My Lifan X-Pect Thread

orangeisnon · 10-14-2022, 06:03 AM

Just another X-Pect thread to document what I do and any observations I make to maybe help someone else not make the same mistakes I almost certainly will.
Bought mine in July of 2022 from Orion in Texas. The only reason I chose them was to get 0% financing through whichever lender they use, who I already had an account with. I had all the same issues as the other Texas Chinabike dealers - tough to get a response, took 2 months to ship, sent the wrong color, and they didn't send the MCO until I had the bike and requested it separately. Oh well, it was cheap, I got the bike and it runs. One thing to note is that they do a "break-in service" where they claim they change the oil and what-not, but it seems this does not include actually running it for any length of time, as the bike had 1 mile when it got to me. I will need to check up on maintenance before too long as this is my first motorcycle, outside of a $100 Tomos moped that I rebuilt this summer.
Build quality, as many others have mentioned, is pretty great for something this cheap. I have no doubt that it will hold up to my 70-30 road/mild dirt riding. It fires up fast but not as lightning-quick as everyone has said - might be because of valve clearance. I am not going to get into that quite yet as I have no issues with how well it runs and I don't have a good spot to work on it right now. Once it gets legitimately too cold to ride I will figure it out. As far as color goes - I was sent Red, which ended up being deeper than I expected and more of a burgandy/maroon. No complaints from me, it looks much more mature than a cherry red. It DID come with the red ring on the rim, though it feels like paint rather than tape. This surprised me - even the dealer said the rims would be solid black.
Registration was fairly easy for me - I live in Connecticut but for reasons I have an RI license. I heard that RI was peckish about registering Chinese bikes (as of 2020) so I mailed it in to Vermont. No issues, didn't even need to send the MCO. Added benefit: VT plates look infinitely better than CT ones.
I weigh about 210 without gear and my girlfriend is just under 100, and fully geared up we fit comfortably on the bike without any noticeable reduction in ride quality. I am not at all hesitant about loading it up with camping gear and running long distances. She does claim that the passenger seat area is too firm for her, though it is fine for my significantly cushier tush. She has not yet and likely will not use the grab handles so I can't comment on their usefulness aside from the fact that they make mounting side bags significantly more difficult.
On that topic - I have a set of RockBros saddle bags that were recommended by someone here, though I don't feel entirely comfortable with the way they sit and haven't committed to them yet. I plan to build a frame out of EMT conduit to support these. A company in Ukraine makes great and inexpensive racks for some Lifan models, but unfortunately not the X-Pect, and I am not about to ask them to do R&D in the middle of... You know. mmotoracks.com is their site. I also have a 45L hard aluminum case on the way for the tail area.
Actual riding about, it seems fine. There is a bit of wobble at high speeds and a bit of "bounce" at low speeds (like unevenly seated tire beads), probably related. Neutral is at times impossible to get to; other times it clicks right in without issue. I have had a few situations where it said it was in neutral but was in gear, causing it to stall out. These were early on, in the driveway, not while riding. If it does happen again I will document it.
I will continue to update this with info and photos as time goes on. Seems like a really nice bike for the money! Hopefully I can avoid doing anything too stupid for a few years and get some miles out of it.

TominMO · 10-14-2022, 12:18 PM

Good bikes. I would check both the oil and the valve clearances, rather than assume they did anything.

Boatguy · 10-14-2022, 08:51 PM

very nice!

that’s a good post. It sums up all of the general weird parts of the xpect.

I think you’ll find that the slow starting is probably the valves. but just for the heck of it, you might as well check that the spark plug is fully seated and the wire is on nice and tight. My spark plug was loose when it arrived.

I have the rock Bros. They are a little bit weird, but try playing with the straps a bit. If you have stuff in them, they sit pretty well if you get the straps adjusted. But of course a rack would be amazing. On the exhaust side, I used some black zip ties to squeeze the bag a bit where it might have contacted the exhaust. this worked really well even though I lost a little bit of storage space. But I have used these bags many many times. Grocery shopping, camping, multiple day trips. Without a rack. They do work. But a rack would be a dream.

