This is the story of my first 10000km with my beloved FYM 150-3. It explains why i bought such a cheapo bike, how it has always performed well, and how much time and money i have spent on maintenance and glitches.
And if you can't be bothered to read it here is the summary judgement:
Commuting
+ Reliable everyday
+ Handling and engine as good as any Kawasaki or Honda driven back home in France
+ <5l/100km in fast commuting. Not great but roughly 5 times cheaper than using a taxi.
+ Stability and good brakes in emergency
- Front brake feels too mushy – but does the job
- Indicators crap out and headlight is weak
- No choke cable. Have to fiddle under the saddle every morning
-Matt black paint starts wearing off after 6 months
Long distance
+Reliable. Handles sand storm, snow and rain. Ignition works in very cold or damp weather
+Fairly powerful. 11.8hp enough for 2 people uphill
+ Saddle is as comfortable as a scooter’s
-Headlights too weak and bad-indicators
- No good baggage rack. Have to design one yourself.
If you live in Inner Mongolia, the enormity of the grassland is sure to stimulate even the most dormant explorer spirit. Sadly, I didn’t take Mongol courses as a kid and my Chinese is elementary. This means arranging transportation off the beaten track is difficult. You can always use a travel agency, but being people-carried around the grassland kills the whole adventure thing. Horses seem indicated but neither the private nor the National Olympic Training center at Hohhot SaMaChan agree to rent: you would have to buy one. The prospect of getting a horse when I’ve only ever owned a turtle is a bit daunting. Getting a motorcycle sounds great but I don’t picture myself breaking down Into the wild, fending wolves off with a broken transmission chain, eventually starving to death and being the subject of a very touching movie. A reliable machine sounds adequate, but they don’t carry KTM or BMW in Hohhot and I don’t have the first penny for an import.
So Bus no, Tour operator no, Horse no, Expensive bike no. Is there any chance that a cheap but brand new and well oiled bike will do?
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Made in China or bolted in China?
I was slowly but surely zeroing on a reasonably priced bike, probably the ubiquitous YAMAHA YBR 125 G or a Honda CB 125. Still, if you compare Japanese designed bikes and Chinese knock-offs, you are sure to find a price difference ranging from 4 to 6 thousand RMB. That’s a wide gap for similar machines. And to make matters worse, Italy’s Piaggio or Japan’s Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda are bolted in China anyway. The big question for the budget conscious is: can’t you just rely on homebred manufacturing to travel fast and far? For budget reasons, I went for the infamous 100% “made in China” label. So far, my FYM150-3 has clocked 10.000km on a shoestring, it has suffered a few glitches amounting to 300 RMB in maintenance and has made me very happy.
Buying and getting papers Km 0 - April 2009
I decided that if I bought a cheap bike and tightened/greased every bolt and tuned the carburetor myself with love, I would get a result close to that of a genuine Yamaha or Honda. I settled for a Cantonese made FEIYING FYM 150-3 which is exported in Brazil as “150-3” and in Austria as FYM “Express”. The motorcycle delivers 11.8 bhp for 131kg in dry weight. It sports a cheap 2.75 -18 front tire and a somewhat better looking 110/90 R16 at the back. The 162FMJ 149cc engine is a self professed Yamaha knock off but actually looks like a Honda CG150 engine. The bike comes in red, blue or matt black, with a convincing finish but a small cheap windshield and fake chrome mirrors and indicators. You can look up “gzxianglong2009” on Taobao.com to get genuine spare parts.
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The shop was willing to shave 10% off the original price tag - as was any other dealership around Hohhot’s old mosque. I got it for 5200 RMB. I had the front tire switched from a street to a dual sport one in order to improve handling on dirt. When the bike was handed over, a few guys started waxing the bike and bringing me cups of hot water by the dozen – why that’s awfully civil old chap - but nobody checked the battery, brakes… The clerks walked me through the process of registration, which is complex in Hohhot because only local ID holders can apply. I paid for the bike and added 650RMB in registration and 150RMB in insurance. I asked one of my best friends to be the legal owner of the bike and she lent her ID for the police registration - Li Yun, your name will be forever remembered in my personal motorcycle hall of fame. 4 days later, the dealer asked me to come to the shop and drop the bike for a few hours to drive it to the traffic police quarters, after which they handed it back to me with legal plates, registration, guarantee, etc. During that operation, I kept the bills and factory certificate with me, so that I never had the horrible feeling that somebody was running away with my bike and money.
