GStwin.com GS500 Message Forum

I dont remember if I ever posted about this or not but... A buddy of mine and I were playing w/ the idea of importing cheap motorcycles from China based upon the recent demand for fuel efficent vehicles due to rising gas prices. We started with this idea close to a year back. After some research my buddy, that was in China, found a good company and we placed the order for two scooters and two cruisers(one of each going to myself and another friend.)

We would basically evaluate the overall quality and worth of them. Well at first they were built and ready to go. Then we found out they had to be built still, then some shipping troubles, then KATRINA! (they were shipping into New Orleans)  Fast forward 7 months later and they are finally on there way for me to evaluate!!! I cant wait to get a look at these things, we got a call tonight and they should be delivered tomorrow afternoon.

One is a 150cc scooter the other is a 250cc cruiser.
(http://218.19.130.242/UploadFiles/200481115426344.jpg)
(http://218.19.130.242/UploadFiles/2004811123556958.jpg)

Many questions and much work from here. But I'm excited to finally see these things and if they are worth a damn. Stay tuned...


-ash

I like that 250 cruiser, I'd totally ride that.  :thumb:

Not that it's bad.. but they look just like the ones you can get here already. How cheep is cheep? I would think that it would have to be under 2k with shipping to be worth it... but then what do I know.

Quote from: PhaedrusI like that 250 cruiser, I'd totally ride that.  :thumb:

I agree, the cruiser looks decent, I'd ride it.  May even buy it if the price was low enough, it was dependable, and the gas mileage was okay.  :dunno:

Quote from: flyingbeagle71

Quote from: PhaedrusI like that 250 cruiser, I'd totally ride that.  :thumb:

I agree, the cruiser looks decent, I'd ride it.  May even buy it if the price was low enough, it was dependable, and the gas mileage was okay.  :dunno:

that's alot of ifs  :lol:

You can get a 250cc Honda Rebel with Honda quality and a 12 month warrantee for $3,100.  Just make sure you beat that price by a significant amount.

Are they set up to be street legal in the states?  How does registration work and such?

-Danimal

same with suzuki gz250...it actually looks alot like gz250

(http://www.suzukicycles.com/images/ProductImages/colorVariations/500/GZ250K6_Silver_7497A8.jpg)

The crankcase looks like a 250 Rebel's, which if it is, then parts will be readily available (from Honda).

Now that's a teeny rear sprocket.

And the styling is shamelessly taken from the Boulevard line.

Cool idea Ashman.  I'm with you.

Don't trouble yourself with the "reason to hate Wal-Mart" thread!  :lol:

That cruiser is pretty wild looking.

it basicly is a rebadged honda, like most of china's stuff.   what was it, Korea is rebaged suzuki's?   counterfit is more like it. untill recently that is.

Quote from: Blueknytit basicly is a rebadged honda, like most of china's stuff.   what was it, Korea is rebaged suzuki's?   counterfit is more like it. untill recently that is.

i doubt it's rebadged rebel...if it is, it would be a steal for sure.

korean bike is not rebadged suzuki either. the korean company used to (i don't know if they still do or not) make parts for suzuki. so they might be using similar parts but no where close to being the same bike.

Quote from: JetSwingsame with suzuki gz250...it actually looks alot like gz250

That's a cool looking bike too, well, except maybe that color :o...eww!  And I'd have to put a sissy bar on the back...not that...umm...I'm a...umm...sissy or anything... :oops:

I'm not really in the market yet anyway.  The bug may have bitten a few on the forum :P, but I've got at least another year on the GS before I'll even start looking or thinking about a next bike.

that is deffinately a rebel 250 lower case, i cant tell if its the single carb setup as the rebel (one larger carb), a fancy cambox cover isnt hard to makeup.

the seat ,swingarm shocks, rake of the forks all look pretty much rebel jigged  (mother inlaw has me check the oil on hers often enough) the calipers are spot on.

some fancy wheels and orniments, and a sticker on the tank seems to be the biggest changes or only Original parts installed


asside from pic being flipped kinda hard to not see rebel.

I like that little scoot, I've wanted one for long before I wanted a motorcycle  :oops:  Couldn't afford a Vespa though lol, and the Yamaha scoots don't appeal to me much.

Is this the same machine that I've seen on Ebay under various names? I assumed that the ones one Ebay were made in China.  Very inexpensive.

