Chinese 125cc Motorcycles – Pulse Adrenaline Sinnis Apache Superbyke RMR Lexmoto LSM, Zontes, Shineray etc

Motorcycling
1

A while ago on here, I posted a question about Chinese bikes as I was looking at a couple of models at a local dealer. I’d heard all the stories about them falling apart as you rode them along the road, and how they rusted away before your eyes. I even knew someone who bought a Baotian scooter a few years ago and had nothing but trouble with it. All of that therefore begs the question, why the hell was I even considering one?

Well, the price has to be one of the main factors… who can ignore a brand new bike for half the price of the more mainstream Japanese alternatives? Secondly, I’d been seeing more and more around town including a couple of not bad looking small capacity supermotos fairly regularly on my daily commute. When I got talking to one of the guys at the petrol station one day, I found out it was a Chinese bike (destickered to hide its origins) and he had nothing but praise for it. Reviews online and in mags like MCN were pretty decent about Chinese machines, and you can’t argue with the fact that the Chinese knock out more than half of the world’s bikes, so clearly they can’t all be having bad experiences!

I then thought back to all the negative stories I’d heard about Chinese bikes. The guy I knew that had the Baotian scooter that gave him a fair bit of grief?.. Well admittedly his dad bought it for him as a present when he turned 16. An E-bay sale, it cost him around £600 and came in a crate. Dad put it together despite having zero knowledge of bikes. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising he had problems. I then had a chat with my local trusted bike mechanic who reckoned that working on them was no problem these days if you went for one of the more mainstream brands such as Lexmoto, Pulse, Baotian,Shineray, Zontes, AJS et al. Parts could be had off the shelf as quick as any of the Jap manufacturers could get them. Reliability and quality had come on in leaps and bounds since the days of my acquaintance and his troublesome Baotian, and they represent decent value for money. Hmmm, food for thought.

Now I’m a cynical bugger at the best of times and it was going to take a lot more than the opinions of a couple of people and some decent reviews in a comic like MCN to persuade me that Chinese bikes were ever going to be in contention, so I went on a mission to find out as much information as I could about them… and there’s A LOT to find out. So many factories producing so many bikes, many of which use common frames, engines and other components, much of it built to Japanese manufacturer’s specs and produced under licence, but with an amazing amount of variation in quality. Some producers have only been in the bike game for a few years (I mean like 4 or 5 years!) and have ‘factories’that are practically empty warehouses, devoid of any kind of production equipment other than some fairly basic tools for assembling components that they’ve bought in. Other factories are so high-tech that you could mistake them for one of the big Jap four. They are producing engines and manufacturing components from scratch. What I didn’t realise when I started looking into all of this is that bikes like the Pulse Adrenaline and similar don’t really sell in China. These bikes are manufactured primarily for export markets. While we consider £1600 peanuts for a brand-new bike, the Chinese tend to pay around £600-700 for bikes similar to the old CG125, Cub 90 etc. They’re about substance instead of style and motorcycling in China is still primarily about cheap basic reliable transport over anything else.

Take for example the QingQi 200GY. It’s made by Jinan QingQi (the Jinan part of the name referring to the city in the Shandong province where they’re based). QingQi has worked with Suzuki since 1985 and has formed much closer ties through a formal joint-venture which was established in 1996. QingQi also operates a joint-venture with Peugeot which they established in 2006. QingQi subsidiary Pioneer also produce the 200GY model and this is the manufacturer of what is known in the UK as the Pulse Adrenaline (though we currently get the 125 version instead of the 200).

In various countries around the world, the QingQi 200GY is imported by other companies such as QLink in the USA and so on (QLink is known as a higher-end source for quality bikes as compared to other Chinese branded bikes). These importers then tend to re-brand the bikes with a name more suited to their domestic market, after all, who wants to walk into a dealer and ask for a QingQi 200GY? The sheer amount of different names is crazy. To illustrate…

The QingQi QM200GY-BA is also branded as follows:

In the USA it’s the QLINK XF200 SUMO
In Canada it’s a Konker KSM200
In Brasil STX 200 Motard Sundown

In the UK it appears as the Pulse Adrenaline 125 (XF125GY-2B), the Sinnis Apache, and the Superbyke RMR.

(Interesting that in some media and forums, it is stated that Sinnis design the bike themselves in Brighton and outsource the manufacturing to China. I have heard the same said about Superbyke in Bristol. Neither appears true – the bikes are Jinan QingQi/Shandong Pioneer designed and manufactured. The only ‘British’ design about them is probably the name and graphics).

