Late 2021 TBR7 manufacturing problems
 

OK. There is no sugar-coating this. Maybe some people have gotten good crates from Tao. We did not. The list is not long, but the problems are bad.

The airbox snorkel and battery/airbox fitment seem like a good place to start.

We discovered the snorkel problem immediately because we needed access to the carb for rejetting. That will be the first post. At first I thought it was the wrong snorkel or airbox. But the person that glued the snorkel to the airbox misaligned it badly.
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Here it is with lines to show the misalignment, causing the kinks in the snorkel when connected to the carb

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It is pretty obvous inside the airbox

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Next post is devoted to the battery install problems (airbox?)

Later on in the build, we tried to install the battery. We had no idea what we were going to encounter. The orange arrow points to the inadequate clearance. The red arrow points to the airbox screw that goes past the height of the battery. The green arrow points to a rogue green wire with no male connector to connect it to (presumably a ground wire, especially since it is near the - post on the battery).

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Buying a new battery didn't make sense. So we cut some space. This means removing the airbox screw since it is long enough to hit the battery when reinstalled.

Here is the airbox mod (for allowing Battery install, not increasing airflow!).

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Duct Tape to seal up the gaping hole in the airbox:

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Battery fits after cutting the airbox to accommodate it:
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More later. Documenting this stuff takes time.

This I do understand. Trying to video or take pictures of stuff while also working really does add a ton of time. That is why I didn't do videos of every single mod I did step by step. I showed some, and talked about the rest in detail simply because it took way less time.

That intake tube is by far the worst one I have ever seen. I thought my current Hawks was bad, but not any more.

My son and I decided not to do anything about the snorkel for now. We assume it is choking the flow somewhat, but our rejetting and needle height adjustment was modest since we hadn't even started it and don't really know at this point what it needs. I posted the numbers somewhere here.

That rogue green wire with female plug connector must be a ground lead for something. And yet there is a small chance that connecting it to the battery negative post, or to the frame could fry something. Unlikely, but possible I guess. I think it must be connected to something on the other end, wherever that might be. Any ideas?

That snorkel can be removed and repositioned pretty easy. Mine wasn't messed up but I've had it out and resealled. I have no idea with the battery. About the only minor issue with mine was a brake lever washer that didn't fit right.

We will try cutting out the snorkel with a razor on the caulk/glue bead and clean it up for reinstalling. I hope we can get the kink out of it!

brake light switch!
 

The brake light switch has a spring that should connect through a hole in the lever. Oh, there is a hole on the other side! I wonder what that it for!?

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It is easy to drill a hole. Fixed.

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Gee. This isn't rocket science. I can't believe for a second that the people crating this stuff don't know how embarassing this must be for the manufacturer!

I guarantee you that even if they knew, they do not care. They already have your money. The notion of potentially affecting future sales does not occur to these types, or indeed a lot of similar types. Everything is about making that fast buck right now -- for as little as possible.


Us Chinese bike owners are just trained to expect it in advance, is all.

Thumper you're making me feel like I won the lottery with my TBR7. The intake was kinked more than I liked. I softened it with a heat gun manipulated it into shape and held it there 'til it cooled. It worked well. What I did could never correct the severity of what you're dealing with on yours. I saw a video of a guy who used the sleeve of an empty plastic caulk tube and inserted into the intake to force it to open up and stay that way.
Embarrassed to say I couldn't get my battery out. I figured because it was of a no maintenance flavor, I just put the trickle charger on it and told myself worry about it when I have to replace it.
I'm at 600 ft. I put a 38 and 110 in the carb. When I goose the throttle from idle in neutral it bogs. I'm thinking the 38 might be too much and try a 35?

Above, TxTaoRider tells me the snorkel can be pulled off the airbox, cleaned up, reinstalled straight. Haven't done it yet, but will.

We put a 38 in the TBR7. Not much time on it, so not sure if that's enough, but we shimmed the needle to...You can shim you needle by a couple mm with washer. That will probably fix the bogging issue. The retaining clip doesn't go back into the recess at the bottom of the slide after shimming, but the slide spring holds it in place, no problem. You just need a little richer off idle for that initial bogging.

I have adjustableneedle set 4th notch down out of 5. I can move it down to last notch.

I'm not seeing your rear brake arm stop in the pic. Is it missing or, just not installed? Mine was installed by factory but, as I mentioned previously. The arm stopped against the bottom of the kick start lever mounting bolt instead of the brake arm adjustable stop. A rotor burr to the top of the brake arm removing about 1/16" of material allowed it rest against the the stop instead of kick start bolt.

I was thinking backwards, I thought the bog off idle might be caused by my 38 pilot being too large?