in praise of the Yamaha YBR 250

hi guys,
thanks to your forum´s help i purchased 6 ybr250cc´s for my tours in china / tibet. altough we could not make it on our planned route from chengdu to lhasa (temple of heaven know´s why they are not issuing permits for regions we´d have to pass on our way...) we started from xining via golmud namtso lake, mt. everest base camp and back via shigatse, gyantse and bayi to lhasa where we arrived yesterday.
after we clocked 4300km on the ybr´s we arrived without a single problem on the bikes. (ok, i admit there is oil leaking (from the very beginning) out of a gasked on the clutch case)
road ride is perfect and even the offroad portions from yangbacheng towards shigatse, up to everest base camp and after tsedang where no problem for the more experienced riders. altough i have to admit offroad is definately not their strength as mentioned they where doing fine. thinking of experimenting with a different front wheel/tire here.
riding in the bikes with around 80km/h for the first 1000km and fuel consumtion showed around 2,7l/100km as a tour average.

can only recommend the bikes and i guess i will not purchase the jialing 600cc or any other dual purpose bike for the near future. will go for more ybr´s.

heiri

www.asiabiketours.com

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Originally Posted by heiri

chengdu to lhasa (temple of heaven know´s why

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if u're "lucky", the Outlaws from Kham region would... :taz:

Good to read of your biking venture! You need to advertise on horizonsunlimited.com/hubb as there are many, many members who are trying to figure out how to get their bike into China during one of their around the world rides--from what I understand it is next to impossible.

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Originally Posted by culcune

Good to read of your biking venture! You need to advertise on horizonsunlimited.com/hubb as there are many, many members who are trying to figure out how to get their bike into China during one of their around the world rides--from what I understand it is next to impossible.

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how do they say "impossible is nothing" :-) .... just very expensive! that is why our bikes are registered (and bought) in china.
horizons.. the forum link on my website www.asiabiketours.com is to horizons and i have an ad running there. thanks anyway!

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Originally Posted by humanbeing

if u're "lucky", the Outlaws from Kham region would... :taz:

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actually i´d rather think they would :clap: and ask if they could :riding: the bikes as they did on our last tours when we crossed the area

Hi Heiri,

I'm glad the YBR's worked out, please keep us posted on the modifications and general maintenance you are doing to keep them running. Since you are hitting the hard stuff with them, I think a lot of people will be interested to know how they hold up in the long run.

Cheers!
ChinaV

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I'm glad the YBR's worked out, please keep us posted on the modifications and general maintenance you are doing to keep them running. Since you are hitting the hard stuff with them, I think a lot of people will be interested to know how they hold up in the long run.

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+1

I'm still thinking about buying this bike....just the cost. 25,000 yuan for a single cylinder commuter bike with a rear drum is a bit expensive. But if it can really take serious long term abuse, then maybe it is worth the cost, or if a 2nd hand or bulk buy is possible, then even more maybe.

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Originally Posted by ZMC888

+1

I'm still thinking about buying this bike....just the cost. 25,000 yuan for a single cylinder commuter bike with a rear drum is a bit expensive. But if it can really take serious long term abuse, then maybe it is worth the cost, or if a 2nd hand or bulk buy is possible, then even more maybe.

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they cost me 22.000Y when buying 6pcs in chengdu. asking price was 23.800Y ... just told my tibet partner to tell them i get them for 22000 in kunming and since there was no negotiation any more i guess i could have got a better price... anyway - if i bulk up i will inform the forum just in case anyone (besides you) is interested in the bike. by the way... your (probably the best bike in china...) and chinaV´s advise where the main pointers for me... as already mentioned - thanks! keep you posted on the bikes performance this august again in tibet central but next may a tough one going northern route to kailash and southern route back to lhasa

YBR250??? how mach? i like it.......

