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Unfortunately Euro4 is the old target from the previous decade. Manufacturers need to be developing Euro5 bikes to stay in the market. Cars are already mandated to Euro6 and they may push for bikes to meet that standard sooner than originally published.

The Elite for some reason reminds me of a commercial cleaning machine. Solid and dependible but if you let the carb get impacted by Ethanol can be a bear to set straight.

Lifan was a Yamaha partner for years and a major player so they have the reserves to keep up along with the methodology they were trained in by their association with Yamaha. There is a big difference between dumping old E3 bikes to get rid of them and becoming E4 and then quickly E5 compliant.

Things are changing rapidly and what is being unveiling at trade shows can already be obsolete as Mehindra Motors found out in India. Many of the new tech engines that they unveiled for 2016/2017 can't be sold or used in major cities in India even though they met the national air quality standards. They have set up a design center in Michigan to see if they can cut their losses on those investments before things tighten up here. We may see the US Postal Service driving a Mehindra in the not so distant future.

Watch out for "While inventory lasts" sales as those will likely be dumping of bikes that may shortly no longer be salable in Europe and the US. If the US starts restrictions of non-compliant vehicles in major cities like they have started in parts of Asia and Europe one could be stuck with a bike that can only be ridden outside the city limits.

In other parts of the world they have mobile environmental units that check tail pipe emissions and pull vehicles that fail off the road and it would not be a big stretch with the global environmental conferences to see similar here due to pressure from other countries that the US needs to better practice what the preach. In Florida is was determined that tail pipe emissions checks were a waste of time so we have not had them for about 20 years now but they could come back in the major cities.

We will probably see the Chinese makers that have been mentored by the European and Japanese come out ahead in the long run however the economic shift in China especially after having come under greater global scrutiny of work place conditions since the Olympics were held there has increased their costs to manufacture as competitively as before. We can see this pretty clearly when the actual street price of such as an Aprilia 750cc bike is only $200 more than a barely comparative 400/500cc Chinese bike.

Yes China is suffering very severe air quality issues and has some substantial payouts to make in order to clear it up. They need viable Zero Emissions Vehicles internally and exporting the dirty ones is no longer going to work especially as a number of European and other countries have already signed into law a 20 year phase out of internal combustion engines in their major cities and some for the entire country.

The Japanese have already learned that an electric vehicle with a sub 100 mile range does not sell well in the USA where range anxiety is a very big factor. Nissan just had to increase their Leaf from a 24 to 30 kWh battery to increase range to over 100 miles and Chevy is poised to release their 60 kWh Bolt ZEV(looks too much like a Pontiac Aztec to me) to get to about 150 miles. Toyota has just enhanced their battery technology to better monitor usage and cell condition extending driving range by 15% due to the better monitoring and controls in their plug in hybrids. Tesla is the Range King however they are doing so using battery technology that can be explosive and requires liquid cooling to keep it safe while the others are adopting battery tech that can be air cooled and has a better margin of safety.

Heat is death to the batteries in electric vehicles which Nissan learned the hard way. They had to redesign their battery cells due to a high rate of failure when used in the Deep South and now have what they have designated the Lizard Battery which they hope will meet a 10 year/100,000 mile life span. Battery design and manufacturing along with vehicle manufacturing of their plug in electric vehicle has been moved to Tennessee in order for them deal with the changes needed for the broad climate range found in the US and have the freshest batteries available at the time a vehicle is put through final assembly to be sent to a dealership along with mitigate the costs of getting the heavy batteries to the US.

The Chinese at this moment have to live down the scrutiny that they are under for their knockoff batteries especially those used in hover boards that have burst into flames and burnt people out of their homes. Chinese batteries keep coming into the news for computer and cell phone fires too. I almost had a fire in my garage due to Chinese batteries in a cordless drill but I caught it just as it burst into flames however if my back was turned or if I had gone into the house for a break it could have been devastating.

It is going to be interesting and it may get difficult to keep up with the pace of the changes. It will be driven by more than just consumer preferences today as whats allowed to be on the menu tomorrow may change drastically due to Climate Change Issues.

Yes more of what appears to be eliminating existing stock of old Euro3 Spec Bikes. They need to get rid of those and make the next giant leap to stay in the game. The Chinese can see the hand writing on the wall and do appear to be taking action to clear those out before they get stuck having to make them compliant with the new regs or scrap them. It is going to get interesting and the field may be thinning as we see who can keep up and who drops out of the game.

Thanks - Proved my point that even Honda had to go larger displacement 300cc, high compression, programmable fuel injection along with 4 valves per cylinder to get pollution levels down and still maintain performance on the Rebel. On their dual sport they had to do similar at pretty close to a full 250cc, liquid cooled, high compression, programmable fuel injection along with 4 valves per cylinder to stay in the market in the future. The 300 will still only be marginally acceptable on the Interstate and the Dual Sport only Highway Capable while the 700 will be much more competent and in what they call Rain Mode the DCT will be fine for a new rider.

The Chinese have some catching up to do to stay in the game as shortly Euro4/Euro5, EPA, LEEDS and other environmental regs/certs are going to severely limit the markets for their current bikes and acceptability of their factories so that their products will continue to be allowed into a country that requires low carbon footprints of the products and their makers. Many of the bikes they currently sell are being advertised as available only while current stock is available which could hold some promise of advancement in the newer models or indicate troubles in keeping up the pace.

While some of the new bikes we are seeing from China have some promise they need to keep the momentum going or they are going to see even the Asian markets close up to them as environmental concerns continue to gain more global attention.

Currently the major bike manufacturers are having to make costly technological advances to meet the new air quality regulations and are having to drop some of their engine lines so they can put more resources towards getting the remaining ones updated to meet the new requirements or come up with new designs more in tune with the future.

SYM for 2017 is upping the anti with more high compression, liquid cooled, fuel injected along with 4 valves per cylinder bikes for 2017. Even their 2017 50cc MIO although air cooled is a very high compression engine at 12.6:1 however most of their money appears to be going to the 200cc liquid cooled, fuel injected, 4 valve replacements for the 150cc bikes and the 300cc, liquid cooled, fuel injected, 4 valve replacements for the 250cc bikes.

It is going to get very interesting over the next few years/decades as Air Regs get tighter and Manufacturers have to meet them.

The day may be coming sooner that we think where major cities around the world will only allow Zero Emissions Vehicles inside them with an outright ban on any Internal Combustion Engines.

Yes you need to verify the intake and exhaust valve gaps along with the timing marks being aligned doing a compression test afterwards. If the compression comes back up then you need to address the fuel system, check for dragging brakes, CVT issues, etc otherwise its then time to drain the coolant and pull the head or at least get an inexpensive usb camera and take a look inside the cylinder, exhaust port and intake port to see what the piston, cylinder walls and valves look like:



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