CrusaderPhil

This is a Charity Festival in aid of Blood Bikes Wales

I was expecting (dreading) more damage on mine at the time,

It went over very quickly.

I could have got away with replacing just the indicator & pod................but the deep scratch (the mud guard caught the edge of a low wall) drove me daft......so it had to be replaced.........and at £30 it seemed silly not too

When did that happen, before or after we last met, it looked OK when we met.

I don't do, or expect to do big mileage on mine, it was not bought with that intention in mind.

If I was a business user I would have looked for a different make of bike more then likely.

As for for fragile plastics, I have no complaint there, dropped mine off the paddock stand, resulting in a broken indicator and pod and a badly scratched front Mud guard, but all the other fairing panel took the weight of the bike being laid on its side without so much as a broken lug.

Apart from worn head stock bearings (lack of grease when bike being made) needing replacing its been fine.

Had a few niggles, neutral and main beam light coming on in wet weather, but seems to have stopped doing it now.

Still happy with mine......

Hi Fred, Mine went down like a ton of Bricks and I only got scratches on the Panniers, Mirror cover and the Black bit that sticks out smashed to bits, which I temporarily welded until I could get another which cost £11:00 + VAT, still waiting new Pannier, Mirror cover cost £19:00 + VAT ready painted.

We as a motorcycle courier company tried these bikes and all failed miserably. None of the WK's would take the mileage and hard riding we put them through. What was disappointing was having given in all fairness, a brand, a chance. We at least expected something back in return. Sadly if this is what's coming out China as good as they may seem, I'm not convinced these manufacturers are anywhere near producing a decent long lasting product. What infuriates me is when you hear the comments of "you dont give them a chance, and what do you expect for the money"??

Well we always give a new brand a chance, and for the price you'd expect some kind of reliability! but we still never slagged any of them off. We thought "Hey let's see what these can do"!! Out of the three we owned not one had proved to be reliable. We gave them as many chances as we possibly could and still our riders experienced issues from electrics, to fragile plastics, and mechanical gremlins. I actually quite like riding them but the whole point here was to test a products stamina. Our old fleet of Honda Deavilles clocked up phenominal mileages, and mostly trouble free, whereas the WK's all gave issues before even hitting 10k miles. Some of us remember when Skoda's Octavia were first used as taxis, and everyone laughed? No ones laughing now are they. Sadly it took a VW takeover to make the whole package work. So perhaps some professional help from a western manufacturer may be the key? For now we've returned to Honda and a Kawasaki. WK's attempt is a good starter and yes a private buyer for daily usage may well be rewarded with some kind of reliability? As a business we can't afford to throw money away and these type of bikes still need to come a long way before we'd consider giving them a chance again. If they can do it we'll be in the queue to buy again.

Which models though, WK brand a number of different bikes from a number of Manufactures with their WK brand, the WK650TR is a CFMOTO CF650TK re-branded, my 650TR has done 8000 since last April in all weathers and apart from the RK chain, mechanically it has been fine, I have been on quite a few long ride outs and never worried about it breaking down.

The only chain failure I've ever had is when I used Wurth Dry Chain lube.

I had a Bandit 600 which, for the first two years, was a fair weather bike and at 7,000 miles the chain was in perfect nick.

Then I changed work locations and started commuting on it. As soon as they salted the roads the chain went orange and seized half of it's links within days.

Seems to me that Dry Lube offers next to no corrosion protection.

All of my chains before or since have been lubed with either engine oil or PJ1. And all of them have lasted 20,000+ miles quite easily.

 

Just as thought O-Ring chains crap for winter riding

 

Seems DJP is suggesting it is the type of lubrication being used not O ring chains specifically. I have ridden bike through winter an have always use a drip oiler, Scott or similar, and chains lasted ok.

Oil does not pass an o ring, but water does that is the problem

The only chain failure I've ever had is when I used Wurth Dry Chain lube.

I had a Bandit 600 which, for the first two years, was a fair weather bike and at 7,000 miles the chain was in perfect nick.

Then I changed work locations and started commuting on it. As soon as they salted the roads the chain went orange and seized half of it's links within days.

Seems to me that Dry Lube offers next to no corrosion protection.

All of my chains before or since have been lubed with either engine oil or PJ1. And all of them have lasted 20,000+ miles quite easily.

Just as thought O-Ring chains crap for winter riding

Fred says it all, I am 6ft as well, seating is fine for me but could be better, it is better on the G model which is not available in UK, just replaced the chain at 7500 miles, a bit soon for an O-Ring chain ( Chain is a Japanese RK, so nothing to do with being a Chinese bike ), seized links.

The headlights are absolute crap, the main beam shines to the left even when shinning right down the road, the dip beam does shine down the road but is set low, the result is that you cannot see the white line or the right hand side of the road on right hand bends, I have reversed the headlamps and re-adjusted the height, now the main now shines at the right height for a dip and slightly to the left, the main beam now shines right down the road lighting up both sides as it should, I have fitted spot lamps using a bracket made by Tigcraft.

