I bought one of those chinese made crap sport bikes.

i've actually been having al ot of fun with it. I'm pretty impressed with it, and don't know why they have such a bad wrap. I definately should have bought one of these instead of the name-brand one for my first bike.

Of course I dont like it nearly as well as I like my vstrom 1k, but for the price, I'm pretty darn impressed. Its fun to take out and just throw it around a bit, and it has some cool features I wish the strom had... like it tells you what gear your in and stuff.

anyway, Just thought I'd share. Its fun to have a crap bike that you dont care with in addition to your daily bike driver.

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A farkle a day keeps retirement away!


Other rides: 2010 Camaro 2SS/RS Bumblebee / Other cars, trucks, sleds
Vstrom 1000: Twin Bros pipes, Powercommander III, JVM Concept lower fairing, bestem trunk, frame sliders, swing arm spools, loobman oiler, grip puppies, heated grips, risers, handlebars, compass and radar detector, and probably some other stuff I missed- plus my "cool" atgatt gear.

I bought my son a Chinese pocket rocket some years back, and he had a BLAST!!! The only downside was it needed constant repair due to bad material used in the composition of the bike. Literally, it was he rode it one day, I worked on it the next two. We got a couple of years out of it before it was decided it was just too costly in both time and money to keep it running. But it was worth it. It was cheap, it gave us something to do together, it created skills he could use with other bikes, and it got him involved in a lifetime of creating memories from astride 2 wheels.

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79 GS1000S
97 TL1000S
2002 Concours
2005 DRZ400
2005 KDX220R
2007 DLK
2009 KLR650

So they are using the 1960's British method of building bikes then?

Only difference it didn't leak oil.

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79 GS1000S
97 TL1000S
2002 Concours
2005 DRZ400
2005 KDX220R
2007 DLK
2009 KLR650

The only things wrong with Chinese bikes is they are often built to a (low) price.

But for the money a few of them are probably great value.

I would definitely look at a Loncin, as they seem to make a pretty good 800cc motor, if you get my drift.

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2010 S10

If this forum existed forty years ago we'd all be riding Harleys or Triumphs and having the same conversation about Jap Scrap. Yes, their bikes are built to a price, but the quality improvements are coming by leaps and bounds, particularly in small displacment motorcycles and scooters.

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'04 650, and goshdarnit it's fun - matte silver (#9 in the Silver 'Strom Club)
farewell to an '81 KZ550, '83 GPz750, '83 V45 Sabre, R-Reg GT380, '84 GPz550, early '70s DT175, and a '72 Peugeot 102

Well stated.

the quality is also relative to value.

Now I paid $1600 for a 250cc chinese made sportbike. I had very low expectations.

Compare this to a 250cc $4500 japanese made sportbike.

Now theres no argument the jap bike is better quality, but does it really give you better value?

If your buying a 250cc just to learn how to ride, I know tons of people who buy a 250cc jap bike, keep it for a year and a half, and sell it for 2500-3000 a year later to buy a better bike. Most of them drop it, so add on another 1k to repair it,

that means you spent 1500-2000 for a year of riding, maybe 2500-3000.
A chinese bike on the other hand, you pay $1600 for it, you ride it for a year. If you drop it, it doesnt matter because you dont have to sell it. Your simply out 1600 and you have a spare bike...

or sell it on craigslist for around 1200+. (I see people selling them on ebay/craigslist for more than they cost new actually). So your out 400-600 bucks.

If you do have to do some work on it, is that really a terrible thing? I mean seriously, its kind of good to have to learn how to fix things...

And their quality is a lot better than the one I bought in 2003. I had a speedo malfunction and my shift lights fade out sometimes, but the chassis is solid.

I wish I would have bought one of these for my first bike and then just kept it as a spare. In fact, my vstrom was 1/2 torn apart the other day for an oil change (I have a lower fairing), so I just hopped on the spare bike. Then when a friend wanted to borrow my bike, I said, you can borrow the chinese one because I dont care about that.

I guess I do the same thing with cars. I have my DD and then I have my beater truck. Its nice to have a beater truck thats not important to you.

Either way you look at it- as a spare bike or as your first bike, for the price, I think those chinese bikes have some merit if you look at it from a value standpoint instead of a 1 for 1 quality comparison, and like he said above... I think in the not too distant future, chinese bike quality will be rivaling the japs!

Just thought I'd give +1 for the chinese bikes!

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A farkle a day keeps retirement away!


Other rides: 2010 Camaro 2SS/RS Bumblebee / Other cars, trucks, sleds
Vstrom 1000: Twin Bros pipes, Powercommander III, JVM Concept lower fairing, bestem trunk, frame sliders, swing arm spools, loobman oiler, grip puppies, heated grips, risers, handlebars, compass and radar detector, and probably some other stuff I missed- plus my "cool" atgatt gear.