2023 Model Skygo King 150

[JoeKahno]

TLDR; It hasn't killed me yet.

That requires some explanation. I retired in the Philippines. Skygo is not a motorcycle company. It is the motorcycle marketing branch of a large import/export company. They have an exclusive technical licensing and supply agreement with Lifan that includes technical assitance and support. This seems to be an excellent arrangement. It allows Lifan to concentrate on building motorcycles while SMC (Skygo Marketing Corporation) is building a dealer network at an almost frantic pace. The nearest dealer, where I bought my bike operates out of what amounts to a pair of 20x40 storage units. They have to pull bikes out in the morning to clear a path to the sales desk but they somehow found space for a service bay and parts counter. More about that later.

The first thing that caught my attention was the price. With the exchange rate at the time I bought it the "all up" price was $778. That includes title, tags, a year of liability coverage, helmet and a liter of gas. So, what does that buy you? A very close copy of a late 60's Honda CG125 with a displacement of around 150cc. I say "around" because mine has the LF161-FMJ with an actual displacement of 144cc while the owners manual says it's a 162-FMJ with 149.4cc. If I still own it when it needs the upper end refreshed the larger piston/cylinder is a no machining swap.

Which brings me to the second selling point, parts availability. I've got three dealers within a ten mile radius and Cebu is the port of entry for the bikes and parts. For parts not covered by warranty there are a couple of shopping networks where dealers in country sell online. The warranty is the usual useless thing where the bullet points promise and the fine print walks it back. It doesn't matter because prices are trivial. You can do an end to end rebuild of a trashed bike for around $200. (62mm cylinder kit including piston, rings, pin and gaskets is $30 on shopee.ph) Right now the Philippine Peso is a little over 55 to the dollar.

What closed the deal for me is the retro styling. It's like owning an antique for less than I'd pay for a restorable example of an original. Yes it's primative. Yes it drives like a tractor. I started life as a Wisconsin farm boy. My first road bike was an AMF Sportster. I *LIKE* tractors. I'll add to this as I go through the break in process. As a start I did a short walk around on YT.