engines, the Sportcity is much "torquier" than the Reflex. My Reflex had the K-modification done to it, which made for a much better response from a dead stop and cured the dead spot between 30 and 40, but it still had a fair amount of vibration throughout the range. The Sportcity doesn't. It's really twist-n-go. There's almost no vibration from a dead stop all the way to 50. After I get the break-in done, the real test will be performed - dead stop to my comfort zone top end. A caveat about the quicker throttle: at least part of that stronger acceleration may be in part to the 50 pound weight advantage over the Reflex.

I need to mention the break-in period: the manual is rather vague on the subject. For example, it recommends riding on lots of twisty roads for the first 60 miles. The reason is to get the steering, shocks, and brakes broken in. The next level is to work up to about 300 miles at limited speeds and varying throttle usage to work on the engine and drive train. Then do moderate throttle usage up to about 600 miles at which point they want you back at the dealer for the first service.

Following the above comments by several weeks, I attended a meeting of our scoot club. After the meeting, we decided to take a ride. By the time I returned home I'd clocked another 75 or so miles. The weather was very hot and humid, and there was a wind of about 25 or so out of the northwest. Our ride was on both highways and byways. Speed limits ranged from 25 to 55.

That said, here are additional impressions.

That lack of space under the seat is a real pain. And to open the seat there is a key lock on the side below the seat AND below a bulge in the plastic panel. Standing beside the bike (i'm a six footer) and looking downward, i have to lean over to see the lock. For me, an inconvenience, for shorter riders perhaps no big deal.

And on the subject of storage, I decided I really needed to get a top box. I've never been a big fan of them because of my sense of aesthetics - that is, I think they "spoil the lines" of scoots. However I feel about it, a top box is a necessary evil. I ended up with a Nelson/Rigg rear bag from Newenough. The bag bungies on and also has a handle so it can be used as a carryall when dismounted. The down side is that it's a little too big to just sit solely on the carrier rack, so it also covers part of the seat. Because of its expansion capabilities, it will easily hold an FF.

Since I'm still observing break-in mileage I cooled it a little on a stretch of highway we covered in our club ride and I had a difficult time keeping up with the leader. Once I'm past the 300 mile mark it's fairly obvious there won't be problem. The scoot moves right out to my self-imposed 55 limit and there was a fair bit of twist left in the throttle. The Sportcity should be good for upwards of 70/75. I think 80 might be possible, but that would be well beyond my aforementioned comfort zone.

Now that I've completed the break-in period, my above comments still apply. It moves out very quickly to about 60 at which point I tend to cool it because of my aforementioned "comfort zone". I'm just not a speed driver and although I know the bike will easily break 70/75 or so because of the amount of twist left in the throttle.

The ride comfort was as good as my initial impressions noted earlier. Those big wheels and the long spring travel make for a pretty comfortable ride. I think the seat might have a bit less seat padding than the Reflex, but I'm not really sure.

In addition to ride comfort I should mention the handling. It handles very nicely. It may be for a couple of reasons: the big tires, and the lighter weight. It goes where you point it and takes curves very nicely. I've always been leery of really tight turns but I'm finding the bike to be pretty easy to make those turns.

A comment on the weight: I find it very easy to move around in the garage where I keep my rides when not in use. It's about 50 pounds lighter than the Reflex, but it just seems so much easier to push backwards while in the saddle or on your feet turning it around. The Sportcity is several inches shorter than the Reflex, so that may also contribute.

The bike ran very nicely without a hiccup anywhere along the line. It may be because of the fuel injection, but I couldn't spot a "dead zone" anywhere through the throttle range - very unlike the Reflexes with the same size engine. The Reflex vibrates right from the git-go and has a dead spot between about 30 and 40 but pulls fairly well both above and below that range. Reflexes really benefit from the "K-mod". While there is some vibration (all "thumpers" ((one cylinder bikes)) do that), the Sportcity's isn't particularly noticeable.

The Sportcity comes with a very small windshield (mentioned above) and is comparable in size to the one on the Reflex Sport model. Mine was the regular Reflex so the windshield was much taller and did an excellent job deflecting wind from the upper body and helmet. I was interested in feeling the difference and this ride (with the above mentioned northwestly winds) was a pretty good tryout. Lo and behold, we were well into the ride before I even thought about it. I wear a full face helmet, but I didn't even really feel any undue wind on my chest. The only time I noticed the wind was when it was coming from the side and I had to lean into it a little bit.

In the last couple of weeks I've made some longer trips and one thing that strikes me is that at highway speeds (on a four lane divided highway) if there's very much wind, passing vehicles can blow you around a bit. This has got to be directly related to its lighter weight.

At this point (following four months of ownership) I'm very satisfied with the Sportcity.