In Chile/Colombia QMT200 or GXT Euromot
In the Philippines it’s a Sinski Motard 200R
In Paraguay Genesis GXT200 B
In Honduras a KMF
In Spain it’s marketed by Qingqi importer direct or I-moto as a Tiger SM 125
In Turkey it’s a Ramzey QM200GY
In Czech Republic/Slovakia it’s a YUKI 250 SM
In Russia it’s called QINGQI DRAGON 200 SUPERMOTO
In France Hooper 125 SMR
In Germany it’s imported by the prestigious Kreidler as a Supermoto 125 DD
In Australia Arqin motorcycles RT200SM
In Sweden they call it a TMS Supermotard 200cc
In the Ukraine its a SkyMoto Dragon-200 or a Matador 200
In South Africa its a Viper 200
In Italy the Beta Urban 200 and Urban 200 special have a Qingqi engine.

Jinan Qingqi is the OEM for Suzuki’s sub-250cc bikes. The connection to Suzuki is like that of a first cousin - Suzuki doesn’t want the world to know its small capacity bikes are manufactured in China, and Qingqi does not publicly announce this either (probably due to licence agreements). However the fact remains that the Pulse Adrenaline, Sinnis Apache etc are close relatives to Suzuki. I did read from someone who seemed pretty knowledgeable on the subject that all small capacity Suzuki bikes in South America are now produced in China. They’re Japanese bikes OEM’d in China. These modern Chinese bikes are very different to the rubbish that was sold even 5 years ago in the UK, delivered to your door in a crate with poor assembly instructions, zero warranty, and dubious build quality and reliability. There are a lot of happy owners regularly posting on forums like chinariders.net, supermotojunkies.com. and thumpertalk.com. These bikes make a compelling case for themselves when up against machines like the Suzuki DR125.

Whether you’re a fan of Chinese bikes or not, now that there are so many coming in and they are very competitively priced, they should help put pressure on the big Jap and European manufacturers to keep prices down.

My Conclusions

There’s still plenty of crap out there coming from China, but increasingly plenty of decent quality motorbikes as well. If QingQi are OEM for Suzuki,and Jianshe are OEM for Yamaha, they must be producing some reasonable stuff.

Don’t always equate a cheap price to a poor quality bike. Chinese manufacturers operate on very low overheads – staff, premises etc, and they spend very little on marketing. They save on Research & Development costs through joint ventures with more established manufacturers (or they’ll just blatently copy components). They benefit massively from economies of scale through common components across multiple bikes in their range, plus the sheer volume they purchase/produce (Remember, China produces over half the world’s motorbikes).

Stick to the well known brands like Lexmoto, Pulse, Baotian etc. They’re small capacity bikes using tried and tested technology. Spares are also easy and quick to get hold of, and cheap compared to spares from Japanese manufacturers.

Buy your Chinese bike from a dedicated and established motorcycle dealer, and not from some car garage or here-today-gone-tomorrow shop that’s decided to ‘diversify’ into bikes for a few extra £££’s profit despite knowing bugger all about them. These people don’t usually know how to assemble a bike correctly and don’t bother using things like threadlock etc where appropriate.

Anti-Corrosion sprays - use them. There are plenty of tatty Chinese 125s knocking about, but then the guys I see regularly whilst commuting use theirs year round and they still look mint. A cheap purchase price equals a disposable bike for many people, but from what I’ve seen, they’ll hold up fine if you take care of them. Crack out the ACF50.

Depreciation – put it into context… A new Chinese bike will depreciate much more in percentage terms than a new Jap bike. A Pulse Adrenaline losing 45% of its value in year 1 will cost you about £720. A CBF125 losing 30% of its value in year one will cost you £750. Is it worth it to save maybe £30? I guess it all depends on whether you want the supermoto Suzuki DR125 style of bike or the boring commuter style.

Finally the million dollar question… Would I buy one!!! Well not just yet (I did say I was a cynical bugger). I’ve recruited a guinea pig – my brother who wants to keep the salt off his Street Triple bought a Pulse Adrenaline new from his local bike dealer at the end of October. It’s used daily for a 32 mile round commute and so far all is well. If he still reports good things by March, I’m going to buy one myself for city duties and bad weather days.

2

i got halfway through this and got bored of reading about chinese bikes,
im not sure what youre conclusion was… but IMHO i would say dont waste any more time reading up on them or researching them.

buy a decent brand

3

so your brothers had his for 6 weeks and done less than 1000 miles and alls well? bloody hell he must have lucked out and got a good one. seriously though mate, dont bother!!!