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Originally Posted by heiri

they cost me 22.000Y when buying 6pcs in chengdu. asking price was 23.800Y ... just told my tibet partner to tell them i get them for 22000 in kunming and since there was no negotiation any more i guess i could have got a better price... anyway - if i bulk up i will inform the forum just in case anyone (besides you) is interested in the bike. by the way... your (probably the best bike in china...) and chinaV´s advise where the main pointers for me... as already mentioned - thanks! keep you posted on the bikes performance this august again in tibet central but next may a tough one going northern route to kailash and southern route back to lhasa

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got mine for 20,800rmb, for 6 you need to bargain harder. contact me if you want to buy another lot of them, maybe i can do something for you

your right, the YBR250 was handeling fine in Tibet. Did it 2 up in 2009, check here http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...u-Lhasa-Ali%29

better take some spare parts, you can not get any parts in Tibet, even the Yamaha shop in Lhasa need to order everything
My clutch was gone, so we needed to truck the bike back from Ali.

@ ZMC888 my used YBR250 is still for sale in Hunan. i just moved back to europe. pm me when intersted

[QUOTE=tokyokid;14931]got mine for 20,800rmb, for 6 you need to bargain harder. contact me if you want to buy another lot of them, maybe i can do something for you



better take some spare parts, you can not get any parts in Tibet, even the Yamaha shop in Lhasa need to order everything
My clutch was gone, so we needed to truck the bike back from Ali.

::: been touring ladakh "littel tibet" in india therfore the delayed replay::: here we go now ---

will definately contact you when piling up my stock to get a better price...

and yes, no spares at all in lhasa... not in chengdu either by the way... everything at the factory.... if at all!

A fuel injected bike has to be a real advantage when you are up at those high altitudes.

That is not a bad deal. I had been getting a lot of help from this forum for over 8 months trying to figure out what to get. Ended up going with a small YBR125. I am finding that for the commute it is nice because it keeps up with traffic much better than my old Jialing JH70, and the ride is much smoother. Also loving the responsiveness of the breaks and the fact that I can leave the bike in gear while holding the clutch without it wanting to creep along! The handling is really nice as well! Since it feels like it is not even moving at about 70 km/h, I took a turn a bit fast the other day, but it dipped nicely and freaked the hell out of me when my toe scrapped the pavement! But popped right back up and along I went...


The other reason I got it was that when I was talking with moto lee, he was essentially telling me that with the higher quality of the yamaha engine, it was about equivalent to the qingqi 200cc. While this maybe true, one thing that I am noticing and not liking so much is the effect that wind and hills seem to have... not much power hitting a head wind or a steeper grade....

Either way, I am happy where I am and it is probably a good idea to increase the size slowly as if I went too big to fast, I might really hurt might self without leveling up smoothly...

I almost got a ybr 7 months ago, looking back, i wish I did. I was putt off by the skinny front shocks and I thought a 200cc Chinese bike ready with front and rear racks is a better deal. I like that the YBR is ready to go from day1, you get optimum performacne.
Wanglong, questions for you:
1) Did you get the fuel injection version? Did you get the street of dual sport version?
2) How does it handle rough roads? I like that my bike tracks well even on rough terrian, or hitting potholes/rocks/people. I don't even try to avoid potholes, it's actually fun to bounce off. That was my major concern with the YBR.
3) Did you try it two up going up mountains?
Sometimes I think of selling mine and "downgrading" to a YBR 125.

Hey Slabo,
I was in a similar situation where Motto Lee essentially told me that when it came to power and performance the YBR125 and the qingqi 200 were about comparable. The biggest difference (big for me) he said was that there are no problems starting the YBR in the winter time but chinese makes are always trouble. Don't have personal experience with this yet though.

As for your questions:
1. No, I didn't get the injected version. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, the 125s don't do that, only the 250's. Got the street version. Didn"t want the nobbies on pavement; makes for a rough ride.
2. Don't really know about rough roads. I hadn't even been near a rough road till I took it to the mountains just the other day. While there were dirt roads, I was cautious as I was there for a photo shoot and didn't want to dirty the think up, and I didn't trust the street tires to handle terribly well. Now, to me it seems to handle smoothly, but you have to take into comparison my previous experience of three wheelers in America and an ancient Jialing that and steel poles for shocks here! Not sure about the front forks, but the rear suspension seems to be a bit rough, but still better than what I had. This concern of yours maybe somewhat justified, but it has gotten better since I readjusted the rear suspension after visiting the dealer the last time.
3. You have perfect timing as I just took it up the mountains the first time on Tuesday. The one thing that I have noticed is that even though it is small it has plenty of power, until you start to reach its limits, which are fairly low being such a small engine. So things like grades and head winds, it can handle pretty well until you start to hit 80/90 kp/h. At that point it gets really bogged down and it is slow getting up to its peak speed. The other thing is that at that speed, it is difficult to control in the wind. I have never had a bike that fast before so I am not sure if it is a common issue or a design one, but it may also be b/c it is smaller and lighter it gets tossed around a bit. The thing about the mountains is that you don't ever really reach its limits because they are fairly curvy and it's hard to get that fast. But it had more than enough power to get around cars and speed up the hills. Couldn't do much about the assholes in the other lane passing on blind corners.

