Asian Motorcycle Engines
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Are their fuel injection systems for older naturally aspirated engines? There seems to be huge amount of suppliers on the web but the intention is for manufacturers to have their wares consolidated on these pages. In South Africa where this website is hosted we have Master-Parts and Midas, two of the larger companies supplying after market parts for motor vehicles. What about motor cycles? What happens to scrapped motorcycles? Are these scrapped because their natural life has now been exceeded? Motorcycles are notorious for having a short life span yet many of the cheaper Chinese motorcycles seem to be using older Honda engine components so would it not be cheaper to use a new engine instead of rebuilding a worn out motor. Are the Chinese thinking of bringing out a four cylcinder motor sometime? I found this website of considerable interest: http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/4-cylinder-motorcycle-engine.html – now how does one go about ordering only one engine if you are not an importer/distributor? In South Africa there is a cloud of mystism around the demise of Vuka distribution – read here. It’s encouraging to see someone like Frans Earle taking ownership of a problem which wasn’t his in the first place, to keep this very popular brand alive.
I read with interest about motorcyclists in general complaining about the Chinese motorcycles. Yes, they can be cheap and nasty. The question is, were these bikes built here or in China? Do we have qualified mechanics working on these machines? A very large problem we have in South Africa is the forced integration of non-skilled workers into all fields of business. The build of CKD/SKU motorcycles are going to be just one such industry. I do not envy the owners of companies bullied into taking on people that have no passion for their job, especially one in which loss of life can be a result. As the New Consumer Protection Act draws closer this is only making matters worse. But having ridden motorcycles through the most part of my life the onus is always on the rider to take responsibility – motor cycles are NOT toys and should always be treated as if something WILL go wrong. If you don’t have an affinity for mechanical things find a responsible and passionate mechanic. I knew just such a guy years back whom immigrated to the UK unfortunately. He gave me the names of the best mechanics in cape Town and believe me there weren’t many. I don’t mean this to be derogative, in actual fact one company that has an outstanding record is Suzuki South. (Cape Town).
Getting back on track, if I had the money I would be right behind the motorcycle industry for starters. And my prime interest would be around the supply of engines to people that already have the rolling stock or want to build their own, whether it’s for carts, motorcycles or any other project requiring motorised propulsion. Another industry is the supply of electric motors and alternators. How good are the Chinese electric motors currently on the market? If they aren’t good now they certainly will be in the future. My own experience with the Chinese motorcycle engines isvery limited but from what I have seen they appear to be reliable with only one complaint from a colleague in that the jet needle (throttle needle) came loose on his Vuka. But that used to happen on the Jap bikes as well! So it appears that they are reliable and maybe if the owner riders did a bit of homework and saw to it that parts were not working loose there wouldn’t be any incidents. Did anyone tell these guys that motorcycles are notorious for having parts drop off. In one case, a freidn of mine had his drive sprocket fall off the wheel hub. Now that came down to a very poor service indeed by the agents. Where were the locking tabs? Again, don’t hop on a mtorcycle without checking for this kind of thing. I had an old Suzuki (GS550M) where the primary drive sprocket used to work loose. And it was lock tabbed. I put it down to excessive engine wear and poor carb sync causing excessive vibration. Suzuki state that they never had it happen on their bikes – well this one had done near 100 000Km. Now if only China could supply me with a suitable engine replacement. I wonder just how much a complete top-end rework costs these days on a 4 cylinder 600cc?
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