new kid from west virginia, usa....+ a question

ok so i was asking about a bike on another site and a guy told me to come here because you guys could help me more... so heres the story, i was debating between a jap mx bike (cr, rm, yz, kx) or jap trail bike (xr, ttr, drz, klx) but then a bike popped up that seems like an off-brand chinease bike but it looks great, sounds great and i think its cool... its a 2007 komoto dual sport 250cc 4 stroke, its water cooled, has lights, inverted forks, gas shock, disk brakes...its realy low mileage, only 544 miles on the meter thing, and there asking $1200 (USD)... what im wanting is more info on these bikes (specs, original priceing, ect.) i would also like to know a site that sells parts for them, or any info i am totally stupid to these bikes. the guy on the other site said they look like a lifan variant. but heres the link

http://charlestonwv.craigslist.org/mcy/2191917788.html

thanks in advance...

-zach

Welcome to the Forum! This is a great place with many good people (and that could be the reason why you should buy the bike - it would help you to be part of this forum ;)

I watched the pictures but was unable to identify the engine or anything else. The price does not feel particularly bad or good, but supposedly you could drop it to $1000. If you have big enough Ego and you are adventurous enough to ride with a chinabike, then it is good bike for you. Just remember that any bike is a mechanical vehicle with combustion engine and electronics and as such they are prone to break sooner or later, but they can also be repaired. What you are going to do when something breaks of yours?


Edit: Hmm, and just in case I would seriously recommend you try to get info how much that bike costs brand new before you purchase it. I have understood you could get Chinabikes much cheaper in USA if you spend time looking for them.

Google provided me with this link for KOMOTO POWERSPORTS . Says they deal in Hyosung motorcycles, which is a Korean brand. Perhaps Hyosung makes this bike in China?

Looks like a fun bike, but you'll need to do some sleuthing to find out more about it. If you are mechanically minded, Moilami's right: You could have a lot of fun with this bike, and learn a lot, and get a great feeling of accomplishment.

Keep us posted about what you choose and how you get on!
cheers

We support chinamotos here and there are some good ones, not a lot of 250cc ones though. All I could find on the 'net was some warnings about 250cc HBmoto choppers (said to be Hi-Bird said to be Komoto). Now I will not defame a machine on so little and confusing information BUT there is very little easily found info. on your bike in question anyway so it didn't catch on, didn't establish a rider base or dealer network or any kind of good reputation. I would say be very careful and look through this forum first to get an idea of the more reputable machines with current dealers and with modifications well known such as the Konker/Qlink.

It is quite possible a weekend machine has only done those miles but that doesn't give any idea of reliability over time.

Hi Zach and welcome. I don't think that there is a lot of information about your particular bike on this site. I do know where there is though. Over at www.chinariders.com. I did a search there for Komoto and came up with 6 pages of results. The guys here at My China Moto are great and very helpful but that bike hasn't graced this site too much. You might want to ask your question at chinariders to get more opinions. But, please, come back and educate us if you decide to buy the bike. Even if you don't, you can always learn about china motos here and see what's available. It's where I learned about my Qlink before I bought it.

(Volksjagger and forchetto, where are you?)

The Komoto was essentially the same bike as the Hi-Bird 250. The Komoto had a couple 'upscale' features that the Hi-Bird did not have, kind of like the way Ford and Mercury were. The Hi-Bird was discussed on chinariders.net a few years ago. Vbikeusa.com and vbike.us used to deal in Hi-Birds and sold out of them, and then they never offered them again. The most notable thing about these twins was that they were the first 250 Chinese dual sport introduced in the US in the time of the 200cc machines. Like the proverbial "sold like pancakes" quote, everyone had the standard 200cc dual sport. They were pretty much the same bike, but had different 'brands' selling them. All of the sudden, Hi-Bird/Komoto offered a 250cc dual sport, which was a big deal back then.

The good thing was, these bikes had great reviews and were selling for about $1100 shipped to your door from Vbike. In fact, I think Vbike was the only dealer for the Hi-Bird. I don't recall who was the dealer/distributor selling the Komoto. So, keeping the 'good' Vbike is still in business, so might have some info. Again, research the many threads about these bikes on chinariders.net--there was no mychinamoto when these bikes were around. http://www.vbikeusa.com/index.php

The 'bad' is what was typical for Chinese bikes--loose bolts that fell off and all that other stuff. however, Hi-Bird had a good product as I recall the reviews were positive, taking the 'Chinese' part of the bike into account at that time. The Qlink/Konker/Qingqi's had not been released here, nor the other few Chinese bikes available now that are way above the quality from the early to mid 2000's bikes.

I would not pay $1200 considering you could find a Qlink dual sport or motard for about the same price new, and while those are only 200's, they are far and away superior to the common GY series bikes, even the ones, such as the Hi-Bird/Komoto, that introduced the 250 engine. Oh, and they weren't water-cooled--only air-cooled. Plus, and I don't remember who sold the Komotos, but I remember the near-twin Hi-Bird bikes sold by Vbike for $1100 shipped to your door, and the Komotos were $1200 new from whoever was their dealer.

OK, found the main (and I believe only) Komoto dealer---http://www.anamcycles.com/home.php in the US; it seems like they are only dealing in parts now.

Dear Culcune,

Many thanks for a valuable and authoritative post on these early chinabikes. Very interesting read.

cheers

I cannot take too much credit; it would be the several owners who ordered them and reported on them. I do remember the details of who carried them and the fact that in the sea of GY-200's selling on ebay and other mail-order sites, these were the first 250's. Another fact--they came stock with 44 tooth rear sprockets while the 200's generally had 56 tooth rears. Now that a few years of cob-webs are clearing in my head, the Komoto bikes had dual disk brakes and the Hi-Birds had disk/drum setup--I believe that was the main difference for the $100 difference.