Kiwi test thrash ASIAWING LX450
Hi everyone,
Some more not so good info on these beasties, the starter motor although quite well built is totally useless in the brush/brush carrier department, burns out with in minutes, wrong capacity battery (supplied with a 4Ah when should be at last a 7) piss poor connections, & general sloppy assembly build cause them to fail after a few attempted starts.
So then onto the kick start then, well it works just fine until you notice your boot keeps slipping off, both the alloy arm & cast shaft bits are way to soft in the metals, & these suckers are not easy to push start.
Turns out the auto decomp mechanism is to blame, well you just can't ever seem to get enough adjustment out of it with out leaving a valve open at the crucial moment.
Air filter (as some of you would have seen via a previous translated thred looks & is literally like a homemade jack up just to get home.
Some of the components that come into contact with petrol start to fail very early, ie;
1, Fuel lines go all gooey-tarry black, to the point they swell up & fall off, also the fuel hose clamps must be made out of paper clips, totally useless.
2, The tank cap starts to bulge & turn grey, then simply splits open.
3, Water hoses are of very average quality, but the clamps are once again, shite, maybe its just the cheap out of date Australian petrol we sometimes get here in NZ, but whats it doing to the carby internals?
4, Nearly all the electrical cabling is under engineered too short at both ends by 1/2 inch, as are the control cables.
5, The side stand bends.
6, Almost nothing has a washer on it where needed, mind you, what 'Made in China' product has got washers on its nuts & bolts, must be an expensive item in China!
7, They DO NOT idle at anything under 2200rpm with out stalling, absolutely no use at all trying to ride down a hill to use engine braking.
8, Factory suppied chains although 520 'o'-ring failed within the 15 mins of use.
9, Factory supplied tyres (Kings) are OK but pattern was for very hard compacted conditions, but easily changed to suit of course, tubes were wafer thin push bike jobs.
10, Yes clutch operation is huge, evidently just a incorrect lever & post selection.
11, Factory fitment of fuel tap means you can't actually use it (fouls with water hose) so remotely mounting it 1/2" down frame does the trick (are you listening Asiawing ?)
12, Gear change lever fouls on casing, needs bending/grinding to work.
13, Test machines were damaged (rads, plastics, lights, throttle, etc)during shipping due to piss poor attention to securing the bike in the frame, once again, 2c worth of steel AND some big washers to bolt to head stay & problem gone, still listening !
However the 2 sample machines (1 MX version & 1 Enduro) were very kindly loaned by the NZ importer to 'see what we thought', and I have to say as a CRF & WR 450 fan these machines could really be something, bags of power & in a few laps with a long straight were just as quick as a stock 06 CRF450, just the wrong tyres let it down on the day, but they sure sound good.
As for doing a bit of trail riding...........hopeless, kept stalling at low revs right when you need your wits about you to negotiate a slippery tree root or river crossing...........no lecky start.......kick lever bent.... just great.
No issues with the suspension, took eveything we threw at them, rumor has it they are in fact manufactured by Ohlins.
Brakes good, may be pads could do with being a softer compound.
Frame & rims look really nice, said to be made in Italy, hubs are a bit rough cast looking, spokes & head bearings were all loose on arrival, wonder what it would cost to get the assembly line to spend 10 more mins to tighten, QC chap must have been at lunch again.
The importer advised me that an upgrade is planned later in the year with the following items'
1, Proper Mukini carby, with full 'push-pull' throttle assembly
2, Better tyres
3, Better chain
4, Uprated battery (no mention on stater motor)
5, Better kick levers........wont need em if they sort lecky motor!)
6, Uprated 41mm single to 48mm twin cartridge shocks (Ohlins)
7, Air filter may be sourced locally
8, Revised clutch lever setup, ........why not go hydr ?
9, Alternative muffler (hopefully a spark arestor) man are they LOUD!
Overall it still looks like a China bike unless you bling it up a bit, but then the cost is likely to be just under 2/3 of a Honda, but at that rate so is good 2nd hand genuine item !
We spent several hours one night just seeing what would swap out with a mates 06 CRF 450, well you name it, it fitted............so Asiawing, just sort the typical China bike lack of assembly care, don't use the absolute cheapest of components avail & you may get into gear with them, but don't take too long.
Due to the low volume of new bikes sold in NZ its probable that stock will be drawn from Oz, where a quicker more constant supply of spares would be available, or just fork out for genuine.
cheers.