How can we be so arrogant (towards the Chinese)?  By  prodigit (Read 12,878 times)

Thanks JR

Let me make several points....

All Hype from a salesman? Really?

The first bike he showed was the clone of the Kymco Corbra. It had only 600 miles on it. He told us of some serious issues with
the bike...you did mention one of them in your response.

Now either this person is telling us the truth or his lying.

Which do you believe?

If he’s telling us the truth, isn’t it his job to inform the public what sort of bikes are out in the market? Of course it is. It’s just not a sales pitch, the guy is not comfortable selling these sort of bikes in his dealership. Obviously another dealer had no problem with selling it.

With 600 miles on the OD, there was no oil in the front shocks and there was about an inch play in the steering bearings. The rear axle is bent which eventually caused the transmission oil to totally leak out. With no transmission oil the back end stands a good chance to lock up. If the rider is moving down the road at 45mph…and the bike locks up that could be deadly. Yes this bike was a very dangerous bike to ride. You failed to mention any of these issues in your post…these were very serious issues…you did however mention the less serious issue……the battery.

Why did you ignore those serious issues? Just wondering.

According to you this was a pure lack of PM by a either not knowing or lack of effort by the person who owned the scooter?

You make it sound like the buyer should expect these issues after 600 miles and it’s up to them to get out the wrench and prevent them from occurring! Really? After only 600 miles? .


The 2nd bike had whopping 81 miles on it. It had a CDI failure, a brake failure, a throttle cable tube failure. The bike had corrosion all over it. After 81 miles, the buyer did something wrong?

Let me ask you…do you approve of the way the Chinese market “anti-lock brakes?”

They use a valve to halve the brake pressure to the front wheels. It prevents the brakes from locking up the tires. It does do that.

BUT,
How would you like to be riding this bike in a panic situation and only being able to have half your front brakes? By design!

The third bike was a 150 with drum brakes. Do you think drum brakes can be reliable to stop a 150 cc bike?


I would very much like to hear your opinion on some of the questions I’ve asked.

Do you think the guy is lying? Doesn’t he not have an interest to inform the public of what he’s observed with these Chinese bikes? Should customers expect to pay $1-$2,000 for a NEW bike and do all sorts of mechanical work on it before its road worthy?
Why did you ignore in your post the very serious issues of the first bike?

I look forward to your response.


Danno


Which do you believe?


I believe what I see and not told by someone who has made these claims.

I watched the first video, a man obviously sitting downtown on a street with a big logo/banner on his truck making a video and the only thing I saw that was an issue was the back wheel. The video wasn't clear, was the swingarm tight or was the axle bent? How do we know the rider wasn't heavy, did he ride double a lot? How do we know he ever did any routine maintenance or PM, did he ever even check the gear oil?

In the video did this fellow show you a bad seal where the bent shaft made it leak? All just claims. The one inch slack in the steering shaft bearings? Now do you know how these are set up? One inch and that much slack would mean it was unrideable period. Yet he said the customer was riding it. Did he have the front off videoing this one inch slack? Again his claim. You can say anything you want but if you're going to make a video you can easily show what you're claiming.

Why not have the scooter in the shop and video all these problems to show how it came into the shop, why the Pride of Cleveland on the street, I'm going to save your life from these dangerous scooters?

The front forks? Did he mention the riding conditions? On some of the roads in my state the front forks and shocks take a beating, no big deal to pull the caps off and add a little fluid, again simple PM.

600 miles? Did he show us the speedo on the odometer? Again this would have been easy in the video, in fact I would have made a point to show this to people on these so very dangerous scooters. I would have said "SEE THIS!" This is a death trap and it's only got 600 miles on it!

Now here is some facts about POC scooters:

clevelandscooters.com/

What do they sell? So they take in all the junk Chinese scooters to work on? Yea right.

As far as the other videos and your questions, didn't even bother to watch them so I can't answer those questions, the first video and just claims with no proof was enough for me. Remember the scooters they sell would never have any of those issues and you pay them to see to it they don't. Myself I can see to it myself.

JR

danno:
Chinese corrosion is mostly superficial, and not a lot, because most of the bike is plastic anyway.
If a bike is heavily corroded at 81 miles, it's probably either sitting under an acid shower, or chloreen gas house, or perhaps is parked in a tank filled with water?
Or perhaps it's been ridden only 81 miles in 20 years?

We probably ignore those issues, because they happen, but they are in a vast minority. Most issues on chinese bikes only take a few tens of dollars to fix, provided you know what you're doing.
Plus, chinese manufacturing has become better; with a significant quality improvement on bikes after 2009 (right after the economic collapse in 2007), just like USA cars have significantly been improved after 2009 too!

My TaoTao ATM50 can lock the rear wheel while riding, with it's drum brake.
My TaoTao EVO150 can lock the rear wheel when braking front and rear (weight shifts), but not the rear wheel by itself when braking only with the rear, so reliable braking on a 150? Yessur!

A chinese ABS brake will probably brake better in a panic, than sliding because of locking the front wheel!
The moment your front wheel locks, you're already on the floor. I'd much rather have that split 1/2 second of time to hopefully not have an accident, than to have an accident before I even hit the target!

And only once have I locked the front brakes on my BMS 260 (which had CBS (Chinese Braking System), and that was on a wet asphalt street, and the wheel was skidding too; meaning it was at the verge of it's grip; but it saved me a nasty lay down.

When I know I paid $800 for my chinese 150 vs 4k for my Zuma125, you bet you I'll like the 150 better! ;D

A rear swingarm bearing starting to fail somewhere less than 4000 miles?

I've never experienced that on any of my Japanese or Taiwanese motorcycles or scooters at any amount of mileage.

If all you could find was a Chinese bearing to replace it, I'm sure it will last longer than the original, which was probably the lowest price component money could buy ;D

I bet if you could have gotten the $995 deal for the Kymco you would have liked that even better

You're not sure of anything. You weren't present when the bearing in question was found nor replaced. You're at a point now of just running your mouth and trying to annoy and make people mad.

Like I said give it a break.

JR