4

So markinderby says he’s cynical but puts in lots of research and, so far one person can’t be ars*d even to skim through to read the end of his post and another is dismissive? Nothing like an open mind then guys?

I’ve been around a bit longer than you lot. Long enough to remember the original Honda 250 Dream being bad mouthed and dismissed as “rubbish that will fall apart and you won’t be able to get spares” by all and sundry, notably the British motorcycle industry and dealers.

So where are those manufacturers and dealers now? And where does our only significant manufacturer source a fair proportion of it’s parts?

Can I suggest you guys keep an open mind, and perhaps a closed mouth?, and wait and see?

5

I read the whole thing after he posted it . I have been researching and mullin it over since then . I am yet to reach my own conclusion … currently not sure . Maybe I need to buy one , but so far experience of them from a spannering point of veiw has been poor ,very poor indeed . Its not the engine or the frame ,its all the bits around those parts have been the issue .

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I respect what your saying but I am speaking from personal experience, my first bike was a chinese import, the engine was wrecked by the time I hit 26miles… If you want to keep an open mind I suggest you buy one… Then use it to commute…

Oh… And a lot of insurers will say no just for it being a Chinese import…

7

I don’t remember saying “buy one now” or anything like that. Just keep an open mind.

As someone said, the engines and frames tend to be fine as they are straight cribs of older Japanese stuff, sometimes the manufacturers are even OEM suppliers to the Japanese.

That stated, there do seem to be major problems with some Chines makes and others make a cock of the bits that are not engines and frames.

They will learn and sooner or later the Chinese will be a world class motor cycle manufacturing nation.

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Yep, it is a bit of a read admittedly, but then as there’s very little info on the internet about these bikes, I wanted to put what I found together and tag it in case it helps anyone else who’s looking for similar info.

Daws, I would agree with not wasting any more time researching them. I think I’ve done plenty enough and whether you agree or not, I think they could well be a viable proposition for a cheap runabout. Insurance is also no issue unless you go for something really obscure on a personal import which no-one really does.

Yes my brother might have one that he’s now done a couple of thousand miles on, but of course I’m not making a case for Chinese bikes on the basis of that. More so on the basis of the guys I see riding them regularly and who seem quite happy with them.

NumNum, I would agree about the engines and frames being considered the best bits - it’s quite feasible that it’s exactly the same engine in bikes like the Pulse and the Suzuki but with different logo’d covers. The Chinese bike forum guys who have been running them for years have always seemed to agree that these give very few problems. They used to say that it was the additional cycle parts that gave the problems… like the bars that bent too easily in a light tumble, the spoked wheels where the spokes always worked loose, and dodgy electrical connections that could cause issues, but from reading the tech sections of those websites, these don’t really seem to be an issue these days. The problems that people post about don’t seem any different to those you would find on the Honda forums for example.

They’re feeling their way at the moment with cheaper small capacity bikes, but like Oldguy says… Keep an open mind. Sooner or later the Chinese will be a world class motorcycle manufacturing nation. One thing for sure though, you don’t seem to get anywhere near as much negativity towards Chinese bikes on the foreign forums. Perhaps we Brits are a little slower to realise what’s coming our way.

Some interesting reading (not Chinese bike specific you’ll be pleased to hear)… http://export.gov/build/groups/public/@eg_main/@byind/@autotrans/documents/webcontent/motocycles046223.pdf

Already grabbing a decent chunk of the market in countries like Greece, Poland, Czech Republic & Slovakia etc, anyone who thinks they won’t increase here is burying their head in the sand. Baotian scooters already UK No.1 in scooter sales.

:cool:

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“Perhaps we Brits are a little slower to realise what’s coming our way.”

Too effing right we’re a little slow which is why we have little in the way of motorcycle, car, whatever manufacturing left in this country.

O.K. We are really good at the high end stuff, but that’s a bit like being a top class chef that can’t feed his own kids with a cheap balanced diet meal when they come home from school.

So it is with manufacturing motorcycles. The sub 250cc, notably 125cc, is where the real money is made and the Chinese, Malays and Indians recognise that. Once they have that market cracked the rest will follow.

