Chinese bikes

[ulendo]

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LOL - I'm not 'pushing' anything, and dont ride a Hyosung myself ( they dont offer their dirtbikes, or dualsports here)

here's the factory website http://www.hyosungmotors.co.kr/abroad/index.asp

as for responses, I'm gone for a bit here - taking my beast back to alberta for a vacation (hwy 40S, longview, Kananaskis/chain lakes/spray lakes, little bow provincial park, Cypress hills :dr guess I'll have to check in when I get back....

 

[malachi]

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Well I will fill everyone in on how these Chinese bikes hold up. I just bought a Skyteam bike for my wife, she's been out on it once so far. The battery's already dead....I think it's the battery. The engine runs real well...so it should it's the same engine in the Honda CT110 trail bikes that they've blue printed. The quality in my opinion is good...not great. The welds are not the typical nice "puddle" flow they're more rough etc. The dealer I bought it off of is a Kawi dealer who has decided to be a Skyteam dealer as well. Why, cause it's the only Chinese manufacturer who has a 6 month warranty on the bikes, as well as a readily available parts inventory. On another note, my close friend just bought an ATV for her kids, it's a SUNL 90 cc. The engine runs great...once again a Honda blueprint. The whole bike really..is built tough. However it leaks gas like a SOAB....why...cause the tank is leaking from the seam or the spiggot. I am in the process of pulling the tank out and taking it to my friends Kawi shop and seeing if they can repair it somehow. She bought the bike off of someone who gets them off of ebay so it's an added cost to repair it..so I'm not impressed with that. I will keep posting on how both bikes are holding up:tup:

 

[malachi]

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Well she's now had 4 rides, today was by far her best.My wifewas on the bike for over an hour, no problems to report so far, except for the dead battery issue at first. Aside from me having to check every bolt for tightness and tighten a few it's been solid. The engine in this bike is a gem.:tup:

On the Sunl 90 ATV report, I fixed the gas leak in the tank. It wasn't the seam at all, the spiggot hadn't be filed smooth, the excess plastic where the tank was joined hadn't been smoothed over so I filed it smooth and have hadno moreproblems. Once again, the engine in this ATV is a Honda 90 clone, and runs awesome. My friend rode it last night for 3+ hours, no issues.

 

[malachi]

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Nothing new to report. It's running awesome, starts easy with the kickstart (battery is still dead) and is holding up perfect off road. So far a good investment that didn't kill my bank book.

 

[vicmc]

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As a motor dealer in BC I have some input on this subject. First, Hyosung has a national distributor, nationalmotorsports.ca,and a dealer network.Hyosung motorcycles are not cheap. The 250 cruiser ties the most expensive Jap bike in it's class and the Honda VT750 is $100.00 cheaper than the GV650 Aquila ('06 prices). The only ones cheeper are the SV650 look alikes (a quick glance at the engine and a shopper will know they are not the same). Hyosung was in fact a manufacturer for Suzuki for years, since '79, building quads and scooters and yes the SV. Reportedly hireing the engineer? that they worked with on the SVs. Last year they had a 400 dual sport on the factory web site that the Canadian importer said we couldn't get because it was already comming to Canada... Then it dissapeared from the web site... The official Suzuki position is there is NO current affiliation between the companys. Suzuki is now manufacturing in China.

Hyosung has been manufacturing so long they have sold off the licence for one model to Kinetic of India.Take a close look at the new Suzuki 450fuel injected race quad and the new Hyosung 450 race quad!

The Yamaha CW50 (BW)scooter is made in Tiawan

A comment on product quality. About 18 years ago I put two sprockets in the vice, one JT brand from Tiawan and one Sprocket Specialists from USA, and ran a file over them... the JT one was harder. Been selling them ever since with no complaints.

As a dealer I don't have any Chinese bikes on the floor. Not because of the obvious poor quality but because presently when you come to me as a customer for a clutch cover gasket I would have to say "sure...it's $470.00 and the engine comes with it". Also the distributor wants as mutch wholesale asyou can get it for on Ebay. The Chinese manufacturers don't have good enough support for there machines in Canada yet.

If you think boycoting Chinese product is going to "dry up the market" you are fooling yourself. As a retailer in Victoria I know there are value driven customers but there are far more that areprice driven.

 

[Tork]

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Hi everyone, I just bought a 200 enduro China brand and a 200 dirtbike. The Enduro so far is way above what I was expecting. disc brakes, upside down forks, water cooled, electric start...I just assembled it and took it for a quick ride in the freezing cold. So far so good, the bike runs and idles fine, power is reasonable feels like an xr 200, the exhaust is really quiet (may drill some hoes in the future). The suspension seems soft but i don't expect to do any major off roading, logging roads and trails mainly. The brakes are strong and work great. Haven't setup the dirtbike yet, will post that later.

 

[ulendo]

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Tork - in the interest of keeping this thread straight, can you please post the brand of the bike? ( there area ridiculous number ofmotorcyclemanufacturers in china) if its a decent buy, we'd all like to know the specifics....same for ones to avoid!!

knowing price, and where you bought it would also be helpful....if you dont mind posting that info.

certainly a better looking machine than the uber- crap being flogged by canadian tire, etc!! whats the quality seem like on the plastics, etc? servive manuals available from the vendor? warranty ?

thanks

 

[Tork]

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Brand:Lifan

Model: 200GY-5

The Plastic feels hard but so does the plastic on my RM125.
Manuals suck, but if you're a basic handy guy it does the job. Type of oil and quantity.

