Hi Everyone

[Guoseph]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Alex and I live in California, I am in Chengdu frequently for work and plan to get a small dual sport adventure bike to do some exploring in the area. My coworkers and I have just started discussing taking a trip to Tibet next fall too.

In the US I have two Husqvarna dual sports, a TE630 and a TE250:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1412573339.910100.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1412573384.262034.jpg

Question for you guys, which current bikes are copied from old school Japanese dual sports like the DR200 or XR200 with good parts interchangeability? I'm thinking air cooled motor with good reliability and easy repairs plus availability of good used motox bits I can potentially bring back from the US (suspension from CR or RM bikes etc).

Looking forward to learning from you all.

Alex

[Krasi]

I think practically all 125cc and 250cc (actually usually it's 223cc) engines are Honda clones from the 80s. The less-frequent 200cc are Yamaha clone (think TW200), AFAIK.

[VroomVroom]

Hey Mate,

Also currently in Chengdu doing a lot of dual sport adventures these days. Give me a shout on wechat: mattcopsey

You can go view some bikes at 2 different places in Chengdu. Most popular seem to be the Zongshens, Shineray and Qingqi models.
I know one of the Qingqi's uses the exact same engine as the DR200.
Theres a few used Japanese dual sports for sale in CD but impossible/near impossible to register them. Parts availability is quite limited too.

Regarding Chinese bikes, reliability can be hard to come by. They usually require a bit of TLC throughout their lifetime but nothing you can't handle yourself. I'd recommend going bike shopping in the aforementioned places and see what you like. I'm currently in the market for a new bike too and fell in love with the DR250 when I rode one. Looking for something similar.

[ShuBen]

Whats a DR250? Could you please upload a photo?

[VroomVroom]

Whats a DR250? Could you please upload a photo?

Suzuki DR250 (one I rode was a djebel XC) designed for cross country. Reliability, wide seat, nice riding height, nimble, big tank. Perfect for what I want.
Looking for something similar to this.

[Guoseph]

The old DR250's were basically a DR350 with a smaller engine. It was an air cooled dual sport motorcycle Suzuki made in the 80's and 90's. In the US anyway the DR's except for the DR200SE and DR650 were replaced by the watercooled DRZ bikes, we only got the DRZ-400 but I believe internationally there was a DRZ250 as well.



This is the DR350, not having Google while in China sucks for finding good images.



I believe this is the DRZ250S, but I've never seen one because they were never imported to the US.

@VroomVroom on Chinese bike reliability, what has been the main cause of unreliable replicas? The designs are fairly rock solid as far as old Japanese dual sports go, have the Chinese makers cut too much cost and used lower spec components and parts that are more prone to failure?

[VroomVroom]

@VroomVroom on Chinese bike reliability, what has been the main cause of unreliable replicas? The designs are fairly rock solid as far as old Japanese dual sports go, have the Chinese makers cut too much cost and used lower spec components and parts that are more prone to failure?

Wheel spokes are awful
Chains stretch very quick
cables snapping
Braking system fails
Bearings don't have grease
Bolts un-tighten

Depends on the bike but usually they require a bit of attention to keep well. Get what you pay for.

[ShuBen]

I would say the problem of Chinese clone bikes are:
a) cheaper and therefore weaker materials (spokes, chains, casting parts ....)
b) manufacturing quality (unacceptable tolerances, poor welding, material failures, sloppy assembly ...)
c) finish (refractory plastic, insufficient coating without primer application ....)
d) .....

The Shineray X5 was basically a bulletproof design of the unbeatable Honda XR400 (see the movie "Mondo Sahara")
But what Shineray made out of it .... mmmmmhhh ....

[Guoseph]

XR400R's are one of my favorite Honda's. I found your X5 thread and will take some time to go through it. I didn't think you could register a 400cc bike in Beijing.

In theory you could register a Chinese clone and slowly swap out parts for the original Japanese ones, but I'm more looking for a bike to ride, not a project :p My original (potentially misguided) thought is to take a Chinese clone (is there a reference thread somewhere that says which Chinese models are clones of which bikes?) and upgrade a few key components.

[Guoseph]

Btw, your X5 looks fast