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I’ll be totally honest and I’m not in the market for a bike. however if I was I think I’d have to take this bit of research in to consideration. Not being a lover of chinky gear mainly due to the reputation of falling apart, you would have to think that with a little knowledge of bikes you could build your own an be quid’s in, good bit of research mate and I would consider one tbh.
All the best John

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You lot make me laugh. You babble on about how crap all Chinese bikes are - I agree some are. But what I cannot understand is when I travel to Africa I see these £400 90cc step throughs and generic 125s everywhere, being ridden in places where they are no roads. Parked up by a mud hut, where the bush mechanics favourite tool is a large hammer. If the bikes can survive those dusty, dirty, rough basic conditions then here it must be much easier on them?
Look throughout the world - Afghanistan? How long would that sportsbike last out in the countryside there?
Would I buy a Chinese 125? No but I’m not in the market for a 125 from anywhere, whether it is a Honda from Brazil or Thailand.
Would I buy a 600 Benelli? Made in Hungary by Keeway a company set up by one of the giants of quality Chinese bikes to hide the fact they are a Chinese company in order to sell to Europe. No because I don’t like that peaky old R6 engine.

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They probably do fine in drier coastline free countrys .Its the water and salt combination that this Island has that kills them here . Electrics connectors and cycle parts that fizz like an alka-setlzer .

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Mostly they will cope with water which is why they survive the monsoon season in the far East. My old Brit bikes back in the 60’s/70’s couldn’t cope in light rain to last from the South coast to London without a condom on the magneto. That just moved the problem to the HT leads and the plugs which is why I had to carry spares + spanners in a plastic bag in my pocket.

Salt’s the killer and the U.K. uses more of that stuff/mile than most of Europe and certainly more than a goodly chunk of the snowy/ultra cold bits of the far East.

Crap cycle parts are also a bit of a problem and that’s what let’s a lot of Chinese bikes down at present. That and we have a few rules about how knackered wheel bearings, chains, sprockets and the like can be and it still be legal to ride.

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Yes, well thankfully we are saved from the prince of darkness Lucas and his components these days . Its never the water alone or the salt alone … it the magic combination and the chemical reaction when those 2 things combine that kills em and everything else . But some things die quicker than others … and chinese bikes seem to make it one winter and then by summer the green fuzz has taken over .

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NumNum You could almost be talking about an Italian bike there.

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Just thought I’d add my thoughts as my own experience with a Chinese bike was good. I bought a DZ125 from here http://www.cjbikes.co.uk/product/dz-125-black-2011-model/ , to get me used to riding on the road again. When I bought it they had a special deal running so got it new for around £700 on the road a few years back now. Rode it for a year and then kept it covered over for 2 as a spare. Then sold it for around £500.

The only issue I had was a slight crack on the rear exhaust hanger, which was welded to the exhaust, mentioned it to them as it was under warranty and they sent me a new exhaust.

The engine was basically a CG125 copy, reliable, not very fast, but, certainly did what was needed and never let me down. The companies after sales service was good and as you can see from the site the parts were cheap too…perfect for a learner on a budget.

There are always going to be some horror stories no matter what bike you choose, but, glad to say I did quite well :slight_smile:

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Spicy110’s review of the Pulse Adrenaline on YouTube…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YJ6241hPjM&list=UUYvISrDIb0csPaKaY2x9UVA&index=140 :cool:

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Seems a decent and honest vid. to me. If I was still commuting and the finish on my Aprilia hadn’t already fallen off due to winter riding I’d be tempted to buy one as a winter bike.

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Chinese ER6n. £4200
Uses the same Kawasaki engine.

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Yeah, a dealer near my brother’s is selling that WK650 for sub-£4k. Mainly looks alright, but the chain adjusters looked a bit cheap and nasty. If going Chinese, I’d want to dip my toe in the water with a lower priced 125 first.

Spicy’s review of his Pulse Adrenaline is an update of his earlier review. Other than his major engine issue, he’s had all the usual stuff that’s been mentioned on the Chinese forums… 2-3 loose spokes that he got sorted, sometimes iffy electrics that require a bit of cleaning to the connection, and a sticky rear drum. His is a 2007 first import model and I understand it that a lot of these issues have been resolved… better quality wheels and now comes with a disc rear brake, but I think the electrics can still cause occasional issues like the occasional dodgy sidestand switch. Still, at half the price or less of the equivalent Suzuki or Yam it could be ok. My brother’s is still going strong though he’s going to pull the exhaust off for a coat of high temp paint as it’s going rusty. Used throughout Winter though so no surprise.

I’m contemplating selling the car and having a main bike + cheap spare for all year 365 biking. Unlikely to happen this year but a change of job could provide the opportunity.

Premises… loving the ‘wing-mirror’ video :smiley: Definitely going to have to invest in a camera set-up. Wondering how it’ll fit on my matt-black Caberg V2R though? Sticky pad? Don’t want it flying off at speed!