I did get caught out with the battery, if the charge drops, it will fail to engage the centrifugal clutch to turn the engine over but will sound as if it is turning it, I did not realize the Display and Computer had power to them all the time and would run down the battery, I now keep a trickle charger plugged in.

I do not think the German Continental tyres are as good as the Chinese ones fitted to the original bikes.

The power take off is very handy but be warned, ensure a device that is plugged in has a fuse, the take off is on the lighting circuit, if like I did you blow the fuse in the fuse box, you will have no lights, no fun when you are riding over the Derbyshire moors on a freezing cold night.

The fairing Aerodynamics are second to none, it keeps the wind and rain off your hands, legs and body, the windscreen could do with being a little longer, it is 60cm, could do with being 70cm ( Available though after market ), it would benefit from an X-creen, if you did not want to buy a 70cm screen.

**I think rear crash bars are a must, I have dropped mine and the boxes got scratched, not expensive at £49.99 + Carriage + VAT but I am still waiting for them to come from China, the Red finish of the bike is a Candy finish, almost impossible to match, the black and the white models are much easier to paint match.

The left hand handle bar grip and switch gear are to far away from the end of the bar, if you want to fit Oxford heated grips you need to move the switch gear a bit closer to the end of the bar this means drilling a new hole for the positioning pin.

I believe that some Pan European parts will fit such as 1" Ball mount bar, Bar risers, that move bars back and higher, and peg lowering kits, available from Motorcycle larry

I think some people are arguing past each other. It is true Chinese bikes can be badly made, poorly copied designs. It is also true there are better ones and in the future even better ones again will appear. So both sides are correct.

I am not really bothered what people say, I am having great fun riding a reliable new bike all around the country for a small amount of capital outlay, it is Win Win.

The problem with these Chinese bikes and references being made towards the inferior Japanese copies of the early years is a simple question to answer. The Japanese may have so called copied but it was the technology not bikes. Simply because I hate to say it as much as I love my collection of British Bikes, we as a country turned out rubbish motorcycles. Compare a Honda Cub at the time when Britain laughed it off and Ariel turned out a four stroke monstrosity called a PIxie 50. Even the German Nsu quickly although old fashioned looking was a better moped than anything the British could make, and yet we still brushed of the threat. Its not that the Japanese turned out rubbish bikes, they soon got on top of things very quickly. The Chinese havent gotten close to remedying the poor quality of their products. The Chinese simply copy everything and it's difficult to see how they will change their ways especially seeing its been over 20 years since we saw the first crop of copied XL125's and Jincheng monkeybikes etc. The copied WK 650 is another example of mirror imaging. A lesson can be learned here. When you get an old (AJS) brand revived on Chinese made bikes of copied Japanese technology the trend will continue and why not? If the Chinese can do this, perhaps a country that makes everything belonging to other countries! And whose old historic marque Triumph and the current day Bonneville is almost 89 percent made in Thailand, perhaps we should start copying other makers products and label it "Made in England". A customer said to me one day when in my bike shop " they don't make em like that anymore do they"!!! I replied well we all have to start somewhere. What do I know? I've only been a motorcycle dealer for 56 years.

What a load of garbage, the CFMOTO may have copied the ER6N engine and loosely copied the style of rear suspension but that is about it, the aero dynamics of the fairing which is absolutely their own, might have a look of the PAN, it is second to none, it keeps you dry and your hands out of the wind, I have done 7500 since last April on mine trouble free, I see posts for other bikes including BMW's with more problems.

It is a lot of Bike for £3559.00 and worth every penny.

I've had 15k out of a chain on my old Fireblade but I was quite fastidious about lubing it.

An O-Ring chain should not need a lot of lubing, the lub does not get behind the O-Rings, if like on my chains the links are seized then there has to be something wrong with the manufacture of the chain. i.e. water has got behind the o rings but the thickness of Oil stops it from getting behind the O-Rings.

I used to get around 10 to 15k when I owned a chain bike

I never got to a point where I NEEDED to replace the chain but I replaced for preventative maintenance rather then wait for things to go tits up

I have had a chain suffer stiff links before and using a chain tool to loosen the link worked well

A mate of mine used to get around 25k out of his before he would change it but he ran a scottoiler and was anal about cleaning it! like after every ride

 

Makes me glad to have discovered Belt drive... 30,000 +/- and zero maintenance aside from the weekly damage check. I think it's a great shame that the orientals have essentially ignored this option for final drive... Especially in recent years.

At 69 years old, I no longer justify spending that sort of money on a bike, hence the reason for a Chinese bike, which has surprised me with 7500 on the clock trouble free, except for the Japanese chain.

The cause could be poor chain assembly then! If they don't press the outer plates far enough down then as you know the seal will be broken, but it's still going to be difficult to get some oil back inside. It's not going to be a case of the life of the lubricant in the chain going off in less than 12 months, which I thought might have been a cause - if the chain had been on a long time.