 

[Tork]

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I just assembled the dirtbike this is a pic of the same bike. It feels just like a Yamaha TTR. Fired up right away, came off the choke and idled nicely. Bought this for my brother, he wants to get back into riding. The brand is a TMS 200XY with electric start.

 

[Jim]

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Tork, I'm pretty sure you're mistaken on the liquidcooled part there, I've never seen a liquidcooled lifan.

I also have a Lifan lf 200-gy 5. All of you people saying you wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole haven't touched them, therefore your opinion... how valid is it? it is all based off of assumptions. You don't know the brand name so you say it's crap. It's probably not the best out there, but it is far from being junk. And the choice is buy a brand new, with warranty, chinese bike, or a VERY old and likely abused japanese bike that you can fix up. I like new with warranty. I looked at honda's, kawis, and yamahas. I could get probably 2 and a half chinese bikes for the closest equivelent (displacement / street legal enduro) japanese version.

I would tell you how easy it is to get replacement parts, but I haven't needed any. But they are available, and I bought my bike from a guy who's been around for a long time, does icbc repairs, designated icbc inspection facility, the whole 9 yards.

 

[Tork]

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You're totally right, it's air cooled. Got it confused with the Quad that I also bought.

I think we have the same bike, I have a GY-5. I also have a 1992 RM 125 and I have to say I enjoy riding the GY more. It's smoother and easier to manage, of course it's less powered but these days I'm ok with it. Did you register and insure yours?

 

[Jim]

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Yep on both accounts, same bike, and its registered and insured

I have red, but other then that should be the same bike. I have a vulacn 800 classic as my other bike, and I enjoy both bikes. Though I dont have another equivelant (dual purpose / smaller displacemnt) bike to compare it too Im really happy with mine so far.

Tork have you been to chinariders.net?

 

[Tork]

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thanks Jim, I just killed 1.5 hours on that site. There goes getting any work done today!

 

[Jim]

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sorry

I don't know if you signed up or just browsed, but if you signup they also have a gallery where you can upload pictures of your bike...

Definetly good reading for info on these bikes.

 

[Guest]

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I was also told that hyosung made the susuki dirt bikes and quads not that there is any thing wrong with that.there are lots of members here with the drz 400 i saw somewhere on the internet a picture of a xrx 450 dualsport looked just like a drzin red with a more comfortable seat .cant get it here because of hyosungs deal with susukithis is what i was told by a hyosung dealer.

 

[ural-gsxr]

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I am in Calgary, I am interested in maybe purchasing one of those Lifan 200GY-5 or -6 enduros to easilyslide in (as my 86 GSXR-1100 is a bit big)to my work van for tooling around (on the street & trails) during the work off-hours @ various locales in western Canada. I know a few members of this site have licenced & insuredthem in B.C. How hard was it? As far as I know, they have been imported to Canada for off-highway use. Any answers?:dr:

 

[Jim]

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I got the paper work from the dealer, and took it to the icbc insurance office and registered it... no issues what so ever.

I don't know how alberta works...

there is a sticker on the tank to the jist of what you said (for off highway use), I would suggest peeling it off, but other then that I had no issues.

 

[ural-gsxr]

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Thanx for the reponse!

I spoke with Ken @ Coast to Coast Motorsports (CTCM) in Burnaby (the Lifan Distributor). He has heard of street-ridden Lifans. There is a dealer in Calgary that has got them "on the road."I am visitingCTCM Wednesday this week, as I am going to see if these 200cc eduro Lifans will fit the bill. A friend of mine who owns "Retro Cycle" in Red Deer sells Konker bikes. The 200cc eduro sure looks like a Lifan...

 

[Jim]

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Yeah, you should check out that chinariders site... My lifan is insured for on road use... its a lf 200 gy 5.

I think the way it goes is like this, in china, the chonqing(spelling?) lifan facotry builds the lifans, and then, they will sell them to whoever wants to import them (into canada, the us, etc). I am pretty sure that konker's are made by lifan, or atleast the older models, they may have different models now... In Canada I don't think we have as many choices, but in the us there are tons of "grey market" lifans... these are lifans that are imported by groups other then american lifan (this is us, I believe Canada's main importer is CTC like you said)... These grey market dealers don't have the support network setup with proper warranty, parts, etc... But you can get them way cheaper... I paid 2500 ish for mine, I hear of people getting them for anywhere from like 800-2000... I think if you price shop you can get a better deal then from CTC, but I am not sure how that will affect registration. As far as warranty goes, it's only 6 months anyways... it is possible to have a major issue within 6 months, but I didn't and if I had an 800 dollar bike, even if it did die I could've bought 2 more before I paid for what mine cost.

In Canada the ones I know of are lifan, konker, and xrage... but I don't think there are really any better deals with those ones... You may be able to get a better deal straight from CTC then from one of thier dealers... Good luck


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that is to say those are the lifan models I know of, there are others, such as Qingqi (or something), they look really sharp... Really I would check out the site I mentioned, lots of knowledgable people, with good and bad experiences to share.

 

[Bmacstylz]

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Same bike as i Have, Well my LIFAN is in a few pieces right now... Look forward to having my LIFAN back on the dirt in a week or so...