Chinese knock off bikes

[ratherbefishin]

I was impressed with the simple 6.5 HP fat tired centrifical clutch offroad bike powered by the 4 stroke Champion engine.My kid has had good experiance with these ''Champion'' Honda knock off 4 stroke engines-Costco $139,he uses them for replacement engines for his rototillers he uses for his gardening business-they haven't broken down yet.Admitedly-they aren't high end bikes-but for $600 you get an basic pull start off road bike that just might not be a bad deal for crawling up logging roads.
Anybody else have any experiance with them?

[BCBear]

I've never owned one, but several guys I've talked to won't touchem with a ten foot pole. Unreliability was the theme. Nuts and bolts falling off, lots of stalls, general frustration.

[ratherbefishin]

all I know is my kid has used the 6.5 Champian engines and is impressed-and he works them hard on his rototillers,they start easily and run well.I don't know about the other components of the bike though.

[Wildman]

Waste of money. Do you know how the old saying goes? You get what you pay for. My buddy bought his son one. Luckly he a mechanic. He had to repair numerous pieces, rewire, tighten and replace bolts and nuts.
I bought my son a second hand bike, a Honda. Runs almost perfect and its 20 years old.

[Triggerman]

There are huge manufacturers in China who have been making these bikes etc for other companies under different names for years and making tons of them. Based on the prices, it won't be long before they take a large market share from the Japanese bikes. Remember the market over there in Asia is 50+ times larger than ours! I would not be at all surprised that some bike companies you recognize are actually contracted to these Chinese companies to make! You do get what you pay for in general and at the prices they are coming out at you could buy 2 at the same price as one Japanese bike!

[ratherbefishin]

make no mistake-the Chinese are taking over the manufacturing world-just wait until they start exporting cars to NorthAmerica.Sure-I expect early models to be trial and error-but look at Kia-they rival Honda now .And it is correct-a lot of ''brand name'' stuff was actually made in China.
I see this as similar to the Japanese -initially it was junk-but they quickly became known for quality and reliabilty,while North American goods went the other way-or failed to keep up with innovative R&D
''you get what you pay for''is not always true-consumer reports doesn't bear that out-often the best buy is not the highest price

[boxhitch]

The Chinese/Japanese/tiawanese factorys are capable of producing fine products, they build to the spec. of the customer. Ask for shite and you shall receive.
As for the bike, there have been several ones built similar to this, ona small scale NA market over the years. One from about 40 years ago was a 'Tote-Goat'. All steel frame, fat tire, 6 hp Briggs & Stratton, centrifigal ctutch, no headlight, pullstart. Dad used to say 'It'll climb a tree, if the bark would stay on'.

[Fisher-Dude]

One from about 40 years ago was a 'Tote-Goat'. All steel frame, fat tire, 6 hp Briggs & Stratton, centrifigal ctutch, no headlight, pullstart. Dad used to say 'It'll climb a tree, if the bark would stay on'.

Modern day Tote-Goat. Climbs trees to escape grizzly bears. I wouldn't know about a pullstart, but give it a few years and it will have a fat tire too.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e70/Fisher-Dude/Redneckshopper.jpg

[one-shot-wonder]

LMAO :mrgreen:

I never get tired of that picture! It's a beauty!

[Wildman]

All of the bikes from China are shipped over in parts and assembled here in Canada (Richmond). The parts may rival Japanese versions (I am not convinced) but a guy making min wage is assembling them. That is where the problem lays.

[one-shot-wonder]

Just last weekend a buddy I was camping with hadhis new 100cc mini dirt bike out for us to play around on and I never even got to try it out, because he took it out and after a 10 minute ride it was done.

He is a mechanic and figured the engine ceased. It was really hot and no power would hardly run......I will stick to my Japanese enigines thank you very much!

[ratherbefishin]

I'm not saying I would buy a chinese quad-yet-but these simple fat tire centrifical clutch off road bikes seem pretty uncomplicated-and if they do the job intended,crawling up logging roads-$600 isn't overpriced.Yes-they look like the old 'tote goat'.The 6 1/2 hp 4 stroke engine is good,I'm just not sure about the centrifical clutch, or how reliable they are,but the neighbour has had one knocking around for a while and has had no problems so far.

[Wildman]

Im telling you, dont do it! Just buy a used old bike...a honda or such, you will regret it if you buy that piece of.......Your neighbour is lucky, but it will go, you watch.

[Barracuda]

this is the same thing that everyone said about the japanese stuff when it first started showing up. The Chinese stuff is built to spec and most of it is very good older technology . (Lifan has purchased hondas tooling and Rights and they produce some good quality items)

as for someone putting it together for minimum wage, there are just as many people working union wages and doing just as crappy a job (standards are set by the employer, pride in a job well done is set by the employee ) as the low paying people that do poor jobs.
dont let a persons wage fool you into thing that they are better then another person that makes less.

