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Zoot R150 rider Alex Hammond
About a year ago I won a position at a company on the south edge of the city that was not located near public transport so I had to look at a second car or a motor bike to commute to work. I already had a restricted bike licence from some 20 years before so I decided to look at a scooter. I figured I would need as big a scooter as I could afford as I needed it to cope with some serious commuting, including the Southern Expressway. Obviously a “nifty fifty” was out of the question. I spent a day cruising the bike shops around Adelaide with my budget of about $3000. Finally it came down to two stores, each with a 150cc bike with big 16 inch wheels that fit my budget. The decider came down to 2 things. Peter, the owner of Zoot was a much more relaxed guy who seemed genuinely interested in making sure the bike fit my need (although I am not sure he was taking me seriously when I told him how many km’s I expected to do) and he put together a better overall package. My bike was the first R150 that he sold, in fact he was still putting it together the day I was in the shop looking at it.
As seems to be my track record, the day I picked my bike up, it was after work and I kept Peter in his office way past closing time while we did the paperwork and settled the deal. Peter explained the warranty and the service window on the bike. He also invited me back in a couple of weeks to check out the new armoured jackets he was getting in. I picked up one of those on the first service.
Now, 12 months and 19000km later, I look back over the year and how my bike has gone. Yes, I really did do 19000km on that thing. My biggest day would have been around 150km. But that is what happens when you visit family who live as far north as I do south of the city. I have ridden regardless of heat, wind or rain between 4 degrees and 44 degrees. As I work in the service industry, I place as much or even more importance on service after a sale, as the quality of the deal itself. I know that any new piece of equipment will have issues, especially when it gets extensive use, and my bike was no different but what impressed me was the simple attitude of “we can take care of that for you” any time I had any kind of issue. Most of my issues came down to the fact that, like most bikes, mine does not like blended fuels so I went through a learning process of who supplied decent fuel. As my experiences with wet or blended fuel matched some of my motorbike riding friends, I knew that Peter and Mark were genuine in their advice and their efforts to do what it takes to keep my bike mobile.
So, do I regret my choice of transport and my chosen supplier? Absolutely not! I compared the maths and logistics of travelling to work by car, scooter and public transport and the results were interesting. Using a car was by far the most expensive choice. Public transport was the cheapest but there was an extra 2 hours per day chewed up in the process. While the scooter is a bit more expensive overall than taking the bus, getting that 2 hours of my life back each day is a real difference maker! However, the experience is more than the maths. If I was asked if I would recommend Zoot to a mate who was looking at something like this, then based on my experience and ongoing relationship with the business, yes, I would recommend them over any other store I went to in Adelaide. |
