Lifan LF200 sport bike READ THIS!!!

[Vlad]

Well, its over. The bike is toast and it barely began to live, Chinese can NOT make a decent vehicle to save their life. They will never take over the world unless they do it in a month cause their tanks will just fall apart. Here is my story:
Bought a brand new 2007 Lifan LF200(III) "sport" bike from T-Motorsports. The bike came looking nice (check out my gallery), but with no EPA/DOT certifications, took me a month of headache to get it registered and I think I got lucky. I put nice oil in the motor, gap the plug, get all the prep work done. The battery keeps dying. I bought another battery, still dies. Finaly traced it to a short, fixed it, the battery is fine now. Ride it for about 600 miles and the rear sprocket hub shreds on me. The chain falls off the sprocket, locks up and almost kicks me off the bike. Everyone said, should have used locktite. So I buy a new sprocket hub and use locktite. Less then 50 miles later its loose again. I add high strength bolts and lockwashers and its fine. Then another 100 miles or so and the left side fairing fails for no reason, cracked in a weird spot. I replace, and keep riding. Then a few hundred miles later Im getting on a main road and the throttle gets stuck wide open, by some miracle I managed to dodge the cars around me and pull over. I took off the carb, open it up and nothing looks wrong. The thing got unstuck as soon as I took the cover off, the needle was seated and strait. To this day I dont know why it stuck. I clean the carb, double check everything and put it back on. A few days ago the top motor mount bolt broke while I was riding, I caught it right away parken the bike and replaced it the next day. Today I notice a hard dip in the bike when I stop, go to check it out and low and behold the main front frame pillar is broken in half. The bike is now done. There is just one small pipe holding it from falling apart in two halves. Alittle over 2700 miles and the thing is finished. How about them apples?! 1700$ down the drain and it didnt even make it to the summer. I was like many of you, giving the Chinese the benefit of the doubt. It almost cost me my life three times now. This bike should not be legal to sell in the US, I have a very serious suspicion that pretty much any other bike they offer is exacly the same materials. People, Im talking about the front end of your bike comming off while you are riding it. Think about it. Take your money and buy something decent and safe. My 81 Suzuki GS 550 I bought for 500$ lasted me two years 20000+ miles with less then 100$ worth of problems (cables, brake pads, plugs and a chain), stupid me, sold it when I got the Chinese pos. I will never even look at a Chinese "vehicle" again. A smart man learns on his mistakes, a wise man learns on the smart mans mistakes. Hope that you are wise men/women.
THE END

[frostbite]

I deleted the related dup post in the DS/Enduro forum. Please refrain from duplicate posts.

You've had a bad experience and that's unfortunate. However, everyones experiences are not the same as yours. I've ridden my Lifan off-road in worse conditions than one would encounter on the street and I haven't broken anything of consequence. No stuck throttle, no frame cracks, and truth be told very few loose bolts after the initial break-in.

At least you gave it a shot. You can now officially crap on Chinese bikes with a clear conscience. :wink:

[ejcycles]

That's really funny because I sold an American Lifan LF200(II) to a customer last year. Besides the minor charging problem {regulator} that I repaired under warranty for him, he rides the wheels off the bike. I'm not sure of the mileage right now but it's still running & doing Great. And people tell me there is no difference between some brand Lifans and American Lifan. I just wonder how many wheelies it takes to break a frame? :wink:

[AZ200cc]

Originally Posted by ejcycles

That's really funny because I sold an American Lifan LF200(II) to a customer last year. Besides the minor charging problem {regulator} that I repaired under warranty for him, he rides the wheels off the bike. I'm not sure of the mileage right now but it's still running & doing Great. And people tell me there is no difference between some brand Lifans and American Lifan. I just wonder how many wheelies it takes to break a frame? :wink:

X-actly what I was thinking

[Vlad]

Are you serious? Are you really trying to say that it is normal for a brand new machine with 2700 to be dead? You can take a brand new Honda or a Suzuki or a Yamaha, break it in for a few hundred miles and ride the piss out of it for the next 20000, with no real problems, just have to change oil alot.This thing could not do a wheelie if its life depended on it! As a matter of fact I installed a custom made Rebel Gears sprocket to give it more top speed and lost some low torque end it the process. Now as for how I rode it: it was a cheap daily driver, I rode it pretty hard at times, nothing too bad though, no jumping, obviously no wheelies and no stoppies. Three oil changes in 2000 miles, two very early on and one after 1200. The fact is, I rode an 82 Suzuki GS550 and a 79 Honda XL350 WAAAAAAY harder then I ever did this thing, and guess what, nothing ever went this wrong. They are almost 30 YEARS OLD. I crashed my GS550 on asphalt once, thats a 600 pound bike made in 1982 hitting hard surface at speed! I picked it up, started it up and rode it home. Denial is a serious thing brother, you should learn to recognize it. Do you know what would happen if I brought a brand new Honda back to them with a cracked frame and the bike has never been crashed? There would be a recall on 10000 Hondas, and some metal manufacturer would loose their contract. Some people would get fired. And I would have a brand new Honda. The reason I made this post is to maybe stop another person from getting this experience. That person may not be you, but as long as one person gets my point, this post has done its job. Ofcource someones experiece will be better then mine, thats how it always is, but ask the guy that wakes up in the hospital how he feels about it, and you may get a different perspective on this. Thank you Frostbite for recognizing my well deserved right to this post. It is just the truth the way I see it, not everyone will see it this way. You are a fair man and I applaud you for that :P