Regarding the front tire wobble and bounce, I did have to get mine balanced. After that it rides perfectly. I’m a little hesitant to change my front tire even though it is time. I don’t want to throw off the beautiful balance.

orangeisnon · 10-17-2022, 01:26 AM

Thanks guys. I will definitely check the oil. I am planning on changing it this week anyway as I want to ride down to VA to meet up with a friend on a work trip. I like that the manual states break-in is 1000km, while the sticker on the fuel tank says 500km. Either way I am not going to be able to baby it for that long. Hopefully I get time to do valves before leaving.
I increased air pressure in both tires to within the manual-recommended range and it is now perfectly smooth on the highway. It does still have a tiny bit of vibration at lower speeds. I'll get that looked at "soon". The fact that the pressure was so low also makes me think that the dealer did nothing beyond basic assembly. Then again, I didn't even read the manual until I had put 50 miles on the thing.
As far as fuel mileage - I filled up a few days ago, did 51 miles (49-100), and it took 0.485 gallons to get back to the previous level. Can't argue with over 100mpg.
I threw a few accessories on it. First, an aluminum hard case (Amazon item B09DPS53SW) which is cheap right now. The bracket holes line up perfectly with the four screws on the back and it leaves room for my passenger. It does wobble front/back a bit on the highway so I am going to add some bungees. It fits my pretty massive Sedici dual-sport helmet, gloves, and jacket liner with a bit of room to spare. I can also mount the Rockbros bags to the top for more storage - I will be doing this for the VA trip. It does make mounting/dismounting a chore - I am 5'11" and my foot either hits the case or drags along the seat. I found that I can stand on the left foot peg and make it over but that's asking for trouble on anything but solid level ground.
The other accessory for now is a cheap set of wind guards for the handlebars. I had tried one of the nice aluminum brush guards with covers, but for a combination of reasons I went with Amazon B07SR59943, which completely block all wind to my hands. They wouldn't survive even a small interaction with the ground or a branch but I don't plan on abusing this bike so... fingers crossed.
Lastly for now, I have a JTF1264.17 front sprocket on the way to hopefully make highway riding a bit more bearable. It's not super fun to get passed by semi trucks while at redline.
Neutral is still very hard to hit after >100 miles. It clearly takes more force to go from in gear to neutral than neutral to in gear. I've tried rocking, tried giving it more throttle in first, nothing seems to help. Oddly enough it goes in with zero issues with the engine off. I don't understand engine internals well enough to know why that would be. Other than that it is running very well. Very happy though I can definitely see myself picking up a larger/faster bike for longer trips down the line. For around town/state/forests this seems perfect. I will grab a couple photos with the case/guards on tomorrow.

TominMO · 10-17-2022, 08:37 AM

Definitely do the valves before leaving! Make it a high priority. It doesn't take all that long and could save you some real trouble on the road.

TominMO · 10-17-2022, 09:02 AM

I did similar, putting JT chain and 15/42 sprockets on my X-pect, for a 2.80 ratio. You putting a 17 with the stock rear 46 will give you a 2.71 ratio.

..........15.........17
42......2.80......2.47
46......3.07......2.71 stock
50......3.33......2.94

But if you are planning to ride on the highway two-up and with luggage, you will be downshifting a lot! Third gear for hills. I hope you are planning to take secondary highways, not interstates. Bear in mind you will be adding about 350 lbs to a 14-HP bike. No magic gearing is gonna fix that. I would recommend a short two-up highway ride to check out the feasibility of this trip. With me riding alone and weighing about 160 fully dressed, using similar gearing (2.80), I found it to be just barely tolerable on the highway. A big reason why I switched to the KPX.

I would also recommend either keeping a very close eye on chain stretch on the trip, or better yet, just buy a good quality chain. You don't want to have to screw around with chain adjustment on the trip, esp. with no center stand. And always carry a spare master link or two.

