New Zontes Monster

[Neomagic]

Hello Guys,

I have got a nice little commuter in the Zontes Monster 125. I have had it 3 weeks now and put 500Km onto it. For the most it has been faultless. The paint job could be better, as could the quality of some of the chrome bolt heads but apart from that It's great. For £1600 OTR I have a new bike with a 2 year warranty and good support for the make here in the UK. I haven't ridden for 19 years and it's brilliant to get back onto a bike after all these years.

The quality of Chinese bikes has certainly gone up since I last rode, I am so happy with the look and feel of the bike. The sound is good too, a quiet whispering when you keep it under 3000 rpm, but when you open her up she sounds as good as anything else out there. The tyres are much wider than any other 125 I have seen, so you feel confident in cornering. I live in East Yorkshire so plenty of country roads to have a blast along.

There are a few tweaks that I want to do such as LED front lights and indicators to go with the LED tail light it comes with. I will switch to some decent rubber when the tyres are finished as well as an aftermarket exhaust in the near future.

Not much else I can say except I grin constantly when I am riding and turns the heads of all the other 125 riders out there.

Cheers

Chris.

[culcune]

Third one of you from the UK today!! Welcome to here. There was a guy last year on another site, chinariders.net (North American based site, but all are welcome) who had a Zontes 125. He was from Ireland, if I remember correctly. He loved it while he rode through Ireland on some kind of photo contest which seemed like a fun 'game' because it seemed to give one a good reason to get on a bike and ride all through Ireland taking numerous photographs. Anyway, he had nothing but praise for his Zontes. It's good when you get distributors/brands making sure the Chinese OEM is doing everything correctly, while still keeping the prices low, as Zontes seems to be doing. If you join chinariders, the members name is Irishbiker (I believe).

[humanbeing]

... who had a Zontes 125. He was from Ireland, if I remember correctly. He loved it while he rode through Ireland on some kind of photo contest ...

That guy rides a Keeway. http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=12309

[Neomagic]

I think the Chinese bikes are catching up with Japanese machines very quickly. I remember back in the 70's everyone was slating the Japanese machines in favour of British bikes. The Japanese bikes then went on to kill the UK bike industry within a few years as they were cheaper, better built, faster and more reliable.

Most of the Japanese bike parts are manufactured in China anyway. This Monster I have is taller than most other 125's I have come across. It cruises happily at 60mph and will push up to 70 without too much trouble, when it is needed. I am still running it in so I avoid high revs and speeds at the moment, but lets face it, you have to find out ;-).

For what I have paid, new and on the road with 2 years parts warranty, I could maybe have afforded a 3 or 4 year old Japanese bike. It is a no brainer. There are 12 UK distributors and dealers so far (I am lucky and have 2 within 20 miles of me). You can also deal direct for parts with the importer, based in the UK.

Once the warranty is up, it is such a basic but well made piece of kit, it will be so easy to maintain it myself, no complicated electronics to deal with, a simple CDI ignition system with a carb fed engine. Simple but very effective.

[culcune]

That guy riders a Keeway. http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=12309

Yes, you are correct; but there was a guy who just joined us this past April nicknamed 'Zontes Rider' who I must have confused 'Irishbiker' with

http://www.chinariders.net/showthrea...ghlight=zontes

[culcune]

I think the Chinese bikes are catching up with Japanese machines very quickly. I remember back in the 70's everyone was slating the Japanese machines in favour of British bikes. The Japanese bikes then went on to kill the UK bike industry within a few years as they were cheaper, better built, faster and more reliable.

Most of the Japanese bike parts are manufactured in China anyway. This Monster I have is taller than most other 125's I have come across. It cruises happily at 60mph and will push up to 70 without too much trouble, when it is needed. I am still running it in so I avoid high revs and speeds at the moment, but lets face it, you have to find out ;-).

For what I have paid, new and on the road with 2 years parts warranty, I could maybe have afforded a 3 or 4 year old Japanese bike. It is a no brainer. There are 12 UK distributors and dealers so far (I am lucky and have 2 within 20 miles of me). You can also deal direct for parts with the importer, based in the UK.

Once the warranty is up, it is such a basic but well made piece of kit, it will be so easy to maintain it myself, no complicated electronics to deal with, a simple CDI ignition system with a carb fed engine. Simple but very effective.

Yes, that is the beauty of these--the simplicity. They are based out of Canterbury near where I have quite a few relatives (in Faversham) from my father's side.

[Neomagic]

Just thought I would give an update on the bike now I have had it nearly a year now. I know information about these cracking bikes can be a little hard to come across especially in the uk - so here are my thoughts and experiences.

