Road Test Daelim S-five 50cc It seems to do everything superbly with no faults Brendon Watson The first thing you notice about the S-Five is the quality. The plastics and paint, the controls, the instruments in fact everything feels solid, lines up and works as it should. Its a scoot you feel everything will still be working after years. The next noticeable item is the ergonomics, sit on the S-five and it feels good, this scoot will accomodate anyone from 5' 3" to 6' 6" everyone has legroom behind the bodywork and the handlebars are an easy reach. There will be no knees sticking out the side of S-five's.
At night the headlights are excellent with low beam illuminating a wide area and the highbeam focusing further down the road.
Technically the Daelim runs a two stroke 50 cc engine with brakes being disc front and drum rear, solid adjustable rear suspension, 6Ltr fuel tank is above average, 12" alloy wheels fitted with decent tyres, electric start, park brake, automatic transmission, underseat storage that will take one full face helmet and the release for this compartment is located on the ignition meaning you don't have to remove the key to get under the seat. A handy feature all scooters could do with.
In standard form the Daelim pulls straight to 50 km/h where the speed limiter cuts in. The S-five will reach this speed up hills solo or two up and really feels like it wants to keep going. When people buy a restricted 50 the topic of derestriction usually comes up. As most of my riding is done two up and I have an 80km/h zone on the way home we derestricted the S-five to see what it would do without its government inflicted handbrake.
The S-five runs out to 75 km/h, initially punching hard off the mark and accelerating steadily to around 30km/h when it really starts to take off pulling very strongly to 70km/h and winding out slowly over the last 5km/h to 75. In normal riding most 50's suffer a bit of asthma over 40km/h causing them to drop speed when tackling a hill or a headwind. There is a quite steep hill on the way home that causes most 50's to groan as they slowly meander up doing about 45km/h. Not the S-five, it builds up steadily to the 30 mark and then takes off reaching 65km/h by the top. All this carrying between 75kg (Me only) and 100kg (my son & I). The speedo is also accurate and easy to read.
With the S-five performing the way it wants to, it reveals a chassis that can hold its own against anything. I mean anything, throw the S-five into a corner and it obeys providing you with immediate confidence in the scoot, its going to go where you want it to. Mid corner line changes are easy with a gentle lift or dip and it will follow your command, hit a pothole no problem the suspension absorbs it and the S-five keeps its line. Brakes are very good and handles pillions well without fade. The S-five won last years Korean Scooter championships, its handling would have been a major contributing factor.
I have chosen the S-five as my ride for our scooter track days and its first outing justified my decision, in derestricted but otherwise standard form it easily dispatched a worked SCP Runna with a 70cc kit and was right on the tail of Tim's worked Matrix and was actually faster than it for the tighter sections. I wish we had this scoot for last years Le Minz 24 hour scooter race. You get to learn a lot about a scooter when you take it out on a track, it makes any deficiencies stand out and is a really good test of quality and engineering. What I really mean to say here is that a brand new scooter of poor quality will feel like its 5 years old after 20 minutes on the track. After more than an hour of hard charging the S-five still feels new and we use this "race scoot" as our demo. There are not many scoots I can do this with, it is an excellent display of Daelim's quality.
The S-five comes with a 12 month unlimited km parts and labour warranty and retails for $2,690 + ORC placing it in the middle to lower end of a market that is spoilt for choice. What makes the S-five so good is it seems to do everything superbly and has no faults. Its easy to ride and is far more capable than most of the people who will buy it making it suitable for the first time scooterist. It will also be popular with those seeking to upgrade their old 50 and especially with the track riders wanting to win.
With access to any 50 we stock Tim & I chose the S-five as our ride for the 2007 Le Minz 24 hour, we chose the S-five because it is comfortable, fast, it handles and we know it would last the distance. After 24 hours, three crashes and numerous dices with far more expensive scooters the S-five crossed the finish line in 5th place overall infront of some exotic scooters such as the super 9, Ludix Blasters, Sr50's and yamaha Aerox to name a few. We were very happy with its performance
If the Daelim S-five is in your budget its well worth the look, Its my favourite scooter in the 50cc class and I'm sure you wont be dissapointed.
published 18/09/2007 |