Breaking in Km 0 to 500 - May 2009
An import bike website had taught me Chinese bikes were great but had to be taken apart and put back together properly because workers didn’t know a thing. That proved to be online biker hyperbole, but I did prepare a rather paranoid Excel checklist with everything to control before driving. I went home and on the way, picked T-spanners 8, 10 and 13, flat spanners 10, 15 and 17, a screw driver and a grease gun for under 100RMB. As soon as I arrived home, I removed fairing, fuel tank and battery and started a major check. Every bolt big and small was as tight as Calvin Klein briefs; the brake and throttle cables felt greased and firm enough; chain was ok. After ticking the 50 plus boxes on my checklist, I still couldn’t find a single problem. Next morning my confidence was put to the test as the engine wouldn’t start. Annoying but minor: the main fuse under the saddle was blown but a spare one was there, ready to be fitted. Over two weeks I drove slowly, breaking the bike in at 50% to 70% throttle position. I never drove uphill, which is easy in Hohhot and I never took a passenger so as to avoid any stress on the engine. Upon hitting 500km, I stripped the bike naked again for a big check. Again, no sweat. I was starting to think that the whole “made in Japan” thing was overrated. One thing though: the front and rear wheel axles where not greased enough and were squeaking faintly. Every spring, small sand storms sweep over Hohhot, so I was not surprised to find roughly a sand castle inside each bearing. I washed the bearings and axles with hot water and soap, dried and greased them heavily before mounting the wheels back on. I also pealed the ugly stickers off, spray painted the wheels and fake chromium real plastic indicator covers with matt black and ordered steal rear view mirrors on Taobao.com to replace the crappy plastic ones. the following picture is "painted" on my computer to give me a first glimpse of what I was trying to achieve.
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Off road “light” & torn up roads & sand storms Km 500 to 4000 - June 2009
I had roughly 4000km without a problem. I drove a lot on the grasslands in Xilamuren and Huitengxile, up in the Daqing mountains and in the desert around Erdos. I fell way too often in the sand as I had – and still have – no idea how to drive on dunes. It’s painless except for my ego. How the hell do these guys do Paris-Dakar? I changed the oil early, as recommended on the maintenance book. The oil was a light maple syrup color and I found only a small deposit of metal particles stuck on the oil carter’s magnetic bolt. There was no sand in the oil, air filter or carb which came as a surprise. Comparatively, my excellent Fuji S5 pro camera, which shared the same desert (mis)adventures, got filled with sand after a storm. Despite my best air pressure cleaning and vacuuming efforts, I never managed to fix it and had to throw it away.
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The impressions that I had of the bike were very good. It is smooth and comfortable up to 85kph/8000RPM. It is nimble enough to avoid any pot hole at “high” speed and the shocks handle the ones you haven’t seen. In order to take over caravans of heavy trucks trailing in the mountains, you often take over on the right lane and end up riding in the grass. This sounds fun but is actually scary. The bike’s saddle is very comfortable, so much so that my wife finds the bike more comfortable than our current minivan. I can keep driving at 85km/h for rides up to 10 hours, with a break every 2 hours to cool down engine and driver. At this point, my fingers and fist become sore due to road and engine pulse. In an emergency, I push the engine to 90/95kph in the red but it feels noisy and vibrates. It can do 115kph, but my front tire is not a factory one and I have no GPS: I honestly have no idea what my real speed is. The extra grip feels right even on roads but sometimes rubs against the mudguard.
Rusty tank Km 4000 to 8000 Sept 2009
Following my first experience I had to leave my bike with a friend to travel away for 3 months. During that time I bought a Chang Jiang 750 32HP and a Jialing JH600-B and went touring Xinjiang with some cousins. In retrospect, the two sidecars never gave me much satisfaction compared to my tiny 150. When I got back home, I had my bike shipped from Inner Mongolia to the east coast in Shandong, Yantai. At this point I had an entire week’s issues with the fuel line. My bike had been left rusting in the freezing Mongolian winter and the empty tank had started rusting. I had to clean the carburetor and the built-in tank filter with cotton and toothpicks, but I still stalled regularly. It was not until I had fully emptied the tank and cleaned it with a high pressure hose and then dried it with a hairdryer that the bike started driving well. Two month later, the electric circuit broke. The bike could only be kick started; the battery couldn’t even power the headlight. Unfortunately, I really don’t know much about electronics so I left the bike with a mechanic who ripped me 200RMB off on a rectifier. If I had known, I would have bought the rectifier 80RMB online and would have replaced it in 10mn. Also the paint was fading a bit which made the bike look vintage but I was concerned that the Yantai salty sea breeze would attack the metal. I took the bike apart, sanded the tank and main fairings quickly. I like the big old Buell XB’s so I tried to go along the same lines with the tank and main plastics in matt white and other plastics and under carriage sprayed matt black. On the upside, it made the bike look bigger and brand new, but the cheap 21RMB paintjob was prone to dirt and the tank got easily stained by fuel droplets.
