Galaxy SUV250 thread (was ChinaV's Galaxy250)

[moilami]

I was wondering how much it weighs ? the balance of this bike to my eye does not look right to me that is why I said it "looks like a tank" the front end looks really like duty and for a long frame and very small tank....yes if this bike is not for speed....but I hope it has durability....I hope that the 411 will continue on all the bikes in china...and the prices posted as well to help those who look to buy...ride on !!

Lets take another picture better suitable in checking the dimensions.



I agree it still looks a little bit "long", but since it supposedly is very small bike, the distance from rear axle to front axle is maybe less than 1400mm. If so, it would mean it is not too "long" and that it is very agile. It weights maybe 120 to 130kg, and since the "center of weight" (dunno what it is in English) is low, it will be easy to drive and mess around.

Durability and reliability are great things in all bikes, and especially great those attributes are in budget bikes because those bikes sell in the first place because of the cheap price, thus the customers would appreciate naturally if the bike would be also cheap to maintain. Sadly corporations can have different views like "sell tons of crap over and over again". It can be more profitable for them than to sell quality. When I wrote about how that nice little SUV250 would take you anywhere I ignored the build quality of the bike. One reason for it was that I don't know how it is, and the build quality does not make the quality of the design worse in this case. I just praised the design. What is the build quality in China? It might tell how durable and reliable it is.

[slabo]

The grass is always greener on the other side, I want another bike.
I want a good touring bike that can take me anywhere, not necessarily breaking any speed records. 100 km/h cruizing speed is fine. I stress anywhere because I　like being lost.
The Galaxy SUV looks very good. Nice finishing touches all round. What I don't like about it ::

1. the small tank. Is that 14 Liters I'm not sure i read the specs right, it says 9.5L But I think that's not hard to find a replacement.
2. 
   
   That does not inspire too much confidence. Looks similar to what i have on my roadbike, only my road bike weighs 10kg! I just wish they chose to be cheap on some other part. Major .. deal breaker. Am I wrong about this? If not, can it be fixed?
3. Suspension: seems this has much less travel on both front and rear. But again, this depends on what kind of riding I want to do.
4. Seems Andy Hird had a bad experience with Galaxy. Thread does not have a happy ending. Seems problem is limited to EFI　versions, but then again, I haven't heard of many Chinese manufacturers selling EFI　bikes. There is an advantage using carburetor bikes though, so maybe not getting the EFI version isn't a big deal.
5. something wrong with the exhaust routing routing? That's where a skid plate would normally be bolted on right? Looks like it's in the perfect place to be crushed buy a rock.
   

Anyone know where I can find more accurate specs?　doesn't make sense, figures don't match the parameters on the left

[ChinaV]

Hi Slabo,

What are you referring to in item #2?

I think the TGR is nicer than the XTR and SUV. I also think some of the other bikes at the ChongQing show should be checked out.

Cheers
ChinaV

[slabo]

Hi ChinaV,
I'm referring to the way the axle bolts onto the swingarm. Also the calibration mechanism for adjusting distance between front and rear wheels.
Another possible deal breaker is the exhaust. Bike has good clearance but looks like the exhaust pipe is hanging lower than anything. It will be the first to hit the ground. Also, it's too low. Will be a problem if crossing deep water.

[MJH]

That bike to me requires too much modification to make it durable off road. It would be better to take it to fully street. Like the FTR223 it is copy of, its just to much to make it more durable, it would be fine on city streets. Does not need big mud guards and knobby tires they mislead people into thinking off road.

[MJH]

But Honda did the exact same thing, the bikes are for the most part identical.

[laokiwi]

-Galaxy SUV 250 Experience-
Hi, this is my well overdue personal review of the Galaxy SUV 250. I’ll start at the beginning to give a well balance view of my experience.

I live in China and have done some travelling via motor scooter in Yunnan (Dayang 90cc). This time I wanted something a bit bigger as I have a passenger and about 60kgs of luggage. I spend a bit of time on dirt roads and a normal road bike tend to have problems like bottoming out from the odd Chinese pothole. A normal dirt bike wasn’t really suitable for our long rides with two up and panniers/back rack etc. Also my wife is quite short and wouldn’t be able to ride one at all.

By chance I found the Galaxy club dirt bike track, which happens to be in Beijiao, Guangzhuo, near my wife’s family home. I was impressed by the friendly facility and the deep enthusiasm the club members have for riding.

I went home and looked up the Galaxy website and became interested in the SUV 250. It’s low centre of gravity suited our requirement, and the 223cc engine would give us the power we need.

I went to the Galaxy factory (without any prior contact with them) and asked if I could see the assembly line because I was interested in their bike. Their English speaking staff member, Lydia, was kind enough to give us a guided tour. (How many companies in the world would do that?) The Galaxy company is part of a bigger motorcycle manufacture call Yinhe. They make a lot of different motorcycle models, I counted well over 50, of which around 8-10 are dirt bikes. They then invited me to they showroom to test ride a few bikes.

My first impression of the SUV 250 was that it had a lot of chain noise and quite a lot of vibration from the engine ( I was riding in low gears at low revs). But the 223cc engine was powerful enough for my job.

