Unsure of Chinese Quality...

[mrhonda1987]

But they sure picked the right thing to copy. Any thoughts on a FlyScooters Scout? It seems to be the only way we'll get a new Super Cub here in the US, except for that ugly symba thing. Any thoughts?

Fly Scout | flyscooters.com

[AllanB]

Copyright!!!!!! Looks like someone pulled apart a Honda steppie and took some casting off it!


I've no experience with that specific brand - Google away for reports.

We have had a lot of chinese scooters come into New Zealand over the past 3-4 years and unfortunately the majority of them have been good for a ride to town and back only! There have been some horror stories of failures of parts due to very poor metal quality.

[Sprintboy]

My wife picked up a cheap Chinese scooter at a garage sale with a flat rear tire. The engineering was awful. The rear bearing race was made out of a Chinese beer can cut with tin snips!

[nd4spdbh]

it really depends on what you get.

I have a chinese z50 remake... has 10k miles on it and they are beat to hell jumping and off roading miles. i swapped out the original 50cc motor for a chinese 110cc @ 3400mi and that lasted till 8ishk miles when i had a chain ball up in the front of the front sprocket cus it fell off the rear (too loose and doing doughnuts = no bueno) so i put the original 50cc motor back in and its the beater z50... poor little thing... took it up to mammoth mtn last summer and 9000ft elevation + 50cc motor + my buddy @ 180lbs.... 1st gear WOT was just about all that could be used to get him up any thing... so it spent most of its time on the rev limiter... still runs just fine haha.

We also have another chinese z50 with a 110cc that we have taken better care of... and a CT70 remake with a 125 and both have been great..

I will say that the only motor i will use from china is a lifan one.... lifan is the biggest car company over there and they know how to make good shit.

[frankly]

I agree with nd4spbh - it really depends on what you get. Some of the newer Chinese vehicles are vastly improved in quality.

There isn't necessarily any copyright infringement and this isn't even necessarily just a "copy". For decades Japanese manufacturers (and others) have sold complete manufacturing lines (dies, tools, molds, etc) from discontinued models to countries like China, India and Korea. They then locally mass produce the models under a different name for their domestic markets.

When Kymco (a Taiwanese company) came out with the "Kymco mongoose 250" quad it was actually fitted with an outdated Honda Rebel engine - a twin cylinder I think. Kymco's quality can't be tooo bad - from what I read KYMCO was chosen by BMW to build the engines for their G450X enduro bike in 2008.

[brian]

.... daewoo

[sbeau1960]

I have heard from a Yamaha dealer that sells Chinese Lifan scooters that they have to take them completely apart and rebuild them bolt by bolt before they sell them, otherwise they just fall apart. The Koreans have it figured out now, took them a few years but Kias and Hyundais are now quality vehicles. Don't know if they Chinese will ever get to the point of producing quality product though because it's all about mass quantity and quick profit.

[Lemonhead]

Yeah, my gut say "run" on that one.