I have just seen this new bike, apparently from china [which worries me since my chinese bike literally snapped in half on the frame] but the show '' bike world'' have reviewed it as being ok and it costs less than the equivalent japs etc. But is it for a reason or is brand?? http://www.wkbikes.com/450cc_motorbikes_wk-450RX-ENDURO.html I'd be happy with one of those, but not if it broke apart before it's third birthday as I hear other chinese bikes do. What do we think? yay or nay?
I'd run away from it. Its clearly a crf450x clone, built as cheaply as possible. No wonder a Yosh pipe bolts right on. I see it has knock off 47mm showas too. For the money you could buy a well sorted modded up real thing used that would run forever. They seem to have figured out how to copy Works Connection guards too....
China has come a very long way with its technology and quality control, but these bikes still have a long way to go before they could be considered nearly as reliable as the well known Jap and euro bikes. Things like tolerances, materials quality, fabrication quality and overall finish make it not worth the money in my opinion. At least not yet, give them another 10 years going by the trend and then things might be different.
I'm around some of the smaller sized china bikes(~150cc) here and they are getting much better but nothing close to the Japan and EU bikes ... That bike might sell here but the price has gotta be low and not ~too tall .. -- Is that a few yrs old Yamaha frame? The Japan companies might do well to license their old stuff to a large seller in a place like China or India where the numbers are so high for sales...
I'd agree it's copying some other bike, it actually reminded me of the dirtbike in gta 5 first off. I'll keep an eye on sales and see if anyone brings up any horror reviews. Thing is too I think it said it only had 2 more bhp than the honda crf 250l, which is pretty much the same money. They're also bringing out a 250 version for less money which I think a lot of 19 year olds will be buying when they pass their a2 test. And yeah I think it's either a honda or yamaha frame design
They have come along way and there are better Chinese brands then others. However I do agree the quality control issues and tolerances and materials used can be questionable. Probably smarter to buy something else!
Christini uses chinese copy bikes for their "CRF" like 2wd bike. Seems they are close to being very good like KIA and Hyundai. Its happening. Things can be cheep when you have slave labor, currency fixing and no EPA. Those reasons are enough for me not to feed the program.
that's true but it's their metal for me that puts me off most, I just can't make myself believe that the frame and swingarm would stand up to years of bumps and jumps [and we do have a lot of speed bumps here to deal with]. Some of the training schools here use honda cg or yamaha ybr copies, some for about £900 brand new, and I read the instructor saying he would never buy chinese again as the stands shattered, the electrics constantly blew fuses and the rust was insane.
That was about the way the china bikes here were ... 4 yrs ago, you could not take one off the payment anywhere as something would break off and stop the bike... Almost guaranteed... These guys here who purchased one knew this and rode accordingly... Flash forward to about 2 weeks ago, I saw a small chinese 4st (~150cc) finish a small mx type race here. Nothing big or flashy but the bike did finish. Not sure if it was stock or not either. What these guys are doing here, is trying to build a bike that is cheap, short, and will go down a rough dirt road and not have parts break off and stop the bike. Speed or anything competitive is not really desired as we know it. They know these are ~crap bikes but the real bikes costs way too much for many.
It's only a matter of time before we start seeing Chinese competition bikes. When I was a kid, Japanese bikes were considered cheap, and not very well built. It was true, but they continued to improve, while beating the better Euro bikes on price, and look what's happened. People look at them as the standard now.
I can see why they're doing it, the wr 250 costs something like £7000 here new, no idea on the 450 type but must be more, which would mean this one is half the cost. Or if they do manage a 250 of that I'd certainly consider it if it had a good parts back up/ warranty. True enough the first jap bikes got nicknamed ''jap crap''. We'll have to see how the chinese progress