I had a headon collision with a small minivan. I think impact was at about 20km/h speed. Bent his front fender, and dropped the bike, but started the bike a few minutes later, no problems. Front fork absorbed the impact and didn't bend. That's a plus for Qinqi / Shineray .. other bikes... big fat front shocks to bend other people's fenders. Another plus for the YBR is the build quality. Huge differnce here. Stuff fits properly, everything just clicks into place. And I don't think anything would rust.
90km/h ! That's as fast as you want to go on suburban roads in China. I can't go that fast with my knobby tires.
Fuel injected 125 ... http://www.yamaha-motor.eu/eu/produc...cc/ybr125.aspx not sure about Chinese yamaha website though.
About being tossed around, you are right, it's mostly because the bike is ~140 kg. But your body will learn to make continuous corrections to keep the bike stable in such conditions. What you need to do is take the bike on a long long trip, then you really get used to it. A plus to light bikes is you can hold them up with one hand, just before you drop it :icon10:
Ah, well, you win some, you loose some. I'm just happy i can ride.

Allow me to interject as I have had many bikes around this size and have been riding on Chinese roads a long time.

-Dual sport bikes are better for off-road and on those poorly maintained potholed roads so common in China. But really any bike with a regular riding position which is not too heavy and with a competent rider can negotiate fairly messed up roads and farm tracks pretty easily. The cheaper Chinese branded road bikes will need some bolt tightening and possibly re-welding before they can do this safely. Japanese branded bikes like the YBR will be able to do this from new.

-Many of the single cylinder bikes in China between 125cc-200cc perform in a very similar manner, especially up to about 90k/mh. The slightly bigger bikes just tend to be better at fighting wind-blast and going up hill and have a top speed which is a few Kms more, but it all comes down to sprockets and gearbox set-up. Different bikes use different emissions stuff, spark better or worse, have different carb set-ups or have more or less restricted exhausts. Some of the Japanese branded stuff have greener emissions and noise technology which in fact can make them seem slower as they are less noisy and more torquey.

-For me tires, brakes and gearboxes are the most important aspects.

i have a question. me and some friends are planning to travel from shanghai to paris by motorcycle. we were also thinking about buying a ybr 250 for that, since it seems to be suitable for this track and it will probably also be easier to find replacement parts in areas like kazakhstan or russia than for a bmw or ktm or other "high-class" bikes.

for me the only thing what i'm not sure yet is, if i can pack enough luggage on the ybr. i know it can have that luggage box in the middle above the rear wheel. but i would additionally need sideboxes and one of those boxes that you can put on the gas tank. is it possible to get that in shanghai? does somebody know where?

thx

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=4277233364
Those "commercial" version is developed by a "bald" teacher after his tailor-made saddle bag 4 Guangdong > Tibet trip. Many chinese long-distance road trip biker use that guy's product. He teaches English on weekdays, just call him at evening / lunch time http://shop59762481.taobao.com/

thanks a lot, that's exactly what i was looking for

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Deconstruction indeed! What the hell happened????

Is the rider OK?

Man, that sucks!
Please report on the source of these pictures, how is the driver?

was a lady on my tibet tour. on the way down from khamba la pass into the brahmaputra valley a bolder came down on her and fell right in front of her bike on the road. luckily she had good riding gear - bruised some rips but apart from that she is fine.

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Originally Posted by heiri

was a lady on my tibet tour. on the way down from khamba la pass into the brahmaputra valley a bolder came down on her and fell right in front of her bike on the road. luckily she had good riding gear - bruised some rips but apart from that she is fine.

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Nice to hear that she is fine, a bolder came down... really bad luck!

Never underestimate the importance of riding gear, by the look of the bike is hard to believe she suffered only bruises.