Unknown brands?

[Breed777]

Hey guys, well I am familiar with Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki etc...

But my GF is keen to get a bike as well $4k mark, and she wants more of a cruiser type bike to learn on and mainly round the city stuff, small trips etc.


Whats the deal with Keeway (Supershadow), Hyosung, Lifan etc

They seem to sell for quite cheap i.e $4000 for a 2008/9 model? They are 250cc and look like a normal bike etc, so why so cheap? is it that when you buy Honda etc your paying for the name?

[sunhuntin]

id avoid those like the plague... theres a reason they are so cheap. besides, saving a grand or two by buying one of them, you will quickly see your savings vanish into repairs that arent covered by a warrenty.

tell her to look for a virago 250... i paid $5000 for mine, and its needed almost no work in the years ive had it [only major was chain/sprockets and tyres. not bad for 3 years of owning] you might pick one up cheaper on trademe.

[Breed777]

Yeah I really like the Virago.... nice looking bike.... thats my choice for her.... she likes them also... I know there are alot of GN250 riders here but she prefers the 'stretched' look if that makes sense.

[sleeqe2000]

I would avoid the Keeway and Lifan but I'd give the Hyosung a look.

If you look closely at the Keeways,Lifans especially ones that are a year or so old you can see the poorer build quality and their ability to stand up to the elements. I was looking at a Keeway cruiser the other day and it was covered in rust, perhaps the owner hadn't looked after it but it was in a sorry state for a bike that was less than two years old.

[vtec]

With Honda, you are paying for reliability, sturdiness, quality of build and ease with which to find spare parts.

I don't trust anything not made in Japan.

[firefighter]

id avoid those like the plague... theres a reason they are so cheap. besides, saving a grand or two by buying one of them, you will quickly see your savings vanish into repairs that arent covered by a warrenty.

tell her to look for a virago 250... i paid $5000 for mine, and its needed almost no work in the years ive had it [only major was chain/sprockets and tyres. not bad for 3 years of owning] you might pick one up cheaper on trademe.

Hmmmm, I disagree, I would'nt touch the other two but the hyos are fine.

I personally owned one (a 650 but still the same bike really) and a mate of mine owns the 250, has'nt had an issue, in fact if you actually talk to the majority of people that have owned one they will likely agree (there are a few sour grapes from the earlier models) but the newer models as far as i'm concerned have had most of the teething issues sorted. Plus they really are a pretty good learner bike.

To be honest my 2005 Honda 900 hornet which I have just brought is'nt all that much better quality than my old hyo. Seriously. I'd almost compare them quality as equals, the Hornet being just a little better, but I reacon I can get around quicker on the Hyo.

As for buying a virago, well my mum had a 250 virago, really cute nice little bike, if your looking for that style of bike, struggled no end with me on it going up the Kaimais, did'nt want to stay over 100 kms......

[sunhuntin]

yeh, sorry, i was mainly concentrating on the keeway and lifan... sorta skimmed over hyos. lol. i havent heard any major issues with the newer bikes, and a friend has one and loves it. sorry again

the virago struggles somewhat with me, but does alright. its done bluff twice with me with no troubles. and the strange thing is, she seems to run better when the back is loaded heavily. i bought a load of tomy thomas trains [yeh, yeh, i know. big kid at heart] from sanson, and managed to bring the whole lot back in one trip. total weight would have been around 20kg, maybe more, and she ran better going home than she did going down. lol.

gn250... i put that in the same pile as keeways etc. i had one of the new chinese ones for a year. i put 10thou k on in that time, and had more go wrong with it than i care to list. the biggest was when the speedo died, and then the bit that charges the battery started to die, making me late for work numerous times. it was being late for work that pushed me to the limit. traded her in on the virago and havent looked back. it rusted like crazy too, despite being kept under shelter the majority of the time, and cleaned constantly. if you want to go ginny, get one from the 80s/90s... much better quality.

[NOWOOL]

the Hyosung's are great trouble-free bikes. There's an article about them in last months Kiwi Rider. Although they aren't well known here yet, they are elsewhere.

[Riding LockedDown]

Yeah mate the hyo's are sweet ae. I heard there was a step up in quality between 2006-2007, but that just what I heard. So to be safe, buy the 2007 upwards maybe.. I used to have a 2006 one and it went sweet though, no probs, just didnt like the colour lol so off it went.

[cheesemethod]

gn250... i put that in the same pile as keeways etc. i had one of the new chinese ones for a year. i put 10thou k on in that time, and had more go wrong with it than i care to list. the biggest was when the speedo died, and then the bit that charges the battery started to die, making me late for work numerous times. it was being late for work that pushed me to the limit. traded her in on the virago and havent looked back. it rusted like crazy too, despite being kept under shelter the majority of the time, and cleaned constantly. if you want to go ginny, get one from the 80s/90s... much better quality.

I've got an '06 Chinese GN250. I bought it second hand with 6000k on it, it's now done about 12000k in the last 12 months. The only thing that has broken so far is the clutch cable, which was $20ish fix. I ride it every day to work, and quite often Auckland/Whangarei and Auckland/Hamilton. It's never missed a beat. No rust on anything steel, some of the alloy and chrome could do with a cleanup but nothing more than cosmetic. It's hugely cheap on gas, a fantastic way to get round. I would suggest of getting rid of the original chinese commuter tyres and putting on something more decent, it improved the bike endlessly. But, I have heard of others with chinese built GN250s that do have many problems. I wonder if it's a luck of the draw thing?

[Breed777]

I really like the look of the Ninjas they have on trade me. how come they are soo cheap for a 2009 model? only $7995?

[EJK]

I really like the look of the Ninjas they have on trade me. how come they are soo cheap for a 2009 model? only $7995?

That's not cheap to me.

[Breed777]

Guess not, but is that the standard sort of price for a new 250 sportbike, round 8k?

[EJK]

For a brand new, not really... It's one of the most expensive/ top of the line 250s on the market it seems, since there aren't that many new 250

[3umph]

I brought my wife a 2008 Suzuki intruder vl250 for $4k about 2 months ago so if you have the time to look around and wait you should be able to find something decent in that price range.... others we were looking at was the hyosung...

never contemplated the lesser brands like keeway or lafian etc

at the end you get what you pay for... dont want to pay for something decent then you may be just asking for problems or lack of backup and spares