Lifan X-pect 200 arrived, unboxing, first impressions

[J4Fun]

ProDigit, two questions, I see from above what tire pressure you’ve been running, what is the maximum pressure stated on the side of your tire? That’s question 1 because my Hawk 250 DLX manual calls for 40 psi on the rear tire and the tire itself says 32 psi max. I do believe the manual may be incorrect. Second, your post above you use 0.04-0.05” I’m sure you meant.004-.005” right? If you changed the intake to .002” it would be quieter and cooler, I agree. Was looking at your thread and sounds like your having fun with the bike. My thoughts

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by J4Fun

ProDigit, two questions, I see from above what tire pressure you’ve been running, what is the maximum pressure stated on the side of your tire? That’s question 1 because my Hawk 250 DLX manual calls for 40 psi on the rear tire and the tire itself says 32 psi max. I do believe the manual may be incorrect. Second, your post above you use 0.04-0.05” I’m sure you meant.004-.005” right? If you changed the intake to .002” it would be quieter and cooler, I agree. Was looking at your thread and sounds like your having fun with the bike. My thoughts

Thanks, yes, my bad.. .002 for intake, and .004" for exhaust. One zero off. It's the smallest blade in the feeler gauge tool.

I was thinking in mm, writing in inch.
The outside tire of my Lifan Xpect stated 40psi. I'm running roughly 35psi cold, and 38psi hot,both front and rear, 1psi tolerance.
The bike can actually run fine at 10psi, but really needs a good 28-30psi minimum, to roll efficiently.

[ProDigit]

The Xpect runs way too lean in hot climates.
I was thinking of install an oil cooler, but recently I've discovered a sine generator that can be plugged in instead of the O2 sensor, called a dummy plug O2 sensor.
I bought it off eBay and will do tests with it.
The O2 sensor will basically be unplugged, and instead the dummy plug will be plugged in.
The device contains a +12v, ground, and data (0.1-0.9V) wire.

It generates a 0.9v pulse, I'm guessing the adjustment dial adjusts the width of the pulse, causing a higher or lower overall voltage (depending on how it's set) than ideal (0.45V).
The average voltage is the average of the peaks (0.9V) and troths (0.1V).

The stoichiometric value is 0.45V average. When the fuel injection system reads this value, it will determine that the current mapping is too rich, and will try to lean out the mixture more.
Without actual wideband O2 sensor data, I can presume it wants to lower from 14.7:1 to more like 15:1 or 16:1, so it will be expecting an o2 sensor value of closer to 0.5V (estimated) or higher.

I'm just not sure if the EFI system on the Xpect will continue to try getting that signal from the dummy O2 sensor, until it runs so lean the bike will stall, or if there are limits to it's adjustment curve.
Considering that the signal is a pulse, I can presume the EFI will variate only a a bit off of the dummy plug signal, and that increasing or decreasing the mean voltage value will result in a small offset from the ECU.

Anyway, I'm presuming setting the value above 0.45V, but below 0.9V will make the bike run richer, and in theory trick the bike into believing the exhaust is running lean, when it's actually running stoic.

Issues I can forsee is that the bike may run better at certain rpm ranges than others, like better idle or low rpm response, but worse in the mid-rpm range; or some similar deviation.

From what I read, the EFI system will go off it's closed loop system, and run stoic from 75-100% throttle. In other words, the system won't look at the O2 sensor values above this point.

This makes me believe that the stoic values of 75-100% throttle will become lean values when an open (more freeflow) exhaust is installed, which can be dangerous when riding longer at higher speeds.

[ProDigit]

I'm thinking of replacing the 36t sprocket with a 37t, for slightly higher top speed, before selling the bike to the new owner.

[rideoutadv]

I'm really glad I ran into your thread, just read all of it. Lots of good information. I have been using my xpect for bdr type rides, with two track and rocky, muddy offroad back roads. Sometimes they're steep, but with my 17/46 sprocket setup my bike can still climb them in 2nd or 3rd no problem. This tells me I can probably safely gear the bike up and still have enough torque for that kind of terrain. Anyway, I was wondering if you would recommend a 17/40 sprocket setup for someone like me, who does some mild to medium offroading but still wants to be able to cruise at 65-70 on the two lane highways and occasionally the interstate. Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated. Right now I can hit 60mph, but that's at 7K RPM and it just feels mean to the little 200cc engine to leave it hitting that high of revs for any kind of extended riding.

