Lifan KP Mini 150

[Red2018Lifan150]

Hi forum! I just bought a brand new 2018 Lifan KP Mini 150 off of Amazon for $1680 with free shipping. It should arrive in a few weeks. I can't wait! I've been looking for YouTube videos, reading and researching about my new mini bike.

I wanted to ask the forum: Does anyone have a solid idea of where the engine and transmission come from, how the build quality is, and what parts from other engines are compatible?

From what I've read, the engine on this thing has a model number of 157FMJ, which can be looked up online and takes you to a China Motorcycles website with more info: http://www.chinamotorcycles.cn/Engin...01o3w8w1v3u8v3

Looks like this engine is indeed made in China, in ChongQing. Now the same engine and transmission for the Lifan KP Mini 150 is used in the Kymco Spade, and that's a Taiwanese motorcycle company. Kymco made motorcycles for Honda under contract, and is a really good company with high build quality, from what I've read. The Lifan 150 seems to me like it's a clone of the Kymco motorcycle, which is itself a clone of the Honda CBF 150, which is a Honda mini bike that was never sold here in the USA. The Lifan and the Honda have the same frame, engine, transmission, it's pretty obvious. The bike is heavy for it's size, and this is because it's built to be an extra strong and reliable commuter, with a heavy-duty frame, wheels, everything. If Honda designed this bike to be a 150CC actual sportbike, I'm sure it would weigh about 100 pounds less. This platform is quite mature and there's great part support at least in China, as it looks like this motorcycle has been produced with different names for probably 20 years, in countries all over Asia from Pakistan to China to Indonesia. So it's got to be good right!?!?

Anyone else out there have some juicy insider information on the Lifan 150/Kymco Spade 150/Honda CBF150?

[culcune]

Lifan is a huge company that makes their own products. They might use subcontractors, but they are a top notch company (as far as Chinese motorcycle manufacturers go). Arguably the best in China depending on who is making the statement. The KPMini has proven itself as pretty much the top of the GLV (Grom Like Vehicles)food chain no matter the mfgr. In fact, members here who have them, or on the videos I have seen, the remarks about quality are pretty much the same. I don't recall anyone stating something like, "The bike is really fun, but the switches are chintzy and brittle and break from using them too much." Or, "The bike has obvious subpar quality issues such as the swingarm..." I am fairly certain the engine is proprietary to Lifan as most of the vertical thumpers from China are generally Honda-like but not necessarily exact clones of any Honda engine. I am fairly certain the engine in the Kymco and the Lifan are different. You will enjoy the bike, I am fairly certain. Hopefully others will chime in with details I may have missed.

[Red2018Lifan150]

Originally Posted by culcune

Lifan is a huge company that makes their own products. They might use subcontractors, but they are a top notch company (as far as Chinese motorcycle manufacturers go). Arguably the best in China depending on who is making the statement. The KPMini has proven itself as pretty much the top of the GLV (Grom Like Vehicles)food chain no matter the mfgr. In fact, members here who have them, or on the videos I have seen, the remarks about quality are pretty much the same. I don't recall anyone stating something like, "The bike is really fun, but the switches are chintzy and brittle and break from using them too much." Or, "The bike has obvious subpar quality issues such as the swingarm..." I am fairly certain the engine is proprietary to Lifan as most of the vertical thumpers from China are generally Honda-like but not necessarily exact clones of any Honda engine. I am fairly certain the engine in the Kymco and the Lifan are different. You will enjoy the bike, I am fairly certain. Hopefully others will chime in with details I may have missed.

That's a great point about how nobody is complaining about the quality of the switches and fasteners and such. You're right I never hear those types of complaints. I don't hear many complaints at all, really. People seem to get one and then fall in love with it. Man I can't wait to get this thing and really go through it and do a thorough test ride and make a video review about all of it. The videos I've seen online so far aren't that great, except for that Small Engine Velocity guy, he does pretty good videos on the Lifan 150. Everyone else sucks so far, lol. I know I can contribute to the volume of knowledge about the 150 bigtime.

I'd love to see some technical sales brochure for the Lifan KP Mini 150 with detailed information about the suspension, transmission, technology used, development details, that kind of thing. Must be something like that in China written in Chinese, but hey Google Translate works great these days. What I wish I knew, is a Chinese person that lives in China and that is also an avid motorcyclist and also owns one of these Lifan 150s. There's probably even a gigantic tuner community for these bikes in China.

[culcune]

I am not sure how many of these bikes are sold in the homeland, if any. There are some companies in China that are simply export companies, such as Taotao (they might have renamed themselves as Tao Motors nowadays). They do not sell product in China. TMEC is another I know of. I do believe that Lifan does sell its products in China, but I do not believe that Chinese nationals in China bother with modifying domestic bikes, such as we would here in the US with the class of bikes I refer to as Grom Like Vehicles, or GLVs. Besides the lower class of Chinese who would ride 150cc standards, the upper class simply buy large cc bikes. To me, that is a shame and a lost opportunity since bikes like the KPmini are really cool and ripe for customization. I do believe there is a class of bikes in that range that race domestically, as I recall a press release on the old American Lifan site from 2 or 3 years ago showing several photos of a press day when Lifan in China offered rides around a track for journalists on race-only KPMinis (street equipment delete and racing slicks). I felt that American Lifan should have brought over race-only KPMinis to offer them as budget racing bikes for the various mini-bike racing leagues we have here. One of the leagues, the UMRA, hosts an annual 24 hour race which motorcycle.com entered a Benelli TNT 135. https://www.motorcycle.com/manufactu...li-tnt135.html I could picture the KPMini, especially one in racing garb like the ones in the press release from China doing duty for 24 hours. I think the only problem is that the KPMini is not CARB certified for street duty, and are not green stickered for off road duty, either, and the league runs its races in So. Cal. making the KPMini off-limits even as a race bike.

[culcune]

This is what I am talking about...