Picked up the Lifan Xpect
 

Went to the dealer today and got the Xpect. I had actually purchased it two days ago, but for logistical reasons (friend's day off) had to wait until today. That gave me time to get insurance and plates for it.

The mechanic at the small Chinabike-only dealership said a couple of things that I wanted to bounce off you guys:
1. use the center drain plug under the motor, not the left-side one with the screen
2. plug gap should be about .020" - 025" (manual says .8 - .9mm, which is .031" - .035" and makes more sense to me)
3. use premium gas (manual says 87 octane).

I set the plug gap at about .035", and it ran perfectly for the 34-mile trip to my house. Used premium gas. Changing the oil tomorrow. I will also check the valve clearances.

I found the seat to not fit me well. It was quite uncomfortable. I am 5'11" and have a normal arm length for my size. I wanted to sit farther back, but the step up in the seat made that not work well. I plan to mod the seat real soon.

I will try to add the obligatory pic......file taken by phone too big. Hmmmm.....anyway, it's a green one. You know what they look like. It does have the green stripe on the wheels.

I'd ignore 1-3... While the bottom drain plug is convenient, either one is fine. 87 is also fine, these aren't high performance machines, they won't ping on the cheap stuff. As for the plug, just use whatever plug it calls for, gapping it closer won't do a single thing for you.

Thanks franque, I suspected that everything you said is true.

His reason for recommending the bottom drain plug is for noobs, who might crossthread the left plug because it is under spring tension. Makes sense actually (for noobs).

I suspected 87 octane would be fine, simply because these OHV motors are designed for third-world use and whatever godawful gas they often have there. I see that the compression ratio is 9:1, pretty low. Specifically the manual calls for "RQ-87" octane. Never heard of that RQ designation before. When I use up this full tank of 93 octane, I will half-fill it with 87 and see how it runs. What I fill it with after that (87, 89 or 93) will depend on how it likes the 87.

The Royal Enfield Himalayan has a CR of 9.5:1, and obviously works great in third-world environments.

Gapping a plug too close will have negative effects, as the spark will be too small for efficient combustion. I am used to cars with plug gaps similar to what I went with, so I ignored him on this. The measured plug gap before I altered it was really narrow, about .020".

He had some pretty unkind things to say about Chinabike forums, and the manual itself. But I agree with the manual on the gas and plug gap.

Starting to wonder if this mechanic is the Barney Fife of mechanics--i.e. he got the job because he is the cousin of the owner.

I use the bottom drain plug usually.

Never looked at my spark plug. 1500 miles. It’s the stock one

Never looked at my valves. 1500 miles. (Maybe it’s time)

I use higher octane because it’s less “stally” on the higher octane stuff.

I’m also the exact same height as you. I never considered riding way back there. For better control, I’m used to being near the tank on all bikes unless going down steep dirt. So I grip that tank with my legs and go. I’ve never bumped into that ridge behind the primary rider’s area. Maybe down steep dirt I have.

But I do feel the foot pegs are too close to the seat for me. I’d have preferred a bike just a bit taller.

Green is good!!

And best of luck with the bike! Enjoy! Not much to fix on the Xpect. Just keeps going and going. Changing oil and tightening the stock chain is all I’ve done in 1500 miles. I had the front wheel trued because I bent it in a carrier rack. But that’s not the bike’s fault

I'm actually a (non generic brand) motorcycle mechanic, I've worked diagnostics on basically every major brand, though mostly Hondas and Harleys.

In my mind, a mechanic working at a Chinese bike dealership is about a half step up from an oil change 'technician' in both skill and pay; based on what I've seen some places do and charge for their assembly services, I'm confident that anyone with half a brain, and enough attention to detail to mop a floor, who is willing to do work on their bike slowly and ask questions, will do 5x the job of someone paid to work on/assemble Chinese bikes.

Unfortunately in the US, for a long time, most Chinese bikes have been sold with a 'taillight' warranty, that is to say the warranty's up when the taillights are no longer visible. That explains a bit of the cheapness, ignorance, and lack of professionalism that you see with a lot of dealers.

I am willing to entertain the idea that it is my inexperience with a dirt-oriented seating setup that is the real problem here. Never been an offroad guy. I'll ride it some more and see if I can adapt.

Your observations do not surprise me, after seeing this guy.

Could be me too.