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The bike drove excessively well for a year where the generally crisp Shandong weather was much appreciated by my engine and me. With nice beaches mostly far out and cherry tree mountains surrounding the whole city, the bike was a great discovery tool. Downtown is quite spread so I was quite satisfied being able to drive on a 200RMB petrol budget per month when my friends would spend 1000RMB just on commuting. With very short but violent snow, rain and summer storms, the bike also proved reliable and drove me every single day to and back from work. Only problem: my insurance expired. Since April 2010, nobody has accepted to renew it. I would have to drive the bike back to Hohhot and get it insured.
Bloody weather Sept 2010 km 4000 to 8000
In September 2010, I moved to Sichuan Chengdu and the bike was shipped by a lousy company which took a month transporting it. After that, I again experienced fuel line problems, occasional stalling and fuel overflow and had to clean the carburetor. Back home I had no parking for the bike and with Chengdu’s really rainy weather, water often sifted in the tank. Once the bike had started running, it did its job well. However I got pulled over too often by the police so I started driving less: Chengdu traffic police is randomly enforcing a ban on petrol engines and policemen have told me in rather good English that they would confiscate the bike if they kept seeing me. Apparently it is possible to get an authorized plate for 20 thousand RMB which is 3 times the price of my bike. I think that’s really pushing grandma in the nettles if you know what I mean. I drove mostly on the weekends and at night but started getting frightened my beloved bike would be confiscated. Around this time, the bike started to suffer from a little bit of detonation around 90km/h 8500RPM. I tried tuning the carburetor, the cams and buying a new Chinese sparkplug for 10RMB but that didn’t work. It was hardly audible so I dropped it. I also had to put a new chain split link when the chain went loose. Cost 10RMB
Shortly after I went travelling to France, left the bike alone for 2 months and had it shipped to my wife’s hometown in Jiangsu, Lianyungang. When I came back to China, before restarting the bike I cut the fuel line in the middle with scissors and fitted a little fuel filter between the tubes. This time the carburetor did not swallow any rust and the bike did not stall. I repainted the bike once with a horrible green color. Had to sand it all over and redid it in a better olive green. Similar to the color of the 1969 Aston martin Zagato DB5… Applause. I tried to focus on the engine detonation and changed the carbs needle position. I made pictures of the sparkplug after every run to determine if my settings were correct. Nothing really changed. Eventually a mechanic friend helped me out, threw away the Chinese factory sparkplug for a hotter expensive 60RMB German NGK plug, and tuned the carb back to its original setting. Since then the bike has been perfect.
I would do it again 10000KM Feb 2012
The bike is nearing 10.000km and the engine sounds healthy. Superficial spots of rust can be seen here and there on the chassis, but nothing that doesn’t wash off with a sponge. The plastics look a bit old and my quick and dirty paint jobs keep the bike clean but with a vintage look about it. The engine looks brand new but some fuel overflows have slightly stained the left oil carter. The indicators only work whenever they want, the fuel gauge is unreliable and gear indicator doesn’t show 4th and 5th. The total cost of bike maintenance has been under 300RMB. I spent around 150RMB on paint and mirrors. I run less than 300km on a full tank which is not great but I never actually drive smoothly. When I compare it to some older Yamaha YBR125G, I envy their paint which looks as good as new, as well as the nice headlight and the choke lever on the left handle. But I still wouldn’t spend 5000RMB extra just for that. Instead I would get the same black bike and spend 300RMB on a tank cover, on an original TK carburetor Z24PE and an NGK dpk8ea-9 sparkplug. And I would fit a fuel filter between tank and carb. Again I would paint ugly wheels and shiny stuff in matt black and would replace the front tire with a dual sport for snow, sand…
Conclusion
The FYM bike is great for commuting but of course not as good as a big scooter with better electronics, automatic starter and full leg protection. It’s a real motorbike so it’s less civilized but more versatile. On long distance it has been a real companion and my average speed is way faster than with the powerful but less agile Jialing JH600B sidecar. Not to mention the charming piece of junk which the CJ750 is. Saving money is definitely up to you. But you remember how I said my Fuji camera died in a sand storm? Well, with the cash stash I did not spend on a better import bike I was able to buy myself a new Nikon.
