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Motorcycling - Current Chinese Shite v. Older Japanese Shite


gtd2000

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Well I'm currently in Saudi Arabia and I'm hoping to find out where those mad GT250 X7 riders hang out (see their YouTube videos for examples) and get a few bits and bobs for spares for my own example!.

 

Then again, it might be like cars in 3rd world nations, where everything is like 10 times the price of the UK.... :shock:

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  • 2 months later...

I'm contemplating doubling the value of the bike by purchasing a can of ACF-50 anti corrosion spray - are there any other cheap alternatives that do the job just as well?

 

Seems that ACF-50 is the holy grail of sprays according to some of the reviews but £15 for a tin seems somewhat steep to a tight arse Scottish git like myself....!

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I've been reading some reviews that suggest GT85 does just as well but need to be reapplied more frequently.

 

The main problem that I'm reading about ACF-50 is getting it off the surfaces and the dull finish that it gives?

 

I'll probably just pick up some GT85 from Halfords and give that a go first. It'll be only used on warm sunny days when it's not in the shed...

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  • 2 weeks later...

1. How much was it?

2. Does it do bunnyhops?

3. Any clunge-related feedback?

Sorry for the delayed response!

 

I got the bike for £500 (advertised for £700) but gave the guy 50 quid to deliver it (45 miles away from my home) and then I had to pay £55 to have it regsitered (+£17 RFL). 

 

I got the original bill of sale for the bike when it was shipped in the crate which showed a total price of £740 from Riders of Yeovil.

 

I'm just back to work again and should be spending much more time on Autoshite as a result :mrgreen:

 

Well I finally got my registration document and tax disc back from the DVLA, now that all of the local offices have been closed down…, just in time for me to head on back to Saudi Arabia the following day...

 

I did manage to get the bike out for a quick blast around the local area and it now has a whopping 17km on the odometer!

 

The bike fired up fine at first but after half a mile or so, I got a bit of a misfire, my heart sank! Bloody Chinese shite I thought! :mad: 

 

This might have been the bike trying to do bunnyhops?

 

Stopped off at a mates house and the look on his face appeared to mirror my thoughts, so I tootled off home and thought I'd try to make it up a long climb, the logic was if it cut out I could freewheel back down.

 

Luckily the bike seemed to clear itself and the ride was pretty smooth, or it is until you get close to 50MPH then there's a bit of a change in the feel of the machine....back down to 45MPH and it feels pretty decent.

 

The lights are not too bad but the high beam must have been designed as a wartime searchlight for aircraft - it's hopelessly high!

 

No real chance to pull any birds down at the local chip shop opportunities were presented but time will tell ;)

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The supplied mirrors are hopeless for me - they need to be used by people that are about 12"/30cm wide I suspect.

 

I'm 6 feet and 14 stone so that's me out of that demographic.

 

Overall it's a nice enough little bike. Engine sounds pretty sweet and very similar (if not identical) to a Honda C series, as far as my memory is concerned.

 

I had to do a bit of my own tinkering with the machine when I got it, as the original owner obviously just bolted the thing together and did not think about greasing anything up or verifying that nuts and bolts were in fact correctly tightened up.

 

One the subject of the lights (which are not too bad at all) there is a lot of light bleed through the handbar cover from the back of the light unit. I'm not sure if this if how it's supposed to be or if the reflector has not been fitted properly.

 

It'll be a while before I get a chance to look at this again, as I'll be off to the USA for my next rotation in 9 weeks time.

 

Funnily enough, it costs more to insure this little scooter than my GSX-R750 - the insurance chap advised that scooters are considered higher risk these days!

 

That will be more than paid for with the 100+MPG vs the 35MPG of the GSX-R ;)

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i used gt85 on mine through the winter,needs reapplying every few days (but i ride it twice a day in all weathers) but did the job.i used grease on the rims,just washed it off and chrome is minty fresh underneath :-)

 

I ended up buying some DP60 from B&M (99p for a 250ml tin) which appears to be pretty decent but it's amazing how quickly you can empty the tin!

 

Only time will tell how it performs but it appears to be far more oil based than other spray products like WD40 and GT85.

 

I also picked up some lithium grease at B&M too and smeared that around the rims.

 

Was wondering what the best product is for the chain (some folks recommend gear oil 80/90w?) - as it's fully enclosed, there's no need to worry about the stuff flying off and making a mess, as it will simply be rustproofing the chain guard ;)

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I get 160mpg out of my 21 yr old,27k c90,so once yours has loosened up you should get something near :-)

 

That's pretty impressive indeed.