Someone on here, I'm thinking Megadan, explained that the hard shifting into neutral has to do with the gearbox design. Mine was the same way.

orangeisnon · 10-17-2022, 09:21 AM

For this trip it will just be me and a couple days worth of clothes, maybe a backpacking tent. I'm still planning my route, likely going to be a mix of interstate and state highways over two days. Trying to stick to ~55 without making people want to kill me. In general I don't plan to bring a passenger on the highway. With just me on the bike I can put the saddle bags on the top of the aluminum case, vertically (one bag in front and one behind) which should help bring air resistance down a touch.
I wouldn't be able to fit all of the clothes and other crap for two people on this bike anyway. I'm looking locally for a Goldwing for long tandem rides. They are absolutely dirt cheap up here in New England. Several times a week I see another one under a grand, often $300-500.
I will be doing oil today - I have a 5 gallon bucket of Delvac 1300 diesel oil for my van that I've heard is safe for motorcycle engines - and again before I leave. Gonna try to get another 200 miles on it in that time. Valves will either be today or tomorrow.
I really miss having a garage.

orangeisnon · 10-17-2022, 09:31 AM

I realize my posts have been making it sound like I should have bought a highway bike from the get go. To be clear I live less than 5 minutes from the largest state forest in CT and ride there a ton. My better half is a ranger there and I'm super familiar with the trails. There are some gnarly parts of the Enduro trail but I prefer the fire roads, it's neat enough that I don't even bother airing down. You can spend days riding around, especially this time of year.
Everyone likes to say they bought the best thing for them. I didn't. If I had had another $4000 this summer I would have a KLR. If I had a garage I'd have bought... An older KLR. But I didn't, so I have a Lifan. I'm not mad about it. I understand there are some situations where it is not going to perform. I'm ok with that.
Okay, rant over, gonna go change the oil.

orangeisnon · 10-18-2022, 03:46 AM

Did the oil change, pulled the seat off, started loosening the tank to get room to do the valves - and it started pouring. I took this as a sign from a higher power and put the bike back together. Someone was clearly telling me "if it ain't broke."
In other news, I put a windscreen on. I had found it at a local thrift store for a cool dollar, it needed to be reshaped with a Dremel as it was shaped to fit above a single round headlight. Right now it's mounted using two M6 x 1.0 x 50mm bolts into the spots where the headlight shroud bolts in. I need to do a test run today to see if it needs adjustment.
Finally getting around to posting some photos.

I highly recommend that case (linked in an earlier post), it's lightweight and holds everything critical, and even the steel mounting plate by itself is convenient for use as a cargo rack. The last photo there shows how thick it is.
In other news I'm still working on engineering a rack. Left hand side will be easy - it's the exhaust side where I need to get creative. I'm thinking about actually bolting straight into the exhaust shield mounts, it seems super solid. Gonna do some temp tests tomorrow.

Boatguy · 10-18-2022, 01:30 PM

That’s really some quality add-on work that you are doing. All the add-ons look really nice.

**JerryHawk250** · 10-18-2022, 02:08 PM

I agree. Tastefully done.

orangeisnon · 10-19-2022, 10:05 AM

Thanks guys. I originally thought about painting the plastics since I had ordered an orange bike and received red - but decided against it once I noticed how well it matched the maroon paint on our Saab. I'm glad I did.
Ran to the closest gas station during my break, about 4am. 34°F minus whatever wind chill going 60 adds. The windguards did their job - I still have all of my fingers. My Amazon pants and 3 layers of coats sure helped too. Really need to get some anti fog for the helmet visor.
Also, the reserve tank will give you ~9 miles. Felt really stupid but I'm glad I know now.
Maybe there's a difference between model years but I'm not seeing the headlight issues others have mentioned. There wasn't a street light on the entire ride and I never felt like I couldn't see properly, even on low beams. I have a light bar on my truck for the same back roads.

JFOlivier · 10-19-2022, 12:03 PM

Are you sure that you have a reserve in your fuel, I know that the fuel cock has two other positions than off however I drained my tank then tried the two positions and found no difference. I did this as I could find no mention of a reserve in the X-pect manual. I also know that when the fuel gauge flashes on near empty there is still more than a half gallon still in the tank although this could vary with the fuel gauge installation.

orangeisnon · 10-19-2022, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JFOlivier

Are you sure that you have a reserve in your fuel, I know that the fuel cock has two other positions than off however I drained my tank then tried the two positions and found no difference. I did this as I could find no mention of a reserve in the X-pect manual. I also know that when the fuel gauge flashes on near empty there is still more than a half gallon still in the tank although this could vary with the fuel gauge installation.