[ProDigit]

I wouldn't recommend this bike if you want 60+ mph out of it.
It can do it, but not reliably.

I hit 75mph GPS today with a tail wind, and the death wobble started happening from about 72-74mph. I had to put more weight on the front wheel,and squeeze the tank with my legs to stabilize.

Another reason for me to get a 37t instead of a 36t as an absolute minimum rear size sprocket, which will again improve start from stop by 3% (less feathering the clutch), and maintain higher top speeds on level ground, or with a headwind, but will drop mpg by roughly 2.5 mpg.

As far as trail riding, I can't tell.
But on average each gear is 20-25% spaced from one another.
That means, if you go down 20% on the rear sprocket (46 *0.8 = 37), your 2nd and 3rd gear riding will be similar to 1st and 2nd gear riding.

The only reason why I wouldn't recommend a 40t or below, is because this bike tends to stall with a too high gear ratio, and no fine clutch control, especially in rocky or rough terrain.
But a 17/40 should ease up the rpms on the highway.

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by rideoutadv

Anyway, I was wondering if you would recommend a 17/40 sprocket setup for someone like me, who does some mild to medium offroading but still wants to be able to cruise at 65-70 on the two lane highways and occasionally the interstate. Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

This is one reason I sold my X-pect and upgraded to the KPX. More power, heavier, longer wheelbase, taller and wider front tire, more comfortable seating-wise. The two-level X-pect seat had me scrunched up against the tank. I'm 5'11' and 32" inseam.

The X-pect is not a good bike for over 60 mph. Forget about highways on this thing. Too little power and too unstable. Don't get me wrong, the X-pect is a good bike, but was never designed for American highways.

[ProDigit]

Talking about highways, I couldn't for the life of me, find my 37t sprocket. I've ordered one and received it together with the 38t, and when I went looking for it the 37 was gone.
So how does a 38t compares to a 36t with a 17t front sprocket?

Well, for one, the bike starts easily from a stop. The 36t required a bit of feathering, for it not to stall. But if you properly engage and disengage the clutch, those little hesitations are not an issue anymore.

The bike feels a bit slower IMHO, in acceleration, but 5th gear got more power, and is more fun.

Instead of 82-84mpg, I should now be getting 78-80 mpg.

In terms of top speed, I lost between 2-4mph compared to the 36t.

So the ideal street gearing will be 17/37t.

This bike was perfect for me, but I'm looking forward to swapping out my Vader's 150cc engine for a CG250, and experimenting with it.
This bike will replace the Lifan, and the CFMoto 450nk will be my new highway capable bike.

[ProDigit]

1k miles maintenance interval:

Oil change at 1k miles. The Shell Rotella T4 15W40 is pretty dark after only 700 miles. Last oil change was at 300 miles.
This leads me to believe that this bike needs an oil change every 1k miles.

Valve adjustment 2 done.
Intake was tight. Exhaust was loose (0.004" on last adjustment, I tightened it a bit, as the valves started tapping).

For those doing the valve adjustment on the Lifan, all you need is a 10mm mini wrench, a flathead to access the 14mm engine bolt on the side and to open the flywheel window, and a socket wrench with a 14mm socket to turn over the engine.
No need to take any panels off. All you need to do is disconnect the spark plug cable.
Then rotate the engine with spark plug still mounted. You'll notice when the engine is on its compression stroke. Just do it slowly. If you do the compression stroke too fast, you'll just waste energy, and might overshoot the T-mark.
Don't take any side panels off, it's not necessary.
Loosen the bolts facing the back on the left and right side of the valve cover first, because they are harder to get to.
I use an electric drill and snake extension to further loosen the screws to get them out.

The mini wrench set I use is this one: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805999212422.html

The red bag is imperial, the blue one is metric.

The 10mm in there allows you to open the 4 bolts on top of the cylinder.
You can then slide out the cover, and loosen the intake and exhaust locknuts with it as well.
No need for valve adjustment tools. I don't even use shims or valve adjustment gap measuring tools.

