Story Time. How did you buy your China Moto?

It's time for some stories. I would like to ask everybody, "How did you buy your Motorcycle?" I'm in the process of picking one up and finding that the stores in my area don't have anything resembling the bikes that I want. So, I want some help.

I've spent a few hours looking around the site and found only a few places where the buying process was talked about. So lets have some stories. Where did you find your bike? Which store sold it to you? How did you find that store? Did they try and give you a laowai price? Did you order it from a supplier? Were there any problems with ordering it?

Ok, Go!

Luckily, in Shandong province, where I am motorcycles are more legal than in many other provinces, this is due partly to the Qingqi factory in Jinan which manufactures many bikes under the name of Suzuki and Peugeot, including their own name.

This means that many dealerships in non-central areas have survived the transition from work-horse 125cc drum brake commuter bikes to stocking actual more recreational and potentially bigger bikes. However customer service and engineering skill have absolutely not caught up. In these places you may pay very reasonable prices for your bike but the level of warranty and service are just scary, making you run to your favourite mechanic, and have nothing to do with the place you bought your bike.

There are more central areas in our city where the motorcycle dealerships have been through much tougher times, and have to a larger extent had to reinvent themselves. This often means that they will ask for a higher price. Sometimes though they can get warranty claims done much more quickly and may have reasonable quality spare puts and some better tools, or more competent mechanic.

Some rules for buying a bike seem constant:
1. Identify the bike you like and check that it is road legal in your area.
2. Find a dealer that can supply it (phone manufacturers or check their website).
3. Find out the r.r.p or discount price by looking on Taobao/tmall etc.
4. Negotiate a fair road registered and insured price with a dealer based on a fair normal price.
5. Pay a deposit which at least covers at least registration cost and delivery costs.
6. Pay remainder when bike has been delivered and is road ready.

don't....
-buy a bike online.
-pay full amount before bike is registered.
-buy from a dealer that is unknown to the factory.
-buy without researching prices.

so the personal story...
One of my friends and I both decided last year we wanted a new bike, we usually ride street and were fed up with our 250s, in my case a regal Raptor dd250g2 (bit like a cb250) and in his case a YBR250. When we bought those bikes it was about as big as you could go.

So now we were looking for something bigger, and choice was BJ600 or NK650. We bought the NK because we knew nobody with a BJ or anything about it, but we had heard the NK was alright from a few sources, and local competent mechanics said they though it was better, also I was a little upset the Benelli wasn't a triple, and like the idea of having twin cylinder engine braking in Chinese roads.

The local dealer was asking 38,000, he was the son of a reinvented Yamaha dealer that had shut their main showroom after a failed switch to ebike sales and opened up a much smaller dealer specialising in lots of better bikes.

However in a another town slightly further out we knew another bigger dealer that does way more business usually with more utilitarian bikes. He had a GW250 on the shop floor as a show bike, and smaller CFMOTOs. We asked about the NK650 and he said they could get it. My wife had been to school with the bosses son son we were offered 35,000 per bike on the basis of ordering two, bargin!

Bikes came in about a week, and had just been manufactured according to the VIN. When the bikes arrived I waited about another week or so to have mine registered and my friend took about three weeks, as he was registering in his own name, mine, in my wife's name.

Since then we have realised that the money we have saved is not that amazing as our dealer has put very little effort into our servicing and warranty, and the more expensive city dealer has be nice and actually more responsive to warranty requests.

Thanks ZMC. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Okay, I'll share my story because I got a lot of help from this website... not just in buying a bike, but also in getting a Chinese license.

After a lot of reading and research, I settled on a specific make and model to buy... Jialing "yi xia" jh-150. The bike has a good reputation on this site and is cheap. I cold-called a number of small shops around where I live and none of them sold this model, so I read through some forums and found a shop near ShangDi that was recommended on a Chinese forum. I checked prices online, and then checked the going rate for registration/insurance/etc (I asked every shop I went to what a 京B plate and insurance was going for... very consistent 1300 to 1500 rmb).

I went to the shop and asked for the out the door price and was quoted very close to market price according to my research... I haggled a bit, but the shop wouldn't budge on the price of the motorcycle, but they did throw in a helmet, gloves, and a rear luggage box. The bike is registered to the shop, not to me personally. I'll learn the hard way if that's going to cause me grief down the road when I need to renew the registration or sell the bike...

I paid 4000 rmb down and the balance when I picked the bike up. Why 4000 rmb? It just popped into my head as a good round number to put down (I'm sure I could have gotten away with 2000 or 2500)... and I love how they flinch at the number 4. haha!

About a week later, they called and told me that my bike was ready. I went down, inspected everything and rode it around in the parking lot... found that the clutch cable was completely out of adjustment (way off so that I couldn't adjust it properly at the lever...) We got that sorted, then I paid the balance and rode off into the sunset.

Actually, I rode to the nearest gas station as the shop was so generous to give me just enough gas to ride out of their sight...

Quote:

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picking one up and finding that the stores in my area don't have anything resembling the bikes that I want. So, I want some help.

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Hi
I don't live far from Yantai and I am a bit confused because on the times I have traved into Yantai I have seen many bike shops selling all the main brands !!! So may I ask what make / model you are looking to buy so I my be of some assistance.

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Originally Posted by prince666

Hi
I don't live far from Yantai.

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I thought you were in Hainan still. Are you back in Longkou now?

I'm looking for an RX-3 but I've also been considering a Jialing JH200GY. The zongshen dealerships are plentiful in Yantai. It's the Jialing dealerships I can't seem to find. But this isn't something I'm unable to do. I really just wanted stories to get a better idea about the process and issue that people have had.

Prince...How is your bike registered? Is it registered to you for your address?

Hi Peter !
You are still about I did tried and ring you earlier last year, ok I am still in Thailand due to ride back to Hainan in about 5 weeks time then will drive my car back to Longkou in the Mayday free expressway days . Now if you can wait till then I can give you a hand to sort out the bike you wish to purchess . One of our club bike member Mr Wang has many contacts with the motorbike industry so I am sure he can find the bike at a good price you are looking for

My CFMoto TR is in my name and can be done you just need to know the process .
Hope I can be of some assistance when I get back to Longkou .

Peter is the Australian who tried to start a dirt biking club in Yantai. I'd be interested to meet a bike club in Yantai. My Chinese is getting better and I completely lack friends who share my interests, e.i. motorcycling, carpentry, camping. So yeah, when you get back, please please please introduce me. But I'm pretty sure I can be in the saddle in a month.

Any more stories?