I bought a Ronco Demolition 250 brand new in Cusco and rode it all around every country in South America, clocking up over 80,000kms, over 8 years. I had my fair share of problems, but so do many other non-Chinese brands. You get an incredible amount of bike and fun for the money in these Chinese bikes, but you do have do due maintenance and keep an eye on them. I once replaced an entire Ronco 250 engine with a new one for only $650 including labour, and I know I was overcharged! I would imagine their quality and reliability have improved in the years since I bought mine. I would say for your kind of short-hop use a Ronco or Senda (both use the Shineray engine) they would be very cost-effective. video here shows why I chose a Ronco - good bit starts at the 58 minute mark https://youtu.be/Gdd38WU0CBw?t=3486

I have a Peruvian plated Cross Triton that lives in the Andes. I go down about once a year to take a rip around the mountains. Once on a trip, I had to have the rear brake adjusted. Finding a mechanic was no problem and the price was very reasonable. Why? Because that is what the locals ride.

From what I hear, Chinese bikes were really bad but have gotten better. My little 250cc Chinese bike has done well by me. That said, I would have a skilled mechanic go over any bike purchased second-hand. Before turning your bike over to a mechanic, check out the shop. I have seen a crazy disorganized shop in Bolivia. Piles of nuts, bolts, and miscellaneous parts pretty much swept into piles on the floor. If you want a recommendation, private message me.

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Peter B
2008/09 - NJ to Costa Rica and back to NJ
2012/13 - NJ to Northern Argentina, Jamaica, Cuba and back to NJ
2023 - Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia...back to Peru.

Blogs: Peter's Ride

Ignore the country of manufacture.

Look at the price.

If you can buy a BRAND new motorcycle for £3000-£4000 what do you think it is made of. Where in that cost can they squeeze in quality, testing and reliability ?

They are assembled from the cheapest parts available. Which have also been made from the cheapest parts available from the lowest grade materials.

You just CAN NOT buy quality at a budget.

You look at a Chinese motorcycle the same way you look at anything which is half the price of something decent. It's throw away. It may look good and appear that it works well when it's new out of the box. Then it breaks. And it's hard or impossible to fix. You will have no support, no manuals, no spares that fit.

I work in bike shops. I deal with a lot of these Chinese, Korean and Indian bikes. It's an incredibly rare event that you see one over five years old which is running well or even running at all.

Even when just a few months old they have problems. The engines are probably the best part about them because they're direct copies of older Japanese engines like the GN125 or CG125s etc. Then they're wrapped up in cheap and nasty parts which randomly and often fail. Such as the ignition switches, fuel pumps, starter motors, throttle sensors etc. All these things maybe very cheap to replace but first they need diagnosing and sourcing. Which is a nightmare even when you're in a UK Main dealer. Let alone a small village in Peru etc.

A well built Japanese motorcycle from twenty years ago will still outlast and out perform a brand new third world bike. And cost less.

I've got quite a few friends who jumped on the R.E Himalayan band wagon. Their bikes are 2-3 years old, well maintained and they look like they were dragged out of a canal already and they break down all the time with stupid little things.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

When it comes to chinese bikes and stuff I totally agree with what Ted writes above here. 99 % of these is pure junk. A very few exeptions can be found though.
Indian bikes are much better though, not in the leauge of japanese bikes but waaay better than chinese stuff. In India they have used and made and manufactured bikes for a long time and that clearly shows even though they are made cheap so that they are affordable to the masses. Royal Enfields, Pulsars, Hero etc are much better bikes than chinese stuff.

And its not only about what parts costs, its about labour cost amongst other factors too. Most japanese and quite many european bikes are assembled in Thailand nowadays after all….

The very worst bike I have ever owned was a japanese brand, assembled in Spain btw…

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

I agree Indian bikes are better than Chinese, generally.

Taiwanese brand Kymco isn't too bad now either. Their current models are better than most of the other budget bikes around.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-57815491

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsudJ23WBGY

True story of a Chinese man who is reported to have travelled 500,000km, on 10 motorcycles looking for his kidnapped son. Bearing in mind all the questions it is still a great outcome for the man and his son as it is reported from multiple sources that they have been re-united.

OK, the topic was Chineese bikes.
China put someparts together and and a name.
No tradition or knowledge

I also agree regarding Indian bikes.
They have large companies that have been producing bikes for along time.

Very interesting for travelling somwhere (South America), buy one to use and sell when return. They are good enough for that. Both TVS and Enfield
At very low cost.

TVS is one example (even producing the BMW 310 and...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVS_Motor_Company

Kirk Wilson went to Colombia.
He bought an TVS apache and used it for a 20 000 miles trip.
And used it hard.
I took him all the way. To a very look cost.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

Sounds a bit uninformed to me if you state that a country which is building motorcycles since since 1951 and which has got around 200 motorcycles companies who produced in 2020 in pandemic times 17Mio (19/2019) motorcycles, has no tradition and knownledge.

An export volume of 5.252 million units with a value of 3.142 billion USD isn`t nothing compared to the total sales of 673800 japanese motorcycles units in 2020?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...omestic-brand/

Chinese motorcycles manufactures targets markets with low cc and high license numbers where japanese manufactures aren`t competitive due to models, pricing and ignorance:
China: 23 Mio
India: 20 Mio
Indonesia: 8 Mio
Vietnam: 3 Mio
Thailand: 2 Mio

Yes, chinese motorcycles aren`t made by best of of quailty and contemporary technic. But don`t tell me that there is a big difference in both compared to indian motorcycles like Royal Endfield. R.E. is building the same shit as ever with little updates in technic or quality.
How long ago since a lot of people didn`t even recognized or thought about R.E. because of their unreliability through antiquated technic and design which only got hip in the past years?

Fact is that chinese motorcycles are offered by a low price in adequate technic to markets that got irgnored by "the manufactures" for years. There is nothing wrong about this because you cannot compare chinese bikes with the standard of tripple high priced japanese bikes. Chinese bikes offer value for money including all hazzles you buy if don`t have an income to afford quality and tech standard of western industrial country markets.

If you are real adventurer, choose a chinese bike and paper maps for your tour - with this you buy the garantee to follow the roots of motorcycle travellers of the 1950/60s. And if you will be long enough on the road, you will definitely sometimes meet another traveller with a modern, better in quality and bigger than 400cc chinese motorcycle. R.E. is a nice blueprint how to enter western quality orientated markets with a low price, refreshed low tech bike vested with a retro looking of the good old times!

We shouldn`t state that all chinese is only poor crap, we should better be aware that chinese manufactures are sitting on a high potential to kill and change established "good qualty motorcycle companies" in the coming years. The KTM/CF Moto cooperation is a good example were the fruits of future are hanging...

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I swapped my Chinese scooter for a Kymco after doing my homework, Honda designed their engines & riding it (and spannering it) you would think it is indeed a Japanese bike.

Have a Greek mate who`s old man runs a scooter shop & he`s tried the lot, Jap, Chinese, Euro scoots & bang for buck they say the Kymco wins all day long & Kymco is now their entire fleet of rental scooters now.

And carton of Stella fits in the OEM rack just perfect.



Mezo.