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Post by JR on Dec 16, 2015 11:24:09 GMT -6
One thing that will come with the ATVs will be the loss of places to ride them. So get and enjoy one now. The motorcycles can still be used on the roads. I don't see ATV sales or riding them slowing down any time soon as far as where I live in fact with the new cheaper Chinese ATV's hitting the market they are even more popular. JCT can tell you that in Arkansas if a day goes by that you don't see one even going down the right away of a state highway or a kid that is barely able to reach the handle bars on one then you've either not left your house or been sent somewhere to the Twilight Zone. These people are in Conway only 30 minutes away, started out as a two man operation selling cheap 50cc Chinese scooters and now sells it all, has a good shop, mechanic and parts: www.arkansasatv.us/They are selling 2 ATV's to one scooter and from what I've seen they're selling ATV's at a third of name brand ones and have all sizes. People here are nuts about ATV's, sadly Arkansas is always in the top 5 of ATV related injuries and deaths yearly. Restrictions have been only put in as far as the National Forests here and of course private land owners. People here don't just ride them for recreation, they use them on the farm, feed cattle with them and hunters all own one. If the trend on ATV's goes like it did on scooters I see CfMoto having trouble selling their machines in the future also. Reason is simple, why pay 3 times the price for a "Chinese" ATV? People here that are going to spend a "lot" of money on a ATV go name brand. |
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Post by JR on Dec 13, 2015 20:09:55 GMT -6
No, I'm still not getting it. "Fibro fog" getting in the way here, I guess. I used a inches to millimeter converter and got 102 x 305. I just don't have any comprehension about these formulas. Go to the bottom of any page, check the "Tire Size Calc." and hit Select, then use it to find your tire size. JR |
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Post by JR on Dec 13, 2015 9:16:08 GMT -6
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Post by JR on Dec 11, 2015 21:13:10 GMT -6
I didn't take it in a bad way Jack. I am doing a combined fleet mileage of around 4,000 to 5,000 annually. The CF Moto is only collecting about 3,000 a year since I have so much stuff to play with. Now I have the big Kawasaki and the little Nighthawk to goof around on so I will be spreading mileage even thinner. If one of these kids doesn't start to use Sara's Rebel I'll have yet another vehicle to ride on. Given the fleet I have at the moment it will be about 16 years before I hit 50k. At which point it will be darn near an Antique. I'm Facebook friends with a Helix owner and you know what? They may last a long time but what they won't tell you is how much fiddling they do. This guy was posting endless pictures of his scooter being "Maintained". Yes, he did over 10,000 miles this season but he was constantly lubing, greasing, replacing and adjusting things. He was even cleaning the dust out of his brake drum periodically. Don't get me started on the goings on in the Vespa forum. Those things are European Chinese scooters at five times the price. Every month they report on another Vespa dealer going under. Right now there are more dealers selling Bintelli than there are Vespa dealer. You know what's worse for me about CF Moto? I defended them. I said they had a plan. I was sure they were going to make even better scooters than the Jetmax and Charm. The NK 650 sells like hotcakes in the rest of the world. Then they turn around and dump the whole two wheeled line. Like I said, I might have bought the 650 street bike, now you couldn't give me one. I call greasing and lubing general PM and IMO some people go overboard. Not saying be lax in doing good PM but changing the gear oil on every oil change especially when one is using quality oil is not necessary. As far as the vertical engine goes the valve adjustment isn't near as often or critical as the sister engine the linhai. Ya know some people just like to tinker with things too.  |
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Post by JR on Dec 11, 2015 13:11:32 GMT -6
engine should be good for another 50K+ without blinking an eye.
Another 50k!!?? If I get 50k out of the original engine for what I paid it will receive a grand sendoff to the Bone Yard. Or I'll put it up on blocks as a Static Monument. KZ I didn't mean that in a bad way, I honestly believe you can get 50k out of the original engine as there are several guys listing the linhai at over 20k and still going. I believe this for several reasons. Your climate isn't quite so hot, that's good for a engine You will keep it serviced You're not going to dog the engine and you like to ride this scooter in the open and on the interstate so the engine even at 60 to 70 mph isn't being stressed, high speeds isn't stress trying to reach high speeds in a split second is. It's water cooled a plus for a 4 stroke engine. I at the annual scooter show in Eureka Springs a few years back looked at 4 Helix scooters that all have over 75k on them with OEM engines and one with over 100k on it, seriously. One guy had put a trike kit on his and him and his wife rode that thing from Alabama to the show and it had a little over 70k on it. It can be done. JR |
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Post by JR on Dec 10, 2015 12:51:05 GMT -6
Timing? If the timing is off the valves may be open on the compression stroke as well as the exhaust stroke, lastly did you inspect the vales on the head for a good seat? I've bought brand new heads and the seat was terrible and leaking. I always pull the valves and seat them with some compound before I put one together. Learned my lesson by putting a engine together with a new head and same thing no compression and found the leaking by valve, never again will I do that.
