SYM VS150

The Scooter Review
Seems the chaps at SYM have got wind of my habits. See normally I begin most SYM reviews with a bit of an easy laugh about the name of the scooter. It’s not hard when a scooters called an ˜Uber boy” or a “Super Duck”. Not any longer it seems. So now what do I do? I haven’t got enough talent to come up with something amusing on my own, I need help. Then it dawned on me. It was a puzzle; SYM had simply hidden the real name in a complex code. I’ve always wanted to be a spy or maybe a voyeur. Is that the same thing? Anyway I pulled out my copy of You wanted to be a spy but ended up a boring git. A great title for a book I have to say.

After many hours of detailed cypher work and numerous conversations with my contacts in the CIA, FBI, FCC, FAA, STD, ABS, and VTEC, I came up with an answer. It was hidden in the title. What SYM had done was brilliant; they’d used the initials V and S as what seemed like innocent letters. Not so. My exhausting analysis discovered their true meaning. A simple V no, in SYM’s world of layered espionage the V stands for Vanity and S stands for Sprocket. You see it was there hidden all along. The SYM Vanity Sprocket. What does Vanity Sprocket mean you ask? How on earth would I know; I just work here.

The VS is a direct assault on the Euro and Japanese scooter models. It was obviously a fairly transparent conversation when they began work on the VS. The engineers were simple told to build a 150cc scooter that functioned as well as or better than any of its competing models but cost less. So that’s what they built. The SYM designers put their heads together and gave us what we’ve all been asking for. First, they mounted the battery extra low in the body, then they moved the fuel tank to the front of the bike, the result being; a class leading storage area. If you’ve ridden scooters for more than a week you’ll know how vital storage is. In the VS you can store either two open faced helmets or one helmet and your riding gear. After riding the bike for the week I wondered how I’d put up with the useless storage on most scooters. The only negative is that the under seat area is not very deep so you can only just squeeze in a small sized full-face helmet. Make the storage area just an inch deeper on the next VS and we’ll be in nirvana.

Riding wise the VS is pretty straight forward. The 150cc four stroke is slightly more perky than average and usefully more powerful than most 125cc bikes. This means the VS will function on the freeway provided you avoid the fast lane and stratospheric mountain passes. Suspension and ride quality is about average as well. The suspension and 12 inch wheels soak up most bumps and give reasonable comfort. The VS can be hustled along but prefers a medium pace as it’s more cruiser than corner carver. The front disc is massive for the scooter world at 273mm but surprisingly required a fair amount of effort to bring the bike to a halt.