Shineray / XinYuan X5 review

Shineray X5 review


Today I took my new Shineray X5 home.
Here are the first photos and the impression of the initial 60km.

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After checking the engine oil, filling gasoline and add the battery I have demanded the dealers mechanic to let the engine revolve by starter while the „kill switch“ was off to avoid the bike fires up. The engine never run before and i want to make sure the oil pump distributes at least a minimum of oil.


After this step I started the bike first time …. and it started without any delay and run smooth in idle speed at about 1500 RPM. I had to prevent the mechanic to rev up the engine immediately as they love to do. He looked at me with a smile like thinking „crazy LaoWai“.


I rev up carefully to not more then 2500 RPM several times and then took a first ride for some meters to see whether clutch, gears, brakes, etc works.
Checked the lights and found the front right turn signal not working. But as I waited already 2 hours for them I said they have to care this when I come back after 300km for oil change. They needed that 2 hours to search and go to get a battery belong to this bike type.


After filling gasoline full nearby I went the first 10km not over 3000RPM. At this RPM the engine was rough and you could feel that's not what she wants. Over the next 50km with a lot of gear switching, start and stops I ended up between 4 to 4.5k RPM. From 3.5k on the engine gets more smooth and you can feel over 4k RPM she wakes up. 4.5k RPM is about 90km/h.
But this speed I reached at the end just during short speed up phases to avoid over stressing on the first run. So far everything fine.


What I like very much is
a) the high sitting position with great overview in the city traffic.
b) the low weight and therefore the riding flexibility


As i am used to my 300kg heavy weight HD it feels for me like bicycle riding. In a long line of stopped cars in front of a traffic light I had a big fun to go in fast slalom between the cars. …. Guys & girls: DONT DO THAT!! (bad behavior)


What I need to observe (i don’t want to complain immediately)
a) the clutch is (still?) hopping rough sometimes
b) the gear down shifting is sometimes rough and you get the feeling you miss the gear or you are somehow in between. But when i release the clutch i was in the gears (strange … maybe because its not grind in??).


Experts … lets hear your comment regarding clutch and down shifting.


Found shortages:
a) some rough frame welding seams
b) cable works could be improved
c) defect front right turn signal
d) ends of side panel stickers coming off

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Next steps:
a) Tomorrow I will take the X5 to the mountains to have more gear switching and good alternation of load through all gears.
b) Additional I will have the first gasoline consumption check. Lets see whether she is thirsty.
c) Check all screws, nuts, bolts if something got lose. (during the initial 60km nothing was found lose)
d) Adjust the rear suspension as it is a bit soft for my weight

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BTW:
I downloaded the Honda XR400 service & repair manual.
I believe with that i can do maintenance on my one as long I do not need special tooling.

Thanks ShuBen for your excellent posting. I currently have a Galaxy XTR250 and really want to upgrade to a 400cc. A friend and I visited our dealership in Shanghai today to ask about the X5. The dealer owner stated there are currently some quality issues with the X5 and advised us to wait about 2 months for Shineray to make corrections. We will be following your X5 review very, very closely over the next few months. Please keep up the good work and be as detailed as you can.

Congrats! :thumbsup:

It seems that they change color of the windscreen on the production bikes. That's good.

I'm not expert, but regarding the clutch - I personally would consult XR's manual, possibly made ​​some adjustments and gave him some time to break-in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zhaoman

The dealer owner stated there are currently some quality issues with the X5 and advised us to wait about 2 months for Shineray to make corrections. We will be following your X5 review very, very closely over the next few months. Please keep up the good work and be as detailed as you can.

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Shuben, it seems like you are Shineray's Guinnea pig :eek2:

The X5 moto Guinea is back .....

A great day to take the X5 to the Beijing mountains. So we did a 190km round course from ShuYi (Iron Horse) to SiHai (S213) , then heading the S323 east and turned south along the ShanBa road X004. Via HuaiRou we come back to ShunYi.

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I checked the oil level and tire pressure once more before start and took a set of tools, screw glue, cable strips and Leatherman. I was just careful as it is my first Chinese bike ... you never know.

Happily I can say afterwards that there was no need to use them. :-)

On the straight road to the foot of the mountains I let the engine run stable a 4 to 4.5k RPM (about 90km/h accord to speedo). But it maybe shows too less because one of our Harley guys helped my cross checking and said his speedo showed 100km/h. The road's speed limit is 70km/h and also the cars slowed down in front of the cameras and my speedo indicated 60km/h only. Never mind....

Engine:
In the mountains the bike did great! I kept it running between 3k and ca 4.8k RPM. That seems to be a perfect range for the torque. When open the throttle at 3k RPM too much the engine reacts rough but from 3.5k it realy doing well. At 4.8k RPM you can feel there is easily still more to rev up.
We had a fast run through endless serpentines, up, down, fast slow, ...... switching continuously gears between 2 and 5, open up the throttle between 3 and 4.8k RPM to let the engine work, break down to grind in the breakes. Even while taking care for the engine rev limit there was not any moment difficult to follow the other bikes.

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Clutch and gear:
The rough clutch got better but it still give me sometimes the impression like it snaps in in last moment with sound. Basically you only feel this during starting from 0km/h. During riding i didn't experience it.
The gear shifting works all in all good. Just twice during full down shifting from 5 to 1 I found I stepped on the lever, got a feedback like downshifting but in fact i was still in same gear. Releasing the clutch shortly solved to issue. I will follow this up.

Brakes:
After 256km the brakes doing good now. The brake forces between front and rear are nice balanced. The front can be operated with two fingers and bites well.

Driving characteristics:
The bike is well balanced and together with a V-Strom we left the two Sportsters easily behind. For my impression the bikes follows the intended curve lines very well and is stable. Fast alternating left/right curves haven't been a problem. Also when you have to close a curve radius or evade a stone you get the bike further down without difficulties. The Kenda tires do their job well.

Consumption:
256km and 10.7L equates to 3.93L/100km. In theory that gives range for 480km.
While the Sportsters had to fill up my gasoline tank was still half. :-)


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Conclusion:
Minor gear shifting and clutch problem.
Nothing got lose.
No real issues.
Lets see what about the long term stability and quality level.

Absolutely GREAT FUN !!!!!!

Nice looking bike! Thanks for the reports!

Excellent follow up report, Shuben. How is the FastAce suspension? How do you adjust the front forks and rear mono-shock? I am interested because I'd like to take the bike on some challenging single-track and real enduro type terrain. Also, I'm curious how the suspension performs with 2 people.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gregsw

Nice looking bike! Thanks for the reports!

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DITTO!

do you know if the X5 is available in the red/orange frame or only the black!