QianJiang 150-19A

After 2 months and 3,000km of ownership it is time for my report on the QianJiang 150-19A.



The strange transformers insignia:

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...angpics189.jpg
Buying and Plating:
I looked at several options. I am very grateful to all the posters on the forum for advice about buying and plating, but found it quite frustrating to locate a reliable dealer in BJ. Either I couldn’t find this information on the forum or it doesn’t exist. Finding a dealer is a chicken and egg scenario – now I have the bike I have come across lots of bike shops around 4th ring road, but prior to that, they were impossible to find.
The first shop I found was east of BeiYuanLu North, which had a good, cheap selection. I was torn between the QianJiang and the Honda RR150, which has been discussed elsewhere on the forum:
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...p/IMG_0326.jpg



This is undoubtedly a better machine, but I was after something that felt more authentically home grown. The QianJiang is also better looking in my opinion. While I love the colours, USD forks and tank styling, I also liked the no-nonsense wheels which appear to have come off a locomotive (also slightly wider than the Honda), and the fact that it retains some less flashy elements such as twin shocks, rear drum (which I prefer on a bike this size), and a kickstart – all of which the Honda has done away with.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...ur_china14.jpg

(Sorry I don't have a good normal shot of the bike, but there are others elsewhere on the forum)
While I liked the shop’s price, I didn’t like the fact that it was so far away from me, and their very basic workshop – i.e. greasy patch in front of the shop with assortment of hammers.
I also found a guy from bj.58.com/ in South of Beijing who was selling a very low mileage (<1000Km) example with legit A plates for a great price. After a test-ride I was decided, but despite my appeals, he was reluctant to sell it to me as he was convinced that I (as a foreigner) was unable to complete the transfer. In the end, and running out of time, I went to Beijing Riders. They had the bike and could help me plate it fairly reliably. I paid a little more for the bike, but by that time I had no other options, and thought the fact that they were near my work was more convenient as there was lots of to-and-fro during plating. My experience with them:
To be clear, BR is not a bike shop. It is web-based service run by a couple of Ecuadorian guys, Freddy and Paul, linked to a shop in N. Wangjing. I admire their entrepreneurial spirit and they are perfectly honourable in their dealings, but the fact is that BR is not their main occupation and it proved very frustrating raising them on the phone when I really needed help. When I ran into problems, therefore, I was dealing solely with the shop. The shop itself is not bad. The guy I dealt with was efficient and communicative, although it was tough going with my basic Chinese skills. Likewise their mechanics were generally OK. There are at least 2 idiots there who are no help at all, but that’s not a unique situation. The thing that really annoyed me was after having handed over tens of thousands of yuan for the bike and plate, one of these guys still tried to stiff me for 20-30¥ on a disposable lock.
The plating took a while and was very frustrating, although not the fault of BR. I live in a diplomatic residence. These places issue their own residency forms. I had experienced a similar problem when getting my license. The office wouldn’t accept these forms. So down to the PaiChuSuo to get a more ‘official’ one. I had to do this twice for my licence. When it came to plating, they didn’t like the fact that it was hand-written. Back to the PaiChuSuo. While I can see the printer and the forms in front of her, the ***** behind the counter refused to issue one as I lived in a diplomatic compound!! Back again to plead with them. Still no luck. As a last resort, my wife offered to go and organize it. My wife tends to get her way. No luck. In the end I waited a day, went back when different staff were on duty, went with a nice letter (dear honourable PaiChuSuo) and a jacket and tie, and they agreed to write one. TIC.
Eventually I got the plate.

The riding:
Everything workd well out of the box.
The gearbox is not too clunky and has a round-the-world pattern (i.e. N-1-2-3-4-5-N-1-2-3-…) which I like. The brakes are fine for a bike of this power. The commute seemed pleasant enough. It wasn’t until I took it out for a spin in the hills North of BJ that I really appreciated the set-up. When I first looked at the bike in detail, I was alarmed to see that the down tube stopped at the engine mounts. i.e. the engine is a structural component. I had never seen this on any of my other bikes. The frame that was there also looked flimsy compared to what I am used to. I have now seen similar configurations on many Chinese bikes, but whatever they have done, they have done it right, because this bike is perfectly stiff enough and so well balanced it feels built for cornering. Of course there isn’t much power there, but it is perfect for the city and there is plenty to get up and down the hills. The rubber is a Chinese brand called Cordial, which seem sticky enough. Any views on these or replacements when the time comes would be welcome.
Some of the components look very cheap. When I first saw the wiring, it reminded me of the sort of thing I have seen inside kids’ toys, but overall the bike is better than I had expected. I am very happy with it so far.
It is also super-cheap to run. The manual gives an MPG of 81, which is quite impressive. On my trip with Filipu, I was regularly getting up to 90, and this was on lots of uphill and flat-out sections. It also reckons to hold 17l of fuel, which is nearly 4.5 gallons! This means a range of 500Km before you even need to look for a filling station.
Time will tell how reliable it is, but I plan on riding it through as much of the winter as I can bear, so we will see.


