Fear of Fish

162 Responses to “The Cheap Man Buys Twice”

1. J Jones said on: March 14th, 2007 at 02:20 PM

   I did the same thing although went for a more expensive chinese knockoff ;) Got a Jin-Lun JL125 and it is working like a charm, however I bought it from a garage rather than online.

2. J Lahmar said on: March 20th, 2007 at 11:14 AM

   Hi Jamie, Same bike - same problem! Huoniao HN-125-8 When you were having these problems, were you riding in the wet/rain?

   When I got my bike (student loan, couldn't afford anything more expensive), I rode it for 17 miles before it cut out, and got a breakdown truck out - between the mechanic and a friendly biker who offered his aid, we went over the likely causes of the problem and assumed it was something to do with the carburettor or it hadn't been set up correctly. I managed to get it started and ride home, so assumed everything was ok. It ofcourse turns out that having waited so long for the breakdown truck, that the bike had time to dry out, so eventually started.

   Soon afterwards the problems continued, and I finally twigged that it was the rain that coincided with the breakdowns - having WD40'd components one at a time, I narrowed it down to the kill-switch on the handlebars. Having covered the insides with ignition sealant, everything seemed fine, and I had covered some 2000 miles - until yesterday!

   Just outside Doncaster I got caught in some extremely bad weather, heavy snow and hail, and once again it cut out. I pulled to the side of the road, sprayed everything with WD40, and got going for another half-mile before cutting out again at a petrol station, where the WD40 treatment just refused to work. During this time, while all the other electrics worked (lights, starter) there was a definite audible difference whether using the kick, or electric start, that there was no spark whatsoever. It took about an hour or so to dry before I got it going again. Seems like I'm back to square one!

   Best wishes, Jamal

3. Jamie van Dyke said on: March 20th, 2007 at 10:53 PM

   Thanks for the heads up, Jamal, really appreciate it and the comment so hopefully we can let others know to avoid the bike.

   Mine turned out to be the sidestand switch (although the suspension arm snapping was also a bit of a problem!), I did look at the kill switch though, as I also figured out it was related to the weather, but it was a tiny puddle I drove through while it wasn't raining that finally led me to the solution. Poor performance really if you can't ride your bike in the rain.

   Cheers, Jamie

4. marcus said on: March 24th, 2007 at 01:50 PM

   I've had mine now for 6 months, no real problems so far, even thought I've changed the chain to a "heavy duty", gone smaller on the rear sprocket and a fitted 16 front sprocket. The issue with the side stand switch is very common with all new bikes as they settle in. The bike is the same as a Rover car, for every handful that are manufactured, someone will get a lemon. take note, that you get what you pay for. Good news, my local bike shop in Birmingham has all the parts availale overnight, as they come from other manufacturers, so generally been happy with it.

5. Mick McEvoy said on: April 7th, 2007 at 06:34 PM

   Hi I too own one of these bikes. I purchased mine in Oct 06 and had some problems also with the carburettor but now appear to be sorted, my problem now as of Feb 07 is that the rear brake foot assembly has cracked and now provides no support for the footbrake hence no rear brake making the bike unrideable. I too contacted the sellers L S Imports and as yet still await the part do we have to threaten legal action before we get satisfaction from this firm.

6. David said on: April 9th, 2007 at 11:14 AM

   Hi There, I have one of these bikes and have covered 4200 miles with only one slight incident when i came off in the ice conatcted seller LS paid for parts and got them two days latter. From my own thouhts value for money but i never paid £2000 for a Honda i have friendly dealer that does my serviceing. Ta

7. Lance said on: April 17th, 2007 at 01:07 PM

   I'm looking for a cheap bike at the moment (student) and had been looking at the company mentioned does anyone know if there's anything wrong with the other bikes.

8. Rav said on: April 20th, 2007 at 12:17 PM

   Hi There I bought the Better 125 the red cg125 look a like from LS Imports £450 delivered in a box took me and a mate about two hours to build nothing hard, the paper to send to dvla arrived the next day they took three days to register it no hassale. I have now covered 2000 miles with no worrys had to buy a side panel from them as my panel was stolen £15 quid delivered. I cant grummble £450 quid for a new bike delivered if i throw it away in two years ill be happy saved on bus fairs my local bike shop wanted £900 for a second hand 125. Rav

9. Dedan said on: April 20th, 2007 at 08:53 PM

   I bought one in September, and although it's had problems. First the ignition switch died, then the oil filter needed changing (after 1500 miles!), then the front mudguard FELL OFF. I used it a lot over the winter and it really struggles to get going in cold weather; I spent many a morning kick starting the thing for half an hour before it fired up properly. Since then it's been alright - I drove 200 mile straight on it once, without a hiccup. Your tail of the suspension arm is worrying - I was doing 60/65 the whole way!

