Regrettably Honley are off my shopping list. I came out of the local pit of doom (also known as the White Rose Shopping Centre) and there parked next to Cheryl was a Honley 125.

A late 2014 bike and it was dropping to bits. Rust on every "Chrome" surface, spokes you wouldn't trust not to break by looking at them, engine paint that made you think of Head and Shoulders.

I've been a student and kept small bikes outside all year round, but my 20 year old Honda looked better the day we lifted it into the skip than this 18 month old.

Lets hope they sort the tyre sizes and get their materials up to speed for 2020, because for 2017 I'd take a lot of convincing.

Andy

I had similar feelings about a Mash that I looked at last year, brand new as well.
They are not intended to deal with the UK weather but would probably do OK if based in the south of France or Italy.

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Dave

Yea, it's definitely still "early days" for these bikes. The good news is every subsequent generation of bikes seems to improve. Many here may have read various ride reports of guys buying China 125's and 250's in S. America and riding round. Just a few years ago these bikes DID fall to bits ... and not just bad paint and rust.

But they seem to be getting better. I've give them a couple more years. Even then, I doubt they will match Japanese fit and finish or build quality. You get what you pay for.

For me finish and build quality aren't that important if the engine hangs together.
The rest, I can deal with myself, do my own upgrades. Things like crap bearings can be replaced with quality ones, wiring can be upgraded where needed.

Step by step ... the yellow peril is upon us.

Not a lot to do about the fork legs chrome rusting though. At the moment I would prefer a secondhand CRF250L to this, in supplement to a quality issue I don't like China's human rights, equality and actions in the South China Sea.

I avoid buying Chinese whenever possible.

I like the effect the aggressive pricing has on traditional motorcycle manufacturers and have noted with interest the globalisation of factories - but I factor that in to any considerations. I checked out an old Toyota Avensis with an eye to buying and it was simply the worst Toyota I've ever seen with the dash cracked by the sun and a load of rattles - made in the UK....

Chinese bikes, at least in the US, are ALREADY there! The Haosen Hawk is selling for about $1300 to $1400 shipped to your house. Dozens of owners reporting good things about them, and some are actually taking them on trails and one guy even took his to a mild MX track (he crashed a couple times, so his broken parts are his fault ). The downside to be seen in the early days--these are NOT California legal as far as CARB--on road or off-road and a few other states, most notably Pennsylvania. Some are still getting plated in New York.

The true test is one guy on Chinariders is planning a trip from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia where he lives, to Yuma where I live, and south to wherever everyone seems to ride to here on Horizons--tierra del fuego. He already bought his bike and is playing around with accessories for a long trip, and has upgraded his sprockets from the stock off-road oriented 15/50 to 17/45 and the stock carb to a Ebay 'Mikuni' as even the ebay 'Mikuni' carbs allow the jets to be played with (using Mikuni jets) while the stock PZ-30 Keihin clone carbs do not. Since he has about $1500 into the bike up to this point, he plans to make it a one way trip and has even called the trip a 'ride and dump' as he plans to fly out of Argentina.

Since I have had success with Chinese bikes as commuters, I am contemplating buying one and riding with him from Yuma through Baja to Cabo, and back, alone. Then again, I might find someone coming north to ride with. I am quite confident that my bike won't have major issues if any at all--least of all the engine. Keep in mind, we aren't planning US interstate speeds, nor planning on recreating either of the Baja 1000 races--the SCORE or the newer 'retro' one that has been revised not too long ago.

Keep in mind that local brands, such as Honley, source their various bikes from different factories. My guess is the 125 is not manufactured by Zongshen who make the RX-3.

That being said, and I am not trying to convince you to reconsider a Chinese bike, it does not bode well for a company to use cheap OEMs for some of their lineup as it makes the whole lineup appear shoddy, as your original comment above, of them being off your list.

In the US, as we really do not have any solid dealer network of any Chinese-sourced bikes like you guys have in the UK, people do purchase them knowing they will have to turn wrenches rather than having a dealer to take them back for repairs or warranty work. Plus, our low, low prices for non-branded bikes reflect that. Fortunately, Chinariders.net has grown leaps and bounds, and is enabling people to purchase $1300 USD 229cc enduros with some semblance of confidence. Besides the fact that the bikes are better than they were 10 years ago, at least as far as the US market goes (our weather is way different than the UK, and most people don't ride in rainy weather, nor keep their bikes exposed to the elements in places that snow). One doesn't see these bikes rusting away, en masse, like you guys see in the UK.