Once loose, tighten the square bolt with your fingers until finger tight. No play.
Then turn it loose by about 1 o clock, hold it, while tightening the locknut by hand. Then tighten the locknut with the 10mm.
Rotate the engine forward with the 14 mil socket.
Then verify if the intake and exhaust has play.
If you can hear a tapping sound, you're past the 0.003" mark; tighten.
If there's no visible play, loosen the locknut, loosen the square bolt by 1 o'clock, and tighten again.
The ideal setting is where you don't hear the valves tapping, but you can still see them move when you loosen or tighten them.

Next, don't forget to close the cover, and tighten the 4 bolts. Also the 2 caps on the left of the bike (flywheel window and the one for the 14mm socket).

Start the bike, and listen for valve tap.
If you can't hear any, or it's very quiet, take it on a ride, let the engine warm up, and see if it's working the way it should.

[ProDigit]

Bike is officially deregistered, waiting for the new owner.
I've installed a CG250 in my Vader150, and while this bike is less comfortable than the Xpect, it gets higher mpg, and at the same time is looking like it'll be about as fast (still breaking in the engine).

The Vader is much smaller, lighter in weight, and will be my daily driver.

For the highway, the Vader should be able to do highway once the break-in is done, however, I do have a CFMoto 450, which is quite a powerful bike for highway trips. Much faster, lighter, and more comfy than the Suzuki GS500F I used to own.

For all Lifan Xpect users, it was a great bike, I really got fond of it.
I wish you all many good fun rides on it!

But Ultimately, I have to make my choice, and the choice was the smallest bike with the 229cc engine stays, and the Xpect goes.
Not only mpg wise, but storage wise (we live in a small townhouse), and weight wise (easy to lift up).
Perhaps in another universe where I would have had more money and space,I would have kept the bike.

Ciao!

[ProDigit]

I took the Lifan Xpect out of the shed, now that the Vader 150 is waiting for an engine transplant.

The tires lost pressure from 33psi to 14psi since last used (which according to fuelly, is about 6 months ago).

The battery was dead as well. I couldn't get it to start with the Kickstarter, as the entire dash needs power and I didn't want to take the seat off.

So instead I push started it in 3rd gear. 2nd gear the wheel locked up.
My bike has much taller gears than stock, so if you're push starting not being on the bike, but running alongside of it, it's probably best to gain some speed, and dump the clutch in 4th gear. Push it while it's trying to start until a certain moment when it looks like the bike is going to start or stall and pull the clutch again.
It only took a minute to push start it, vs several minutes kickstarting.
The Kickstarter doesn't have enough power to start the bike from a dead battery, but works fine when the battery is charged up.

[ProDigit]

Today, I tackled two key issues with my CG250, effectively 'killing two birds with one stone.' My bike was overheating at idle, especially in hot (+80F) weather, and I was also looking to boost its performance.

I tested out the stock airbox vs POD intake, and while the POD intake lowered top speed, the pod air intake made a lot more noise than the stock airbox.
I reverted to the stock airbox because I prefer quiet and higher performance.

Next, I coated the exhaust with a layer of high temp Rust-Oleum high heat paint; and wrapped the exhaust header pipe with fiberglass exhaust wrap, and reapplied a coat of Rust-Oleum paint on the exhaust header and exhaust wrap.
This was meant to reduce heat radiation from the exhaust tube onto the O2 sensor, and prevent my legs from scorching, and my jogging pants from melting (unsuccessful; the pants still melted).
However, the temperature radiated through the exhaust was significantly lower.

Next, I took off the O2 sensor, which according to a youtuber was restricting the airflow, and he was correct.
The sensor was coated white, indicating a lean running condition; and I noticed it was positioned deep within the exhaust tube, obstructing roughly a third of the inner tube diameter.

The solution was very simple. I took a ~3mm M12 nut, and used it as a spacer.
I used a small copper wire as a gasket, on the bottom of the nut.
This simple modification solved both problems: it cleared the exhaust path for increased flow and, kept the sensor cooler at idle.

