hi yall!!!! a Malaysian china rider here!

cresstt · 09-07-2006, 03:17 AM

here's somthing that I posted over at lf200 yahoogroups a couple of months back

----------------------------

I joined this group a couple of days ago but only had time to write this morning. I hail from Malaysia, a south east asian third world country where despite its very low income per capita, people still are afraid of Chinese products, my bike included.
Anyway, I owned 150cc version and now it has a lot of miles on it. I bought it brand new in February of 2004 and its still running. I ride it everyday to work putting at least 66km (43miles) everyday. Now thats is a lot of miles. If it wasnt for the broken speedo cable, I'd have the approximate mileage. I think I've put at least 20,000 miles for the two years of commuting to work. My route to work is 40 percent town and 60 percent freeway driving. On the freeway, I'd do 60mph most of the time and the tacho needle would be pointing at 8k rpms. I change oil every month as an insurance.

What's broken ? Well, when I first got the bike, the assembler (didn't have to assemble myself, the importer did everything for me), did a terrible job on the wiring loom. The clear plastic that covers the wiring joints, shooked loose, turned on the started motor whenever the turn signal was on it burned the main fuse. Problem fixed by using cable ties to secure the clear plastic wire connector covers. Other than that, one of the nut on the shackle (near the swing arm) went loose, luckily I caught the problem early and refastened everything back.

Needles/pointers on the both the speedo meter and tachometer are broken. I'd guess the vibration from running constantly at 8krpm did this. The low beam light filament would burned out if I overreved (at around 9krpm) for too long. i dont bother to change it and it now runs on the high beam most of the time.
The bike ate 2 batteries, again probably because of high engine speed on the freeway. I'm so over replacing the batt and I'm now relying on the kickstarter. The other day the pilot jet on the shooked itself loose (probably due to the same reason), and in the process of diagnosing the problem, I replaced the generator/excitor coil and it brought back a lot of lost power. The old excitor, after two years of thrashy driving, wasn't efficient in generating AC current for the CDI system. Also, the clutch cable snapped a few weeks ago, luckily I got a replacement off of a old Suzuki moped. In addition the clutch plate I think is already worn out. The clutch would slipped every now and then(but still 43 miles drivable), especially when the engine is cold.

As for the rubber chain slider/ swing arm protector thingy, it got chewed up by the chain and was gone within 6 months. I replaced the slider with a nylon chain guide. I welded a nut and secure the nylon slider with a bolt and two cable ties. So far it has been working like a charm.
One on going trouble that have been puzzling me is that the chain is easily stretched. I've tried everything, from cheap throw away chain to the mid range chain, none would stay unstretch for 6 months. So now and then, I've to cut short the chain and readjust the swing arm chain tensioner.
I haven't tried the gold o-ring chain, too expensive and to heavy for an already underpowered bike.

Besides the chain slider thingy, modifications I did were, the main jet and the muffler. I changed the main jet to 115 (cant recall the original size). It's compatible with smaller displacement Kawasaki and Honda bikes. I also drilled several holes on the back of the exhaust muffler, power difference was like night and day. The bike is a bit louder tho. I also threw the air filter sponge away, leaving the filtering job to the metal mesh beneath the sponge filter.

As for mpg, I've to refuel every two days and it would take up to 6 liters. That's 3 liters for 43 miles. I'm too lazy to lookup the conversion table on the web, so you guys have to calculate the mpg figure.
So i think that's it for my not so brief intro.I thought u guys might wanna hear from somebody that has put a lot of miles on his Chinese bike.

gyjoe · 09-07-2006, 03:41 AM

Welcome aboard and thanks for the very interesting read! Are you still riding that bike?

cresstt · 09-07-2006, 03:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gyjoe

Welcome aboard and thanks for the very interesting read! Are you still riding that bike?

yeah, sure....

cresstt · 09-13-2006, 03:08 AM

Here are some pictures showing my modification and problem faced so far

click on the Pic to supersize it
Chain tensioner

2 Chain sliders, modified, using nylon chain tensioner sliders, secured with bolts to welded-to-swingarm nuts

Broken needle speedometer, also broken needle rpm gauge

Broken chain cover

Engine 158FMI ?

The whole bike

bfe71730 · 09-13-2006, 10:05 PM

I remember reading your post on one of the yahoo groups, glad to see that you've migrated here. 20,000 is a lot of miles for one of these little engines, hope mine gets half that far. I've put 2500 on it in 2 yrs time and still runs like new. I'll probably end up passing it down to my 16yr old son if he keeps his grades up, that way I'll have a good excuse to get a new one.