Like it or not, China's getting into the game. Remember, Honda started out making very small motorcycles also.  People with BMW's, Harley's, and British bikes didn't take the Jap bikes seriously.

To my eye, the one pictured looks more like the Rebel than the GZ250, but I'm mostly looking at the engine.  I have ridden both the Rebel and the GZ250. I owned a Rebel for a couple of months this Summer: trained the wife and daughter on it. I also rode it on a 260 mile day trip one day, and had a great ride. My experience with the GZ250 has only been in connection with the 3 MSF courses I've taken. One of the courses lasted a total of nine days, and I have ridden the GZ250 for miles around that parking lot. I have to say I love the thing! Being a single cylinder engine, it has a whole different feel than the Rebel. Yes, it is a "one lunger", despite the dual exhaust pipes.  My daughter has a Ninja 250 now, and I love riding that thing. In the range above 8000, it gets plenty interesting.

Watch out - I'm getting on my soap box now.

We in the U.S.A. have, in my opinion, a very distorted view of motorcycling. Most of the bikes we ride, or want to ride, are so large that they are really disfunctional. Bikes in the 300 to 500 pound range handle much better than heavier ones, and I find them much more fun to ride. It's all part of the American Ego Trip - bigger is better no matter what. I've owned and ridden the bigger bikes, and I for one don't like them.  There, I said it. Heresy!

We are importing a greater percentage of our oil now than we ever have, even during the crisis in the 70's. And, we're using about 60 percent of the world's oil production. This will not continue. The rest of the world will not allow it forever. We have every reason to get over the big bike (and car) thing, and start riding more functional machines.

What we really need is a new "Motorcycle Culture". The one we have is way too concerned with image and appearance, and nowhere near concerned enough with practicality. I do not mean by that that it's not about having fun. It is about having fun. But there's a certain practicality even in recreation: it's called getting the most bang for your buck.

I've ridden the 250's, the 500's, the 650's, and the 1500's. In the end,  you can have a great ride on almost any bike, and a not-so-great ride on any of them.  

Dismounting soap box - donning fire proof suit.

Yeah, dhgeyer your pretty much on par with our thinking. We are not looking at marketing these bikes to Harley owners or the crowd that would right off the bat say, oh a 250 is not good for anything. These bikes in our mind are cheap to maintain, reliable, and very economical in town transportation that can get on interstate if need be, BUT not really meant for it.  I'm guessing we'll get 70+ mpg hopefully closer to 80 mpg. Reliablity is the biggest issue right now I'm looking into.

These bikes are not fast, they are not gut rattling huge displacement monsters. They are simple cheap transportation and keeping that in mind that is the customer we aiming for. BTW the shipping company is BSin us again. They may not get here until next week now.  :x

-ash

http://www.geelybike.com/index.htm

This is a chinese manufacturer that makes and sells bikes/scooters. Is this the same company that you are looking at?

I'm sure this bike is a 100% replica of the Honda Rebel. As with most other things (shoes, clothes, golf clubs, anything that is manufactured in China/Taiwan) big companies like Honda manufacturer all components in China and Taiwan where labor is cheap. I'm sure that these are just exact knock offs from the honda line. It's not uncommon for factory workers to steal parts, components, blanks, molds, etc... from the factories and sell them to other manufacturers that make knock offs. If you check out Honda's web site you can easily find a link to Honda-Sundiro. This seems to be where honda builds it's bikes. Check out the website and look at all the scooters. They look just like the ones that Geely sells.


http://www.honda-sundiro.com/index_2.htm

Well, I for one wish you the best of luck.  

We got over 70 mpg, (and under ideal circumstances 80 mpg) with the Rebel. This was in warm weather, of course. It drops off rapidly with the temperature. The GZ250 is not nearly as good. Rachael's Ninja 250 can get in the 70's if it's riden like a Rebel would be, and there's no real reason not to. Once you start using the power band, however, the mileage goes South in a hurry, to about 55 mpg or so.

Most motorcycle riders in this country today ride because they want the fun, or, probably in even more cases,  the image.  They want to be bikers. It's gotten very cool to be a biker. They don't just ride, they see riding, and motorcycle ownership, as part of their identity.  