The modifications:
Nothing major
A very chunky Luma lock
Crappy taobao alarm
Decent spark-plug
Crappy taobao iphone bracket
Charging circuit to main ignition switch (thanks to this forum for the info)
This shows the cable emerging from the instrument cluster. The adapter plugs into this. I also have another plug that is gummed up with hot glue - hey presto! a (slightly more) weatherproof connector.

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...rgingcable.jpg



Enhanced horn (more below)
Ubiquitous Adlo Box (more below)


Adlo/Ikea hack:
Most top boxes have limited options for tying down other luggage, presumably the basis that they don’t want to encourage over-loading. But touring always requires some additional bags. I had some nice stainless and nylon marine fittings that I was going to fit to the Adlo box until I came across these in IKEA:
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...angpics192.jpg
They are SÄTTA kitchen door handles. They come in packs of 6. Very cheap. Turns out they make ideal budget Adlo fittings. Not only can you tie things down to them while still being able to access the box, but they make an over-loaded box easier to shut and easier to carry if you remove the whole thing. If you also put hooks on the inside bolts, you can stretch shock cord to fix things to the inside lid, which can be useful.

Enhanced horn:
The stock horn is really too ‘polite’ for Beijing traffic. This upgrade has a little more authority and while not ear-splittingly loud, it now sounds like a car. Taxis especially seem to take notice now where they would ignore the old horn. Please note that this mod requires a relay circuit and fuse as it is now drawing 8A.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...p/newhorn1.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...p/newhorn3.jpg



Help:
I would be grateful if any forum members could direct me to the following on Taobao or other online source:
Front brake pads
A decent chain
A decent sprocket set
I am thinking of playing with the ratios. The current configuration is 15:43 teeth. The front spocket doesn’t look as though it has a lot of room, but I believe the tuned version of the bike has 40 teeth on rear sprocket. Any links to suppliers would be gratefully received.

Hey LBTM:

Thanks for doing this - I've been quite curious about these bikes. The Adlo/Ikea tip is really clever - looks good and it is a definite improvement for securing additional bags. The horns are a must for any bike in China.

I agree re the rear drum on a small bike. The difference in stopping power is negligible - only 30% of a bike's stopping power is in the rear, and a rear disc's gain on a light bike is only about 10%, therefore the overall increase in emergency stopping power (this would be the maximum gain) is about 3%. A few years back, Yamaha issued a technical paper on rear discs, even going as far to assert that the only reason it does rear discs on <650cc bikes is because of customers' expectations & beliefs.

The RTW gear pattern is a love-hate thing, in my case. One of my bikes has it, and I am constantly screwing up my shifts. But it is good to keep me thinking about gears.

Again, thanks! Hope to hear more about your experiences with the bike.

Thanks LaoJiaHou,
Very interesting about the brakes. I hadn't heard that before. It just always seemed sensible to me when the rear brake is not doing so much work then you want something that is maintenance-free, particularly as the rear wheel seems to get muddy and oily very easily.
The gear pattern is only usable on this bike as it has a digital gear indicator. Without this, I would be looking for a 6th gear all the time - one of the reasons I might play with the ratios when it is time for a new chain+sprocket.

Qjiang has been an interesting one to watch since its acquisition of Benelli. There's all these empty promises of a 600cc inline four, but in the mean time this 150 is definitely an interesting proposition. And in my opinion by far the best looking bike in its class in china!

Thanks a lot for taking the plunge and writing about it here. It sounds like a treat to ride. If our dear Ekki does indeed get one of her own next month, i'll try to steal it off her and post my thoughts in this thread.

Last thought: that transformer style QJ logo is a genius marketing move in china. I suspect it alone will be responsible for at least half the sales.

it's getting a bit chilly here in Xi'an now, but the damp weather isn't putting a damper on my spirits! I'm almost 100% prepared to buy the bike as soon as I get my salary, but there are two things that are making me hesitate:

1. if I buy from a dealer here in Xi'an, would it be more difficult for me to get it plated in Beijing after I ship it back home? I plan on getting a Jing B plate (wanna move outside the 4th ring road to give me an excuse to ride everyday!), but if the bike wasn't purchased from a dealer in Beijing, how do I go about getting it plated?