Afterwards I spent sometime finding out if I could get it registered for the road in China. It is mainly an export model and different provinces can be awkward about registering bikes that are uncommon inside China. Although I never really got a straight answer, the strong feeling was that I could get it registered. Now came the question of were to register it. My inlaws pointed out that I would have to return each year to the province I registered it in to get it reregistered. (If this is completely true…I’m unsure.) I wanted to register it in Yangshuo or Dali, as they are both small tourist towns and the future possibility of reselling it to a fellow foreigner traveler would be easier. I decided on Yangshuo and had a brand new bike freighted to me.

With great excitement and anticipation I set about the required assembly. The bike was packaged very well and reasonably straightforward to assemble. (Some step by step instruction would have been helpful though). I did have a couple of small issues with threads on the frame that were painted and weren’t great. And needed to gently coax the fastenings into the right places.

Once assemble I proudly wheeled my brand new bike down to the petrol station to gas it up and ride off. I filled the tank and instantly noticed petrol dripping on the ground. Problem 1- The outlet pipe wasn’t welded correctly. So off I rode to find a container to drain the petrol into. You can guess how I felt.


Zhu Yin Wei, the Galaxy domestic sales manager sent me out a replacement tank right away, but because it was over a public holiday period it took a week to arrive. Once it arrived I unattached the petrol tap on the faulty tank and reattached in onto the new tank.

I think it’s important at this point (before I get into the problems with the bike) to give positive praise to the staff at Galaxy for there service and help. And I also want to remind everyone that this is a low priced Chinese made motorcycle, and it can’t fairly be compared with one made by a Japanese company which has many more decades of experience and cost 2,3 or 4 times more expensive. Chinese bikes are very cheap because that is what the modern consumer market wants. And while that is the case, and international wholesale buyer consistently pressure Chinese companies to produce product cheaper and cheaper, quality will probably not get any better. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear.”

One of the reason I’m sharing my experience is to help future Galaxy SUV 250 purchaser to make an informed decision before purchasing one (or any Chinese made bike). And for them to understand that there may likely be some problems. In turn hopefully they will not be so disappointed that they write endless woeful blogs about “piece of crap Chinese motorbikes”. Again…you get what you pay for.

I digress…. After refilling the tank and taking the bike for a test ride I noticed the seat bolt nut (yes it has a bolt down seat) had disappeared. Obviously it wasn’t factory secured properly. Also 1 large nut holding part of the battery box on was absent (I had noticed this when putting the battery in during assembly). Next the kick start wouldn’t open from its tucked in position (I had used the electric start until then), a local mechanic wrenched it loose with a big screwdriver. Next, one of the passenger’s foot pegs wouldn’t open. It is a strange ball bearing system and just needed a bit of wire permanently jammed into it. Just little things.

There is a big difference between Chinese and Western expectation. Westerners expect when they buy something it will work perfectly from the start, Chinese….not so much. Also getting things like motorbikes fixed in Western countries is expensive and a big hassle, in China….not so much. I can get parts and services that would cost around US$100 (in Western countries) done in China for around US$10. So that’s another consideration before buy a problematic Chinese motorbike.

If you (or your best mate) can fix stuff a Chinese bike might not be a big deal. If you can’t and you have to run down to the local motorbike shop every few days it’s probably a real problem.

Now thinking about hitting the road for our big adventure we (I) decided we should do a dummy run. Better still, do a couple of hundred km’s in a full on rain storm, to test the waterproof ability of the bike and gear. After about 60km’s the bike start to stammer a bit, like it had crap in the gas. We got to the next town and as it was also time for the first oil change we took the bike into a Honda dealers workshop. (Now I only really trust dealer workshop…there are a lot of really really crap motorcycle mechanics in China). The mechanic pulled out the sump plug and to everyone’s surprise grey oil flowed out. Because the bike doesn’t have a one-piece, fully fitted rare mudguard, the torrent of water we had ridden through had gotten up and into the air filter box. There is a hosepipe connecting the engine casing to the air filter box, and water had flowed into the engine. Mmmmm… no wonder it wasn’t going great. Our skilled mechanic didn’t miss a beat and did a great job of adapting a piece of inner tube to water proof it. (I really hope this is an improvement Galaxy will be making in the future, …..the front guard is also too short at the back and water flies up off the wheel into the electrics under the tank!). The mechanic also fitted an alarm for us and needed to remove the tank (The importance of this will be apparent soon).


We continued on our merry way and about 20km’s down the road the bike started sounding different. It slowly got worse and started to lose top end power. We had about 40km’s to get to our friends place and it got worse and worse…. Almost not ride able. The next day I stripped the carby (helpful step by step instruction on the Galaxy website maintenance page, but not in English.) but that didn’t help. Unable to resolve the problem I limped back to the Honda workshop. The culprit was a loose wire connection the mechanic had accidently bumped when installing the alarm. (Not a factory fault)

The night before I had also encountered another problem. When braking heavily at night in the pouring rain (because a slow moving car on the wrong side of the road veered straight into my path) the front wheel developed an end over end wobble. I checked the rim but it didn’t seem to be the problem. One spoke wasn’t sitting in the hub properly so I thought that might be the problem. A week (and 650km’s) later I discussed the problem with the mechanic at the Galaxy workshop. He said it was a fault in the forks. That the forks really aren’t very good…… so there you have it. The forks can also kinda stick down, for example when I brake for a traffic light they may stay down an inch, then when I go to move they bounce back up. So I guess I have to live with an end over end wobble feeling or replace the forks. On the positive side the roads in China are generally so bumpy that I don’t notice it. When we are fully loaded the bike does seem quite bouncy, but we didn’t have any problems bottoming out. I may change to a stiffer shock in the future.