I started off road on 3 wheelers where you live at the tank to keep control.

Then it was Ninja Zx-7, CBR 900rr. I was on the tank non stop to keep the front wheel on the ground.

All these machines I’ve rode my whole life were ones where you sit way up front by the tank. Maybe I’m doing it weird. Just sharing since we have identical setup, bike AND body. Ha ha.

I may be 71, but I have the body of a 68-year-old.....

I prefer non-ethanol gas. No carb worries but fuel lines can be damaged.IMHO

87 octane is fine. I usually buy premium because that's the only gas I can find around here that has no ethanol. I can only ride 6 months out of the year, so there is no way I'd let ethanol gas sit in my machine for 6 months.

Did a bunch of maintenance and checking stuff today.

Adjusted valves to .005" intake and .007" exhaust. If that proves to be too clacky when I go for a drive tomorrow, I will tighten the adjustment up a little. When I initially checked the clearance, both were much tighter than .005". I had misplaced my better set of feeler gauges and fell back on my older set, which had .005" as its smallest gauge. I since found the other set--right where I had put it, of course. On Youtube there is a guy who did the adjustment on an Xpect, and advised removing the gas tank and motor mount. I merely removed the rear gas tank bolt and propped the tank up on a small piece of 2x4 for clearance. Getting the valve cover out was pretty easy.

I used a short 1/4" drive 10mm socket with this very useful Harbor Freight ratchet:
https://www.harborfreight.com/14-in-...het-67994.html
It's great for tight spaces.

I cut four square holes in the top of the airbox intake horn, which is soft rubber. This more than doubles the amount of air the airbox can access. I expect the EFI will compensate for it. I do something similar on every vehicle I own, to improve breathing at higher RPMs. Sometimes the improvement is quite obvious. No effect at lower RPMs, or on gas mileage when driving normally.

Removed the canister between the airbox and the battery (carbon canister?). Connected the hose going to it with the one going back to the motor. This is an experiment. If it goes OK, I have a little extra space under the seat for tools etc.

Checked all fasteners for tightness. A few were a little loose. One screw missing, which I replaced from my stash of automotive screws. Used blue Lok-tite here and there.

For pulling the plastic trim pieces, I have a 5mm hex-head socket to use with a ratchet. Speeds the process up a lot! I wish they had designed it so you could remove the seat without removing the side plastic, but not a big deal I guess.

Started it up to check out how the canister removal might affect things. No obvious change, but we'll see when I ride it. Warmed up the oil and changed it, using the bottom plug. After 34 miles it was an opaque green/yellow color; not reassuring. Replaced it with 10W40 Valvoline dino motorcycle oil. Will replace again at 300 and 700 with the same oil. At 1000 I will go full synthetic. Only about 800+ml came out, and I just put in a quart, not the extra 2 ounces you supposedly need. The level looked good.

Tomorrow I will just do city riding, for break-in purposes. It got a bit late to do it today; I would have been in rush-hour traffic. Yesterday, my ride home from the dealership was great--all back roads and two-lane highways, and a good portion twisty. A great re-introduction to motorcycling after 25 years!

How about a picture (or two) so we can see it in all its glory!

Tried that. Haven't figured out how to reduce the pic size from my phone. Never used Photoshop or programs like it. Anyway, it looks like every other green Lifan Xpect. I haven't added any farkles (yet).

Easiest thing i've found for most forums like this one with really tight limits on images is to just upload them to imgur and then post a link here from the imgur post.


https://imgur.com/

Test

Edit: well poop. How can I rotate this image after uploading it to my post? It was oriented correctly on my HD.

My OS is Linux Ubuntu, and I used a simple image program called Image Magick to resize it small enough.

Test 2.....

.....got it! Rotated it 90 degrees left on my HD and saved it. When I uploaded it to my post here, it automatically rotated it right again, and gave me what I wanted.

Went for a ride around town this morning, to check out any differences in how the motor responded to deleting the carbon canister, opening up the airbox intake horn, and the valve adjustment. Plus is fun!

Valves are not clacky, so .005" and .007" work well.
Pronounced intake roar when twisting the throttle at lower RPMs, as is to be expected. Feels very peppy as the revs build. Still kept the revs down, since it's only got 50 miles on it right now.
No change at all due to the canister delete.