[Ridgeline]

Are T-Motorsperts bikes clones or are they true Lifans??

[AZ200cc]

Originally Posted by Vlad

Are you serious? Are you really trying to say that it is normal for a brand new machine with 2700 to be dead? You can take a brand new Honda or a Suzuki or a Yamaha, break it in for a few hundred miles and ride the piss out of it for the next 20000, with no real problems, just have to change oil alot.This thing could not do a wheelie if its life depended on it! As a matter of fact I installed a custom made Rebel Gears sprocket to give it more top speed and lost some low torque end it the process. Now as for how I rode it: it was a cheap daily driver, I rode it pretty hard at times, nothing too bad though, no jumping, obviously no wheelies and no stoppies. Three oil changes in 2000 miles, two very early on and one after 1200. The fact is, I rode an 82 Suzuki GS550 and a 79 Honda XL350 WAAAAAAY harder then I ever did this thing, and guess what, nothing ever went this wrong. They are almost 30 YEARS OLD. I crashed my GS550 on asphalt once, thats a 600 pound bike made in 1982 hitting hard surface at speed! I picked it up, started it up and rode it home. Denial is a serious thing brother, you should learn to recognize it. Do you know what would happen if I brought a brand new Honda back to them with a cracked frame and the bike has never been crashed? There would be a recall on 10000 Hondas, and some metal manufacturer would loose their contract. Some people would get fired. And I would have a brand new Honda. The reason I made this post is to maybe stop another person from getting this experience. That person may not be you, but as long as one person gets my point, this post has done its job. Ofcource someones experiece will be better then mine, thats how it always is, but ask the guy that wakes up in the hospital how he feels about it, and you may get a different perspective on this. Thank you Frostbite for recognizing my well deserved right to this post. It is just the truth the way I see it, not everyone will see it this way. You are a fair man and I applaud you for that :P

I think Ej was joking about wheelies and I played along, You had a lot of bad luck with Your bike, Sorry to hear it. I doubt anyone on this site thinks they bought a top end bike. Any person with an ounce of logic would realize that these are NOT the best bikes on the market! They are what they are. Any person who buys one of these bikes and thinks they can just get on and ride everyday without checking it out first is a fool. And You are correct about Frostbite being fair on this... it is a good thing he allows the positive posts along with the negative...It helps the others decide if they really want to buy one or not.

[ejcycles]

I was joking about the wheelies...buy if you really want to get serious here. :wink: HONDA XR80 & XR100 every year from 1980 till 2002 I have seen brake frames at the footpegs mount area/rear engine mount area due to normal riding and jumping of these bikes. Been there replaced frames for it. You can't find a frame in a bike junk yard without a broken frame, I know, I tried finding a couple. I found one that was it, the other bike they had to buy a New frame from Honda...ouch! that one hurt! 8O Oh, here is another one for ya...2004-2006 Honda TRX450R frames are breaking right & left, there are 2 Honda dealers near me that are replacing them all the time.

[frostbite]

Thank you Frostbite for recognizing my well deserved right to this post. It is just the truth the way I see it, not everyone will see it this way.

The only people I don't want posting are the haters who've never sat on a Chinese ride yet disparage them. You're 'Chinese experiment' came to a sad end but your experience is no less valid than someone who's had a good one.

If people can't post their 'bad experiences' nobody will take the good one's seriously.

Good luck with the Suzuki.

[ejcycles]

I'm not saying he didn't have a right to post this...I'm glad he did!

I was just adding to problems I have seen over the years also since some people think the Big 4 are without fault in anything they do. As far as recalls go on frames...No Honda didn't ever recall any frames for breaking, they warranty some but not all. A lot depends on the Dealer and the Honda Rep. that looks at the vehicle.
Suzuki is worse with their warranties...look in a magazine called Consumer Motorcycle News, there are always people writing in to them about how Suzuki will not honor their warranties. I personally know five people that Suzuki would not honor warranty for legitimate claims.
Yes again...I was Joking about the wheelies!