I would assume that the Xpect was originally made with Lead Acid battery, and they later on replaced the battery with a Lithium one.
This in turn increased the overall voltage on the bike (including the charge voltage), and may be at the root cause of the high reading O2 sensor.
When the O2 sensor has a higher input voltage, it will also deliver a higher output voltage to the ECU, indicating a false rich condition.
This in turn will cause the ECU to cut the fuel delivery, which causes the exhaust to run hotter. When idling, the O2 sensor isn't actively cooled by flowing air, and it overheats on hot days. This will cause it to increase the output voltage closer to 1V, which again will make the ECU cut more fuel, to the point where the engine can just cut out.
The solution is to use a spacer that will raise the O2 sensor allowing it to draw less heat from the exhaust, and in turn it will send a lower O2 sensor value

The bike still idles lean, but I can only presume it's slightly less lean, as the idle is not all over the place anymore (it would spontaneously jump from 1500RPM to 1800RPM and back).

An extreme lean condition may lower the engine's life expectancy, and lower oil life.



I then attempted to improve exhaust flow by using a carbide drill to smooth out welding imperfections near the engine side of the exhaust tube. Honestly, this likely resulted in minimal gains.


The results from these modifications were tested on the same day, same temperature, same fuel, etc...
I did a small run, did the modification, and did the exact same run again.

Stock bike, with 17/38T sprocket setup:
Top speed: 74-79MPH
Peak torque band: 6.6-7k RPM.

Modified O2 sensor with Pod air filter:
Top speed: 74-79MPH
Peak torque band: 7-7.5k RPM.

Modified O2 sensor with stock air filter:
Top speed: 75-83MPH
Peak torque band: 7-7.5k RPM.


Conclusion:

If you want a cheap upgrade to your Lifan, just raise the O2 sensor by using an M12 nut.

Additionally, you can port out the exhaust ports.
Intake ports do very little.

Intake pod air filter, decreases performance over OEM airbox, but sounds like you're running an aftermarket slip-on exhaust with silencer tip or baffle.

[ProDigit]

I swapped the 38T rear sprocket back to the 36t sprocket, as the 38t kept the RPMs past the HP curve.

Additionally, I installed a small oil cooler, as a secondary way to keep the oil cool.
It's probably not going to be sufficient by itself, but just an added way to the air cooling, to reduce oil temperatures and extend it's life.

An oil cooler may sap some HP, and I did see that in the numbers.
The 17/36T setup handled 77-82MPH tops, and had a long stretch where it kept at 80MPH.

It's about 1MPH slower than without the oil cooler, but the O2 sensor placement, and the 17/36T gearing really made this bike ride like a dream bike to me.

I don't care about speed, but it's perfectly adequate.
It maintains 65MPH without breaking a sweat.
I think this bike will be my favorite for a while (more than my CFMoto 450).

[buzz]

nice i love mine,

[ProDigit]

Today I drilled out the pilot hole under the exhaust tip, on the muffler can, for more airflow and noise, with a 3/4 inch and later with a 7/8 in.

This small modification resulted in only slightly more airflow, and noise levels, both due to the increase in diameter, as well as the bike now running lean all through the rev range.

The O2 sensor seems to correct the ECU somewhat up to about 95% throttle. Because the bike runs slightly lean, going full throttle now affects top speed by 1 to 2 mph lower top speed.
When rolling off the throttle to that 90-95% range, the bike now reaches higher top speeds. Both because the throttle valve restricts some air (less lean) and the O2 sensor sends the signal to the ECU which tries to correct the lean condition.

The ECU seems to be mapped to 100% stock condition, and the O2 variables probably can modify the mixture by a few percent. Not enough to correct either intake or exhaust modifications.

Meaning any slipon or different intake will degrade performance, unless there's a way to introduce more fuel into the system.

This modification I did to the exhaust, unfortunately is irreversible, so I'll run with a slightly lean bike for the rest of its life.

The ONLY modification that can be done to the Xpect, to increase performance, is to raise the O2 sensor with an M12 nut (grind it down if it's too thick), and sprockets (install 17t up front and roughly down to a 37t on the rear), as well as set the valve clearance to zero (finger tight, then tighten the locknut to get an additional 10-20 degrees), to get maximum engine performance below 3k miles.

I thought of letting you all know about this, unless someone out here is able to raise the entire fuel map to +7 to +10%, probably +12.5% when going catless, with freeflow exhaust and POD air filter.