The motor feels quite healthy, and I got some practice in on low-speed maneuvering/balancing in a large parking lot. Still working on finding neutral consistently, but I think it's more me and not the bike. Gonna go with a 17T front sprocket, since I can pull away pretty easily in 2nd. Be nice to have more top end, and make 1st a little more useful. I don't plan on going offroad until next year. except maybe for some light fire road riding.

I would adjust the valves in a bit, .003"/.004" I/E would be as loose as I would run them.

Are you going to be more street oriented with it, or off-road? A few members have installed a 17 tooth countersprocket and have seen a few MPH gain.

Always been a street guy, but want to dabble in easy trails and fire roads. The stock tires seem fine for street, and I expect that for the mild offroad I will be doing, are fine for that too.

BTW where do I go to get the 17T? Can anyone provide an Amazon link etc for a known proven good sprocket?

Awesome!

It’s not you. It’s hard to find neutral on these bikes. In fact, the easiest way to get there sometimes is from second. The transmission is weird like that. You’ll get used to it. The more you use it, the easier it gets to feather it in. It’s quite a barely touching it half shift to get into neutral.

Hope I’m describing that right. It’s all muscle memory for me now. Can’t even picture how to shift the bike anymore. Ha ha. Just get on and go.

The easiest way to find neutral in this bike is to go hard off the line at a newly green stoplight and shift from first to second, grabbing a fist full of throttle to accelerate through second. . You’ll find it then. Ha ha ha.


These motors are super healthy. They run fantastically thanks to the fuel injection, which I why I chose the xpect over the other options in 2020. I suspect yours runs as good as mine.

I didn’t trust the Chinese bike aspect. Bought it as a disposable. A diversion. And it’s run flawlessly. I think you’re going to enjoy it!

Yeah, I noticed it is easier to find Neutral from 2nd. Have to pay attention to the throttle position to help out.

It's been so long since I had a bike that the new features they put on there, like gas gauge, tripmeter(s) and gear indicator, I have never seen before. I changed my backlighting to blue, another option that didn't exist with analog gauges.

Also love how it starts instantaneously when I push the button. I need to try out the old school way of starting it too.....

It starts SOOOOO perfectly, right??

Like a Japanese car. The absolute instant you begin to touch the starter button it comes right to life.

Try rocking forward and backward a little if you’re stopped and having trouble with neutral. It helps it get in easier too.

And no way!! I didn’t realize we can change the color of the light on the display. Mine came blue and I never touched it.

It is nice having all these read outs too. I agree.

I tried the old school start once. It starts right up that way too. Unless you mess up and hit the compression stroke like I did first kick. Ha ha ha. I haven’t tried that in 35 years or so.

TominMO,I got the 17 sprocket from Amazon, the number is JTF1264.17 and this picked up the cruising speed quite a bit to around 50MPH at 6000 Rpm I then got hold of a 43 sprocket for the back and that takes me to around 54 MPH at 6000 Rpm although it did not increase my top speed over the 46 standard rear sprocket.

Thanks! I knew about that one, but was hesitant to get it because I heard it is a little wobbly. Can you confirm that it is not, or did you do something to make it not wobbly?

So this morning I had my usual breakfast of bacon, Hostess HoHos and Michelob, went downstairs and raised the portcullis, threw some raw meat to the salties, and went for a ride. There are a lot of country roads around the small town I live in, which are great for break-in speeds. It's got around 70 miles on it now and runs great.

BTW the "mechanic" at the Chinabike dealership didn't even check tire pressure. 15 psi front, 25 rear......

TominMO the 17 sprocket was no more wobbly than the 15 that came off.

Great to know, thanks!

Congrats on the new bike. Just got to 5,000 miles on mine. No issues.

Good to hear. Put some more break-in miles on it today, so it's got about 90 now. Can't wait to open it up a bit! But I'll wait until mile 300. I will change the oil at 300, 700, 1000 and every 1000 after that, using full synth starting at 1000 miles.

@ Boatguy:
In post #1 I whined about how the seat is uncomfortable for me. Took your suggestion to sit more forward, and problem is solved. I was sitting more rearward to extend my arms out more, which is a streetbike way of doing things.

Still slightly uncomfortable due to me not having anything really in the area of "natural padding". But quite doable, not really a problem and not the bike's fault.