2. the rotary gear system.. i remember someone here warning me against purchasing a bike like this when i first signed up on this website.. is it really that big of a deal??

if someone here can convince me that it won't be too troublesome to get my new Squeazel a pretty little Jing B necklace and that i won't accidentally kill myself with this gear arrangement, then this bike will 100% be sitting in my carpark this time next month! :)
:riding:

I have been meaning to reply to your query on about the different models: "19A and 19C"
It seems that the C has some cosmetic changes and is slightly more tuned:
A. 8.2Kw = 11.0HP
C. 8.7Kw = 11.7HP
There is some good user information on Motorfans.com, but struggling with googletranslate a bit.
They seem excited about the D model which is tuned to 12.9HP, although it looks as though you have to have have flat paintwork and not the great metallic colours on the lower models.
I only noticed recently that the bike is being marketed as the 钱江龙 - the QianJiang Dragon - a venerable name for a future classic!

Regarding plating, I leave it to other better informed members to advise.
I think that if you have the FaPiao then a JingB plate should be possible. I would take care not to do any modifications before you do this plating, though.
Regarding the gear system. I have accidentally slipped into neutral a few times, but this is not a big problem. Overall, I like it, as you don't always have to move up and down the gears in traffic. The digital gear indicator makes it easy to check where you are.

Having had a chance to ride Ekki's QJ 150 yesterday, here are my thoughts.

Out of the box i'm pretty impressed, you get a lot of bike for your 8000 RMB. First it's really is great looking bike, i stand by my previous statement that this is the best looking bike in its class in china, by far. The finish is very good, that deep Benelli green metallic paint is just glorious you can notice the attention to detail everywhere on the body. This is no parts-bin bike, everything was designed for it and fits well, from the indicators right down to the fuel petcock. The level of equipment you get is impressive too, i wish my bike had a handlebar mounted choke lever and a fuel gauge in the dash board. I also wish my bike had a 17L tank...

I didn't get to open it up, just a 20min ride through some heavy traffic. The bike is very well balanced, the seating and steering feel neutral and it happily tips into corners. All the controls are easy, the clutch is light enough, the front brake (which has an adjustable lever) only needs two fingers. The rear drum brake is perfectly adequate, i'd go so far as saying it's better than the rear disc on my Qingqi which just locks up as soon as i touch it, which is useless. I'd happily trade some braking power for a bit more feel. The power is what you'd expect from a simple 150cc engine like this, nothing spectacular but enough to have fun with at lower speeds.

I don't dislike the RTW gear pattern, in fact in traffic it's quite handy to go into neutral straight from 5th. You can get used to either easily, but i'd hate to have two bikes with different patterns and constantly have to readjust.

Overall i'd say it's good bike at a great price. If they made a model with a bigger engine there would probably be one parked downstairs at my place!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by felix

I also wish my bike had a 17L tank...

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17L? How did they get it up this amount when the tank cover looks relatively small?
Did they adopt the Buell "fuel-in-tank" concept? :icon10:

1 FUEL IN FRAME (U.S patent 6,484,837): Unlike traditional motorcycles, which have a fuel tank sitting atop the frame and engine, Buell and his team spent more than a decade devising a way to distribute the weight of the fuel (as much as an additional 50-60 lb.) throughout a production feasible aluminum frame. The idea was to have at least one hollow beam that could be adapted to hold the fuel, along with a separating wall between the beam and the steering head. "The idea really came about while I was racing at Daytona and when I came in for refueling and left the pits the bike transformed from this light and agile machine to a big fat whale and it took me two laps to get used to the additional weight and that got me thinking what if there wasn't a gas tank and the weight of the fuel could be better distributed throughout the frame," Buell says. The change created another advantage for cooling the Harley V-Twin motor by allowing the space for the gas tank to be used for the plastic injection molded airbox, providing an enormous amount of cooled air directly onto the engine.

Hi every one i'm new on this forum and i'm very happy to find it !! i live in Beijing and i just bought a 钱江龙 QJ150A in gry color !!! very happy till now is my second bike, looking for people for small trips around Beijing

Congratulations alex.c! My 钱江龙 still going strong. I hope yours gives you as much fun.
Look forward to meeting sometime.

Hi all, i'm new on this forum and i just bought a QJ150-19A in Black color but i don't have a user manual. Pls share it for me if you have it. Thanks!