All I know for certain is that I was able to ride just over 9 miles between turning the petcock to reserve and the bike dying and not starting back up. On my Tomos the reserve just opens a second, lower opening in the petcock intake inside of the fuel tank. I'm not sure how it works here.

JFOlivier · 10-19-2022, 03:14 PM

There was no mention anywhere of a reserve system although there are 2 places to set your fuel cock to. So I left the fuel cock facing forward as they say in the manual and then removed the fuel hose and drained the tank into a gallon container, when no more gas came out I moved the fuel cock to straight down and no fuel came out so the tank was empty. I then poured the fuel back into the tank and drained the fuel with the fuel cock in the down position, When it finished draining out I moved the fuel cock into the forward position and no more fuel came out. This logic tells me that I do not have a reserve on my tank. I would guess this should be true for all X-pects but who knows . Mine does not have a reserve but perhaps yours has.

10-14-2022, 06:03 AM	#1
orangeisnon Join Date: Sep 2022 Location: Eastern CT Posts: 15	My Lifan X-Pect Thread Just another X-Pect thread to document what I do and any observations I make to maybe help someone else not make the same mistakes I almost certainly will. Bought mine in July of 2022 from Orion in Texas. The only reason I chose them was to get 0% financing through whichever lender they use, who I already had an account with. I had all the same issues as the other Texas Chinabike dealers - tough to get a response, took 2 months to ship, sent the wrong color, and they didn't send the MCO until I had the bike and requested it separately. Oh well, it was cheap, I got the bike and it runs. One thing to note is that they do a "break-in service" where they claim they change the oil and what-not, but it seems this does not include actually running it for any length of time, as the bike had 1 mile when it got to me. I will need to check up on maintenance before too long as this is my first motorcycle, outside of a $100 Tomos moped that I rebuilt this summer. Build quality, as many others have mentioned, is pretty great for something this cheap. I have no doubt that it will hold up to my 70-30 road/mild dirt riding. It fires up fast but not as lightning-quick as everyone has said - might be because of valve clearance. I am not going to get into that quite yet as I have no issues with how well it runs and I don't have a good spot to work on it right now. Once it gets legitimately too cold to ride I will figure it out. As far as color goes - I was sent Red, which ended up being deeper than I expected and more of a burgandy/maroon. No complaints from me, it looks much more mature than a cherry red. It DID come with the red ring on the rim, though it feels like paint rather than tape. This surprised me - even the dealer said the rims would be solid black. Registration was fairly easy for me - I live in Connecticut but for reasons I have an RI license. I heard that RI was peckish about registering Chinese bikes (as of 2020) so I mailed it in to Vermont. No issues, didn't even need to send the MCO. Added benefit: VT plates look infinitely better than CT ones. I weigh about 210 without gear and my girlfriend is just under 100, and fully geared up we fit comfortably on the bike without any noticeable reduction in ride quality. I am not at all hesitant about loading it up with camping gear and running long distances. She does claim that the passenger seat area is too firm for her, though it is fine for my significantly cushier tush. She has not yet and likely will not use the grab handles so I can't comment on their usefulness aside from the fact that they make mounting side bags significantly more difficult. On that topic - I have a set of RockBros saddle bags that were recommended by someone here, though I don't feel entirely comfortable with the way they sit and haven't committed to them yet. I plan to build a frame out of EMT conduit to support these. A company in Ukraine makes great and inexpensive racks for some Lifan models, but unfortunately not the X-Pect, and I am not about to ask them to do R&D in the middle of... You know. mmotoracks.com is their site. I also have a 45L hard aluminum case on the way for the tail area. Actual riding about, it seems fine. There is a bit of wobble at high speeds and a bit of "bounce" at low speeds (like unevenly seated tire beads), probably related. Neutral is at times impossible to get to; other times it clicks right in without issue. I have had a few situations where it said it was in neutral but was in gear, causing it to stall out. These were early on, in the driveway, not while riding. If it does happen again I will document it. I will continue to update this with info and photos as time goes on. Seems like a really nice bike for the money! Hopefully I can avoid doing anything too stupid for a few years and get some miles out of it.
	1