Also re-discovering that riding a bike takes more concentration than driving my soccer-mom small Kia SUV. Can't sightsee as much; have to keep from wandering in my lane and monitor intersections more carefully, plus all the up- and downshifting. Much more involving and therefore more rewarding.

Its still easy to zone out, especially on long stretches. There's some state highways I'll take that are 55mph, and I find myself having to snap out of it.

Even driving cars it's the best idea to remain attentive.

Agree of course. Just pointing out how different it is to be hurtling down the road without the protection of a vehicle surrounding you, with a seatbelt and airbag.

That’s great news!

I’ve found I can basically ride for hours without any discomfort on this bike. Also no natural padding. Ha ha.

The only thing that starts to hurt for me is the clutch hand.

Have 150 miles on it now, 30 of them today. Mostly in 5th gear on two-lane country roads, speed varying from about 25 - 45 MPH. Keeping the revs under 6000 usually.

The weather is iffy for the next few days; might get to ride and might not. On Tuesday I plan a 70-mile ride, back to the shop where I bought it and return.

Having some issues with sputtering/dying. This is not fun in a turn BTW.

I have 198 miles on the Xpect, and went for a ride today. It immediately died on me, about 1/10 mile down the road; then restarted itself by being in gear and moving. i.e. a bump-start. This happened several times over the next mile or so, so I decided to head home.

I have also noticed that it no longer starts immediately when I hit the button. Cranks a bit and have to give it a little gas. This has been progressively getting a little worse over time.

When I first got it, I checked the plug gap and valve gaps, all way too small. Set 'em wider and it ran great. I also unplugged the evap canister at the same time by routing the hose back to itself, bypassing the canister.
For clearances, I went with:
intake: .005" (Now set at .002"/.051mm, as of June 2022)
exhaust: .007" (Now set at .003"/.076mm)
plug: .035", NGK DR8EA

I have read a couple of threads on the Lifan Xpect stalling. Tomorrow I will pull the plastics and check the valve clearances and plug gap again. I would be surprised if that were the issue since I set the valves fairly wide, and the plug gap shouldn't change on its own either. Once I check things out, I will alter one parameter (plug gap or valve lash) and see what happens. I wonder if possibly I didn't tighten down one of the valve locknuts well enough?

I don’t know if the data point helps, but completely stock with no maintenance on mine. As it was from the factory. 1500 miles. Runs like a champ.

Meaning I’d check things you modified or fiddled with first.

The only problem I had with the bike was a fire. A fire I created by leaving my USB cord install too loose and close to the exhaust. Ha ha.

So check your own mods or adjustments first I think.

Yep, that's the plan. Didn't do it yesterday because it was too rainy. My non-attached cinder block garage from the 1930s is dilapidated and does not have power to it any more/yet, so no lights. I typically work on the bike outside. Weather today will be good.

I did pull the plug and it looked fine. Franque is of the opinion my valve clearances are too large.....but it ran fine that way for a while. I suspect a loosened adjustment, but I was careful to snug the locknuts down well. If the valves check out, I will reinstall the evap canister.

Also, the oil looks pretty dark for having only 165 miles since I initially changed it, so I will change it again. This time I want to check out the screen as well, in case there is an obstruction. Maybe the bike died due to oil starvation, i.e. seized up from a clogged screen. I think this is unlikely, but gotta check everything.

Didn't get to it today. Decided it was more important to install a new window in my house. Weather looks decent tmw, starting in the late morning.

make sure spark plug is tight.

Check fuel petcock for debris, might have been some manufacturing junk in tank that has not partially plugged the petcock screen.

If there's a fuel filter, check that as well.


Problem sounds like a fuel issue.

I’ve had some conversations with other fellow Lifan Xpect owners about the stalling issues. Adjusting the air bleed screw out some to increase idle speed to about 1900 has helped. However, I have since discovered that at times this adjustment also causes it to stall when cold. The air bleed should be controlled by an IAC valve, but they eliminated this component on the Lifan’s for some reason. Our throttle bodies have a mounting flange for the IAC where the Hawk 250 DLX actually has the part included.

Outside of modifications, the best you can do is to stay on top of maintenance and adjustments.

I ordered an IAC that should fit this throttle body, but it is going to require some machining to fit it properly and open the air circuit, but even then, it doesn’t look like the ECU is provisioned for the connection, so I may also have the challenge of building a circuit to control it.