Forum

[Adrian]

Sorry Scaly, bit of an Oh Vienna moment here...



A.

[Scalyback]

would we be talking Ultravox here?

[Bullet Whisperer]

Without using any rude words, that is a complete mess. Regards, Paul.

[Leon Novello]

It looks like the forks could do with some type of covers, metal or bellows. The rest of the bike looks like someone knocked it up from leftovers found in a shed.

[RancidPolecat]

"...Chinese then it'll be lubbish anyway" - what a splendid example of casual racism. As someone who has actually owned and ridden a Chinese Honda 125 clone, quite mercilessly, I would advise against such rash comments. I covered 10000 miles in all weathers and mostly flat out at 65 without incident. Yes, it went rusty and the chrome peeled off but what do you expect for £1000 brand new? My 1992 500 bullet was however a complete pile of rubbish that broke down regularly and eventually expired on the A1 with a snapped conrod. Post expiration examination revealed that the little end eye was bored on the skew.
On another point; modern Skidmaster tyres will corner very well, I have them on my AJS short stroke 500 and a Matchless 750 neither of which is a slouch and I can scrape both centre stands and footrests without worry.
Isn't it time we ditched such prejudiced and blatantly incorrect cliches?
As for the original post then it doesn't float my boat but don't disregard it simply because it' has a Chinese motor - look at the AJS Cadwall 125, now that is a good looking machine and if it had a bigger motor I think it would be a rival for the Continental GT.

[nigelphoto]

Rancid - if you dislike Royal Enfields so much why do you bother with a Forum devoted to the make? My comment is based on the experience of having owned and got rid of as quickly as I could, a Chinese (Loncin) made BMW.

[RancidPolecat]

I don't dislike Royal Enfields at all just the Bullet I once owned. My favourite bike and probably the last one I would sell is my Interceptor 1A. What I was getting at is that the country of origin is no guarantee of quality or indeed lack of it. We produced some absolute rubbish in the sixties and the Japanese bikes of the time were referred to as "Jap crap" , sometimes this was fair comment especially where the engineering was suspect but they picked up their game and have produced some very good motorcycles ( and other stuff) . The Bullet I had was produced before the Enfield factory was taken over by the Eicher group and their improved quality control. I like the Continental GT ,and hope the twin they are developing is a winner, but there are complaints about the poor quality control on these bikes too.
My Chinese bike coped admirably with everything I asked it to do. It was cheap and the finish was far from perfect but the engine was superb. Yes, it was a Honda copy but it was oil tight and didn't object to being thrashed - the Bullet I had could not hold a candle to it by comparison.

[simon]

I dont have any personal beef with the Chinese motors although the GN250s they make there have a rather poor rep. However its a rather uninspiring mass produced little commuter motor in a very odd looking frame and they want $6000USD for it. With the new Continental selling for the same sort of price I can't see any serious argument. There are some intersting bobber styled hybrid bike by an outfit called Deus Ex Machina available over here with the Yamaha XT 400 motors in them. A pretty alloy OHC single with some serious poke they make a bit more sense to me although Id still rather have the Yamaha motor in a Yamaha frame.

[jefrs]

Have we seen the new chinese AJS 125? http://www.ajsmotorcycles.co.uk/cadwell125 - under £1900, just and all of 7kW (9bhp)

[apparently lucky eddie]

And lets not forget Fanny Barnett either, who produce pretty 125 & 250's and a 400cc single with possibly the ugliest exhaust on any bike ever. Oh yes, and pedal bicycles. http://www.francis-barnett.org/ I'm amazed at your confidence in the square Avon Skidmasters (you use the same name...),polecat, I've found them to be the worst tyre ever used on 2 wheels although I'll concede they may have a place on 3.