   It seems that the engine and design is decent enough, but they've simply skimped on cost with nearly every other part. I've done 5500 miles now, but I'm tired of the problems. I've got my full test booked for next week and I'm upgrading to a Suzuki Bandit 600.

   My advice to new learners on a budget: buy an older, GOOD bike. Something like a 2000-2003 Honda CITY FLY CLR 125 might need a regular service due to age but it's as solid as a bull and would cost you about £700. You won't be risking your life, either.

10. Gary said on: April 25th, 2007 at 12:13 PM

    Hi I work in a garage in Tyne and Wear, and was asked to try and sort out a non starter YB125T-15 Vonroad. We contacted the supplier LS Imports and at first they seemed very helpfull. We tried all of the obvious ie side stand switch, coil, plug, and eventually came up with the Magneto and pick up. We have now been waiting 8 weeks for the part to arrive, LS Imports have sent it recorded delivery but can not give me a tracking number and now they just simply refuse to take phone calls or answer any Emails. We have tried to get parts from other suppliers and they have been great, but unfortunately all of the parts do not fit this model bike, even though the YB125T-15 is listed. My point is there is nothing wrong with saving a few quid on an import, just make sure that you buy from a reputable supplier. I can list the people that I have used to try and get parts for this bike if needed.

11. max said on: April 25th, 2007 at 07:49 PM

    hi. i brought the HN-125 earlier this year from LS imports and same story as the article. arrivend in a box. easy to assemble. over the moon after firts starting it up. covered about 50 miles the it decided to cut out in the rain while going about 50 on a duel carriage way at night (not much fun) then on my way home from my motorcycle theory test(thank god it was on the way home) it died again even though it was a luvly sunny day, i got it started again quite quickly but then it happned again and again untill i was only covering a few hundred yards at a time. so get picked up. sent the bike to the garage and was in there for 3 weeks. they couldent fix it despite replacing and cleaning almost everything. LS imports then picked it up and they have had it for about 3 weeks. they claim it is now fixed, and it will be delivred back to me on tuesday, but i wont hold my breath

12. Jamie van Dyke said on: April 25th, 2007 at 08:22 PM

    I'd be interested to know whether you had to pay for any of that, I've still not heard anything from L S Imports...I think they may bear a certain grudge against me for being pretty much top of most search engines for their company name and all the bikes they sell.

    I'm sure it would be better for their business if they just swapped my bike or refunded me. As it stands I'm a paying customer who's been dropped in a most un-professional manner.

13. mark said on: April 28th, 2007 at 01:44 PM

    hi, i brought a vonroad yb125t-15 from ls imports in june last year, since then i have had nothing but problems.the scooter has cost me an additional £400-£500 in repair bills. although at first LS IMPORTS did send out replacement parts very quickly this soon began to change.Last september i needed a new piston set and after having contacted ls imports for this part i had waited over 2 months hearing every excuse under the sun as to were my part was. the excuses were we sent it out recorded but no-one was there to sign for it(this was sent to the garage),the postman would leave a card if this was so, other excuse was it must be lost in post we will send out another.Anyway i got fed up with this and drove down to portsmouth and he decided to give me a complete engine as this would be easier.......problem solved.On the road again for 4-5weeks and scooter breaks down.Off the road for 4 months needing cdi unit,coil plug and magneto. ls imports supplied me with these parts but they were all faulty. still to this date i am waiting for replacements but have now got trading standards involved.since i have been riding the scooter it has spent nearly 7 months in the garage.....not good.I will let you know how i get on. P.S. as for the guy who needs a magneto, i had to buy one from partsforscooters.com.I am now on the road again.....for how longthough

14. Mark said on: April 29th, 2007 at 06:28 AM

    Hi, I purchased a HN125 from LS last sept and is still going like a dream have now done over 6000 miles and can say no problems i did greese the side stand switch up from new to avoid any rain issues. Any parts needed for my bike have been a set of clocks and a indicator after some pushed my bike over got from LS in three days.

