Ice bear champion 125 questions
 

Thanks in advance guys , I have some questions about the bike . I just got it , has 35 miles on it now , and here are things I notice already needing improvement .
1) Def needs a different carb , I can tell it’s lean , runs like crap when cold , pops / stalls . What has been a good bolt on carb for it ?
2) Front forks / shocks are OMG stiff , even hard to actually get them to move or compress ! As does it the rears . I’m only 160 , Definitely need to soften this thing up. Change oil in front forks ? New rear shocks ?
3) Going to go to the 120/90-10 larger tires , do I re-use the original tubes ? Or need larger ones ?
I’m already on fixing the slop in the rear swing arm with the Delrin bushings .
Thank you again , looking forward to some feedback

Check out post #2 in this thread, to get you started.
http://www.chinariders.net/showthrea...light=champion

Have new tires , carb now to put on . Also want to get new rear shocks as the back is very , very stiff . Have to do something about the front forks also as they barely have any movement , it’s like they are stuck !
Watched just about every YT vid I could find on this bike now . A lot of the vids don’t elaborate on either how they did it or a final review.

I know some people don't like Facebook, but if you don't mind FB, have you joined the Icebear group there? Or the DAX replica group?

Edit: I found this channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8MSTqPMmG4

Don,t know about icebear but I had a sky team clone. New carb(mikuni) will cure popping problem. Easy to tune plenty of parts. I personally never use old tubes, keep them for spares if needed. They also make nice anti vibe bushings. There is a co. in Zeeland Mi. that specializes in Honda clones. Trail buddy I think, check them out.

Just installed the new carb today , night and day difference!!!

That is good to hear. Usually, completely stock Chinese bikes (of any kind--we see posts like this on the dual-sport section all the time) will wake up once they break in. Not that owners don't change carbs from stock once broken in, but in your case it couldn't hurt to do it earlier.

I have the Delrin bushings now to put in also , that slop in the rear arm is unbelievably horrible !!! Can’t believe they don’t fix this issue !

Where did you get them?

Got them from EBay .
Put them on last night , wow !!! Tight as a drum !!! Next problem is my chain keeps stretching!!! Also , not feeling the semi auto , looking into a 4 speed conversion .

Chains are a weak link with Chinese bikes. You will probably want to replace it. As far as manual transmission, you will probably be better off with an entire engine. Many people replace the common 125cc engines with 140cc, 150cc, 160cc or bigger. That includes pitbikes. So, my guess is there are quite a few stock manual trannsmission 125cc pitbike and CT70 replica engines around for cheap. I have a feeling there is no easy way to swap out just the transmission.

Yup , that's why I got the idea , saw a YT vid on a guy changing his over , but he bought all the parts individually from different vendors . It doesn't look like that big a deal . As said , I'm just not liking the semi-auto , .....and the stiff ass front forks/shocks !!!

I was not aware that there is a manual clutch kit to turn these into a manual?! Then, again, not too many semi-auto bikes out there. However, I am a member of a DAX/CT70 replica group on Facebook, and during the pandemic there were a bunch of new US-based members buying the Champions (at the time, the only CT70 replica we had in the US) and no one reported changing over their semi-auto to a manual. Interesting development...

That seems like one of those "shoot yourself in the foot" mods.

You replace a simi-auto trans that has a 60 year reliability history in 100,000,000 bikes with a kit that makes it do what it was never intended to do!

The Champion is a replica with a Chinese motor. Lots of these bikes, especially the small displacement bikes for new riders, come in full auto, semi auto and manual shift. Same motor, different clutch parts. SSR is a good example.

I'd be willing to bet the IB Champion 125 and the Rocky Amigo 125 ( manual clutch ) , are made in the same factory ( just like a lot of chinese auto lifts ) that are EXACTLY the same just renamed for different distributors . This is what believes me that the engine is the same other than the semi vs. manual clutch .
The reason I would even venture to do the conversion is to retain the electric start rather than buy a whole new 125cc engine in manual . NTM , I think some are not meant to operate lights ???
If I could do it again , I'd have gotten the Amigo . Might save this for a winter project , if doesn't work I'll put it back to the semi .

On YT, Minibike Mike unboxed and assembled the Champion and Amigo simultaneously. The Amigo was shipped with very sloppy assembly, while the Champion was in good shape. Here's the video. Long but interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NzZ4CjPxq8

Yup , I've seen and watched all his vids on them , if you look close the Amigo is VERY close looking to the IB .

An interesting article from a couple of years ago.
https://www.motorscooterguide.net/scooter-brands-101/

Parts may all come from the same sources, but build quality makes me think they are assembled in different factories. Also, the Amigo has all the CARB-compliant stuff on it while the Champion does not.

That is a very good article . In a nut shell , sorta what I was thinking .
if you caught what they say , when a scooter company starts getting bad reviews on a product of theirs , they " rename " the scooter but the scooter is still built exactly the way it has been .
IIRC , the IB Champion could have been the old " Skyteam " then ???
And again , on my title it shows the manufacturer as

Huzhou Daixi Zhenhua Technology Trade Co , LTD and the model is not Icebear Champion 125 , but is PBZ125-2

Interestingly, the Rocky is not even listed as one of their models at amigomotorsports.com, which is the name on Mike's Amigo box. That box also says "Designed in California, Assembled in China".

PBZ125-2 is what the Icebear website designates its Champion as. The -3 is the Monkey clone.

Yeah the Champion might be the old Skyteam. But who knows? I did some research on where these bikes were built, but came up with nothing. We would need to see the title for the Rocky, or maybe call up an Amigo dealer.

It was a perplexing mystery, until I happened to see this bike on the Boom/Baodiao site, and then it made sense since I could never quite find a manufacturer on the US EPA/DOT certification database or the CARB database. They certify the Rocky under the same certificates for both the EPA/DOT and CARB as the Vader. Icebear certifies their Champion on the same EPA/DOT certificate as their Fuerza.

http://www.baodiaomt.com/MOTORCYCLE_..._BIKE/158.html

It even shows 'BOOM' on the bike, but 'Amigo' on the engine. I spoke to Pete at Kronik Racing about how he should carry the Boom branded clone since he is the defacto Vader guru, but he said that Amigo has some exclusive deal with Boom, or at least for several container-loads of them. He didn't have nice things to say about dealing with Amigo, so for now, he won't be carrying the clones, which I think is a shame since he sorted out the Vaders so well.

Yeah but there's still the Champion, which Venom and Cajun Maddogs sells. And according to Mike is a better version of the CT70 in terms of quality of assembly. I did like the blackout look of the Amigo better, and the wider centerstand, but still. Plus the Amigo has all that California emissions stuff on it, while the Champion doesn't.

I wish I had gotten the Amigo as I'm just not feeling the semi auto , after looking into the manual clutch conversion , it will still retain the "all 4 down " shift pattern , and I still wouldn't want that , I would want the conventional " 1 down , 3 up " .
So the conversion is out for me , as well as changing out the whole engine .
It does run awesome now though with the new VM26 carb I put on it , and the Delrin bushings in the rear arm really tightened it up !!!
Unfortunately I actually am thinking of selling it now ( has 34 miles on it ) , I did not reg it so ,so would the next owner would technically be the " orig " owner if they reg it ?
Paid $1,850 for it plus the $75 for the carb / bushings , how much of a loss am I going to have to take on this now to appeal to someone to buy it ???

Put up an ad, tell us where you live and what color it is. Pics of course.

The Mikuni one or something different?