(Warning this user review borders on a ride report)

Attachment 8355

There she is, my new QJ 150 (previously Ekkies). Gorgeous isn't she! Now I know what you're thinking, "It's only a 150 Andy, get over it." Well I whipped her sexy little 150cc arse through the QinLing mountains, along the banks of the ChangJiang, along the epressway, through guodao's and xiangddao's alike, 2,200 km from Xi'an to Shanghai and we did it in only 3 and a half days including two hospitalizations (for the bike, not me) and let me tell you, she's not just a 150.

City: First as has been previously mentioned she is a good-looking bike. Chicks love it... when it's clean and shiny. Pulling out I see you watching me, I know I'm cool, take-off, my coolness is Fonzylike. Into first gear, the tires are slipping, she sounds like a WW2 bomber flying overhead...ah yess, here we go, up into second,, oh fuck thats neutral fiddle with the gears, the bike is screaming, the girls are laughing, Fonzy is gone, hurrying away from the shame you swing onto the ring road. This bike is made for cornering (more on that in the mountains), weaving in and out of traffic, no probs there. Traffic lights, one simple downshift and your in neutral, very handy for coasting to red's. It is a aggressivly loud tho but you grow to love it.

Country: When your "flying" along at 70kmph the last thing you need is for your bike to suddenly be in first gear, that's what you get when your not used to RTW gears and you're not paying attention. When it's dry it's just a bit of fun, but if it's wet... Luckily it didn't rain for my whole trip. Slipped into first two or three times but then again I'm a novice.
I've only ever ridden the QingQi (god rest his soul) extensively and found that I tend to sit more forward and crouching down into the corners helped me to get deeper into it. I was using this tried and tested method on the QJ but to no avail, after 2 hours in the mountains I was falling asleep. Finally, I don't know if it has to do with all the fuel in the front, or the backpack on the back, or just the style of bike but leaning back into my backpack backrest, nocking it down a gear and burning out of the corners made for some unforgettable riding. I think there're few better feelings in the world. And when you're Schumachering it around corners, up and down mountains here's some food for thought. You M'sPG are on par with that of those big oaf sidecars (citation needed). Luckily QJ with their 1 million litre fuel tank have got you covered, I got 400 km of riding out of it before I had to refuel (I haven't yet run far into the red on the fuel.gauge...ie I havent added much more than 10L of petrol at one time). Flying out of a mountain corner and down a big open hill, squeeling with delight like a little girl (bear in mind I haven't ridden for a few months) I managed to get a max speed of 94ish, that's gps speed, the clock said 110, there was still more left in her but I ran out of space. For all practical purposes that's the top speed, I did manage to get more though, which brings us onto the motorway.

Expressway:
The second day I arose at 5, hoping to make it 800km to WuHan in time for dinner, I was on the road by half past. Come half past 6 I had a front tire puncture in a three house village. As fortune would have it the next village (maybe ten houses) there were three dealerships.. QJ, suzuki and haojue. Apparently the QJ has tubeless tires and if you and/or your mechanic are not completly useless you can be back on the road in just a few minutes. In my case it took hours, I don't want to talk about it. Anyway it was decided that if I wanted to get to WuHan in time for tea I would have to give up the remaining twisties and take 'er out on the expressway. Flat against the tank, moving down a 5km long hill recorded a top speed of 98.6kmph, the rev counter had just jumped into the red so I laid off and pulled into a rest area for a break. On the road again, I was considering the speed difference and handling etc. and trying to decide if the qj was a better bike than the qq and then it just stopped working. 20 km from the next exit is not a good place to be with a broken bike....

GuoDao:
There was some problem with the carbeuretter, I didnt see exactly because I was trying to get my new-found kitten to drink something. Was back on the road the next day at 8am. Between that and 8pm me and the qj covered some 750-800 km of national roads with only one real break. Dont know what happened the day before, whether it was some assembly issue, something to do with red zoning or what but the problem was gone. The bike kept a steady speed for hours on end without getting hot or freaking out, max speeds were in the 85 region. I reckon you can get over 800km per million litres (or one full tank) with that kind of driving. I didnt measure so I can't be sure... I refuelled twice but the tank wasn't near empty ever.

XiangDao (read PunishMent):
Anyone who has driven west to east through HeFei will have to concur that there is probably no worse place on earth to ride a bike, especially if I has little to no off road capability. It began slow, perfectly smooth roads punctuated with deep-deep potholes and large mounds where they overfilled them with tarmac. I hit more than one of them at near top speed, I could totally see the wheel just crumpling or the shocks giving in but the Qj was having none of it. Things went from bad to worse. Completly f***ed roads, riding through impenetrable clouds of dust for hours (thanks for that route felix!!), more and more of the same. Smashing into and out of potholes, the shocks were getting a real workout, I even got sideswiped once in a dust cloud (luckily my leg was between van and bike so no damage done to her lovely paint). Still she just kept on going. 13 hours of riding made us the final 700 k's home. Tomorrow she's getting a wash and having the tire pressure checked, air-filter cleaned etc.