15. Trapp said on: April 30th, 2007 at 01:18 AM

    tricky things these imported bikes ive recently got a sanya 125 and to be honest im generally pleased with the standard of construction. im lucky as my father is well up on bikes, and tho he hasnt ridden for years hes a competant engineer and mechanic by trade.

    ok to start with lets be fair these bikes are cheap - around the £500 mark, you could spend that much on a push bike. i realise that reliability is an issue with chinese imports and there not up to the standard of the better jap machines. i know as i own a 250 superdream thats going off the road for a major overhaul hence the need for a cheap part time replacement.

    the supension issue is in my opinion is unlikely to befall most of us. all other issues with these bikes seem to be related to wet weather, liberal use of wd40 on the bike will leave a thin film of silcon which should help with damp proffing and the odd spot of rusting where the chrome has bruised

    bikes are high matintance machines filters will need changing parts greasing etc, the nature of bikes and vibration means that parts do work lose and regular checks are needed. new bikes need running in, you reap what you sow. if you thrash it from day 1 its not going to love you for it. all bikes will give trouble if not properly looked after be it a jap bike or a chinses import

    are these imports bullit proof well no they arnt but the only logical reason for such differet experiences i can see is the experience of the owner in owning maintaining and riding motorbikes

    lastly older jap machines i cant honestly say which is more reliable, new import or older jap all i do know is that older jap bikes can be just as expensive to maintain if not more so. worn out seals, rings, cush hub, chain, sprockets, gears and cluch will end up as part of everyday life with any older bike so be prepared to spend money and concider these issues when viewing an older bike

    feel free to disagree with me, i may end up eating my own words on this i know and im also sorry for any grammer and spelling mistakes. when i post it makes for difficult reading i know ...

16. rosie said on: April 30th, 2007 at 06:50 PM

    Hi, i bought one of these skyjet 125s from LS imports less than a month ago and contrary to the claimed '90 minutes assembly time' My fiance (an trainee mechanical engineer) and myself have spent porbably the best of 12 hours working on it to to get it running to no avail and it has now spent 5 hours being worked on at a garage (over 140 quids!!!!) which i hope that L S Imports will pay. But i suspect that like with you i'll have to go The old trading standards route with it being unsafe. (there was petrol and oil leaks amongst multiple other things) I'll let you know how i get on and hope your problem get sorted too!

17. rosie said on: May 1st, 2007 at 01:21 PM

    I have spoken to l s imports and all has been sorted out so i would like to apologise for my last comment and say that i would recommend the company to anyone else, as problems like this will inevitably occur when buying a bike that is mass produced-they can't all be perfect first time and the bikes themselves are very good once the teething problems sorted out, and l s imports are very helpful in dealing with these problems.

18. Tom said on: May 3rd, 2007 at 09:28 AM

    I purchased one of these from a dealer laate last year and have had no end of problems, several electrical faults due to bad soldering, the rear wheel was out of alignment which has resulted in me being thrown of on more than one occassion when negotiating a bend/roundabout, oil leaks and last night I arrive home to discover that the fron mud guard had almost snapped of. All in all this bike is a cheap piece of rubbish and an absoloute death trap. I have now removed it from the road and will be returning it to the dealer.

19. Trapp said on: May 6th, 2007 at 05:16 PM

    i will admit that assembly time on these bikes from ls imports is higher than suggested, for someone who is trained and has done maybe a dozen bikes 2-3 hours is most likely correct.

    HOW CAN YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WHEEL ALIGNMENT, you bought it in a box you knew you had to assemble it. the wheel must have been way out to cause an accident as a novice rider wouldnt notice .... did you not think to correct the alignment .. if you dont know how to id be happy to explain

20. steve said on: May 9th, 2007 at 11:45 PM

    hi id like to post a comment in defence of the chinese import bikes if i may . the thing that is wrong is the fact that these bikes are sent in crates and it is left up to whoever buys the machine to build it . im totally against that practise and im sure there is something illegal about it i set up a business building these bikes and PDI checks are done before delivering the assembled machine to the customer i am getting around 98% customers satisfaction as was mentioned earlier you will always get the odd problem. but i can always sort it out . if you buy one of these machines always check the nuts and bolts that are supposed to be secure when factory fitted before starting to build. i have posted this comment trying to be helpfull and by the way the guy in wales is Ls imports mate.

