Chinese replica bikes, are they all bad?

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Soldato
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A mate just passed his CBT (been riding for years in the states previously) and was following me. Told me to keep it below 65mph as that was his bikes top speed.

The thing barely reached 40 and on country roads i was doing 20 to keep him in my mirrors! The bike is on an 08 plate and cost him about £600 but he has already spent £400 in repairs.

Is this the wa all Chinese bikes are?
 
Sone said:
A mate just passed his CBT (been riding for years in the states previously) and was following me. Told me to keep it below 65mph as that was his bikes top speed.

The thing barely reached 40 and on country roads i was doing 20 to keep him in my mirrors! The bike is on an 08 plate and cost him about £600 but he has already spent £400 in repairs.

Is this the wa all Chinese bikes are?
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Yes, most of them. The only bikes you can really bother with from that sort of area are the Hyosung (Korean) and Kymco (Taiwanese) ones.
 
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Yep they all are!

I would not class Hyosung as a cheap copy anymore, their certainly not that cheap anymore and they make a lot of their own stuff now which are quite popular.
 
Next door neighbour got a far east scooter, can't even remember the make but it was dead cheap and delivered part 'assembled' in a huge crate. I say 'assembled' because what was assembled either didn't fit or it was only done up finger tight. The instructions showed how to install the front wheel and brakes incorrectly and it was dangerous in my eyes. Basically I spent half a day checking it over for him, got the engine running correctly and set the brakes and mirrors up correctly. Seemed to go alright but I wouldn't want to say how fast it would go.
 
I guess is the average speed you go on a motorbike is less than 20mph then a unsafe bike isn't too dangerous (if you watch the average video of a chinese city) Unless the throttle cables locks outs at full blat.
 
Hoysung and Suzuki share some R&D (SV and Comet) oddly enough along with Kawasaki (Eliminator/Rebel - could be Marauder), quality isn't the same as Suzuki but the Comet vs the SV is a pretty even fight until you get to the price ... then the Hoysung used to be very attractive.

That said I can't recommend them, the Comet may look good but a mate had a 125 'soft road' crosser from them, after the big end went and a full engine rebuild the plastic petrol tank cracked and the exhaust rusted away to nothing rather quickly until it was thankfully stolen. I'd always go with a Jap bike, Honda or Suzuki/Kawasaki or even Yamaha all the way, residuals, quality, parts, support, they're all better and proven over many decades.
 
yeah its the same with some Spanish bikes too
my sisters b/f has one from Spain , cant remember the name off hand.
he got it from new about 6 years ago and now he cant get parts for it as no one sell them in the UK anymore.
your better off with one of the big names
 
A couple of mates have 125 versions. Can't remember which brand. They have had no problems with them at all. One had a crash and replaced half the bike for next to nothing.
 
Considering how bad a rep chinese cars have for failing even basic euro crash tests, buying anything automotive from them is a huge gamble, sure it's cheap but cheap = crap and when you have a accident etc the thing will likely disintergrate on impact, frankly i'd rather use puplic transport or a good mountain bike, than get on or in any of there crap
 
I had a POR Apache 125 for a few months and it had no problems at all. Was quite nice to ride aswell as it was quite a tall bike. Search for POR Apache 125 on ebay - I paid £575 for mine and made my money back when I sold it. It was also a Honda XL125 replica which meant you could use genuine honda spares - I never had to replace/repair anything in the time I had it though.
 
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