bipolar dirtbike market- including new and used

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by krat

The bikes you are bemoaning are available for less than $6K from all the major Jap makers, and as you relate, they are lifetime products. Used ones 30-40-50 years old are still running and in use, not in museums.

Honda CRF300 is only $6k/ KLX300 is $6k. Many others hover around that mark that meet all your criteria.

You can buy a disposable China bike for half that, get half the performance, and replace it every 5 years, after chasing repair parts and accessories all over the internet and trying to find your dealer so you can sue him, if initial cost is your only concern.

Or you can spend twice as much and still be riding your Jap bike, and still walking into the dealership and buying parts that fit, for the next 50 years. And often those parts are bought from the son of the guy that sold you the Jap bike 50 years ago.

I will not pay $2k+ for any China bike that has zero dealer support or service, and NO, a telephone number is not a service department!

There comes a time when you have to decide if you are going to keep engaging in an activity and investing in better gear. It is the same in almost every sport.

But stop with the criticism of the "exotic and expensive Jap bikes" when they are neither. They are the very essence of getting what you pay for, but so are the China bikes.

After reading this I must ask why you joined this site?
Seems like you hate Chinese motorcycles. Do you or have you owned one?

[JerryHawk250]

SSR has a few options on 25+ HP bikes. http://www.ssrmotorsports.com/store/...bike-index.php

[China Rider 27]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

SSR has a few options on 25+ HP bikes. http://www.ssrmotorsports.com/store/...bike-index.php

If only they were dual sport and street licensable they would warrant a good look. That's why it seems like it is an EPA approval issue/cost issue. And we see the spectre of the "destination charge" arise in the total cost. Somebody has to break through I do believe but who and when?

[Thumper]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

If only they were dual sport and street licensable they would warrant a good look. That's why it seems like it is an EPA approval issue/cost issue. And we see the spectre of the "destination charge" arise in the total cost. Somebody has to break through I do believe but who and when?

I see that they are maybe 70% the price of comparable KTM, etc. Cycle World praises the performance, so that's great for a dedicated off road dirt bike. But as you say, not street legal, and these are not oriented towards dual sport. If they had a battery, lights and a horn, DOT tires the $4000 price would be just a little more than I would want to pay, but it looks like these are MUCH more capable than the Storm or TBR7.

And what's an ocean freight surcharge?

[krat]

Originally Posted by Merlin

After reading this I must ask why you joined this site?
Seems like you hate Chinese motorcycles. Do you or have you owned one?

Oh, I do own a Chinese bike, I own 3 in fact. That is the reason I belong to the forum. It is not for the bonding and brotherhood of the desperate and destitute, it is for the information.

With no service department, parts availability or warranty follow up I had to find instructions on how to keep these devices on the road. This was the place.

I have had to do so much to keep the China bikes on the road that I am now pretty competent at working on my two Jap and one British/Indian bike! Still nice to know that I have parts and a dealer 10 miles down the road.

My two China scooters have not been so bad, they competently fill their niche, but the dual sport was a waste of money. I have managed to use the information from the forum to move it along the scale from dangerous to merely unacceptable.

I have also been inside the carbs of those China bikes so much that I can now rebuild every carburetor on the farm and I used to have to pay for things like that on tillers, tractors and small engines.

The forum has served me well.

I am suspect of some of the math in these posts though. I have two Hondas, both near 20 years old, and both price out at over the cost of one of the CSC 250. That makes me wonder how buying three or four China bikes in 20 years is more money smart than paying three times the price, using it for 20 years and still having the value of a new China bike left in the Honda at the end of the 20 years.

All the while I have local parts and service support for major or minor problems along the way.

[GlennR]

Originally Posted by krat

Oh, I do own a Chinese bike, I own 3 in fact. That is the reason I belong to the forum. It is not for the bonding and brotherhood of the desperate and destitute, it is for the information.

With no service department, parts availability or warranty follow up I had to find instructions on how to keep these devices on the road. This was the place.

I have had to do so much to keep the China bikes on the road that I am now pretty competent at working on my two Jap and one British/Indian bike! Still nice to know that I have parts and a dealer 10 miles down the road.

My two China scooters have not been so bad, they competently fill their niche, but the dual sport was a waste of money. I have managed to use the information from the forum to move it along the scale from dangerous to merely unacceptable.

I have also been inside the carbs of those China bikes so much that I can now rebuild every carburetor on the farm and I used to have to pay for things like that on tillers, tractors and small engines.

The forum has served me well.

I am suspect of some of the math in these posts though. I have two Hondas, both near 20 years old, and both price out at over the cost of one of the CSC 250. That makes me wonder how buying three or four China bikes in 20 years is more money smart than paying three times the price, using it for 20 years and still having the value of a new China bike left in the Honda at the end of the 20 years.

All the while I have local parts and service support for major or minor problems along the way.

It seems like you've enjoyed, and benefitted from, the educational experience of owning and maintaining Chinese bikes. That's the problem with Japanese bikes, you basically have to take them apart for "no good reason" to learn anything.

You have to wonder where an American dual-sport would lie on the quality spectrum if anyone manufactured one in the US.