[UAStokie]

There is a local shop that just opened near me and they are a dealer for UM motorcycles. Is anyone familiar with these?

[six-shooter]

I have a United Motors V2c-250T that my wife rides. UM bikes are Hyosung bikes licensed and distributed under the UM label. Hyosung is a Korean company that started out making engines for Suzuki, then started making their own bikes about 10 years ago.
UM includes a 3 year warranty on their bikes, which is really good, but they’re a stickler for making sure that you have proof of having your bike properly maintenced. They’re actually very sharp looking bikes IMHO… the 250 cruiser is probably the biggest 250 cruiser on the market & a v-twin (my wife’s gets mistaken for a 650 often), the ’08 650 cruiser has a nice v-rod look to it, and the sportbikes are sharp as well.
Reliability has been the big question mark with the Hyosung bikes since they are, relatively speaking, a new company to the american motorcycle market. I can say that we’ve had no problems with the bike in the year that I’ve had it, and have been very happy with it. However, we have one of the largest UM/Hyosung dealers & service centers in the area, so I won’t have a problem getting service if I ever have a problem.
A good site dedicated to hyosung/um bikes is http://www.alternativecruisers.com. You might check it out.

[UAStokie]

Thanks for the info. I had never really heard of those bikes before until I went to this dealer. I had been planning on getting a Ninja 250 but waited too long, now they don’t have them anymore. With this being my first bike purchase I was wanting to start on something small like a 250 or 500. Would a 650 be too much for a beginner?

[six-shooter]

Generally speaking, I would say yes. That being said, a 650 cruiser is alot different than a 650 sportbike. The cruiser would be more beginner friendly, but personally I’d stay with something 500cc or less if it were me. There’s alot of good articles on the site here on that very subject… I’d recommend checking them out.

[UAStokie]

Yeah I’ve read pretty much everything on this site. I just don’t want to get something too small for me…I’m 240 lbs…most people that I’ve seen on one have been in the 150-175 pound range. I talked to the Kawasaki dealer today about the ninja 250’s but he said they are out of stock and will not be getting anymore in. I may just have to wait a couple of months for the 09′ models to come out.

[WeaponZero]

UM Motorcycles, as mentioned above, are Hyosungs. Think of Hyosung as being the Kia/Hyundai of motorcycles. They’re a Korean make who is new to the American market but have been around in Asia and Australia for around 10 years now. They look beautiful but are nowhere near as refined as their Japanese competitors and reviews of older overseas models seen on the internet say their reliability is very bad. In the US the bikes are covered under warranty but the shops that service these bikes are having problems obtaining parts which makes the warranty pretty useless. One of the admins of #motorcycles on EFnet IRC channel is a motorcycle technician who used to work for a shop that serviced Hyosungs and he actually quit because of how many times he had to do the same repairs (usually replacing faulty gauge cluster components) over and over again without having access to the proper replacement parts.

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