Haven't paid attention lately, but going down Zhong Shan Lu from the train station, you have Focus, then the Japanese Dept Store, and then there used to be a scooter repair place either on the corner of the next block or a few stores down.

Hope this is still true

Just take a walk in the neighborhood during business hours.  You're sure to find several places.  At worst, there are a few on Gong Yuan road across from the park and also on GongYuan South by the Armory.  

Thanks guys.

I'll have a walk around tomorrow morning and check things out in the area!

Knobby

Walking away from the train station, the first store past the other department is a bike shop.

good luck

AL

Thanks guys!

Got my scooter to a bike shop near the Japanese dept. store. NT $450 for the throttle cable and installation.

Not sure if I overpaid but everyone has to make a living. Wasn't that expensive anyways.

They were good and fixed my scooter immediately.

Just be sure to ask the price before you get anything fixed (so they don't stick you with a big bill b/c you didn't ask). Usually the price they quote includes installation.

Thanks again guys!

Knobby

Knobby, mine had the same problem, costed me 500. It's weird, my bill always comes to 500, no matter what is wrong with the bike. I just paid the man 500 last week as well. He speaks no English, simply shows me a figure to pay!

In the US it would be 5,000.

Too true. I knew some managers who run these big car dealerships where they fix those cars..like, Honda owners would often "trust" the Honda Service Center. Well, the deal is, all those fancy "testing computers running all that elaborate software," those are just scams to impress people. Since they figured, nobody would really know how to read those stupid print outs anyways. It's the oldest scam in the book, just improvised.

Just try taking your car into one of those...and watch them rattle out all the things that "require fixing."

Actually, the car dealerships have those diagnostic computers to help them find the problem with the car. There are a bunch of sensors in most cars these days and the diagnostic computer is attached to these sensors to determine why the engine light is on.

Why? This is so that they can make money from the consumer. If that little engine light comes on, it will tell you that something is wrong with the car (not where the problem is but only that there is a problem somewhere). Since most people can't afford a $20,000 engine diagnostic machine, they are forced to bring their car into a service center to diagnose and fix the problem(s).

A computer isn't really needed in a car, especially with the advent of electronic fuel injection, but car builders only put computers in vehicles to make money on maintenance. If you can't diagnosis the problem without their diagnostic computer, then you don't have any option but to take your car into a service center. After all, if the dealer can make an extra $1200~$2000 off the consumer every year, it's more money in their pocket.

Just to put things into a better perspective, look at scooters in Taiwan? Most scooters still use a simple carburetor and have no computer or fancy electronics at all.

Taiwan is different though, since any job that requires labour = low pay. Jobs that require you to use minimal brain thought = high pay.

Great blog post. It’s useful information.