I have great hopes that, as the price of gas and cars goes up, there will be a lot of new motorcycle riders who are not doing it for the sake of doing it, or because it's cool, but because they need to save money. I can remember a time, in the U.S.A. when a lot of students had no vehicle other than a small (by today's standards) motorcycle. Heck, I was one of them for about a year. I had a Ducati 250. It was all I could afford. I think those times will return, and there will be a lot of new, young riders who could care less about image. They will buy your small cruisers and scooters, and will, I think (hope), be a positive influence on "Motorcycle Culture".

So, tell us more about this cruiser you are importing. What kind of carb setup does it have? Tappet adjusters or shims? How many valves? What's the stated HP rating? How many gears? Any notion of the top end? How about fuel capacity? How much weight can it carry? Will it run on regular gas (probably with a 250cc twin engine). Stuff like that.

JUST got them. I'll fill ya in on the details later tonight.

-ash

Quote from: ashmanJUST got them. I'll fill ya in on the details later tonight.

-ash

tell us how much yiu dished out!

C'mon kids, follow the trail.  You can figure this stuff out by going to the website hte image is hosted on.  Looks like these are from Huanan Motors (hnmoto.com).  These guys make a tone of 125 cc biked.  The cruiser is an FY250.  

I had a difficult time tracking down any kind of stats, but according to this page (http://www.infobuyer.com/english/showproduct/2455.php) it has a 14 liter (2.7 gallon) tank and gets almost 100 miles per gallon.  It weighs 337 pounds.  I think that's wet.  Power is 13 killowatts at 8500 rpm, which is just under 17.5 HP (took me a whuile to figure out the kw/r/min unit, which is pretty standard for China, it looks like).  The max speed is 95 kph, or just under 60 mph.

I disagree that it's the same as the Rebel.  The engines (atleast on the 2005 and 2006 Rebels) don't look anything alike.  It looks like Huanan makes the engines themselves.  They've got an extensive lineup of bare motorcycle engines on their site.

You can look up the scooter yourselves. :)

I especially like this Product elucidation (http://www.hnmoto.com/ArticleShow0001.asp?ArticleID=551).  :?

:lol: Elucidation?  :lol:

I like the look of that bike you linked, btw.  I thought it was one of their better 125s.

Yeah... The elucidation is pretty cool.   :lol:

Sorry...  I've never actually seen anyone use "elucidation" before.   :lol:

Not a bad looking bike.  Like RG said it does look like the Boulevard M50/M95.

Ok, I got the bikes together last week after wrestling them out of the truck. For some reason the shipper thought a residential adress would have a loading dock.  :x ANYWAY... After some creative use of jacks I got the front wheels on and adjusted chain tension, filled up oil, fuel, installed the batteries, signals ect ect. So far I have put about 20 miles on the 150cc Scooter, 10 w/ my g/f girls really do love scooters, the best speed I've reached is 40 mph, keeping in mind the break-in period. It is pretty peppy, more then I expected. It is also kind of creepy Imagine going 40mph sitting on a milk crate basically riding on two donuts. The center of gravity is much higher then a m/c.

The 250cc Cruiser I have logged 40 or so miles so far w/ a top speed of close to 50mph. Once again, the break in period. I cant see it getting much more then 60-65 w/ a good tail wind, but it is in town transportation. It has a 5 speed transmission that you have to work pretty well. The looks on it are pretty decent, I've had a couple of "woo hoos" and comments. Yes from woman. The build quality isnt as good as I had hoped. This is issue we would have to discuss w/ the factory should we do business w/ them.

Overall the 150cc Scooter I'm fairly impressed with, it could be consitered fun? I look rather goofy w/ full face helmet and riding gear on it tho. :?  I'm working on getting the bikes titled and insured still so saddle time is pretty limited right now. I'll keep ya'll updated. I must say tho it is a pretty sight to see those bikes and the GS under the carport.  :)

-ash

need pics  :mrgreen:

Ok here are some pics. Very bad pics because my digital camera cost 10 dollars at Walmart. But pics none the less. I took the scooter out on a main road today and get her up to 50mph. I also got the Cruiser to do 60mph today, they are getting better as things get broken in.

-ash
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/ash93316/bikes2.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/ash93316/bikes1.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/ash93316/bike4.jpg)
gauges on the cruiser
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/ash93316/MC020.jpg)

I like the gear indicator on the cruiser

ok, so, how much for a scooter? ill beat on one for awhile.

how much ya got?
-ash