My introduction to a Lifan LF200 III (or any china bike)

[chinarider]

I fell into China bikes by accident.

A couple of months ago, looking for entry level bikes for my friends, I ran into a post of a guy who was giving away (for free) his Lifan LF 200 III in NJ right outside of NY city (thanks Neil).

I found out that he had dropped it at about 25 mph or so and it had some bent levers and scratched / broken bits but nothing major. I went and picked it up and noticed it only had 72 kilometers on it.

To give you an idea, I didn't even really know that China bikes existed outside of those "annoying" pocket bikes (this was my image). Anyway, after I got it home, I bought some nuts and bolts from the hardware store, bent some levers back out, added some packing tape around the right blinker and started up the bike (started right up, not even a jump was needed).

First impression - The bike is so cheep feeling it wasn't even funny, wait... I guess it was kinda funny because I found my self actually laughing out loud as I rode it down the road. Half the thrill of the bike was wondering if it was going to fall apart at any time.

The fairings were made out of what was slightly better then the type of plastic you would find in Laundry dertergent containers. On top of that there was a special little harmonic so that when the highly un-balanced 200cc thumper hit the 5K to 6k rpm range the lower fairings did this loud reverberation noise / vibration which would just about tripple the intensity of the fairly sever vibrations to begin with.

The speedometer is not even close to being acurate. In fact it is so far off that you cant even estimate how fast your going after about 35 mph. It's not linear enough to even say its 10 mph or so (unless you slower then 35 mph). The odometer is in KM and not miles and even then it's not close to accurate in that it goes way too fast for the distance I travel.

All that being said... I had an absolute ball riding the piece of crap. I was wringing it's little neck to see what the thing could do. My GPS top speed was at about 76.6 MPH (the speedometer was completely pegged at over 100MPH) which was nearly 1K past redline (redline is 8.5K). It could have done slightly more but I was on Interstate 84 and I thought the bike might come apart and I would end up road kill under the last big rig I passed so I gave up after that.

I currently have a little over 800 kilometers on the bike. So far this is what I have had to do to the bike,

changed the oil twice
lost 3 bolts from the fairings
two sets of bolts from the fairing brackets have been lost
tensioned the chain 3 times
Tightened the exhaust manifold against the head because it started leaking
Tightened all engine mount bolts, but missed the bottom one which loosened and rattled so much it broke one side of the mount. Bought another bolt and just tightened it against the remaining side.
crimped the ground of both front blinkers to a ringlet to re-attach to the screws since both sodered joints broke.
Inside the muffler a baffle has broken and it makes A LOT of noise (working with Marlone aka Pinoy, I think, to see what he would recommend for me to replace it).
Throttle cable adjustment and tighten of loose nuts.
Clutch cable adjustment and tighten of loose nuts.
Stuffed annoying beeping blinker with styrofome and tape.
Lost rear right chain tensioner plate and bolt.
Tachometer died at about 700 Kilometers.
Lost handlebar end cap.
replaced blinker lamps and lamps in Speedo as they burnt out (or rattled out).

This is all I can think of for now.

As you can see most of the stuff is due to the vibrations. You really need to stay on top of stuff ratteling off the bike.

I got to get on my plane so I will post more later... Until then!

[culcune]

Your speedo experience reminded me of an article in which Jay Leno was describing an old 50's Jaguar. He wrote that it was hitting 100 mph on the speedo, but you were actually hitting 87 mph, and the speedo was vibrating excessively to 100.

[katoranger]

Can't complain about the lack of purchase price. My lifan doesn't seem that bad.

Allen

[ambassador]

Sounds good for free... What part of Jersey are you from???

[MOTOXtreme]

Those are good little bikes for the money, free is not a bad price either Not the best, but not the worst for sure. Keep an eye on the bolts going into the rear hub driven by the chain. They can work loose and of all bolts to work loose those are not first choice! Keep us posted on your ride. Also, I was kinda hard on Pinoy in an eariler post. Let me know what the exhaust it like if you get it. I've had lost of request for that.

[TheOtherRide]

Welcome! Wow, did you hit the jackpot! Sounds like you've experienced both the limitations and the joys of these bikes.

[knothead]

I saw that bike posted on e-bay. If it hadn't ben so far away I''d have been all over it. But then again I'm the kinda' guy who gets all happy when I find a decent ink pen on the sidewalk!
Good score, glad you posted up. I was wondering what the fate of that bike was going to be.

[chinarider]

I think the main point is that I am having fun on it and it gets me from point a to b so far, even if it does lose a bit of weight along the way.

I think it isn't a true Lifan, I think it is some type of knock off so that may account for mine being a bit worse then most... that or the fact that it was dropped? Anyway, I called Lifan to get some parts but they were very busy and couldn't find my VIN as a verified Lifan product but they said they needed to check some other place to be sure but didn't have time.

So I ordered the missing pieces from rabbitscooters.com but I placed my order 2 weeks ago and have not heard anything from them including a tracking number. I am prob gonna call them and just cancel the order.