 

I was reading elsewhere, of people getting around 140MPG but thought that might have been somewhat optimistic, then I read about a diesel Enfield getting 180MPG!

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I only ever got about 70mpg from mine, did they make them more efficient in the 80s?

That sounds very low MPG but I guess it all depends on your riding style.

 

My old GP100 would get upto 80+MPG back in the early 80's and a mates '75 C50 would do well over 100MPG thrashed to death and it would regularly indicate 50MPH on the speedo too.

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I must say that looks absolutely dreadful in a wonderful sort of way; there used to be an ancient bloke round here who rode a similar looking old Honda which had plaid shopping panniers on it, he always wore a plastic mac all year round and an old fashioned pudding basin helmet. I haven't seen him for a while so either he has upgraded his bike or more likely died.

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20 odd years ago, when I was a student I worked in a bike shop part time. There was an old boy (probably late 70's) that wore a flat cap and smoked roll ups who used to pop in now and again and he'd regularly go off on 250+ mile jaunts on his then ancient Honda C50 - we thought he was completely mad at the time but looking back now, he wasn't really ;)

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  • 3 months later...

Well the IT guy at the office here in Saudi is from Pakistan. He saw my desktop image of my (Rider's) Super Cub on the PC and instantly got onto chatting about bikes.

Turns out he has a 1982 Honda CD70 and also a fairly new Honda CG125 back home in Pakistan.

He was talking about how much he likes his CG 125 (and his curries by the size of him too!) and he asked what the price for a Super Cub was in the UK.

He was surprised to hear that they cost more than a CG125 in Pakistan - they are only around £600 new with a 2 year warranty in Pakistan, which, is probably what a fairly shagged out 90's model would get in the UK! icon_e_surprised.gif

http://bikes.qeemat.com/honda/honda-cg- ... kistan.php

According to Hafeez, the bikes are sent to Pakistan in kit form (sound familiar?) and they build up them up in country.

I wondered if they were manufactured in China or Vietnam but he was of the opinion they were Japanese made.

Other than just being able to get away with it, is there any real reason why simple bikes are so expensive in the UK/EU/USA compared to places like Pakistan?

That Pakistani market Honda CG 125 is cheaper than a Chinese copy of a CG 125! icon_lol.gif

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I don't know how I missed this, but your bike is superbly awful and Iove it.

Cheaper in Pakistan (and other countries) because of labour rates, probably shit working conditions and their ability to ship stuff container after container at a decent rate.

 

You need to get bored of that X7 and sell it to me by the way!

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Be a hero and fly over there, buy one and ride it back.

If it wasn't for all of the troubles in the region, I'd have been up for something like that.

 

It's a fairly short flight from Dammam but I'm not sure about the ride West, then South back in to Saudi...:)

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I don't know how I missed this, but your bike is superbly awful and Iove it.

Cheaper in Pakistan (and other countries) because of labour rates, probably shit working conditions and their ability to ship stuff container after container at a decent rate.

 

You need to get bored of that X7 and sell it to me by the way!

I have to admit that I never thought I'd ever buy a C90 clone, let alone a genuine C90 but just fancied one for shits and giggles and perhaps as a bit of inverted two wheeled snobbery? The Gold Sweeney era paint job ups the ante in the statement too I think? :D

 

I'm just amazed that the Pakistani Hondas are much cheaper than the Chinese shite that's sold here for multiple times the price and even then, many folks say, "oh it's too cheap to be any good at that price". Meanwhile, I'm thinking most of the basic Chinese 125's etc., should be around £500 plus on the road costs.

 

X7 prices seem to be pretty strong at the moment - the Saudis (& Malaysians) seem to be pretty crazy for them too! I'm trying to find out from the locals where I can see the local X7 riding lunatics doing all of the extended wheelieing that you see on Youtube. Seems to be mainly over in Makka (Mecca) or Jeddah from what I understand but one of my colleagues seems to think they have something similar down the road in Qatif.

e.g.:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtnlQWGlrlo

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owqUhuE7dkw

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZGfvXMoGR0

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvWkJTZZllU

 

Two wheeled X7's are for beginners:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4rQ0naxnPo  :shock:

 

I had a guy contact me from Saudi to ask if I'd sell mine to him.....

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