Galaxy XTR 250 review

[culcune]

Culcune,

It is not possible to cross the border with a bike both ways. One country 2 systems

The bike will be left inside China for my 2010 tour plans.

What kind of nonsense is that? (don't answer or they might shoot you )

[kingdm54]

I grew up in Northridge; even got to experience the '94 quake...where are you from?

San Clemente. I was working at a Yamaha dealer in Long Beach during the 94 quake. Man did it make a mess of the shop lol.

[Franki]

What kind of nonsense is that? (don't answer or they might shoot you )

China is a lot more liberal than that
But think if they open the border for bikes to crossover, there will be a lot of HK bikers getting killed on mainland roads and vise versa

[culcune]

Franki, could you cross into HK, just not back into China? Or can you not take the bike out of China? All joking aside, there are some vehicles licensed for the street in Arizona (i.e. quads, side by side UTVs, dune buggies, etc) that are not allowed on the streets in the state next door, California , so I can see the point. I figured that HK is a little bit different than most of the rest of China in some ways

[Franki]

Franki, could you cross into HK, just not back into China? Or can you not take the bike out of China? All joking aside, there are some vehicles licensed for the street in Arizona (i.e. quads, side by side UTVs, dune buggies, etc) that are not allowed on the streets in the state next door, California , so I can see the point. I figured that HK is a little bit different than most of the rest of China in some ways

You can ship bikes into HK as cargo but not allow to ride it as it needs to pass EPD, Customs & DOT tests and duties. Most Chinese bikes can't pass E3 test.

[ChinaV]

Hey Calcune,

In China they drive on the right, Hong Kong drives on the left. For a whole bunch of money, you can get a Hong Kong car registered in China and drive across the border. You can't take a Chinese registered vehicle and drive it in Hong Kong. I live close to the border so I see a lot of dual registered cars with the steering wheel on the right hand side. Although they are one country, Hong Kong has very strict controls on what vehicles can operate there.

No amount of money will get you a motorcycle registration that works in both places... maybe someday... but not soon. It would be so cool if I could just ride my bike over to Franki's house.

Cheers
ChinaV

[felix]

A small update on my XTR:

Might be easier to just add one tooth on the front sprocket

A big thanks to ChinaV for not only suggesting this solution, but actually donating the 15T sprocket to make it happen!



The only problem is that the extra tooth on the front means that the chain rubs against the inside of the cover casing thing. I rode with it as-is for a couple of days to let the chain carve out some channels for itself.



I know this is a bit pikey, but i don't really care. The noise does still bother me though so i'm riding with the cover off at the moment until i find a better way to make it fit.

The bottom line is i'm not switching back to 14T after trying this one. It feels way better in every gear and i can go faster. In my original post i'd said that my bike will do 120kph. This was in fact wrong, as my speedo was not calibrated properly. Now however:

[felix]

Note: i'm not sure if i'm the only one who has trouble with photobucket in china, but i moved the above pics to flicker as they weren't displaying on my computer.

Incidentally, what do people recommend for image hosting in china?

[CrazyCarl]

If you don't mind paying something, I use imageevent.com. I think chinabiker also uses it. Site works fairly well, allows multiple ways to send images to your account and has never raised any flags in China that I know of so far.

CC

[felix]

Just a wee update on the latest modification.

I got one of those gyroscopic stabilizers sent over from taiwan and it works unbelievably well. It was easy to install, just a couple bolts under the seat; although i did get someone to help me with the wiring as i don't really know what i'm doing. Now when i turn off the engine it just starts up automatically and there's no more need for the kick stand.



It feels a bit unnatural at first to get off the bike and just let go, but it doesn't fall over. Awesome.
I don't know how long it takes to run the battery empty, so i do leave it on the kickstand at night. For running errands though it's incredibly handy.