21. dan said on: May 15th, 2007 at 04:19 PM

    hi, i have a von road 125T-15 scooter, had it since november last year.. had many problems starting the bike, seems to be worse in cold wet weather but now it doesnt seem to want to start at all. we have changed the spark plug, checked the side stand etc.. and just lost as to what it could be. if anyone has exprienced similar probs, i would be grateful for any advice.

    many thanks Dan

22. mark said on: May 16th, 2007 at 09:30 AM

    message to dan, i had same problem, mine turned out to be the magneto needed replacing.....good luck. where did you purchase your scooter from.

23. j shi said on: May 20th, 2007 at 09:28 PM

    hi interesting reading about your problems , have you now sorted it all out and is it running ok , or any more info you can give us cheers mj/js

24. sean said on: May 21st, 2007 at 12:10 PM

    hi i bought a hn125-8 last sept and had no problems til i spilled it today , any idea of what honda its a clone of as i need some spares now

25. Tony said on: June 5th, 2007 at 02:57 PM

    I too bought, a HN125-8 back in February, engine wise, I haven't had any problems, poorly manufactured, where do I start, so far, I have just completed 3,000 kms, I have had all four exhaust bolts sheer off, with one breaking off inside the thread, which has proved impossible to remove, so at the moment I only have three bolts. I had been riding it for a couple of week when I had to put it into a bike shop, to replace the exhaust bolts, as I had arrived at work with all four bolts sheered off, so I had no choice, but to put it in a garage to be sorted, so I thought I would get them to do a PDI while it was there, they then informed me that there wasn't a single bolt that didn't need tightening, engine mounts etc.

    I have had no trouble in the rain yet, though, maybe, I haven't been caught in any heavy showers yet.

    So far;

    1. Front Mudguard is cracking across the top and become detached from bracket on righthand side. (Supposedly sending me, though whenever I speak to him, he's always too busy, or not in the warehouse, call back in about half an hour or hour, or he's driving then he hangs up on you)

    2. Exhaust front bolts all sheered off (where attached to engine)

    3. Gear selector fell off of 2,500kms, promptly then got run over by about 4 cars. (Apparently, it was my fault I hadn't tightened it up properly)

    4. Centre stand spring snapped. (Sent me no problem, bit fiddly to fit though)

    5. Exhaust (cosmetic really), black plate on the back of exhaust the rivets worked loose and the black plate fell off.

    6, Name plate on front, (Cosmetic again) the black washer that holds the plate in place was either missing, fell off, rattles like hell.

    1. Back light, I think I am on my 3 or 4th set of bulbs in three months, put a new bulb in Sunday evening, by monday evening that had gone, it is not usually the brake light blowing just the back light, also, I think the front parking light as also blown.

    At the moment, though, all I seem to get is call me back in half an hour or an a hour (sound like bulls**t to me), and I am getting nowhere.

    I am contemplating, taking a day off work now and just turning up at his showroom, probably a 200 mile roundtrip. Maybe then I might get things sorted.

26. Daz said on: June 5th, 2007 at 03:16 PM

    I recently purchased a Vonroad wjm125-T2 from LS Imports ltd. bike arrived 2 days late. Had problems registering the bike as they sent my paperwork to somebody else! the horn was missing, the mirror was broken and it would not idle correctly. The sent me a horn and mirror next day. as for the idle problem, they sent me a spark plug, which I promptly threw in the bin and relaced with a Champion equivalent.

    After a few days it would not run, no email replies and no-one answering the phone at LSimports ltd.

    I am an engineer by trade so I stripped the engine and electrics and rebuilt and rewired the whole thing myself. Took about 4 days. Since then it starts first time every time and has covered over 5000 miles with no problems at all. Now I know I know my engines and know what I am doing, but you would think they would be built properly in the first place. I will NOT be using LS imports again. Getagrip.uk.com is a good source of chinese bike spares. and www.chinesescoots.forumwise.com is a good source of advice.

27. Tony said on: June 8th, 2007 at 12:28 PM

    Has anybody tried contacting LS Imports lately, as I have tried and nobody answers the phone. Tried the numbers on the website, no joy. cypruspounds is no longer a registered ebay seller any more. But I have noticed there is another seller on Ebay (benalex48) with exactly the same description as cypruspounds could this be the same person, I don't know.

