French · 7 years on Samui
French motorcycle tour guide living on Koh Samui for 7 years. Marc leads group rides across southern Thailand and knows every road on the island.
Updated: May 2026
Seven years ago on my first morning testing the NMAX 155 on the ring road above Chaweng, I held 85 km/h for three minutes without any strain on the engine or my wrists. That experience established the NMAX's fundamental personality: it is a scooter for riders who already know what they want. The twist-and-go automatic is the same as the Scoopy's, but the power envelope, seat height, and weight all assume a rider who has decided to spend a day exploring at pace.
Watching the morning NMAX handovers at the rental strip near Chaweng lake, the rider profile is consistent: returning tourists, experienced Southeast Asia travellers, and riders who rode a Scoopy on a previous Samui trip and want more. They know the island's road layout, they have a route planned, and they point at the NMAX first. These are not beginners - they have rented scooters in Bali, Phuket, or Pai before and they read the difference between a 110cc and a 155cc the way I read a weather pattern.
At the rental shop near Chaweng Beach on a busy Sunday morning last December, I gently redirected a tourist who had asked for the NMAX as her first-ever scooter. She had never ridden anything motorised in her life. The NMAX's seat sits at 795 mm - it requires a confident two-footed stop or a deliberate lean. Its power delivery is also more immediate than entry-level automatics. Both characteristics are features for experienced riders and genuine hazards for someone who has never throttled a scooter.
Last November I watched a French couple arrive back from a full day island loop on a single NMAX 155 - she was pillion, he was riding, they had covered 80 kilometres starting from Chaweng, going south to Nathon, up the west coast and back along the north. The NMAX's passenger seat is wide and the rear suspension handled both of them over the road joins between Ban Tai and Mae Nam. He told me the bike never once felt strained. That is the two-up touring scenario the NMAX is built for.
The NMAX 155 produces approximately 15 horsepower from its liquid-cooled 155cc single, roughly 2.5 times the Scoopy's output. I have measured cruising fuel consumption at 35 to 38 km/l at 80 km/h on the northern ring road - lower than the Scoopy's 45 km/l, but the NMAX covers the same route significantly faster and with confidence in overtaking situations. For the rider who plans 70 to 100 kilometres per day and wants to arrive with energy to walk the beach, the efficiency trade-off is worthwhile.
After seven years of matching riders to bikes on Koh Samui, I have a clear picture of who the NMAX 155 is best suited for: the rider who has ridden scooters before, plans at least one full island loop, wants to carry a pillion on some days, and is not deterred by a higher seat that requires confidence at low speed. If any of those criteria describe you, the NMAX is your bike. If none of them do, the Scoopy will give you a better week.
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