The more scooters I review the more I see trends develop. One trend I’m seeing is that 50cc scooters seem to be getting bigger. But not by sitting at home in their lazy-boy, relaxing, eating fried chicken, drinking beer, and watching the game. More, going to gym, pumping iron, getting a new shirt and some smart shoes. In the previous two decades every 50cc bike was tiny, it had little 10inch wheel, drum brakes, and little or no storage. Average European legs would hit the handle bars, and their rumps would hang out off the back of the seat while the rear shock collapsed under the massive strain. But now there is a new breed of scooter, the big framed 50cc scooters. As fuel prices increase so does the demand for fuel efficient vehicles that can comfortably carry your average western rider. So we have a new breed of 50cc bike and the Urban R4 is right there filling the exact needs of much of today's commuting population.

The Urban R4 sits high compared with many 50cc scooters, when riding in traffic it is easy to see over the cars in front. It has 12inch diameter wheels with wide tyres which give it a good solid feeling on the road. When riding, the large seat gives enough room to find the perfect riding positionand will even carry a pillion with ease, a minor point worth noting was that the seat was a little on the hard side for my liking. The R4 is full of features not normally found on a 50cc scooter, or in fact on any scooter. ABS on a 50cc scooter?! Yes.. Now I'm not sure how it works but it does seem to, There wasn't any sensor to be seen, so I can't imagine its the most high-tech system, but the ABS combined with the large wheels makes the Urban a really quick stopper.

Another feature which grabbed my attention was the key. Now, normally you put the tiny scooter key in, turn it on, hit the start button, end of story. But, with the Urban R4 you have the option to start it via the key fob. Hit a button it'll beep, hit it again and it'll start up, perfect for warming up the scooter before a ride, or more likely showing off to your friends. The key also controls the alarm and immobliser, which works well, the alarm is horribly loud and I'd advise not testing it in the confines of a garage on a quiet street. Unfortunately, the angle of the key when entered into the bike is all wrong, it sits on a strange angle which is annoying and difficult to turn. Also the key is one of those spring loaded ones, at the push of a button the key swings into place, as seen on many expensive european cars. But the problem with this high tech key is that it's been reproduced poorly, there is too much play present, and when opening the lid to fill up with gas I feel like I'm about to brake the key off in the lock. It would appear that the "standard" style keys supplied are for every day use and the flash electronic fob is mainly just for activating the alarm and amusing your friends..

So far we've got ABS, and remote starting and alarm, but that wasn't enough, its also got a carbon-fibre look surround and big can... japanese style exhaust pipe, while neither adds anything for performance it definitely adds to the look of the bike. The gauges are well lit and cleanly laid out. There is all the needed data; indicators, high beam, oil, low fuel light, even a digital clock. The speedo like almost all scooters was out a little. 46.1kph was the actual speed when the speedo read 50kph, not too bad. The fuel gauge is huge, but I found tended to vary widely depending on the angle of the bike. It would vary up to a 1/4 of a tank going from a uphill to a down hill position. But this is just something you'd get used to if riding the R4 on a regular basis. The Urban R4 can take a full-face helmet with ease. This model reviewed featured a factory top-box for extra storage. Perfect for your shopping or gym gear. It comes standard with side stand as well as the normal centre stand and moving the bike on and off the centre stand was done with ease.

The motor and driveline of the Urban is very similar to the other 'Big 50's' Adly Silverfox, and the PGO PMX, They all are a little slower off the line than the smaller wheeled, lighter scooters due to the extra weight, and bigger wheels. From the green light to 50kph took 14.0 for the R4, a little slower than the Adly Silverfox (11.9) and a little faster than the PGO PMX (14.3). The top speed of the Urban was most impressive for a 50cc scooter, managing a maxmium speed of just under 70kph on the flat. The gas milage wasn't amazingly good or bad. Our testing resulted in 25kph per liter. Or 58.8mpg so there is definately cheaper scooters to run but I was running the scoot at wide open throttle almost the entire time while testing, so increased fuel economy would be easy if simply cruising around town.

While the Urban has been built with a large number of cool gadgets, the overall build quality was quite average, there wasn't anything really nasty, but it just didn't have that quality feel that you find on many Italian scooters. Perhaps it is quality and quanity of black plastic, combined with the key and fuel cap, which slightly lowered the overall appearance of a good bike. But with that said, from the front the scooter looks great, the twin head-light arrangement look and performs well, adding to the sporty agressive persona.

The Urban R4, a 50cc scooter for everyone, its big enough to handle a basketball player, yet you don't need to be particularly big or strong to handle it whether getting on and off the centre stand or around town. Great visablilty working for both for the rider in traffic to see what is happening, and for being more obvious to other road users. This is due to the Urbans physical dimensions and height in particular. Its not fastest scooter in the world, nor is it the slowest, nowhere near the most ugly, but certainly not the best looking, the Urban is a good, solid all round performer, it gets around with no real problems, the minor complaints I mentioned are fairly well off-set by it many positive attributes.

Price	NZD$2495
Lap time	46.0sec
0-50km/h	14.0 Seconds
Top Speed	65kph
Fuel Economy	4.2L/100km - 58.8 MPG
Speedo Accuracy	50kph displayed = 46.1kph actual
Pros:	Big tyres, good styling, high top speed, ABS, Gadgets
Cons:	Hard seat, poor quality key,
Handling
Performance
Fuel Consumption
Value for money
Ease of use
Styling
Build quality
Overall Score	66%

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written by Tiger , February 22, 2009

Where did you get the fuel capacity from for the Manufacturer Specifications? These bikes have a 5L capacity not 8!

Use this bike for a while and you will notice issues with the electric start. The bike will start fine with the electric start if you use it everyday. But leave it a day and you will have to kick start it. Must be power leakage from the standby for the remote control start.

The bike is slow up any sort of hill. It must be the slowest 50cc up hills!

The bike gets up to 25kms per litre normally less.

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