Dong Fang DF 250 RTB Bobber Information

[Mixmaster]

Most of the mods are not needed. You can buy one stock standard and be happy. Its just the mods are cheap and easy, so fun to tinker with.

All depends to what you want out of the bike, for me its my first bike so its cheap way of starting with something that looks a little different than most beginners bikes. Its great for cruising the neighbourhood and driving around the city, but its no highway machine.

I am very happy with mine.

[chruk bashre]

[DanDaMan]

not california compliant , so if as your tag states , south cali ..... well

and although some here state its not a highway bike , 99% of my thousands of miles ridden is from interstate driving its all about the gearing , sure 10% ethenol gas makes ya lose almost 10 mphour but as a flatlander itll still run 65 although not much more unless I employ drafting :p

[Bobthebobber]

Finally figured out the throttle issue! I spent 30 minutes today messing with the idle speed adjusment with no luck at all. I would start it up in the cold with no choke and it fires right up.. but then would run about half throttle and the adjusment was doing nothing. I checked the linkage to the carb itself and everything looked correct.

I finally noticed that the adjustment up on the handle bars was screwed out so that it was forcing constant throttle. As soon as I adjusted that, my neighbors were a lot happier! After that was fixed I tuned it quite nice and got her running nice and mellow
Despite my chain being deadly tight, I could no resist taking her around the block even though it's still not registered. I did about 2 miles (i know not smart) just around the back roads of my development.

I didn't run it too hard but it seems the carb settings are actually decent as they are. I did almost stall it going up a hill in third gear.. had to have her wide open just to creep my 140 pounds up it.. I wish she had a little bit more power.. but man lemme tell ya.. doing 30 mph on this thing felt more raw and scary than doing 150+ back in my sport bike days... it felt like at any second it could just explode.. or the wheels would rattle off.. I loved it! She may take 10 seconds to hit 40.. but damn it feels like you have a monster truck between you legs.. and god does it sound nice.. I already was turning heads.

Friday is suppose to be around 50 degrees F. I'm going to take the fenders and tank off and hit them quick with some Rusto Satin black. In the summer i'll wet sand it all down and do it nice with the HVLP.. but just a quick touch up for now to fix the tank, and match the sheen with the fenders. I know jet size seems to vary all over the place on these but anyone with the 2012 model rip into the carb yet and see what the main jet size is? I have yet to have a reason to open mine.

For those who say they have a hard time finding neutral
Here is a good trick that I have been doing for years and it never fails. Put the bike into gear.. slowly release the clutch just enough to that the gear starts to grab and the bike wants to move forward.. then pull the clutch back in and shift it effortlessly into neutral. This is a trick i learned back in my MotoX days when I was very young. And.. since this is virtually a honda trail bike motor.. it works very well. It also works on all types of bikes.. used to do it on my Ninja all the time at stop lights.

So if you are new to this just remember. Make sure youre in first gear.. release the clutch just enough for it to want to move forward, then pull the clutch all the way in and shift it to neutral. This basically syncs the gears and allows neutral to mesh freely (:

[wes.yates]

wes.yates 1+10. the only mod this bike needs is what you want to do to it. it can be driven the way it is with no problem. you may feel like you need another gear,get a smaller sprocket. the popping could make you wonder,lots of ideas to work that out. the high idle, awful noisy but starts and runs easily,set it lower and wrestle with it till it .

1+10 . Meaning 11? or its a crapshoot? I have heard that 1) it depends on which company here in US that you get it from and thats for support reasons and 2) some stories like 'Engine locked up going about 10 mpr and not many miles' and gear control rod popped', chrome was bad, fenders scratched badly out of the crate, gas at the paint off the gas tank, tank leaked (oooo this one is scary).

Without saying YGWYPF, Is it worth getting? I don't mind tinkering but if parts and support are a bitch to deal with, why get one?

Else if its thumbs up, I will look into it.

OH! is there a good resource here to find which company has the best support and service with this bobber? Teach me to fish, don't just give me one ;-)

[Bobthebobber]

1+10 . Meaning 11? or its a crapshoot? I have heard that 1) it depends on which company here in US that you get it from and thats for support reasons and 2) some stories like 'Engine locked up going about 10 mpr and not many miles' and gear control rod popped', chrome was bad, fenders scratched badly out of the crate, gas at the paint off the gas tank, tank leaked (oooo this one is scary).

