Any more info on this chinese motorcycle?  By  prodigit (Read 39,372 times)

I took it out for a spin for a while. Runs great.
What it basically does, is instead of clicking the pedal into gear, the left pedal actually has 2 functions.
The first part of the pedal is enabling the clutch, the second part is changing the gear.

So far, it feels pretty natural to accelerate from 1 to 4 gear; but going back is almost impossible.
The bike does not want to shift from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1; which keeps me frustrated on what to do on street corners. I literally have to come to a stop, to shift into N, to go back to 1.
So basically it shifts forward only (unless if I have to rev the engine up a bit when shifting back, haven't tried that out yet).
I also had to tilt the pedal. Stupid chinese engineering had put 2x right thread on the extension bar (connector bar between pedal and gear joint), instead of using L + R thread.
So you'd have to disconnect the joint in order to extend the bar a bit.

It's almost impossible to shift backwards, unless you extend the bar, and tilt the pedal forward.

I'm 6'3" tall, so perhaps that could be one reason.
However, tilting the pedal forward makes it rub against the extension bar. So I'm expecting wear there. Not very well engineered.
Without well adjusted carburetor, I did 40MPH without problems. Going to 45 was slow, but that was because I was running lean, too lean.

As soon as the storm passes by, I hope to take a testride on it, see how it performs now that I've adjusted the carburetor a bit.

R-Body panel problem (oil cap can not exit/enter hole):




I've also noticed that this engine type uses very little oil!

You can barely see the position of the AF screw on the left of the idle adjust screw:


Damaged cable on mine:


The hoses may look quite complex, but they're actually quite easy.
2x drain hoses, 1x fuel hose, and 1x vacuum hose to the gearbox:

I don't know why you say to make it look correct. The piece fits perfectly in place.
When you tighten the axle with the nut, the rear fork will come somewhat together, close the gap difference.

Well, I just done my first 50km, initial impressions:
1- The first gear is pretty small; fast acceleration, jerky take off, and slow down
2- The first 4 gears are engaged within 20-25MPH. after that speed, you're basically running in 4th gear all the way until engine revs max. I'm missing a 5th gear, but not sure if the engine will pull it
3- Top speed so far is ~63MPH on the speedo, speedo is at least 5MPH off, so I guess 55MPH. It's still the breakin so I didn't go all out. 40MPH on speedo = ~35MPH roughly estimated on a few side speed meters.
4- It seems that the engine runs best ~30-35MPH, beyond that and RPM's go up beyond 3k RPM roughly estimated. For that reason I want another gear, but the engine barely is able to accelerate past 50MPH in 4th gear. Still, it has plenty of power from 25-50MPH, so I'm going to do the rear sprocket change. Since it's easier to do a rear sprocket change than a front one (don't find any place where they make them). Besides, the engine doesn't have enough power to be doing too big of a sprocket change anyway.
Changing the front sprocket to 1t more would be awesome, but the rear sprocket can be changed from the stock 40T, all the way down to 35T.
Stock sprocket:


Because the rear sprocket is even, I presume that the front sprocket will be odd (15T most likely), so I'd go no lower than 36T.
36T is a 10% difference (possibly in speed and MPG, but also slower acceleration in final gear).
I'm gonna order a 36T rear sprocket, just to be able to ride more comfortably in the city at lower RPM's (getting an even better MPG).

A front and rear sprocket change would be best, but I don't think the engine has got the power to be able to do that.

A smaller rear sprocket results also in a less jerky takeoff.


Other impressions:
- The transmission really suffers when riding. It does not have a very good working clutch. Usually as soon as you shift gears (up), it will engage. However if you shift down, the engine has very little time to rev up to the higher RPMs.
I believe it is therefor best to be lazy in downshifting (tardy downshifts); meaning downshift only when RPM's are very low, or shift as soon as you're almost standing still (speeds below 5MPH).

- Keep the bike's idle very low (800-1000RPM). It will help the clutch from disengaging the bike, so you won't get into trouble at a stop (with the engine's high idle trying to keep you in gear).

- ~900RPM (roughly estimated, one of my pet peeves is that the bike doesn't have a tach, even though it's a manual geared bike) the exhaust pipe/muffler oscillates with the exhaust thuds. So exactly on the perfect idle, I feel it oscillates, so I can either go below, or above that idle (I put the idle slightly higher ~1000-1100 RPM I believe).

What?
You have 2 rollers for the rear?
I only have 1 roller!

The other roller is for the front wheel.
If you have 2 rollers, use them both. I only have one roller and that piece you're holding.

[replyingto=averageguy]averageguy[/replyingto]Front 1

One of the big rollers goes on the side of the disc brake!
Lucky I caught it on time!
It could warp and damage the disc and braking system not to have it there.
It should fit in the rubber, and seal off the axis from dust entering, as well as keeping the right distance between disc and fork.

Downshifting 2 gears in the rain may cause the wheel to lock up.
I've had it happen, momentarily; lucky it was a small lockup, until the engine revved up high enough to have the wheel grip.
Another reason to only downshift at very low RPM's.

When RPM's go below ~1200 in second gear, the clutch disengages. You can start from a standstill in 2nd gear, but feel the clutch gripping. A good way to wear it out, so I recommend you not to do it.

When changing gears you can't make the clutch grip slowly by moving the pedal slower. It grips immediately, making the transmission somewhat jerky.
The engine does not rev up very fast, so down shifting in higher rpm is hard, and revving up the throttle as you downshift (eg: from 4 to 3, or 3 to 2nd gear) is not easy at all, and does not work very well.

To change gears on a motorcycle usually you need to push the pedal about 1in with the foot. On this motorcycle you need to push it 3in, which makes it additionally very hard to shift gears. (since the first 2 in is basically the clutch engaging)
It's easy to shift forwards, but I can't shift backwards easily.
I would have preferred to have a push/pull gear shift system, than a push/push (toe/heel) system. The heel system does not work very well at all. Engineers could make it work, by just making the lever more adjustable.
You can tune it a bit, but if you're tall, a person being only 5in shorter might not be able to ride the bike without re-adjusting the pedal.

The rider's foot pegs are very small, often my shoes are only touching the pegs by 1 or 2 in. The brake or shift pedals are in the way to comfortably rest the foot on the pedal.

And the license plate holder is not conform to the size of Florida motorcycle license TAGs.
I literally have to bend the plate a bit to fit.