28. Jamie van Dyke said on: June 8th, 2007 at 12:45 PM

    Yeah, that's surely not a coincidence? http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/benalex48/ has only 12 feedback, and is selling identical pieces of kit, however, I'm not convinced seeing as they sell accessories too. So I wouldn't guarantee it's them, but I'd be careful nonetheless.

29. kevin said on: June 16th, 2007 at 03:36 PM

    well all this does not look good.i purchased an off road skyjet from l &s for my son to play on,as his old bike was stolen.myself and my brother were thinking about selling these bikes,although happy with the bike at the moment,we have not been able to contact them to place an order.and after reading this we wont be doing so. if any body can recomend a supplier at cheap as chips prices i will give them my 3k order instead

30. richard said on: June 18th, 2007 at 05:22 PM

    i brought a haotian ht 125-8, or vixen, and am on around 4000 miles with a few problems, such as front mudguard snapped. but has been replaced. and i had to rip the side stand and re wire, the swith as was hitting the floor round corners. but now the electrics are proving difficult, and cut out, then when kick started come to life again. engine is good. worth £450

31. alexander charles said on: June 21st, 2007 at 01:23 PM

    Have just purchased a bike from L & S Importers. Has arrived with an incorrect EC Certificate of conformity and hence I was unable to register with DVLA. Has any-one else had this issue ?

32. Mark said on: June 21st, 2007 at 07:52 PM

    I also have a hn 125-8 and have been overall fairly happy with it. A few minor problems but thats to be expected with a cheaper option. I've done about 9000 km and have been through 1 spark plug, lost the front of the mudguard and several rear bulbs. My more recent problem is a cracked bracket holding the exhaust/brake pedal/rear footpeg (but my fault, dropped the bike!).

    Just wondering if anyone knows where to get parts for the hn 125 since everyone on ebay has disappeared recently. Need to try and get it sorted soon since im driving without a back brake right now!

33. graham said on: June 26th, 2007 at 08:58 PM

    I mate of mine bought a Skyjet,all the electrics packed up,the exhaust dropped off,and the rear caliper became unattached and the top yoke has a stripped thread from new!! I would not recommend these cheap chinese crap machines to anybody,and not only that a complete novice can have one crated to his or her door,put it together themselfs and ride it with no official checks?

    Go for a good second hand machine thats proven,and not a deathtrap made in china!

34. Tony said on: June 27th, 2007 at 05:46 PM

    Cypruspound is back on ebay and selling Huoniao HN125-8's.

    Haotian HT125-8 Vixen, appear to be exactly the same under a different name to Huoniao HN125-8. Try this website they seem to do spares for Haotian, and maybe there is one local to you:

    http://www.chinesemotorcycledealers.co.uk/search_dealers.html

    Turns out there is one 10 mins from my house as opposed to the 150miles to Portsmouth, which could be very handy, as I can't get any sense out of LS Imports, he's either not in the office, driving or not in the warehouse, call back in an hour.

35. Jamie van Dyke said on: June 28th, 2007 at 01:05 AM

    Tony, I can't find them, would you mind providing a link so we can name and shame them once again.

36. Paul said on: June 28th, 2007 at 03:07 AM

    Hi Jamie,

    I found this link for cypruspounds on ebay

    http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZcypruspoundsQQhtZ-1

    If this doesn't work, go to community at top right of ebay page and type cyprusponds in find a member search box.

    Hope this helps

37. KEITH said on: June 30th, 2007 at 07:17 AM

    I have now bought two of the HN 125 over the past year as my first one got stolen and have had no real issues with it. I did buy a upgrade carb from LS Imports which gives a approx 6 miles hour better top end and smooter take up £30 not bad. Droped my my bike the other week and bought a mirror and lever from them came two days later cant complain.

38. Lauren said on: June 30th, 2007 at 05:58 PM

    I've bought 3 bikes from LS Imports and NOT ONE SINGLE ONE has had any problems.

    If people cannot look after their bikes properly and insist on riding them hard before the engines are properly broken in then it is no ones fault but their own.

    None of the bikes ahve any problem in the rain, thank god, and start and run perfectly fine - when you buy the bike you KNOW it comes in a crate, if you cannot build a bike then take it to a garage - any garage that states it cannot do it due to it being an import does not have the right to run a garage - they're easy.

    If you don't build it properly and find something goes wrong then its you're own stupid fault for not having it done properly in the first places.

    The bikes are cheap yes, but they are no worse than buying a 20 year old yamaha for the same price.

