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  1. #1 Shineray XY200GY-7 "Long March" 
    C-Moto Guru Supersignet's Avatar
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    Apr 2008
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    The Shineray "Long March" is the first of a new breed of motorcycle coming from China. While many Chinese motorcycle manufacturers are content to follow the path of producing copies of older Japanese motorcycles, Shineray is starting to beat their own path through the motorcycle manufacturer jungle.






    Inspired by an aging Honda design the "Long March" was built as platform to showcase the future wants and goals of Shineray. The bike itself is loosely based on the early 80s Honda XL185. This bike was probably chosen as the company's first forte into establishing themselves as their own brand and not just as a copy cat because of the abundant XL185, XL150 and X125 clones being produced in China. This meant there was an abundant supply of parts and molds that could be utilised at a lower cost and therefor at a lower risk for the manufacturer.





    Shineray took the old XL185 and threw some new life into it. They changed the swing arm design and altered the placement of the progressive dual shock placement. A design that many people would consider obsolete on a new dual sport bike but in reality works incredibly well. The main idea around this bike was reliability, utility and range. The dual shocks add to that reliability as does the redundant CDI system. This bike was actually built with a complete secondary CDI systems just in case you're in the middle a of a jungle or desert and have a CDI failure. This is a bike that was designed not to leave it's rider stranded.


    To compliment the reliability Shineray added a massive 21L (5.6 us gallon) gas tank to give the bike an impressive range of about 700-800km per tank. One problem with the tank though is the lack of a reserve and therefor the rider has to always worry about how much fuel is left in the tank. Also the placement of the tank spigot could have been better located to make sure the rider is getting the most range he or she could expect out of the large tank.





    Riding impressions of the bike are quite good. The seat is wide and comfortable and the OHC 16hp Honda inspired 200cc engine pulls the bike along well. Shineray did a good job of building a vibration free machine up to about 8500rpms. The bike is happiest cruising at about 6000-7000rpms and delivers it's best economy in this range. Above 7500rpms the rider will notice a big hit in fuel economy depending on the load the bike is carrying. Riding 2 up through the mountains of western Guangxi province with enough gear for a weekend of riding I managed a staggering 700+ km per tank.

    The fit and finish of the bike is acceptable and is improving with every new batch coming out of the factory. Shineray is mindful of it's customers suggestions on how to improve their product and is taking some of their suggestions into consideration. A new throttle assembly and mirror design will be released soon. According Shineray this is not because of the quality of the products but because the current parts are more likely to break if the bike is dropped. This is good news for China motorcycle riders. It is nice to know that at some factories in China are considering reliability and durability of the parts used to build their bikes. Also the camo colour previously used on the bike has been discontinued due to the lack of adhesion of the paint to the plastic and future bikes will only be produced with colour in plastics.

    The only real design oversight I can see with this bike is Shineray's choice of rear sprocket that is larger than one of my grandmother's dinner plates. If the bike was really meant for long distance touring or exploration the large 56 tooth sprocket on the back of the bike is a big mistake. Not only does it hinder the range of the bike it also seriously effects the comfortable cruising speed of the bike and basically limits the rider to 80kmph. Any speed above this the 200cc 56 tooth sprocket combo seems as if it is dying to stay alive, screaming for every kph it can while consuming copious amounts of fuel.

    Shineray has done of a good job with this bike. This is one company that isn't content to be the producer of a bikes copied from Japanese manufacturers and that is willing to do some of it's own R&D to develop some new bikes that will help the company build it's own brand image and following. Shineray has decided to stray away from the mass production of street bikes and concentrate more on building dirt and enduro motorcycles. The company told me that they would like to model themselves as Chinese KTM, building strong off road motorcycles to compete in the worldwide off road arena.


    The "Long March" has generated a lot of interest on some foreign motorcycle forums and if it is any sign of what's to come from Shineray in the future it looks like Shineray is one Chinese brand to watch.

    Shineray has also recently developed a liquid cooled 250cc engine with 6 speed transmission that will be making it into Shineray's new X2 that will be released to market in China this coming June. There are also rumors of Shineray producing a 400cc enduro bike by the end of 2008.






    Bike Specs

    Length/ Width/ Height: 2150/850/1350 mm

    Seat Height: 870mm

    Turning Circle: 1390mm

    Dry Weight: 122kg

    Wet Weight: 150kg

    Front Tire: 90/90-21

    Rear Tire: 120/90-18

    Engine Model: 163FMJ

    Compression: 9.0:1

    Horsepower: 16hp (12.0kw)/9500

    Displacement: 196CC

    Top speed: 90km/h

    Fuel Tank 21L (5.6 us gallons)
    Last edited by Supersignet; 05-04-2008 at 01:28 AM.
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