After the wet weather test ride issues I decided to ride the 650km’s back to the Galaxy factory and get the workshop mechanic to sort out any problems. He did a few things over a week to improve the bike, including putting silicone on everything that water could cause a problem with and replace the gauges, (the rev counter was only working intermittently). He fully tightened the rear suspension shock to suit our heavy load. I suggested I get a harder shock, but he didn’t think it was necessary. I build a back rack and extended the front mudguard and replaced a few rubber side cover push in plug.

Then back on the road again. Yesterday we did around 600km’s, 2 up, with about 50kg’s of luggage, sitting on 70-80km/h for hours none stop. The bike went pretty well generally. I do now have a problem with the headlight, it only works on park mode and high beam.

At this stage, in conclusion, there are a number of problems with the bike, but nothing too serious. I hope to add more information about the bikes performance as the thousands of kilometers tick over.

I think it’s worth noting that I saw first hand that Galaxy is trying to address the problems with this model. And improve their bikes generally in many ways. They are currently testing changes in the engine to eliminate the excessive vibrations. And they have improved design hubs ready for the SUV 250. I do not know when these improvements will be included in the bikes rolling off the assemble line. But it is encouraging.

Also a note to foreign people trying to deal with Galaxy for spare parts and information etc. The employees at Galaxy (like many Chinese companies) have an incredible work load expectation on them. I think there is only 1 person who can communicate sufficiently in English and that is Lydia. She fields dozens of inquires and requests a day, as well as dozens of daily orders from all corners of the world. So if I were you I would contact her directly via telephone and show patience, persistence and respect.

[slabo]

laokiwi, welcome to MCM... Thanks for such a great opening post.

Question: did the routing of the exhaust bother you in anyway? I wish the exhaust was routed same as on a Suzuki TW200. On the galaxy I'm afraid it will hit rocks or something.. And really it gets in the way of a skid plate, if you want to install one.

I know what you're saying about quality of China bikes. But really when you take a closer look, there's no difference in manufacturing cost to justify these small issues with most China bikes. I mean all the problems you mention don't really cost more money to manufacture properly, just better design. Mud guard, quality control for welding jobs ..

Another piece of advice about Chinabikes:: Check the dealer distribution network. Does it exist?

I also have a Chinabike, but from Shineray. I bought here's my 200cc horse..



The only problem with the bike is that it's geared too low.. Rain or shine, never really had a problem with the bike. But then try to find parts .. You're lucky to have Lydia, the Shineray factory won't deal with me directly, and the local dealer won't get any parts ... But there's a big market for parts here in Kunming, and I can't find anything for my bike.. Sprocket, air fiter .. A true phrase: if it's easy, it wouldn't be China.

Anyway, good luck with the bikes, Galaxies are ok bikes..

[laokiwi]

Hi Slabo,

Thanks for your reply, and you Shineray looks like a good work horse.

We have just spend a couple of days at the Guangzhou motorbike markets, there is about 3 or 4 close together (in Luo Chong Wei), and there were loads of Shinerays, there is probably upwards of a thousand wholesaler shops, with loads of motox gear. Maybe worth a visit next time you do a visa run.

Yes the exhaust does sit a bit low, and the one in their showroom does have a different muffler, which is higher, but I think it's the same routing. I'm a pretty slow and easy rider off road as my luggage mostly consists of computers and camera gear. So it's not too much of a problem for me.

I agree with you about the small way chinese bikes are let down. It seems simple to us how to improve them, but you are also right.... if things were easy this wouldn't be China. I have discuss this with other people, my theory is that while Chinese factory workers get paid so little they don't care too much about doing a good job. They can get another crappy job making the same crappy money anywhere. But then higher wages doesn't always mean better worker or better work. It is not easy to create a good work ethic in people, or for people to get a pride buzz out of there work. That is also a problem in my homeland. I don't know what the answer is really.

Galaxy seems like a pretty good company from my experience. Though I think their XTR is the main focus in the dirt bike models and get most of their innovative attention. And that's because it's more popular for racing. I think the SUV sells a lot less and is kinda the ugly redheaded stepbrother. But I think if they sorted out all the problems it might become really popular, especially for the likes of farmers who carry load and get on and off a lot to open gates etc.

I would have posted some pics but I could work out how to attach them (via URL?). I'll probably work it out one day ha ha ha....

Take care and watch out for stray dogs.

Laokiwi

[felix]

Impressive first sir! Thank you very much for posting your thoughts on this bike which seems like a good ride but has very little info surrounding it.
I shall be paying attention to how the story develops!