    If you look after your bikes expect them to look after you, otherwise I'd suggest buying a rev and go scooter - because you obviously don't deserve a bike.

39. Jamie van Dyke said on: June 30th, 2007 at 09:18 PM

    I'd be curious to know how many of the positive comments for LS Imports are in fact written by LS Imports, or their friends.

    "Engage brain before opening gob" my Grandfather always used to say. The comments about problems all revolve around faulty/bad electrics and cheap metal. If you really feel safe buying a bike that has these issues then good for you, and have fun with it. Everyones mileage will vary.

    The opinions in the comments are clearly stating what experience they have had, so there's no need to start slagging off those opinions. Your attitude reminds me of LS Imports, so I'm guessing that you're in some way affiliated with them.

    My problems have been both bike and seller related, I say avoid them. You don't. So you go and buy them, but I won't, nor will I recommend any does.

    Thank you for your comments.

40. Alice McCarthy said on: July 1st, 2007 at 07:29 PM

    hiya ive bought a Skyjet RR7 (125 sj thingy)and i was worred when i got it coz like you say, you cant find bugger all about anyone!!! or the bike! luckily ive got a mate to build mine, and 700 miles in its going ok. its a nice bike, seems to eat itself a bit when pushed abouve 50, but stil a nice bike. im just keeping my fingers crossed ive not bought a lemon. but yeah keep this forum going, its the best info ive seen on the bikes!!! Alice and Silver and Black Skyjet RR7.

41. David said on: July 6th, 2007 at 04:40 PM

    Had a weird problem with mine, every time I hit the brakes the electrics cut out, not very good for turning I can tell you. Anyhow I've traced the problem back to the ignition switch, just needs a new switch + key set. I've mailed LS Imports today telling them what I need, hopefully they will send me one and then I can get on my bike ;) Havent really had any issues with the bike so far, am almost up to 500km so the first oil change is due, nothing has fallen off although the rust does seem to come on quick, and apart from the ignition problem everything else is fine, and I'm hoping LS will send the thing so I can get it working properly.

42. higgsy said on: July 20th, 2007 at 03:47 PM

    Hi there, I just purchased a secondhand skyjet 125 yesterday and after just one year i admit it is in a bit of a state, oil leak from the top end, rust EVERYWHERE, none of the lights work, poor head race bearings, fuel gauge, speedo and rev counter dont work, electric start doesnt work.

    on the plus side, the horn and indicators work with an annoying buzzer (thats getting ripped out!!) I only paid £300 for it though with 12 months tax and it doesnt need an mot for 2 years. I ride alot of bikes, i currently ride an aprilia mille and a zx9r and change bikes every 6 months or so, so have some experience!

    This 125 is for my partner to learn to ride on but she isnt getting on it until ive completely stripped it down to parts and rebuild it the way it should have been in the first place!!! ill be painting everything again with more than the one coat it gets at the factory, and ditching the crappy fairing and clocks for a nice round headlight and digital speedo. with a home made wiring harness hopefully this should cure all the common problems!!!

43. sam said on: August 7th, 2007 at 06:48 PM

    First of all i would like to say how much help this site has been, cheers for all the feedback (good or bad). I just thought i would leave you with some of my friends problems. A close friend of mine has just bought a cheap import bike from ns imports off ebay, who are selling as chinese bike spares. It's an XTQ enduro type bike. When he got the paper work to register it it had LS imports on it so we are thinking that this must be like there sister company or something. Well the first problem he had was that they said it was road legal but when he put it together he noticed that the tyres had "NOT FOR HIGHWAY USE" on them, because they are like motocrooss tyres. After a number of times calling them they said they should be road legal. He had them checked out by a motorcycle tyre fitter and he just said what we had thought, that if it clearly says not for highway use then they are not road legal. Now for the next problem. The first time he used it after riding about 2 miles it would cut out and wouldn't start for about 10 minutes. This happend 5 times. so we stripped the carb down and there wasn't anything obvious that we could see so we just put it back together and took it for a run. I was following behind on my yamaha ybr 125. and surely after 2 miles it cut out. we checked everything, coil, kill switch, stand switch, ignition, ht lead. then we noticed that there was no fuel getting to the catb. So he blew in the tank and hey presto it started straight away. The problem was the little overflow pipe that comes out of the fuel cap, it was blocked. So there was no air getting in to the tank. Its like holding your finger over a straw with water in, it doesn't come out until you let the air in. Lets hope thats the last of it. Hope this is helpful. thanks, sam.