JR
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Post by JR on Dec 10, 2015 12:47:41 GMT -6
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Post by JR on Dec 10, 2015 12:41:42 GMT -6
Fortunately since I have the CN-250 motor and that's the part that might need work. I had the starter motor let go and bought a replacement from Partsforscooters for $59. You know what the Honda Helix starter goes for? How about over $400! I had the same thing happen with the Honda Nighthawk. The starter OEM is $334. I actually ordered it and returned it after finding a Chinese equivalent for $56 on Ebay. If the Fashion ever needs rings or guides it's gone. I paid $1200 for it and by my scale of dollars to miles it will have paid me back in 750 miles. After that repairs have to be based on some level headed thinking. After all, now that winter is here there are some ridiculous bargains out there. The other day I saw a 2005 Burgman 650 with 67,000 miles for $1500 on Craigslist. I know that's a bunch of miles but it would give me $1500 worth of use in no time and after that....Who cares. If she started having engine problems along the scale of burning oil a ring and gasket set is cheap, in fact you can replace the entire top end for under $200 with no sales tax or shipping. That's just simply jerking the old off and putting the new back on and presto, engine should be good for another 50K+ without blinking an eye. www.ebay.com/itm/ENGINE-CYLINDER-REBUILD-KIT-JONWAY-YY250T-ROKETA-MC-54-CFMOTO-250-250CC-SCOOTER-/310827197082?hash=item485ebea29a:g:-FkAAOxygPtSti4W&vxp=mtrI've noticed a lot of what I'm figuring is people parting them out with different engine parts and such. Like you said this time of the year things are cheaper. |
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Post by JR on Dec 10, 2015 9:33:49 GMT -6
The difference with Flyscooters was that their scooters weren't their own. All of them were sold by other companies. Fly sold the La Vie which GS Motoworks sold as the Carina. Both were even built by Znen and used the same parts as all GY6 versions. With CF Moto you're stuck. I have a stock of front brake pads for the Fashion against the day when they might not be available anymore. They might be the same as a Helix but I didn't take any chances. Imagine having to scrap a scooter because you wear out the pads and can't get brakes? As I said, most Helix parts bolt right up but there are subtle differences in some. That would indeed be tough to let a scooter go to waste for something that simple. I know you take extremely good care of it but one just never knows what is going to happen. I had a friend way back in high school that used to buy old pickups and restore them for kicks and made a few bucks on the side doing it. He would go to shows, wrecking yards, estate sales, even got to bargaining with auto parts stores that had parts that had been on the shelf for years and years. He accumulated so many parts that he built a warehouse and a shop and started making a good living rebuilding old cars and pickups, he specialized in the old Studebakers and had parts no one else had. He retired a few years back a rich man, his two sons still do that work and he goes all over the country for them finding parts still to this day, heck he's the luckiest guy I know when it comes to finding things. With a scooter like this or even old vintage motorcycles and scooters one could do the same thing, there are a few who rebuild vintage Cushmans today and they brig a premium price from collectors. I believe if I had one of these scooters with the intent of riding it I would as you mentioned stockpile certain parts that wear out like brake pads, clutches, variators and even a roller set or sliders that fit? I might even buy a ring set for it and a gasket and oil seal set. One could keep their receipts and if they thought they wanted to sell it they could always get their money back upon selling it with a good stock of parts? In fact that would be a attractive thing to me if I knew I was buying a good scooter that is not longer being sold and parts aren't being made? I was just looking on Ebay at some stuff and one might get a good deal on some of the things here listed especially on the ones listed as "OR BEST OFFER" I've did well on Ebay with sales like this, if a seller isn't moving a item the best offer is attractive sometimes. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R7.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xcfmoto.TRS0&_nkw=cf+moto+250&_sacat=0I know that's a good price on the water pump seal kit and clutch. www.ebay.com/itm/2007-2011-CF-MOTO-V3-V5-Qlink-Legacy-250cc-Clutch-and-Flywheel-Assembly-NEW-/301820578186?hash=item4645e8898a:g:aNwAAOSw9mFWMQdO&vxp=mtrwww.ebay.com/itm/Water-Pump-Seal-Kit-CF150-CF250-1P58MJ-157MJ-172MM-CFMoto-Honda-US-Seller-/151838587230?hash=item235a48f95e:g:xXEAAOSwstxVYZNs&vxp=mtrJR |
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Post by JR on Dec 9, 2015 21:18:54 GMT -6
I don't blame any company for doing what they need to do as far as making a profit and staying in business and had this been one of those things where they got into financial trouble and bellied up so to speak then I'd just say it was a bad deal. But we all know the stories of how they misled people and then left all their dealers holding the bag and trying to keep mad customers happy, very unethical IMO.
If we remember there was another "better" Chinese scooter company that did go belly up for several reasons and they had the similar thing happen with a lot of unhappy dealers and customers, of course I'm talking about Fly Scooters.
The shame of it is IMO CfMoto could have found a way to keep a market going with more competitive priced scooters and maybe even consider merging with another Chinese company with maybe just a scooter line and keep dealers happy with a supply of parts for scooters already out in the market.
CFMoto made a great scooter but with our economy as it is and during the time they were selling here people didn't want to pay the higher price for what is still a Chinese scooter. Just like when Japan entered the two wheel world it takes time to get a reputation of being a good manufacturer.
MY hope is someone will do like the automotive industry does and that is build after market parts when OEM parts stop being built. I personally don't ever see Moto back in the scooter business.
JR
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Post by JR on Dec 8, 2015 11:37:29 GMT -6
Personally I believe it to be due to several factors and you'd have to be asleep to not know money was the driving force.
One we had a lot of Chinese scooters hit the market and while we know some are better than others the one thing that they all have in common is easy to work on and parts are cheap. So with this said I think CfMoto couldn't compete as a better Chinese scooter (and they are better) with the higher price tag. A lot of people shop and also wait for scooters that don't sell to be marked down after they sit in a showroom for a spell.
I also agree with John completely less restrictions, more profit.
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Post by JR on Dec 8, 2015 11:24:26 GMT -6
Q. How do you know when the management of CFMoto is lying to you? A. Their lips are moving. Now that's funny no matter who you are! JR |
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Post by JR on Dec 4, 2015 19:41:55 GMT -6
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Post by JR on Nov 24, 2015 21:42:09 GMT -6
Check the pulse coil and it's mounting, very easy to mess it up when putting a new stator on.
JR
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Post by JR on Nov 23, 2015 6:48:49 GMT -6
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