Without saying YGWYPF, Is it worth getting? I don't mind tinkering but if parts and support are a bitch to deal with, why get one?

Else if its thumbs up, I will look into it.

OH! is there a good resource here to find which company has the best support and service with this bobber? Teach me to fish, don't just give me one ;-)

People get it because they like it. If you dont want it and are going to gripe, dont get it! Most of the time it is the bikes flaws that make it so much fun to own.. working out problems and finding fun ways to solve them yourself is half of owning a china bike. There is no way to make it sound pretty. Yes the chrome rusts, yes the paint is garbage... yea sometimes takes weeks/months for parts.. but when people pull up to your house and ask if they can take a picture of it... or the day you get it someone offers to buy it with cash.. and the feeling you get knowing you have a unique bike that only a select few tempt to own.. that is priceless in my book!

And btw.. gas will dissolve the paint off just about anything if you don't have a clear coat on it.

And besides.. who needs customer support.. when you have all the support and help you will ever need right here :p

[GonzoX]

not california compliant , so if as your tag states , south cali ..... well

and although some here state its not a highway bike , 99% of my thousands of miles ridden is from interstate driving its all about the gearing , sure 10% ethenol gas makes ya lose almost 10 mphour but as a flatlander itll still run 65 although not much more unless I employ drafting :p

LOL, yeah I have stock gearing myself and can only get 60mhp with wide open throttle and the wind on my back. Not good. Problem is, I weigh 240 and the speed limit on my local hwy is 75mhp, not 65. And most of the clueless cell texting teens on that stretch of road are doing 80+ most of the time. I do see a bigger bike in my future some day but It will be years before I have that kind of disposable income gain.

[GonzoX]

1+10 . Meaning 11? or its a crapshoot? I have heard that 1) it depends on which company here in US that you get it from and thats for support reasons and 2) some stories like 'Engine locked up going about 10 mpr and not many miles' and gear control rod popped', chrome was bad, fenders scratched badly out of the crate, gas at the paint off the gas tank, tank leaked (oooo this one is scary).

Without saying YGWYPF, Is it worth getting? I don't mind tinkering but if parts and support are a bitch to deal with, why get one?

Else if its thumbs up, I will look into it.

OH! is there a good resource here to find which company has the best support and service with this bobber? Teach me to fish, don't just give me one ;-)

I tend to agree with yates on this issue. Parts are an issue. My dealer dropped shipped it to me and for the most part I got zero support from them. Been a year and I am still waiting for a part. Got tired of waiting and ordered a third party item.

Now that is one of the good things. Third party items. They are out there and they are better made in most cases. That's the good part. A lot of parts are interchangable going by this thread and my own experience so far. Just because it's a Chinese bike doesnt mean you have to use a Chinese made part. Just depends on the part.

With that said, this bike's No1 savings grace is it's retro looks. Cant get that anywhere else withought customizing and spending more money. At the time I wanted a Yamaha vstar but they wanted $4k for a beat up used one. Found this bike on the internet and I have no regrets getting so far.

All I can tell you is where NOT to buy it (my dealer). But I have read good things about scooterdepot. At the time they wanted a lot more money and my in-state dealer did the tags and title for me so that was a plus at the time. The only plus in my case though.

Bobthebobber sumed it up how I feel about this bike. For what little money I had at the time it is perfect for me and I guarantee if I ever sell it (probably wont) I will have buyers for it just because of how it looks etc.

[wes.yates]

Bobthebobber and GonzoX, Cool. So what I'm hearing is that Its a ... challenge to own one and that there are alternatives to keeping these things running (in a positive way) . So long as you are mechanically inclined or have the resources, its a decent investment.

Much like bikes-of-old, when you had to fix it yourself or walk, that adds to the retro-feel. Ok,

And GonzoX, thanks for the nod for Scooterdepot. I think these guys are the first I've seen.

I think what I'm going to do it to research the companies support and parts history. Short of Cleveland Cycleworks (which might be the best solution), I will call around to see how they react and treat me. Bad phone service means I will have a hard ass time and I dunna wanna that.

Grazi!
wes.yates

[wes.yates]

Last question for a while: As I'm reading the 327 pages of this forum (geezeus), I am finding resources for parts/mods. Is there a thread or a forum section that has a list? I have seen forum lists on other sites.

Thanks.