10-14-2022, 12:18 PM	#2
TominMO Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: De Soto, MO Posts: 1,871	Good bikes. I would check both the oil and the valve clearances, rather than assume they did anything. __________________ 2021 Lifan Xpect--sold 2022 Lifan KPX 1972 Honda CT90--The Carrot 1969 Honda CT90--The Tomahto Cheesy is the WDK (workplace drama king). Now retired. Nope, back in the saddle. Climate: The Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A24fWmNA6lM How our government really works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjadCd0VRBw Question all authority.....think for yourself
	1

10-14-2022, 08:51 PM	#3
Boatguy Join Date: Feb 2021 Location: Northeast Posts: 929	very nice! that’s a good post. It sums up all of the general weird parts of the xpect. I think you’ll find that the slow starting is probably the valves. but just for the heck of it, you might as well check that the spark plug is fully seated and the wire is on nice and tight. My spark plug was loose when it arrived. I have the rock Bros. They are a little bit weird, but try playing with the straps a bit. If you have stuff in them, they sit pretty well if you get the straps adjusted. But of course a rack would be amazing. On the exhaust side, I used some black zip ties to squeeze the bag a bit where it might have contacted the exhaust. this worked really well even though I lost a little bit of storage space. But I have used these bags many many times. Grocery shopping, camping, multiple day trips. Without a rack. They do work. But a rack would be a dream. Regarding the front tire wobble and bounce, I did have to get mine balanced. After that it rides perfectly. I’m a little hesitant to change my front tire even though it is time. I don’t want to throw off the beautiful balance. __________________ 2020 Lifan x-pect
	1

10-17-2022, 01:26 AM	#4
orangeisnon Join Date: Sep 2022 Location: Eastern CT Posts: 15	Thanks guys. I will definitely check the oil. I am planning on changing it this week anyway as I want to ride down to VA to meet up with a friend on a work trip. I like that the manual states break-in is 1000km, while the sticker on the fuel tank says 500km. Either way I am not going to be able to baby it for that long. Hopefully I get time to do valves before leaving. I increased air pressure in both tires to within the manual-recommended range and it is now perfectly smooth on the highway. It does still have a tiny bit of vibration at lower speeds. I'll get that looked at "soon". The fact that the pressure was so low also makes me think that the dealer did nothing beyond basic assembly. Then again, I didn't even read the manual until I had put 50 miles on the thing. As far as fuel mileage - I filled up a few days ago, did 51 miles (49-100), and it took 0.485 gallons to get back to the previous level. Can't argue with over 100mpg. I threw a few accessories on it. First, an aluminum hard case (Amazon item B09DPS53SW) which is cheap right now. The bracket holes line up perfectly with the four screws on the back and it leaves room for my passenger. It does wobble front/back a bit on the highway so I am going to add some bungees. It fits my pretty massive Sedici dual-sport helmet, gloves, and jacket liner with a bit of room to spare. I can also mount the Rockbros bags to the top for more storage - I will be doing this for the VA trip. It does make mounting/dismounting a chore - I am 5'11" and my foot either hits the case or drags along the seat. I found that I can stand on the left foot peg and make it over but that's asking for trouble on anything but solid level ground. The other accessory for now is a cheap set of wind guards for the handlebars. I had tried one of the nice aluminum brush guards with covers, but for a combination of reasons I went with Amazon B07SR59943, which completely block all wind to my hands. They wouldn't survive even a small interaction with the ground or a branch but I don't plan on abusing this bike so... fingers crossed. Lastly for now, I have a JTF1264.17 front sprocket on the way to hopefully make highway riding a bit more bearable. It's not super fun to get passed by semi trucks while at redline. Neutral is still very hard to hit after >100 miles. It clearly takes more force to go from in gear to neutral than neutral to in gear. I've tried rocking, tried giving it more throttle in first, nothing seems to help. Oddly enough it goes in with zero issues with the engine off. I don't understand engine internals well enough to know why that would be. Other than that it is running very well. Very happy though I can definitely see myself picking up a larger/faster bike for longer trips down the line. For around town/state/forests this seems perfect. I will grab a couple photos with the case/guards on tomorrow. Last edited by orangeisnon; 10-17-2022 at 02:47 AM.
	0

