Shineray / XinYuan X5 review

[Symon260z]

Bikerdoc,

I leant the hard way about heat and alumnium engines with a Rover V8 powered Truimph Stag I made for my ex wife in Spain. I bought the reconditioned engine in the UK and they had painted to improve its appearance. To cut a long story short the car overheated like a kettle even in the winter, I did a few fixes like custom made high efficiently radiator, ducting to imprive airflow to the radiator, extra water capacity with 2 litre expansion bottle but with no real improvement.

One day I visited one of the local motorbike teams and struck up a conversation with one of the Honda engineers, we got around to cooling and he gave me the idea about painted aluminium engines. Next weekend, I whipped the motor out, stripped all the paint off the allumium block and heads ( very time consuming ). Problem solved, the engine stayed at 90ºc even in 40ºC summer days.

Honda fitted the XR400 with a oil cooler for a reason and I would suggest that any X5 owne,r who intends to use the bike and "give it some", has one too. Even better with a thermostat so that the oil can warm up ( Cold oils don't lubricate well ) then the termostat opens to keep the oils cool. Ideal temperature for an oils is somewhere between 80 and 120 ºC depends on the oils.

It would seem that Shineray are saving some money not painting the engines and not fitting an oil cooler but without giving too much thought of the end product which is fairly normal for China.

Symon

[jerryguo]

stupid question, so how would you retrofit an oil cooler to the new v of the x5 then? a related question, i'm doing beijing-berlin this summer and there will likely be stretches of desert / steppe terrain where i could be riding nonstop for the whole day under a blazing sun. how often should i stop and any signs for engine overheating?

ALSO IMPORTANT DEFECT ON THE NEW X5: so it turns out when they switched from plastic to aluminum gas tank for the x5 2.0, they designed the lid to be too air-tight. so when my engine died the first day, according to the mechanic, it was because there was a vacuum in the tank. so it's in the shop right now and i think they'll have to drill an air-hole somewhere up top. apparently this doesn't happen with every bike off the line, but it happens enough that the shopgirl sheepishly acknowledged that they've had to do this fix before. ridiculous right!?!?

[modron]

how much was the rack for your pelican fakes? i just tried looking them up on taobao, you happen to still have the links? you might have just saved me a couple grand! this nice-looking alum pannier set + rack was 3,000, saw it on another x5 and it looks great!

Im not sure about a rack for the X5 cos I have a different bike. Quick search on taobao gave me this one. At RMB600 its a bit pricey but still not bad. I think my was RMB350. The exact boxes I bought are here, but if you want better quality (although mine are great) you can look for Wandefu (万德福) boxes on taobao or specifically Wandefu toolboxes. Wandefu boxes are Pelican fakes and the ones I bought are Wandefu fakes ;)


My rack has a funny design so I could not fit quick release and had to bolt my boxes but thanks to this I had a winning pannier set for about RMB700 hah

I think it was a terrible idea to get rid of the oil cooler. Last year when I was considering the X5 there was a big concern on Chinese forums about this bike not being liquid cooled as people wanted to use them for traveling and feared air/oil cooled is not enough for riding all day in hot Chinese summers/areas. It seems that they are trying to kill all hope.

[ShuBen]

For the luggage rack I paid 550RMB + transport fee.

I think omitting the oil coolers is a sh.. idea. Even with coolers my engine got nice hot in the summer time. By omitting the coolers they also decrease the circulating oil quantity. that means less media for heat transfer. The first X5 I got had a unpainted engine. Because of the clutch issues I got another bike that had then a black engine.

BTW: have they solved that clutch problem or is it still like a snap in feeling in the last moment before releasing the lever completely?

[Symon260z]

The lack of a breater on the petrol tank is a real classic, all the manufacturers knew about that before the 1st Word War ! And even better that the fatory hs probably received feedback on this issue and htey have done nothing about it. I suppose that they have fixxed the issue of rain water leaking into the tank :-)

I suppose that this is pretty normal for Chinese compnanies, make it wrong 1st time then make it wrong again 2nd time, etc. And never learn from their mistakes. With this attitude the rest of the world will never be conerned about Chinese industry.

I had a chat with Kyle Wang from Shineray at the recent Canton fair. His business card says that he is Vice General Manager. He had no idea of the issues that seem to plaque the X5, he just kept saying that Shineray bikes are the best quailty bikes with the best quality components. He invited me to the factory to test a X5 but then never replied to the 3 e mails I've sent him. Complete BS.


Symon

[jerryguo]

the clutch is pretty good, there's no skip or anything right before you fully release it. however, was the old x5 just really loud? mine's shaking at around 60kph, maybe the odometer is not calibrated correctly and i'm going 80 or 90 ... any way to muffle the sound a bit?

[ShuBen]

my X5 had a nice roaring sound out of the original exhausts. for my taate not too loud but loud enough to be heard.