[TheOtherRide]

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, and I appreciate you sharing it. The good AND the bad, whether it's bikes, dealers, licensing does help anyone who's looking at these bikes. You might want to check out this thread; lots of opinions on risk vs. saving money:
http://www.chinariders.net/modules.p...=worth+risking

[Vlad]

Well, I do have one good thing to say about it. The OHC engine that came in it is rock solid so far. Nice motor, junk everything around it... I am Russian by blood, grew up in the soviet/post soviet era. I gave this a try because Ive seen some cheap old soviet machines (mostly ripoff BMW bikes) run like the Duracel bunny. Im amazed that the quality of the bike I got was actually below the russian bikes ive seen. Thats pretty bad! I would take an old Ural bike over this thing any day now that I gave it a shot. Ill be lucky to get a few hundred for whats left over, lost over a grand on it and never wrecked the thing. Ill take the chance with the brand name warranty next time, chances are I wount have to test the warranty for a while though. And most importantly, the bike will probably not fold on me while Im on it 8O Motorcycle riding is dangerous enough, you want to at least be able to trust your machine.

[Vlad]

Oh yeah, and btw EJCycles, at least they are replacing the frames. So instead of doing a recall they decided to replace them as they come in. Undestandable, not great, but understandable. And we were not talking about a dirt bike here, this is not something that ever jumps. Ive seen how people ride them brand new 450 Hondas, Im surprized any frame can take that kind of a beating. There is a big difference between getting a bad bike from a batch of good ones and getting a good one from a batch of bad ones...

[Jim]

My throttle was stuck on full too... But this was after I just turned it on, without using it, so it revved right up and stayed up... I am guessing someone had cranked the throttle too far and it got caught or something... I cranked it hard with it off and something popped and it went back in normal... I think maybe it can get pulled too far and then caught?


Other then that no serious issues with mine (lifan, 200 gy5). Though my muffler seems to have a baffle broke or something.

[olds_cool]

Originally Posted by Vlad

Well, its over. The bike is toast and it barely began to live, Chinese can NOT make a decent vehicle to save their life. They will never take over the world unless they do it in a month cause their tanks will just fall apart. Here is my story:
Bought a brand new 2007 Lifan LF200(III) "sport" bike from T-Motorsports. The bike came looking nice (check out my gallery), but with no EPA/DOT certifications, took me a month of headache to get it registered and I think I got lucky. I put nice oil in the motor, gap the plug, get all the prep work done. The battery keeps dying. I bought another battery, still dies. Finaly traced it to a short, fixed it, the battery is fine now. Ride it for about 600 miles and the rear sprocket hub shreds on me. The chain falls off the sprocket, locks up and almost kicks me off the bike. Everyone said, should have used locktite. So I buy a new sprocket hub and use locktite. Less then 50 miles later its loose again. I add high strength bolts and lockwashers and its fine. Then another 100 miles or so and the left side fairing fails for no reason, cracked in a weird spot. I replace, and keep riding. Then a few hundred miles later Im getting on a main road and the throttle gets stuck wide open, by some miracle I managed to dodge the cars around me and pull over. I took off the carb, open it up and nothing looks wrong. The thing got unstuck as soon as I took the cover off, the needle was seated and strait. To this day I dont know why it stuck. I clean the carb, double check everything and put it back on. A few days ago the top motor mount bolt broke while I was riding, I caught it right away parken the bike and replaced it the next day. Today I notice a hard dip in the bike when I stop, go to check it out and low and behold the main front frame pillar is broken in half. The bike is now done. There is just one small pipe holding it from falling apart in two halves. Alittle over 2700 miles and the thing is finished. How about them apples?! 1700$ down the drain and it didnt even make it to the summer. I was like many of you, giving the Chinese the benefit of the doubt. It almost cost me my life three times now. This bike should not be legal to sell in the US, I have a very serious suspicion that pretty much any other bike they offer is exacly the same materials. People, Im talking about the front end of your bike comming off while you are riding it. Think about it. Take your money and buy something decent and safe. My 81 Suzuki GS 550 I bought for 500$ lasted me two years 20000+ miles with less then 100$ worth of problems (cables, brake pads, plugs and a chain), stupid me, sold it when I got the Chinese pos. I will never even look at a Chinese "vehicle" again. A smart man learns on his mistakes, a wise man learns on the smart mans mistakes. Hope that you are wise men/women.


THE END

I don't think it's fair to "down" all Chinese bikes. I know MANY HD owner's who've had similar experiences....with brand new bikes! Things like this have even happened with Japanese bikes. MY bike is Chinese and I've had some problems with it (parts). Well, I'm not gonna put down all the Chinese bike manufacturers, 'cause I know that wouldn't be true. In any event, there are good bikes and bad bikes from ALL manufacturers.