44. ian said on: August 9th, 2007 at 05:38 PM

    hi i bourght a skyjet 125 RR7 and have owned it 4 months, i have never run the engine in and raced it from the day i bourght it, i have now covered 1400 kilometers with only a few small faults,

    1, gear linkage fell off, = got it weleded by a mate for free

    2, kick start fell off on motorway, £30 i have been told from ls imports, little expensive i must add.

    3, when i first got it i spent an hour setting the carburetor, but this wasnt hard,

    i must say i relay dont see how it took someone 12 hours to buid it. maybe them being a trainee mechanic is the wrong profesion, quit and become a tea boy...

    touch wood mine stays fine, please remember we bourght our bike because they are cheap, you must expect some faults,

45. Bob Stammers said on: August 10th, 2007 at 06:40 PM

    I was a complete, 52 year old, motorcycling novice when I took my CBT in June 2006. I then bought a 28 year old Honda CG125 on ebay and rode it (1500 miles) until its engine broke in September. I bought an Huoniao HN125-8 from LS Imports in October.

    When the crate arrived my daughter's boyfriend and mates carried out most of the assembly and I was left to fix the mirrors and make sure everything was tight.

    Everything worked just fine except the speedo. I contacted LS Imports who told me to return the faulty component. Shortly after I got a replacement part in the post and all was well.

    Despite my motor mechanic brother's warning that motorcycles routinely shake themselves loose, I didn't routinely check that all nuts were tightened regularly. At about 3000kms the exhaust front bolts on one side sheared off. Further lecture by brother ensured that I now do regularly tighten everything.

    I have now ridden over 6000kms on this bike including most recently 90 minutes riding through a torrential thunderstorm, floodwaters over my footpegs.

    I have learned an awful lot about biking in the process including how to look after one. The HN125 is a cheap bike, the build quality not what you might expect from BMW or Honda. If you're going to ride one you really do need to be prepared to look after it but, if you do, the bike will earn its keep.

    As for LS Imports, I haven't had a huge amount to do with them apart from buying the bike and getting the initial fault fixed but I can't complain about them either.

46. David said on: August 15th, 2007 at 12:33 AM

    WOW! thats a lot if replies...

    thanks sooooo much for the heads up... im looking to get a 125cc cruiser, a i cant afford to do my direct access... and was verrry tempted by the HN 125cc.. but now ill be stearing well away from it!

    could you guys reccomend a nice 125cc cruiser?

    125cc Jinlun JL125-11 cruiser ? are they any good? also, theres a JL-125-13 .. whats the diff? guess ill have to spend about a grand to get something reliable?

    many thanks in advance

    Dave

47. dave said on: August 15th, 2007 at 05:08 PM

    Looking on the net I realised there were many people buying this HN 125-8 bike or similar and although there were many stories good and bad I could not find one where someone had wrote about putting one of these out of the box bikes together and so decided to write of my experience in doing this.

    Ok, bought one of these HN 125-8 off ebay via LS Imports, a strange way to buy a bike I think. It was ordered and came within 2 working days; the documents followed a day later.

    When the bike arrived, a day earlier than expected, the carrier, a decent bloke, dragged the palleted and steel caged upright bike up a steep incline into my garage with his pallete truck. If you have a walled garden and no garage think about how you are going to get it into your property, perhaps have several mates handy.

    So, looking at this upright package I realised a friend would be needed to help put this into the correct position, tilting the whole package 90 degree Now then I took off the cardboard and fastening to the pallete before I tilted the bike but thinking about it perhaps leaving the pallete attached may have helped in the righting of the bike. Anyhow a strong friend was found and the bike was righted without too much difficulty.

    The next step was taking the metal cage off, careful now it's sharp! Ok we removed central struts and front wheel, then the top and finally the ends of the cage, the bike is still attached to the front bottom of the frame and the rear wheel is in two pieces of angle bar so its pretty safe at this point. We then loosely attached the handlebars so we had something to grab onto if need be. Next we removed the front bolt, part of your front wheel, then strong friend at the front lifted the bike by the forks and we wheeled the bike back onto the floor away from the remaining frame, we then just put the bike on the centre stand and keeping the bike from falling on its forks by asking a wife to hold this down at the back ;)

    We then went forward and started to sort the front wheel, basically you need the wheel, speedo unit on the disc side and spacer on the other, the speedo unit has to be placed in the right position and the top has a guide that sits in a space in the forks, a couple of fiddly moments later the wheel was on, I was surprised there was no castle nut/split pin on the wheel but did apply some loctite to be sure. We then put the mudguard on, this was attached with the four bolts, also the chrome piece of metal with a hook shape and two holes was added at this time to the same place as the mudguard, this is to hold the front brake hose on place, finally we attached the speedo cable and rubber holder to the mudguard.