Yes you can get what you pay for but make sure you are getting value for dollar and not just blindly throwing money in blissfull ignorance in the belief that the more it costs then the better it must be.

[Wildman]

I'm just speaking from experiance. From both owning a Japanese bike, and having a friend who wanted to save some money and ended up with a useless Chinese piece of junk (I'm not saying all Chinese made items are junk, because they are not). I also used to run a furniture shop in Richmond and the shop across the way assembled these bikes. The guys were not very anept at what they were doing...

[ratherbefishin]

I d like to hear from a few people who actually owned one of these bikes,or read an unbiased product review on them.

[Barracuda]

The industrial engines made by lifan have worked out well for me .

[ratherbefishin]

seems to me the more basic it is-the less there is to go wrong,and these bikes are basic alright-pull starter, no turn signals, or anything else-exactly what I would be looking for-a simple off road bike that starts, runs and doesn't cost $5000.
But again-where could I get a product review?

[boxhitch]

Vendor should be able to give a reference list of satisfied customers..............or not ?

[ratherbefishin]

I'm always a bit suspicious of vendor supplied references-an independent review carries a bit more credability

[jeepingpw]

I bought the Honda clone 50cc quad last year for my son, it was cheap. It came mostly assemble in a crate right from China, all I had to do was put on tires & handle bars.
First ride around the yard the headlight fell apart & the carb overflowed fuel. $10.00 for a new carb, head light is still busted. A buddy bought 2 Yamaha clone 150 cc quads for his boys, they have been good except for bolts falling out. Another buddy bought the 100 Honda clones for his boys, after 2 months he was so pissed off he sold them both.
For little kids that out grow bikes every year, they are ok, but I won't trust them to take me out hunting, I'll stick to my Yamaha & Honda.

The Chinese don't care about patents & have different factories that make clones of everything in different qualities. This I have seen in the clone rifle scopes & especially in Norinco rifles. Some lots of rifles are great, others are junk, haven't seen a scope worth the cheap price.
After owning a Chinese quad & a few Norinco's (which I have all sold) I'll pay the $$$$ & have quality items.

I also don't like to support Chinese industry that relies on coal power & still uses high sulpher diesel & leaded gas. Why should we be forced to pay the high price of reducing green house gases when they have no regaurd for the amount of pollution they spew out.

[ratherbefishin]

trust me-you ARE already supporting chinese industry-as more and more companies outsource manufacturing to them.This is not neccesarily a bad thing-cheaper goods means more money available for local goods and services that cannot be imported[ie recreation]North America expertise will likely be in R&D,and also the service industry.Consumer demand will raise the quality of imported goods-just as they did the Japanese after WW2..China is going through the exact same transition that Japan did-initially flooding foreign markets with cheap goods simply to get currency-quality came later.
Funny-you say you will ''stick with Yamaha and Honda''-yet at one time ''made in Japan'' meant cheap shoddy materials workmanship[which it was]-but is now associated with reliable high quality goods-often far superior to what we are building here at home

[jessbennett]

friend of mine bought the new 400 4x4 quad from cambodian tire and it has been great soo far...... has put lots of miles on it and not had one single problem.!!!! we have really been putting it through its paces also!!!...:lol:.... 4 grand for a 4x4 quad???? new???? hmmmmmmmm;)

[GoatGuy]

Personally I'd rather spend the money on other things for hunting but for $600 you can throw it in the garbage if it breaks down.

[lip_ripper00]

http://images.craigslist.org/0101040103020104102007061675d88f29c3cf15d1b7009f25 .jpg

this is what I have 1987 HONDA Spree weights less than 100 lbs 70 miles to the gallon. watch Craigs list the come up quite often. Street leagle and insurable. 49cc so I don't have to have a licence. I paied 150.00$ for it was not running but they are simple to work on

[ratherbefishin]

excelent-and Honda needs no apologies-but what I was looking for was something to go off road with-neither road use nor extreme moto cross stuff-just crawling up logging roads-and for $600-it isn;t a big investment-if it works.My main concern would be the reliabilty of the centrifical clutch-like the old CT 70,90 AND 110's.
I was thinking-it isn't a quad with racks -so rigging something like a travois might be a viable option for dragging quarters out

[TRACKnTRAIL]

ratherbefishin, Seems as though you have already made up your mind the way you are defending these machines. I would personally buy a used honda, they have already proven themselves to be reliable

[ratherbefishin]

no-I haven't made my mind up,although I do have first hand knowlege of the champion 6 1/2 HP 4 stroke engine- I am actually I am looking for firsthand information from anybody who has bought the bike ,used one -or an independent product review of the ''tote goat'' style off road bike.