Firstly no problems to report at all. I gave up paying the dealer £85 a pop for servicing (basically a few adjustments, a spark plug and a litre of oil). The main UK importer was brilliant in giving me the specs required over the phone and via email to service it myself (torque settings, valve clearances etc). After the second main service, that is the first one I did, the bike seemed to suffer much less on vibrations. I think this was just down to re-tightening everything correctly. I also found the valve clearances, while not out much, made a nice difference once adjusted to specification. It is such a simple bike to work on and maintain I highly recommend even a complete novice to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty on it. There is very little to mess up as long as you stick with 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. I swapped out the crappy generic oil and put something half decent into it, this quietened the engine and although its hard to say it gave it a boost, it just seemed to run better. Same for a quality NGK spark plug rather than the torch one fitted from the previous dealer. It gave me peace of mind to be able to do these things myself as I know everything was done correctly and everything that required greasing etc was done with quality consumables. Although it cost around £30 for oils and grease etc, these will last me a couple of years worth of servicing now.

Overall I am still impressed with this little 125 commuter. Although it won't break any speed records it cruises very happily between 50 and 60mph with a little left if required. I adjusted the rear shocks so the bike sat and rode correctly with no see-sawing, making a huge difference to the whole balance of the bike (don't forget to adjust headlight beam accordingly). I am a hefty bloke weighing in at around 17 stone, but this bike just rides lovely. It can get a little breathless if there is a very strong headwind (I ride it in all weathers except snow) but a change down into 4th allows you to pull the speed back up to 50 if required.

When I first got it I kept having little niggles starting it up, until I found the correct way to start it. If you have this bike and have trouble starting from cold make sure you move the choke lever to the up most position for starting only, as soon as the engine is running move the lever to the middle position were it can stay until its warmed up. Then just close the choke and ride off. Since doing this correctly it starts without fail every time, even on the coldest of mornings.

The best thing about this bike is the grin factor. Nomatter what the weather I still grin from ear to ear while riding it. I now aim to take my full bike test later on this year, but will still keep my Zontes to get around locally day to day (I am thinking of getting a classic for Sunday afternoon cruising though)

I did change the indicators that were cheap and nasty to led ones, changing the indicator relay to suit (cost about £3 from ebay). I also changed out the weedy headlight bulb to a xenon affair and this is much much better. Correct adjustment of the beam is a must on this bike as the headlight reflector leaves a blank spot if not adjusted correctly. These are the little things that you notice after running it a while.

The one thing that could be better is the paint job on the tank. Black is never a great colour to keep tidy but it does show every tiny scratch and there are a couple of blemishes in the lacquer. I am lucky as a friend works in a body shop and has agreed to repaint it when I want as long as I do all the prep work. That can wait for the summer time though. I have painted the exhaust in a satin exhaust paint to keep the rust at bay before it even starts. It was a no brainer as the paint cost £5 and doesn't need a primer. It looks better than the matt finish that came when it was new as that showed up every tiny fingerprint and mark. I took my time and prepared it well so the finish looks better than the factory job it came with. The wheels have stood up well without so much as a stone chip.

A note on tuning. It is not really worth messing around with a perfectly good running machine like this to maybe get an extra couple of mph out of it. Much better to run it as it was designed and just enjoy what you have. You have to remember to get a 10% boost you will have to spend quite an amount and mess with things that should be left alone, and 10% of what this bike delivers in the first place is not a huge amount. Wait until you can afford a bigger, full power bike that will benefit from a 10% boost noticeably. This of course is only my opinion but makes sense to me at least ;-).

Overall I can't fault this bike for the money I paid for it. £1600 with no faults, a great sound and cracking ride for over 3000 miles and a big idiot grinning like a cat, can't be bad. I hope anyone considering a Zontes Monster / Panther / Tiger finds this information of some use.

Happy trails !

[Krasi]

Great news! Cheers for that report

[prince666]

Hi Neomagic
Great update on the bike I am sure the baby will last a few more years but here in China with the roads being not as good as what you have in the UK it wouldn't last a year , and when you consider I just purchessed a new Honda CRF 250L in Thailand for £2500 inc 1 St class insurance for 1 year on the road just put the Chinese price scale way out IMO . Keep up the updates hope all goes well with the bike.

[wellfn]

Just thought I would give an update on the bike now I have had it nearly a year now. I know information about these cracking bikes can be a little hard to come across especially in the uk - so here are my thoughts and experiences.

