New rider in Beijing

Hi everyone,

Tim from Germany here. Been lurking on this forum every now and then since a couple of years. Now I finally decided to convert my European license to a Chinese one to explore Beijing surprisingly beautyful surroundings on two wheels.

I‘m hoping to get more time outside of the city that way, and also do some extended voyages. Would love to do the Lhasa Chengdu highway for instance, I know tho it‘s not without hassles.

Anyway, parallely to preparing for the license test, I am researching on bikes suitable for me. I did a couple of km on a BMW F800GS, with panniers and girl on the back and thats pretty much my ideal. Now, I can‘t afford a new one in China and there seem to be some weird rules to the max lifespan of a motorbike in Beijing.

I heard a bike can be max 11-15 yrs old? Can anyone confirm that or even better, name a source? That might ruin my plan for getting a GS for under 60K.

Besides that, some Chinese bikes are interesting too. JH600 (bit weak), CF 650 MT (seems small), SWM SD650ADV (expensive). Not considering the Benelli adventure bike, I just hate the design. The JH is fugly too, but in an honest and authenticly Chinese way.

I saw Yamaha XZR 1300s incredibly cheap used, obviously not really what I am looking for but for in between I might consider one - if I was sure about how that used thing works in BJ.

Any feedback highly appreciated.

Cheers, Tim

Hi Tim.

In BJ, the lifespan of Motorbikes of two wheels and sidecar is 13 years, and trike for 12 years.
Don't be so worry about it, after 13 years, you can still sell your sidecar without a license, although that makes it illegal, the price will not be affected so much.

As I know, there's only tiny difference on price of legal old bikes(older than 10 years) and smuglle in same conditions ones in China.

Hi H3rtz.
Why do you think the CFmoto 650 MT is small.
I am 6 feet tall 33" inside leg.
And to me it's not small.

IMO A nice size bike and not too much Kg.

Attachment 20134

I refer once more to the Motrac MG500.
If you a want legal western or Japanese bike you find them 2nd hand, but don't expect them to be cheap.

Sent from my GN8003 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the replies guys!

So I went out last weekend to check out some bike shops. Went to SSGP and Datone, and sat on a Shineray X5 (is cheap and felt cheap), SWM Silver Vase (tank doesn‘t fit my legs), Ducati Scrambler (84K used, no thanks), BMW F700GS (see Ducati but with 96K), Benelli Leoncino Trail , Benelli TRK502 (freaking heavy), Benelli BN 600 and CF Moto 650MT. Didn‘t see any Jialings.

Long story short, I dropped a down payment today on the Leoncino because I kinda fell in love with it. Felt best quality wise, gf liked back seat position best and fit my 184cm pretty well. Tad small maybe.Actually I wanted an adventure bike, but won‘t do any adventure trips this year anyway and... ok, no more rational reasons. It‘s an emotional thing with the Leoncino, I fully admit.

Thanks for the tip with the Motrac @Shuben, looked it up and it would have fit the bill, just didn‘t see it anywhere and I really want to get riding asap.

@prince666, I tried the MT and indeed it‘s not a small bike. The wheels are 17“ though and that gives it a smallish look together with the high rider position that I kinda dislike. Looks like the bike is under you rather than around you. Hard to describe and probably irrelevant for most people. It would have been my second choice after the Leoncineo though.

Used import bikes I ruled out. Too many good china made options these days to drop that amount of extra money. And worse resale value because pof that stupid 13 yr limit. A lot of of 1st gen GS are still on the road after 50 years, so what?

Thanks for the attention, and see you on the road!

hi h3rtz

any feedback on your Leoncino Trail? saw some of them on the road, looks pretty good and promising.

Hi a_steel,

didn't come here in a while, too busy riding haha! I wanted to write a review when season is over, but here's a preview:

So far I'm pretty happy with the bike. It's got more than 4000km on the meter and I haven't had any issues with it (it's getting 2nd service atm at Datone).

Performance is decent even with luggage and girl, stable and easy to ride. Very cultivated engine, doesn't stall, didn't die in 40 deg C in an uphill traffic jam where we circled around collapsed cars. It's not a light bike though and gets to the limit quite early off the road. Well, that was to be expected, andI'm still happy it has dual sport tires on and a bit more ground clearance than the standard Leoncino for the occasional construction section and abandoned street. I even did several km of dirt road with it, again with girl and luggage, but had to turn around when the rocks comprising the track started to become coconut sized.

I do have some criticism though: rear shock is too hard, even on lowest setting. Didn't try to adjust damping yet. Also rear swing arm wobbles when breaking hard before curves, even if you include the rear brake. Lots of bikes do that though. Seat could be more comfortable, after 250km I start feeling my butt (my average day trips are 350-400km avoiding highways). Oh and some idiot bent down my plate light, and after I tried to bend it back it must have fallen off on some bad road. Not the bikes fault.

All in all very decent: versatile, reliable, pretty and cheap. I wish I could find a girl like that haha.

Best, Tim