10-17-2022, 08:37 AM	#5
TominMO Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: De Soto, MO Posts: 1,871	Definitely do the valves before leaving! Make it a high priority. It doesn't take all that long and could save you some real trouble on the road. __________________ 2021 Lifan Xpect--sold 2022 Lifan KPX 1972 Honda CT90--The Carrot 1969 Honda CT90--The Tomahto Cheesy is the WDK (workplace drama king). Now retired. Nope, back in the saddle. Climate: The Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A24fWmNA6lM How our government really works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjadCd0VRBw Question all authority.....think for yourself
	0

10-17-2022, 09:02 AM	#6
TominMO Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: De Soto, MO Posts: 1,871	I did similar, putting JT chain and 15/42 sprockets on my X-pect, for a 2.80 ratio. You putting a 17 with the stock rear 46 will give you a 2.71 ratio. ..........15.........17 42......2.80......2.47 46......3.07......2.71 stock 50......3.33......2.94 But if you are planning to ride on the highway two-up and with luggage, you will be downshifting a lot! Third gear for hills. I hope you are planning to take secondary highways, not interstates. Bear in mind you will be adding about 350 lbs to a 14-HP bike. No magic gearing is gonna fix that. I would recommend a short two-up highway ride to check out the feasibility of this trip. With me riding alone and weighing about 160 fully dressed, using similar gearing (2.80), I found it to be just barely tolerable on the highway. A big reason why I switched to the KPX. I would also recommend either keeping a very close eye on chain stretch on the trip, or better yet, just buy a good quality chain. You don't want to have to screw around with chain adjustment on the trip, esp. with no center stand. And always carry a spare master link or two. Someone on here, I'm thinking Megadan, explained that the hard shifting into neutral has to do with the gearbox design. Mine was the same way. __________________ 2021 Lifan Xpect--sold 2022 Lifan KPX 1972 Honda CT90--The Carrot 1969 Honda CT90--The Tomahto Cheesy is the WDK (workplace drama king). Now retired. Nope, back in the saddle. Climate: The Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A24fWmNA6lM How our government really works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjadCd0VRBw Question all authority.....think for yourself
	0

10-17-2022, 09:21 AM	#7
orangeisnon Join Date: Sep 2022 Location: Eastern CT Posts: 15	For this trip it will just be me and a couple days worth of clothes, maybe a backpacking tent. I'm still planning my route, likely going to be a mix of interstate and state highways over two days. Trying to stick to ~55 without making people want to kill me. In general I don't plan to bring a passenger on the highway. With just me on the bike I can put the saddle bags on the top of the aluminum case, vertically (one bag in front and one behind) which should help bring air resistance down a touch. I wouldn't be able to fit all of the clothes and other crap for two people on this bike anyway. I'm looking locally for a Goldwing for long tandem rides. They are absolutely dirt cheap up here in New England. Several times a week I see another one under a grand, often $300-500. I will be doing oil today - I have a 5 gallon bucket of Delvac 1300 diesel oil for my van that I've heard is safe for motorcycle engines - and again before I leave. Gonna try to get another 200 miles on it in that time. Valves will either be today or tomorrow. I really miss having a garage. __________________ 2022 Lifan X-Pect Eastern CT "Not really a people person"
	1

10-17-2022, 09:31 AM	#8
orangeisnon Join Date: Sep 2022 Location: Eastern CT Posts: 15	I realize my posts have been making it sound like I should have bought a highway bike from the get go. To be clear I live less than 5 minutes from the largest state forest in CT and ride there a ton. My better half is a ranger there and I'm super familiar with the trails. There are some gnarly parts of the Enduro trail but I prefer the fire roads, it's neat enough that I don't even bother airing down. You can spend days riding around, especially this time of year. Everyone likes to say they bought the best thing for them. I didn't. If I had had another $4000 this summer I would have a KLR. If I had a garage I'd have bought... An older KLR. But I didn't, so I have a Lifan. I'm not mad about it. I understand there are some situations where it is not going to perform. I'm ok with that. Okay, rant over, gonna go change the oil. __________________ 2022 Lifan X-Pect Eastern CT "Not really a people person"
	3

