What's up with Hi-Bird?

[culcune]

May be next time, I pass through Peipei Dist., I shall find out Hi-Bird Story.

Tell them that you want a few samples of their products to evaluate, to report to mychinamoto's members of course!

Seriously, I would be interested to know more about them from a Chinese perspective. They have been here in the US a few years while those of you in China no nothing about them!

[CrazyCarl]

LeeHow,

Any info or pictures you could add would be a great help. What do you ride in China?

CC

[Jo'At the Adventurer]

Please keep me posted when the Hi Bird 250 becomes available. I would very much like to buy one.

[culcune]

Please keep me posted when the Hi Bird 250 becomes available. I would very much like to buy one.

Which kind of bike? The chopper is available as well as the ATV, but the enduro and the Sportster-like bike are not available, as of yet.

[CrazyCarl]

Jo'At, Where Yo'At?

CC

[Jo'At the Adventurer]

Jo'At, Where Yo'At?

CC

A little known place called Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

[Jo'At the Adventurer]

Which kind of bike? The chopper is available as well as the ATV, but the enduro and the Sportster-like bike are not available, as of yet.

I'm interested in the Enduro. I wonder what the MPG will be like.. That Shineray GY-7 is most intriguing but I can't find that one here either. I need the utility of the Shineray but I like the looks of the Hi Brid 250. Is the Hi Bird 250 and the Shineray X2 the same bike?

[gpPeej]

Hi Guys, I have been hibernating for the last month here in frozen Milwaukee, and updating our website(Reina International Auto) Vespa store. But, this HB XR-ish 250 and motard are really exciting looking products.

I gave a call to the HBUSA guy and got a few answers. He said that the chopper was the only bike currently in the US. Others would be summer arrivals. He said that he was working directly for the manufacturer.

I am totally interested in the XR-ish bike and would like to see it get built. My only first-hand expirience with HB/Komodo is from chatting with a customer who bought a Komodo dual sport and had a real hassle getting it registered here in Wisconsin, but liked his bike.

I'd really like to get to Indy this year, but money is really tight here. Winter sales slow to a trickle and the tigt credit market is even slowing our Italian sports car sales. We are contantly looking for a Brand that we can sell with confidence next to Moto Guzzi, Vespa, Piaggio, Kymco, and Genuine Brands. I may just show go at the last minute - There's going to be a plastic, auto, fuel injected 150cc Vespa VBB Clone by Hammerhead ATVs that is a near dead ringer for a classic Vespa.

Milwaukeeans are frugal, and expect value (or at least lots of history and culture) from a motorcycle purchase. Tons of used bikes are on the market here, 'cuz most bike only get used for 1/2 the year.

Many people here feel burned from the first batch of cheap scoots and cycles, and are waiting to be shown a better product. A Qingqi distributor - IBA/USA from Milwaukee pumped 100's of unsupported scoots here and promptly went out of business. Let's hope most of the fly by night profiteers have found a new cash cow to milk. I'm optomistic that in '09 we'll see the start of better offerings and higher quality. But, with the economy going nuts...it's really hard to predict what consumers are going to buy...or will be able to.

It seems that Hi-bird is a manufacturer that is hiring agents for the US market rather than importing to a distributor. That may be a better model. The manufacturer can enjoy a larger share of the profits while being more directly responsible/reachable/answerable to the consumer and dealers.

Peej

[CrazyCarl]

Peej,

Nice to hear from you again and your thoughtful comments are always good to read. I'll be heading to the Indy show to pimp my film, take pics and cover the event so if you plan to show up or are looking for anything in particular, let me know.

I also think 2009 will be a strong and important year for the Chinese bikes in North America. The newer models seem to be stronger and I think they are slowly, very very slowly, coming around to understand what it takes to play in this market. Most of their export money will come from developing nations to which Chinese bikes are luxurious step up so I have the impression their interest in the US market is largely bragging right, a feather in the cap and - more importantly - a learning ground for international business.

It is too bad about the cheap scoots that burned people but I'm afraid many people will take it out on the manufacturers when much of their frustrations actually came from the sleazy, as you so aptly described, "fly by night profiteers".

When you talk about HB hiring agents, are you talking about direct distribution? It seems like a lot of the manufs (even the largest ones) are fixed asset shy and would rather not spend the money on a warehouse if they didn't have to. Or are you talking about some other kind of arrangement?

CC

CC

[culcune]

Hi-Bird in the US is a direct relationship with the manufacturer, from what I can tell. Ironically, as was discussed on other threads (maybe this one?) is that Hi-Bird is not really known in China. They might be a sub-contractor for Lifan, or something like that, so sell their stuff in N.America under their own name.

Peej, as far as Komoto, I don't know if it was the same guy as on Chinariders.net, but someone found out that they can't register a mail-order bike in Wis. More of a state thing, as you probably already know--I can get most anything with a headlight/tailight and one mirror registered in Arizona for the street, but some states suck for this.

Hi-Bird seem to have 2 main "agents" for their products, and both are in OK City--Komoto-Motors was/is an offshoot of Hi-Bird, and their stuff was heavily sold through anamcycles.com while the Hi-Bird stuff was/is sold heavily through vbikeusa.com

From what I understand, and I can imagine that they are aiming high with their new batch of product, is to have brick and mortar stores selling their product. I can imagine that these newest products will be even higher quality than the last couple of years, and those really surprised people with their quality. The 250 Komoto and 250 Hi-Bird enduros sold like hotcakes through anam and vbike, and their were very few complaints, and the complaints weren't major ones like other Chinese enduros. This past October, one member even rode over 2000 miles cross-country on his slightly modified Hi-Bird enduro with no problems. Peej, as far as Chinese products go, Hi-bird would be one to consider for your "lower" end--I bet their enduro will be a big seller, and seems like it will be even better than their already proven enduro. The chopper is a little pricey wholesale, IMO (considering they are a virtually unknown Chinese brand), though, and I bet the Sportster-like bike will be similar in price.