I am thinking now I will call Zongshen and just order their parts for their GS200 and hope they will bolt on correctly. Their stuff seems much better quality.

I'm not from NJ but currently live in Central southern Mass. I have an office North of NYC which I go to sometimes and this is when I picked up the bike.

I really feel as though once I get the parts sorted and some things replaced, that the bike will eventually get sorted out and I wont have so much vibrating off.

Do you guys have the same harmonic vibration from your fairings between 5 and 6 K RPM's?

[Jim]

Mine is a dualsport so not alot in the fairing dept... If you dont get your parts from rabbit scooters maybe you could check with some of the dealers on this forum? (ejcycles, tom from RPM, motoxtreme, etc etc), I've dealt with Tom from RPM a few times now and it has always gone very smoothly. I believe all the other dealers on here are good too, I just don't have any personal experience dealing with them...

[chinarider]

OK, it's time to do an update.

Well, I feel a bit bad now because 80% of the negative I posted about this bike was my fault.

It turns out the about 98% of the vibration was because of the combination of the lose engine mount bolt (the bottom one) and the fairing bracket bolts that fell out. After fixing these two items correctly, the vibration all but vanished.

I have a 2003 Ninja 250 and the vibrations of the Lifan are only slightly worse then this.

I finally received most the parts I ordered so I was able to get the bike sorted correctly except for the handlebar end cap which is still missing (causes that handle bar to buzz a bit with out it).

OK the Ninja is much faster and more responsive, the build quality is better and I would guess that in the long run between rust and welds holding up that the Ninja would do far better.

But I actually like the further upright sitting of the Lifan, the wrist are much easier to take and as long as you stay off highways (except for the short spots where you have to go for a bit) the Lifan has enough power to get you there. I cruise easily at 60 to 65, but it will go from cruising to really pushing the bike once your reach 70+ (although it can be done). It seems happy to run at 7.5K to 8K RPM's which is between 60 to 67 MPH. Any more then that and the bike seems not as happy.

The nasty vibration harmonic between 5 and 6K is all but gone since finding the problem and to be honest, I haven't been losing any more parts. I am guessing since fixing the bike's vibration problem that the other problems will disappear as well.

I have to admit that the sprocket bolt's haven't moved one bit. My bike has a metal reinforcement type thing that covers the sprocket and is bent around the bolts so I don't think they will move. My only concern for those who have had bolts rip off is maybe the cheap chain gave up the ghost and took out the sprocket with it? Either that or they didn't keep the chain tensioned correctly? Just some guesses.

I now have about 1250 Kilometers on the bike and it seems to be sorted out quite nicely. I have not had any problems with the battery box or any electrical problems.

The gas gauge is great, I wish all my bikes had one. Also the gas mileage is very good. I am getting about 80 mpg (guesstimating taking in account that the speed-o being off) and I drive it pretty hard. I get a little over 400 Kilometers on 3 gallons of gas. I also love the gear indicator, although it was too dark to see in the daylight sometimes (I fixed that by removing the smoked glass on the inside but still has the glass on the outside). My only gripe about this bike (after fixing everything) is the speed-o being off although even that is much better now.

You see after I received my new parts I swapped out my tachometer and noticed that there were some large holes that were not plugged in the back. So I taped them off thinking the air pressure was causing some of the problem. I was right, the gauges are much more stable, but the speed-o is still pretty far off. I think you could use it up to about 50 mph now but after that it gets wiled.

My next step would be to find a handlebar end cap to stop the buzzing in that handle bar and attach an aftermarket speedometer that is more accurate.

Pretty much would be done then. I also have been replacing some nut's, bolt's, and screw's with some higher quality ones from the Hardware store with some rubber washers, they seem to hold much better.

Here is what I have done since last time I posted,

removed, deep cleaned and re-lubed the chain,
changed the oil - which looked much better then usual - I think the bike is pretty much broken in at this point.
swapped out the Tachometer,
swapped out the right blinker (got rid of the packing tape),
checked bottom engine bolt (still tight)
Cleaned the bike (got rid of the tape residue)

The Result of this whole thing?? Well the fun factor is still there, with a lot less drama while riding the bike. I wish I had done all those things before but I guess like anything it takes a while before you figure out your bike and it's idiosyncrasies.

Alas, I think my time with my china bike is coming to an end. You see I have 4 bikes now, and My wife says I need to reduce my inventory. I still am not totally sure which to sell, but at this point, I think it will be the china bike.

The ninja's top speed just make it more usable on highways, and I like to do semi long distance traveling which usually require HW travel. My cruiser, well I need that for cruising. My Goldwing is still in pieces so that will need to be fixed before I can sell it. Therefore that leaves my china bike.

I am still not convinced though, so I will see what turns out, maybe I will just sell my Magna, since I find myself riding that less and less. We will see.

I will say one thing. If I am looking for another fun bike, esp. a dual sport, I will not hesitate to see what our Asian brothers in China are up to again.

[JWarren]

I know this is an old thread but I have enjoyed the read!

Did you keep this bike and if so how many mile you got on it now?