 

I think I will have a go at claiming under warranty, claiming faulty manufacturing.

 

If you have a vernier, you can measure the gap on the inside of the seized plates and compare with the gap on a good link - if the bad link is bigger then it could well be the cause.

I have not got one but think I will get one, I did not think at my age I would be getting my hands dirty again, I thought I was past all that, oh the joys of motocycling

Isn't the point of the O-Ring that there's grease/lubricant inside the joints between the rings and it should never come out/let anything in? Over what sort of time period did you do the miles?

 

Precisely what I thought, Mileage has been done since April last year when the bike was bought brand new, although the bike is Chinese the chain is a Japanese RK chain £199.00 ( new ) as fitted to many Honda's, Suzuki's and Kawasaki's.

The chain has to have let water in or the links could not have seized, it probably happened on the Ride to The wall when it was in the rain all day long from 7:00AM to 10:00PM, it still of course should not let water in.

 

The cause could be poor chain assembly then! If they don't press the outer plates far enough down then as you know the seal will be broken, but it's still going to be difficult to get some oil back inside. It's not going to be a case of the life of the lubricant in the chain going off in less than 12 months, which I thought might have been a cause - if the chain had been on a long time.

I think I will have a go at claiming under warranty, claiming faulty manufacturing.

I only got about 10k out of the chain on my ER6, yet I've seen people getting at least 20k. I think the winter riding is a big factor in that. Hoping the tutoro improves this,

How many miles has the Kawasaki done, just curious.

Isn't the point of the O-Ring that there's grease/lubricant inside the joints between the rings and it should never come out/let anything in? Over what sort of time period did you do the miles?

Precisely what I thought, Mileage has been done since April last year when the bike was bought brand new, although the bike is Chinese the chain is a Japanese RK chain £199.00 ( new ) as fitted to many Honda's, Suzuki's and Kawasaki's.

The chain has to have let water in or the links could not have seized, it probably happened on the Ride to The wall when it was in the rain all day long from 7:00AM to 10:00PM, it still of course should not let water in.

My GSX600 had a new chain (no sprockets) at 17,000.

It now done 31,000 and is due for new chain and sprockets.

I have used it more in bad weather during the last 10,000 than previous owners did in the first 17,000.

In the last 1000 its seen a lot of bad weather and a few links did get tight but freed up aftera good clean and lube.

This is the sort of life I was expecting from an O-Ring chain, mine has at least 2 seized links where the pin is seized to the roller, the O-ring has obviously let water in, but not oil to re-lubricate it.

Have you maintained them in the same way? Same cleaning chemical and lubrication, at the same intervals? Or have you been better about cleaning the Enfield's chain immediately after riding in bad conditions whereas less thorough with the WK? Loadsa variables, I would think.

If anything the Enfield's chain has been abused, never specifically cleaned with chemicals in 14 Months, it gets washed and wiped with the bike, usually after a wash or ride in the wet and lubricated with Gear oil

The TR's O-Ring chain has been cleaned about every 1000km with WD40 Chain Cleaner and lubricated after a wash or a wet ride out with First 6 Months with WD40 Chain WAX the WD40 Chain Lube which is sticky, both have been ridden through the winter, Enfield all last winter and TR this Winter which is not yet over.

My Chinese 650 is fitted with a Japanese RK 520SO 114 link O-Ring chain and a number of the links have seized, it has only done 7300 miles of only road mileage, my Enfield Bullet's Chain is a not an O-Ring and has done 6800 on roads, dirt tracks in all weathers and is still fine.

I thought O-Ring chains where supposed to be better and better value, I can purchase 4 Non O-Ring chains for the price of an RK O-Ring, could my chain have been faulty from new.

Yes it's the Non Red example!! The only non red

We have a new member with a black one, go on WhatsApp

think he meant about getting the fuel pump replaced Phil

Tigcraft's bike is one on far right in picture

Now done 5500 Miles on 650TR since April, nothing much to report, Rear Tyre has squared of a bit, but still life in it.

Did do 12hrs in pouring rain on it going on "The Ride to the Wall" and the main beam switch got water in it bringing on main beam, couple of minutes riding with my hand over it cured that, have dropped it on a very dangerous surface scratching pannier £49.95 + VAT ready painted so not crying as much as if it was a BMW

At last, result!

A result?, I am not a new member we have already met up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did mean restricted, I know they are not designed to dropped but they have a bump stop in the middle of the fairing that has done its job, yes it a little scratched but it cost only £7.00 quid to replace it, footpeg just short of tenner.

An extra bump stop would have protected the pannier and footpeg.

Just double checked the noise I thought was just ignition related, it is however engine related but cannot be heard when riding, the squeal which sounds like some gears dry, water or oil pump is ear piercing but goes quiet above 3500 and then it is a smooth as silk.

Noise turned out to be Fuel Pump, dealer replaced under warranty

I am setting off in 15 minutes for J&S

This is what I thought everybody is different and have there own preference.