10-18-2022, 03:46 AM	#9
orangeisnon Join Date: Sep 2022 Location: Eastern CT Posts: 15	Did the oil change, pulled the seat off, started loosening the tank to get room to do the valves - and it started pouring. I took this as a sign from a higher power and put the bike back together. Someone was clearly telling me "if it ain't broke." In other news, I put a windscreen on. I had found it at a local thrift store for a cool dollar, it needed to be reshaped with a Dremel as it was shaped to fit above a single round headlight. Right now it's mounted using two M6 x 1.0 x 50mm bolts into the spots where the headlight shroud bolts in. I need to do a test run today to see if it needs adjustment. Finally getting around to posting some photos. I highly recommend that case (linked in an earlier post), it's lightweight and holds everything critical, and even the steel mounting plate by itself is convenient for use as a cargo rack. The last photo there shows how thick it is. In other news I'm still working on engineering a rack. Left hand side will be easy - it's the exhaust side where I need to get creative. I'm thinking about actually bolting straight into the exhaust shield mounts, it seems super solid. Gonna do some temp tests tomorrow. __________________ 2022 Lifan X-Pect Eastern CT "Not really a people person"
	3

10-18-2022, 01:30 PM	#10
Boatguy Join Date: Feb 2021 Location: Northeast Posts: 929	That’s really some quality add-on work that you are doing. All the add-ons look really nice. __________________ 2020 Lifan x-pect
	0

10-18-2022, 02:08 PM	#11
JerryHawk250 Moderator Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Houma, La. Posts: 11,561	I agree. Tastefully done. __________________ 2023 Lifan Lycan 250 Chopper 2023 Venom Evader 2022 Lifan KPX250 2020 Kawasaki Vulcan S 2004 Honda ST 1300 2016 Black Hawk 250 (sold) Keihin PE30 carb,125 main,38 slow.Pod filter,ported & decked head 10:1 CR,Direct Ignition Coil,15/40Sprockets,NGK DPR8EIX-9,De-Cat,Dual Oil Cooler,Digital Cluster 2016 Cazador180 XL 2014 Coolster150 JerryHawk250.com My YouTube Channel
	0

10-19-2022, 10:05 AM	#12
orangeisnon Join Date: Sep 2022 Location: Eastern CT Posts: 15	Thanks guys. I originally thought about painting the plastics since I had ordered an orange bike and received red - but decided against it once I noticed how well it matched the maroon paint on our Saab. I'm glad I did. Ran to the closest gas station during my break, about 4am. 34°F minus whatever wind chill going 60 adds. The windguards did their job - I still have all of my fingers. My Amazon pants and 3 layers of coats sure helped too. Really need to get some anti fog for the helmet visor. Also, the reserve tank will give you ~9 miles. Felt really stupid but I'm glad I know now. Maybe there's a difference between model years but I'm not seeing the headlight issues others have mentioned. There wasn't a street light on the entire ride and I never felt like I couldn't see properly, even on low beams. I have a light bar on my truck for the same back roads. __________________ 2022 Lifan X-Pect Eastern CT "Not really a people person"
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10-19-2022, 12:03 PM	#13
JFOlivier Join Date: Nov 2020 Location: Northern Neck of Virginia. Posts: 164	Are you sure that you have a reserve in your fuel, I know that the fuel cock has two other positions than off however I drained my tank then tried the two positions and found no difference. I did this as I could find no mention of a reserve in the X-pect manual. I also know that when the fuel gauge flashes on near empty there is still more than a half gallon still in the tank although this could vary with the fuel gauge installation.
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10-19-2022, 03:14 PM	#15
JFOlivier Join Date: Nov 2020 Location: Northern Neck of Virginia. Posts: 164	There was no mention anywhere of a reserve system although there are 2 places to set your fuel cock to. So I left the fuel cock facing forward as they say in the manual and then removed the fuel hose and drained the tank into a gallon container, when no more gas came out I moved the fuel cock to straight down and no fuel came out so the tank was empty. I then poured the fuel back into the tank and drained the fuel with the fuel cock in the down position, When it finished draining out I moved the fuel cock into the forward position and no more fuel came out. This logic tells me that I do not have a reserve on my tank. I would guess this should be true for all X-pects but who knows . Mine does not have a reserve but perhaps yours has.
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