Chinese dirt bikes

[Gabriel]

So, what's the scoop on these cheap chinese dirt bikes? I see them for sale quite often for very little money. Every one seems to be the same; Runs great, needs work. Then you look at the picture and it looks like somebody whooped it to death with a hammer, chains broke and the damn wheel 'bout to fall off......BUT it runs good!

I seen a 200 or 225 (can't remember) a few days ago for like $150. Runs good they say. Beat to death.


I'm curious: Are these motors pretty decent? You can't build a motor for $150. You'd have to do a little wiring and break out the welder and get fancy with some motor mounts but I wonder if it would make a decent knock about trike engine?

[schlepp29]

I got a 125 Chinese pit bike I've had for nearly 15 years. I still ride it, but they require alot of constant wrenching it seems. I personally don't know anything about the 200 plus cc engines. I suppose if you get it cheap enough then no harm?

[83ATC185]

In my experience with Chinese bikes, they're good until something happens, and then there aren't any replacement parts so its either rig something up or park it. Mine was 6 years old when i got it, it had a Honda clone engine that ran perfectly and appeared like it would bolt up in a 200 frame... I was going to use it to make an electric start 200s with a manual clutch but ended up selling it. Like all the rest, the motor was in great shape, no leaks or smoking or anything like that, cranked on the second kick. The motor seemed bulletproof, but the bike was falling apart around it. I wouldn't hesitate to use the motor out of one if it was bolt up or near so.

[oldskool83]

All of the Chinese motors 140-200 are copies of Honda. you can use Honda parts in them. If you can deal with the backlash of putting Chinese in Japanese go for it. If you buy the motors new for $400-500 shipped. Rebuilding a old Honda motor you will be about the same price so its your call if you want it all a cobbled Honda mess worth nothing or a hybrid of parts worth nothing if you try and sell it later.

[ps2fixer]

One thing to note, yes the China engines are copies of the Honda design, however don't forget, it's also manufactured in China, meaning likely lower quality metals, tolerances are more relaxed, and finish isn't as well as true Honda. You can go into any store that sells snow blowers etc and look at the real Honda engine vs the Honda clones and see the finish difference. Of my understanding (no direct experence), the China engines make less power than the Honda version (guessing because of the head/porting and/or cam). Personal experience with China parts, their wiring is GARBAGE, tiniest copper wire inside a thick as can be insulation that melts at relatively low temps.

I buy/mod some China parts, and #1 thing I do with them is remove the wiring and replace it with USA made wire that's sometimes 3-4x the copper, but ends up looking the same size of wire. After that, every contact surface in switches for some reason are horrible, I go in with 400-800 grit sand paper and resurface them and put white lithium grease on them to preserve the exposed metal and lube the switch surface. Some switches are built like trash (all plastic, barely together), while others are built reasonable. Not directly engine related, but the wire harnesses likely won't hold up to the test of time from what I've seen from wiring on their parts.

I'll attach a couple photos. The black/white wire is 18 gauge wire I use in all my wire harnesses, the red wire appears like it should be 18 gauge (standard size for general harnesses), but the copper wire is so much thinner like 24-26 gauge. I have some actual 22 gauge wire around somewhere, maybe I should compare it some time.

Note, the straight on shot is hard to see, was trying to give a fair compare since it's hard to show it well by just stripping the wires since I could just feather out the copper to make it look bigger.

[ATCKevin]

I second the cheap wiring! I trash picked a china pit bike a few years ago. The wiring was a joke! You could strip the wires with just your fingernails!

[ps2fixer]

I wonder if there's any interest in a service for me to rewire cheap china parts/harnesses etc with good quality wire/connectors. For the most part, that's been the major down fall of China made from what I've seen. Bearings and such on the machines might be garbage, but replace with quality ones and you're good to go and not all that expensive. Plastics seem a bit crappier too, more prone to breaking etc, no real way to get around that. My dad's little China 50cc quad for my sister (when she was younger) had it's gas tank crack open right at the cap so it leaked on bumps etc. He ended up porting the intake and exhaust some, put a bigger out spout on the exhaust and the engine came to life a bit more. I don't think he did anything with tuning, so probably was/is way too lean. I remember him saying something about it was really restricted.

There are China atv sites that sell parts at mass, the problem is, what part fits which machine, specs, fitment etc is lacking on all of the sites it seems. They just state things like fits most 50-150cc, or something along those lines. Wiring colors seem to not standard there too, sometimes things are wired in reverse Honda vs china.

I know people have had good luck with China engines, if I ran across an ATC70 with a bad engine, I'd probably throw a China engine in it just for the ease of it, and the fact it would probably end up a beater, I mean really, if the atc70 engine is bad, the thing must have a ton of use on it, probably won't be in very good shape to start with lol.