09-07-2006, 03:17 AM	#1
cresstt Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: KL, Malaysia Posts: 33	hi yall!!!! a Malaysian china rider here! here's somthing that I posted over at lf200 yahoogroups a couple of months back ---------------------------- I joined this group a couple of days ago but only had time to write this morning. I hail from Malaysia, a south east asian third world country where despite its very low income per capita, people still are afraid of Chinese products, my bike included. Anyway, I owned 150cc version and now it has a lot of miles on it. I bought it brand new in February of 2004 and its still running. I ride it everyday to work putting at least 66km (43miles) everyday. Now thats is a lot of miles. If it wasnt for the broken speedo cable, I'd have the approximate mileage. I think I've put at least 20,000 miles for the two years of commuting to work. My route to work is 40 percent town and 60 percent freeway driving. On the freeway, I'd do 60mph most of the time and the tacho needle would be pointing at 8k rpms. I change oil every month as an insurance. What's broken ? Well, when I first got the bike, the assembler (didn't have to assemble myself, the importer did everything for me), did a terrible job on the wiring loom. The clear plastic that covers the wiring joints, shooked loose, turned on the started motor whenever the turn signal was on it burned the main fuse. Problem fixed by using cable ties to secure the clear plastic wire connector covers. Other than that, one of the nut on the shackle (near the swing arm) went loose, luckily I caught the problem early and refastened everything back. Needles/pointers on the both the speedo meter and tachometer are broken. I'd guess the vibration from running constantly at 8krpm did this. The low beam light filament would burned out if I overreved (at around 9krpm) for too long. i dont bother to change it and it now runs on the high beam most of the time. The bike ate 2 batteries, again probably because of high engine speed on the freeway. I'm so over replacing the batt and I'm now relying on the kickstarter. The other day the pilot jet on the shooked itself loose (probably due to the same reason), and in the process of diagnosing the problem, I replaced the generator/excitor coil and it brought back a lot of lost power. The old excitor, after two years of thrashy driving, wasn't efficient in generating AC current for the CDI system. Also, the clutch cable snapped a few weeks ago, luckily I got a replacement off of a old Suzuki moped. In addition the clutch plate I think is already worn out. The clutch would slipped every now and then(but still 43 miles drivable), especially when the engine is cold. As for the rubber chain slider/ swing arm protector thingy, it got chewed up by the chain and was gone within 6 months. I replaced the slider with a nylon chain guide. I welded a nut and secure the nylon slider with a bolt and two cable ties. So far it has been working like a charm. One on going trouble that have been puzzling me is that the chain is easily stretched. I've tried everything, from cheap throw away chain to the mid range chain, none would stay unstretch for 6 months. So now and then, I've to cut short the chain and readjust the swing arm chain tensioner. I haven't tried the gold o-ring chain, too expensive and to heavy for an already underpowered bike. Besides the chain slider thingy, modifications I did were, the main jet and the muffler. I changed the main jet to 115 (cant recall the original size). It's compatible with smaller displacement Kawasaki and Honda bikes. I also drilled several holes on the back of the exhaust muffler, power difference was like night and day. The bike is a bit louder tho. I also threw the air filter sponge away, leaving the filtering job to the metal mesh beneath the sponge filter. As for mpg, I've to refuel every two days and it would take up to 6 liters. That's 3 liters for 43 miles. I'm too lazy to lookup the conversion table on the web, so you guys have to calculate the mpg figure. So i think that's it for my not so brief intro.I thought u guys might wanna hear from somebody that has put a lot of miles on his Chinese bike.
	0

09-07-2006, 03:41 AM	#2
gyjoe Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Duluth, MN Posts: 230	Welcome aboard and thanks for the very interesting read! Are you still riding that bike? __________________ 2006 Lifan LF200GY-5
	0

09-13-2006, 10:05 PM	#5
bfe71730 Join Date: May 2006 Location: South Arkansas Posts: 198	I remember reading your post on one of the yahoo groups, glad to see that you've migrated here. 20,000 is a lot of miles for one of these little engines, hope mine gets half that far. I've put 2500 on it in 2 yrs time and still runs like new. I'll probably end up passing it down to my 16yr old son if he keeps his grades up, that way I'll have a good excuse to get a new one. __________________ 2004 KAZUMA CHEETAH 200 2001 Yamaha Big Bear 400 1986 Honda ATC 250ES 1983 Honda ATC 200X 1974 Kawasaki KE100
	0

09-13-2006, 03:08 AM	#4
cresstt Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: KL, Malaysia Posts: 33	Here are some pictures showing my modification and problem faced so far click on the Pic to supersize it Chain tensioner 2 Chain sliders, modified, using nylon chain tensioner sliders, secured with bolts to welded-to-swingarm nuts Broken needle speedometer, also broken needle rpm gauge Broken chain cover Engine 158FMI ? The whole bike
	0