Problems:
Tires:Unlike moboguy I found the tires to be less than sticky. Countless times I felt the tires spinning when taking off. I dont know if I can just get better rubber or it they'd have to be slicks to make a difference and f slicks.
Grips: Very uncomfortable over long distance, very hard contours and get very sweaty in the evening
Handlebars: make for poor mounting of smartphone. I ended up just taping mine onto the side.
Have to actually move my whole leg to shift gears because of the placement, maybe thats normal with these kind of bikes...

Things that are great:
No nonsense set up. reasonable sized wheels, none of that "bananna in your shorts" plastic fairing shit up front.
Tank obviously
Transformer insignia, saved me 20 kuai on taobao :P. Its on the key too which is also nice
Throwing a backpack on the back without a luggage rack takes less than two minutes and provides a nice backrest, just worried it'll scratch the paint eventually.
Dealerships are everywhere. Still shitty mechanics but its comforting to know there are spare parts even in the countryside. Just ordering tubes for the qq to anji took three days.
Inexpensive!!
The lights work well in all modes straight out of the shop
RTW gears are kind of sweet
The dashboard seems to be pretty decent, the needles never bounce around, has a trip meter too but this can be unreliable.
Has fuel gauge AND a reserve tank (FU QingQi)
Exhaust cover so you dont burn yourself or your luggage and when it's fkd up you can just swap it out, no need to replace the exhaust
Kick start
The handlebar clutch thing is cool but I think it's only there because the way the engine is set up the engine mounted one is not easily accessible...
There's a centre stand!!!

Anyway I don't really know how to sum all of that up. I love it. The fact thats it's only a 150 adds to the appeal for me. Being a bit careless and trigger happy having a speed limit on the bike is safer for me while still a load of fun. Plus all the little extras, they've really put a lot of thought into it. It's a shame she's only going to be a transit vehicle now until october holiday....

A parting gift, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure I found this on another forum...

A lighter bike:
Attachment 8354

Ekicore must be happy the Squeazel has somebody that appreciates it.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7174/6...424a11e6_z.jpg

Rock on Andy! Mate you were seriously clocking up those kms, great stuff.

From September 24th we will be riding out east from Hohhot, down into Ningxia, into Qinghai and south to Chengdu. It'd be great to have u along..

T

I have a QJ 150-19C here in Wuhan it's a great little machine fast enough for getting around here and my daily commuter that's beats taking taxis any day!

Im very happy with it only gripe is the seat is a little uncomfortable after a n hours riding

astrob

Strange... This motorcycle is in some markets equipped in stock with oil cooler, and in other is without him...

this goes out to all you qj owners. I haven't got the manual yet so your help would be appreciated. Mine idles too low and so always cuts out at the lights. I have to keep reving it slightly to keep it going when in neutral. In my old bike there was a simple little screw that you can just twist with your fingers to change the idle speed. L'il help would be appreciated.

As for the liquid cooling, seems it might be a bit overkill and drive the price up. Like I said above I rode her from sunup to sundown and she didn't even blush. Only had one break of around half an hour for lunch and the rest was just one to five minutes tops and not many of them!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corporal_clegg

this goes out to all you qj owners. I haven't got the manual yet so your help would be appreciated. Mine idles too low and so always cuts out at the lights. I have to keep reving it slightly to keep it going when in neutral. In my old bike there was a simple little screw that you can just twist with your fingers to change the idle speed. L'il help would be appreciated.

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Post a picture of the carb and I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction. I doubt Qjiang is using anything different than the other companies here.

Cheers!
ChinaV

I just went to check the tire pressure and the mechanic pointed it out to me so, sorted. Pressure was at half the reccomended. I told the guy in the bike shop last time the pressure I wanted, he did it by ear and possibly some kind of sixth sense, "the bike whisperer" they called him. I guess I must have lost some air on the road :P

Please do not take things like chain adjustments and tire pressure on good faith. Far too often they are done incorrectly which will cost you valuable time and money in the long run. I do my tire and chain checks weekly and usually every day when on a long trip, it's a good habit to get into and requires almost no mechanical skill.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChinaV

Post a picture of the carb and I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction.

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Or directly to advise a man to look for brass screw with spring at the body of the carburettor.

odd that it has no idle adjustment
you can always adjust it at the cable ...
just alter the cable length while the bike is running
when it idles without holding the throttle
job done