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mzweig · 02-06-2021, 03:05 PM

A friend of ours bought a new DF250RTG. Because I am an experienced motorcyclist and bike mechanic (I have owned 300+ bikes over the last 50 years and have restored many), she had it sent to our house for assembly. I wanted to share my experience thus far with it.

To start with, the place she ordered from (gokartsusa.com) made her pay with a wire transfer and then took forever to ship it—six weeks or more. Horrible communications too. When the bike finally arrived, it was assembled and on a falling-apart pallet held down with tiedowns. Because they weren’t hooked up properly, the left side cover was destroyed. Also the left rear turn signal was broken off. The handlebars (super cheap flat bars) were bent. The fuel tank has several small dents. The other side over was scratched as was the muffler. There was either a nameplate or reflector missing on the front of the bike.

There was only one bar-end mirror instead of four as shown. The front forks were loose in their triple trees. The front wheel was loose. The shifter was installed incorrectly—had to be removed and reinstalled about a half inch further onto the shaft. We are missing a bolt under the seat and a nut for the clutch lever. There is a clutch cut off plunger switch just dangling with nowhere to hook it up that I could find. The whole bike needed to be gone through. One problem I cannot fix is too much slack in the throttle cable and I have the adjusters all the way out but can’t correct it. We got no MSO and no manual with it.

Since then, I ordered new bars and turn signals for it on Amazon, glued the sidecover back together, and put decals over the dented tank areas. I have a set of bar end mirrors I will install when the new bars go on.

I fired the bike up after charging the battery and figuring out it had an almost unreachable choke lever and that the little gas in the tank wasn’t enough to get to the carb. As someone who owns a Janus Halcyon 250 (which also has a 229 cc Chinese engine) I was surprised how fast this little DF is (and it is very little!). Much faster than the Janus. Or I should say quicker. It’s geared lower than my Janus. It also has a Japanese carburetor on it which I was surprised to see. All I had to do was turn up the idle some. Sounds good. Very surprised how it runs.

The bike is very small. Feels like a Honda 90. Seat height is 28”. Weight is low. Small fuel tank. Tiny headlight, signals, fenders, seat, and taillight. Don’t understand why they would install a heel-and-toe shifter. No tach. Speedo and odometer are in kilometers. Overall quality is not impressive. Paint quality is pretty poor. Lighting is super cheap. Front forks are the cheapest spindly things I have ever seen! But overall what are you going to get for this kind of money? It cost a fourth of what my Janus did and when you see it or work on it you can see why. That said, it’s a bargain. I don’t think it is a bad first bike at all and will be perfect for our friend to learn on. Anyone with minor mechanical skills could probably keep it going.

I have to laugh a little at those who think you can’t ride a new bike like this over 30 for the first 500 miles. It’s a matter of revs and not running it at sustained high rpm or putting too much load on it to break it in. It is good for an engine like this to run it hard for a short bit when new. And some people change the oil three times in 500 miles! I will do this thing at 500 miles for the first time. These pushrod engines are bulletproof and they sell millions of them in third world countries. A new engine is $600 turn key. I would not be too worried about it. It will be fine. These engines are bulletproof!

02-06-2021, 03:05 PM	#1
mzweig Join Date: Feb 2021 Location: Fayetteville, AR Posts: 7	Brand new DF250RTG.... A friend of ours bought a new DF250RTG. Because I am an experienced motorcyclist and bike mechanic (I have owned 300+ bikes over the last 50 years and have restored many), she had it sent to our house for assembly. I wanted to share my experience thus far with it. To start with, the place she ordered from (gokartsusa.com) made her pay with a wire transfer and then took forever to ship it—six weeks or more. Horrible communications too. When the bike finally arrived, it was assembled and on a falling-apart pallet held down with tiedowns. Because they weren’t hooked up properly, the left side cover was destroyed. Also the left rear turn signal was broken off. The handlebars (super cheap flat bars) were bent. The fuel tank has several small dents. The other side over was scratched as was the muffler. There was either a nameplate or reflector missing on the front of the bike. There was only one bar-end mirror instead of four as shown. The front forks were loose in their triple trees. The front wheel was loose. The shifter was installed incorrectly—had to be removed and reinstalled about a half inch further onto the shaft. We are missing a bolt under the seat and a nut for the clutch lever. There is a clutch cut off plunger switch just dangling with nowhere to hook it up that I could find. The whole bike needed to be gone through. One problem I cannot fix is too much slack in the throttle cable and I have the adjusters all the way out but can’t correct it. We got no MSO and no manual with it. Since then, I ordered new bars and turn signals for it on Amazon, glued the sidecover back together, and put decals over the dented tank areas. I have a set of bar end mirrors I will install when the new bars go on. I fired the bike up after charging the battery and figuring out it had an almost unreachable choke lever and that the little gas in the tank wasn’t enough to get to the carb. As someone who owns a Janus Halcyon 250 (which also has a 229 cc Chinese engine) I was surprised how fast this little DF is (and it is very little!). Much faster than the Janus. Or I should say quicker. It’s geared lower than my Janus. It also has a Japanese carburetor on it which I was surprised to see. All I had to do was turn up the idle some. Sounds good. Very surprised how it runs. The bike is very small. Feels like a Honda 90. Seat height is 28”. Weight is low. Small fuel tank. Tiny headlight, signals, fenders, seat, and taillight. Don’t understand why they would install a heel-and-toe shifter. No tach. Speedo and odometer are in kilometers. Overall quality is not impressive. Paint quality is pretty poor. Lighting is super cheap. Front forks are the cheapest spindly things I have ever seen! But overall what are you going to get for this kind of money? It cost a fourth of what my Janus did and when you see it or work on it you can see why. That said, it’s a bargain. I don’t think it is a bad first bike at all and will be perfect for our friend to learn on. Anyone with minor mechanical skills could probably keep it going. I have to laugh a little at those who think you can’t ride a new bike like this over 30 for the first 500 miles. It’s a matter of revs and not running it at sustained high rpm or putting too much load on it to break it in. It is good for an engine like this to run it hard for a short bit when new. And some people change the oil three times in 500 miles! I will do this thing at 500 miles for the first time. These pushrod engines are bulletproof and they sell millions of them in third world countries. A new engine is $600 turn key. I would not be too worried about it. It will be fine. These engines are bulletproof!
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