Chinese/ Indian Import Bikes.

[Beejyman]

My little brother is taking his CBT this month and is looking at getting his first learner bike. He is very curious about these import bikes as they are the same price as a second hand bikes from major manufactuers. Have never owned one myself I can only advise him with what I've heard on the grapevine. What I have been told is that there is no major dealer network to fall back on and the build quaility is dubious at best also the resale vale is zero.

Is this true or just what people are saying because they don't want feel bad about the suzuki, kawasaki or honda they have just bought??

[Boomerwang]

I'd say that's all about right.

I could be wrong though

[tutton]

No really they are that bad.
and nearly all of them use the CG based chinese engine built under license. so arnt all that pokey.

[kestrel69]

You appear to have grasped it already. The build quality on the majority is, at best, very suspect. They are very cheap & the old adage of "You get what you pay for" certainly applies.

You would be far better off going out & finding a 2nd hand Japanese bike for around the same money

[deej]

You would be far better off going out & finding a 2nd hand Japanese bike for around the same money

thats the best bit of advice you'll ever get about a chinese based bike

[Johnnyb]

Right sit back and read m8, do not let your brother buy one of these, he might get a good one but there's more chance he will get a piece of sh1t that will fall apart in months. I got my lad one for much the same reasons as you are looking at them, a new bike for a secondhand bike price, we got a Lifan Samurai 125, looked good in the showroom and ran well for a little bike but within two months the exhaust silencer cracked so we returned it and they welded it (not replaced) and while it was in they replaced the clocks which had stopped working, this took around two weeks to do, then a month later the silencer fell off completely and had to be replaced (3 week wait), the dealer said that it had been knelt on and broken off which was bollocks and i told them so. When it got to 500 miles it had a service and a headlight wire had to be resoldered, all breather hoses replaced as they had perished and an engine mount welded that had cracked completely off. Another crack welded up in the exhaust some time later. Then my boy had a small off going round a roundabout in the wet one day and broke an indicator, footpeg bracket and something else (cant remember now) we also ordered a speedo cable as the end had vibrated loose and the inner fell out. it took over two months for these parts to arrive and according to the dealer only the indicator and speedo cable had so they were a bit surprised when i took them in after ordering them myself online. The exhaust has since fell off again and the way it works with LLexeter one of the main chinese parts importers is that you make an account order the parts then they send you an E-mail telling you they are not in stock and to reorder another time. They don't give you any clue as to how long it will be until the parts arrive or when to reorder so we are currently stuck with his bike on the drive with no silencer. I did manage to find another place that had one but LLexeter wanted £60 for a new exhaust this other place wanted £100 with £24 carriage so it sits there until they get one in at LLexeter. To sum up the engines are sound being old jap designs but the rest is shoddy with rust coming through chrome and paint, wiring falling apart, and a generally crap build quality and spares backup so don't do it, better off buying a couple of year old jap bike in my opinion. Hope this helps to make your mind up m8...........

[Milky]

my fist bike 'rieju rs2' (50cc) was alright at the start, but the 'cheaper' import bikes come with shite part on em. like.. within 8000 miles i'd had to replace the sh!tty chain it came with, starter motor and all that crap. you end up spending loads on em because they just start falling apart.. (oh, and the parts are hard to find) i'd say go for a honda or somthin.. can't go wrong)..

[Beejyman]

Thanks guys, I will pass this on.

[tutton]

my fist bike 'rieju rs2' (50cc) was alright at the start, but the 'cheaper' import bikes come with [censored] part on em. like.. within 8000 miles i'd had to replace the sh!tty chain it came with, starter motor and all that crap. you end up spending loads on em because they just start falling apart.. (oh, and the parts are hard to find) i'd say go for a honda or somthin.. can't go wrong)..

Reiju aint in the same crap league as chinese

[jam]

You may find getting insurance difficult on some of these chinese imports as well. Many insurers are declining them as when the things inevitably breakdown people are finding that the parts are non existent, and are then either reporting them stolen or torching them to try and recover some of their costs. Get your kid brother a secondhand jap bike, that way you'll be able to get parts easily enough and it will have some residual value when he comes to sell it/trade it up. Most older jap bikes are well proven and reliable, if he wants something fairly nippy then look for an older Honda 125 twin which will easily do 70mph, or an XL125 which you can put a larger barrel on.

[Mervin]

I had the owner of Cardiff motorcycles at my place last week, he is a big dealer/breaker, all chinese things that come into him get the angle grinder through the frame and in the skip regardless of age too much trouble to resell or even break for parts.get a secondhand suzuki GN or something much better
merv

[Beejyman]

I have passed this on. has anyone had any expereince with Jinlun as this the specific make that he is interested in??

[deej]

jinlun is almost identical to lifan

[Milky]

my fist bike 'rieju rs2' (50cc) was alright at the start, but the 'cheaper' import bikes come with [censored] part on em. like.. within 8000 miles i'd had to replace the sh!tty chain it came with, starter motor and all that crap. you end up spending loads on em because they just start falling apart.. (oh, and the parts are hard to find) i'd say go for a honda or somthin.. can't go wrong)..

Reiju aint in the same crap league as chinese

still crap though ahaa

[greg]

I bought a 50cc Lifan Jet for my daughter to use for getting to college and what have you. It actually proved quite reliable other than issues caused by her being silly enough to let her little brother have a go on it - he promptly threw it down the drive but that's another story......

What I did have problems with was the dealer, stinky attitude immediately after money changed hands. For that reason alone I would steer clear, let alone spares issues etc, which fortunately I was spared, must have got one of the good ones.