Firstly no problems to report at all. I gave up paying the dealer £85 a pop for servicing (basically a few adjustments, a spark plug and a litre of oil). The main UK importer was brilliant in giving me the specs required over the phone and via email to service it myself (torque settings, valve clearances etc). After the second main service, that is the first one I did, the bike seemed to suffer much less on vibrations. I think this was just down to re-tightening everything correctly. I also found the valve clearances, while not out much, made a nice difference once adjusted to specification. It is such a simple bike to work on and maintain I highly recommend even a complete novice to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty on it. There is very little to mess up as long as you stick with 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. I swapped out the crappy generic oil and put something half decent into it, this quietened the engine and although its hard to say it gave it a boost, it just seemed to run better. Same for a quality NGK spark plug rather than the torch one fitted from the previous dealer. It gave me peace of mind to be able to do these things myself as I know everything was done correctly and everything that required greasing etc was done with quality consumables. Although it cost around £30 for oils and grease etc, these will last me a couple of years worth of servicing now.

Overall I am still impressed with this little 125 commuter. Although it won't break any speed records it cruises very happily between 50 and 60mph with a little left if required. I adjusted the rear shocks so the bike sat and rode correctly with no see-sawing, making a huge difference to the whole balance of the bike (don't forget to adjust headlight beam accordingly). I am a hefty bloke weighing in at around 17 stone, but this bike just rides lovely. It can get a little breathless if there is a very strong headwind (I ride it in all weathers except snow) but a change down into 4th allows you to pull the speed back up to 50 if required.

When I first got it I kept having little niggles starting it up, until I found the correct way to start it. If you have this bike and have trouble starting from cold make sure you move the choke lever to the up most position for starting only, as soon as the engine is running move the lever to the middle position were it can stay until its warmed up. Then just close the choke and ride off. Since doing this correctly it starts without fail every time, even on the coldest of mornings.

The best thing about this bike is the grin factor. Nomatter what the weather I still grin from ear to ear while riding it. I now aim to take my full bike test later on this year, but will still keep my Zontes to get around locally day to day (I am thinking of getting a classic for Sunday afternoon cruising though)

I did change the indicators that were cheap and nasty to led ones, changing the indicator relay to suit (cost about £3 from ebay). I also changed out the weedy headlight bulb to a xenon affair and this is much much better. Correct adjustment of the beam is a must on this bike as the headlight reflector leaves a blank spot if not adjusted correctly. These are the little things that you notice after running it a while.

The one thing that could be better is the paint job on the tank. Black is never a great colour to keep tidy but it does show every tiny scratch and there are a couple of blemishes in the lacquer. I am lucky as a friend works in a body shop and has agreed to repaint it when I want as long as I do all the prep work. That can wait for the summer time though. I have painted the exhaust in a satin exhaust paint to keep the rust at bay before it even starts. It was a no brainer as the paint cost £5 and doesn't need a primer. It looks better than the matt finish that came when it was new as that showed up every tiny fingerprint and mark. I took my time and prepared it well so the finish looks better than the factory job it came with. The wheels have stood up well without so much as a stone chip.

A note on tuning. It is not really worth messing around with a perfectly good running machine like this to maybe get an extra couple of mph out of it. Much better to run it as it was designed and just enjoy what you have. You have to remember to get a 10% boost you will have to spend quite an amount and mess with things that should be left alone, and 10% of what this bike delivers in the first place is not a huge amount. Wait until you can afford a bigger, full power bike that will benefit from a 10% boost noticeably. This of course is only my opinion but makes sense to me at least ;-).

Overall I can't fault this bike for the money I paid for it. £1600 with no faults, a great sound and cracking ride for over 3000 miles and a big idiot grinning like a cat, can't be bad. I hope anyone considering a Zontes Monster / Panther / Tiger finds this information of some use.

Happy trails !

Hi, just joined as I bought a Monster yesterday. Keen to give it a once over to check stuff. It was a bit hesitant when riding it home when pushing it a wee bit. I am trying to hold back for first wee while to let the engine settle in. Checked the plug gap and was only 0.04mm, should be between 0.06 and 0.07mm. So now plan to check valve clearances etc. You mentioned you got the specifications from the importer, could you possibly share them. I am assuming they are the same as the Yamaha YBR125. Spark plug change and valve clearances are my immediate plan, and ensuring all bolts are tightened properly. Both rear shock upper mounts are loose, missing washers. Also air filter side panel mounting screws are both very loose, one is almost out! Build quality not great so far. Also sump has way too much oil in it, well over the maximum mark.
Edit. Should have stated that I am a very competent amateur bike and car mechanic. Stripped down and rebuilt several small capacity bikes in the past. I appreciate that many people join a forum like this looking for information on how to make their bike go faster. I am basically just looking to set my bike at its optimal level, as the supplying dealer has clearly failed to do so!