    Next job was the handlebars, we first slid the throttle grip on then all allen bolts were loctited and tightened only putting the four small end caps put in place after we were sure of the correct positioning of the bars. Tightening the grips proved to be slightly troublesome as there does not appear to be anything to locate the throttle side to the bar, despite a small hole being there, hence if its not tightened properly with the two screws on the switches the grip will twist around, I may look into this further to make sure I done this right shortly.

    The next job was to go around and check tightness of all nuts and bolts; there were a few loose ones, mainly all points where the luggage rack was attached, headlamp and a few other places. I also noticed the chain although tightened correctly was not square on. So loosened and adjusted this until I was satisfied. The battery was filled in all cells and took all the supplied electrolyte, we left it half hour, attached it put some fuel in and by golly there was enough power to kick the bike over and start it up. No problem.

    Finally, there are still a few checks and cleaning and oiling jobs to do but if doing this yourself I would sort out some decent tools before hand and have a small tube of grease and loctite handy as you will find your time is spent looking for that 13mm socket or going to the shops to get some grease. It would have been nice to have some torque info to go on for the various nuts and bolts but none seems available so I had to rely on judgement and loctite, which was used on all bolts. The manual gave some light relief with its English translations but little else, unless you live in China, North or South of the Yellow river! Possibly the worst part of the pre-ridden bike seems to be the luggage rack, badly put together, bad welding and a chrome coating that will probably rust in contact with light rain.

    Next review will be at 500 miles. As soon as I can get it regged.

    The Jinluns seem nice bikes and I would have one if money could be found but the 13 model actually appear to have a few common parts as the HN, such as folks, switch gear, mirrors and no doubt more if you look closely.

    dave

48. Phil said on: August 18th, 2007 at 10:59 PM

    Hi, just wanted to say I have enjoyed reading everybody's stories & I feel sorry for the people who have had to spend loads of money on their BRAND NEW BIKES!!! Also I wanted to reply to David's question about buying a cheap 125cc cruiser, I can personaly reconmend a Suzuki Marauder (Also called a GZ 125). I have owned one of these bikes for 2yrs and used it to travel too & from work, which is a 40mile round trip. I have had no major problems with the bike & have used it in all conditions. Tap Suzuki GZ 125 in to the search bar on Ebay and you will see a few on there.

49. baz k said on: August 18th, 2007 at 11:05 PM

    i bought a xtq 125 from chines spare parts and when i wentto bild it up i found the front mud gaurd was snapped and there was loads of scratches on the plastics i put it together and put petrol in and tried to start it but wouldnt start i noticed the petrol line wasent even pluged into the fuel cock has any one else had to put the fuel line in before starting it

50. David said on: August 19th, 2007 at 08:35 PM

    cheers for the advice Phil!

    ive ebayed that Suzuki Marauder... new ones are quite pricey.. but ill keep an eye on them! just got to get off my ass and do my cbt etc now :)

    thanks again m9

    David

51. baz k said on: August 20th, 2007 at 09:03 PM

    does any one no how to set the sredomiter up on the xtq 125 ?

52. badboypikey said on: August 22nd, 2007 at 04:15 PM

    hi ive bought a sanya sy125 from the so called ls imports and ive done over 5000 miles in the last month and mine is fine. Its cheap and convenient just needs someone to look after it properly like oiling chain and making sure you check everything 100 miles if u wanna know nethin bout the bike email me badboypikey@hotmail.co.uk

53. Andy said on: August 23rd, 2007 at 08:40 PM

    Hiya,

    Firstly I would like to say I feel sorry for everyone here who has had problems, I too was looking for an Import cheaper 125cc bike for starting out on.

    I found a supplier on e-bay and tried to find their shop (as it was close to me) but to no avail.......However, very close to where theres was meant to be, there was a Yamaha dealer.

    So, I spent double the money I was looking to spend and picked up a Brand New Yamaha YBR-125 last Friday - I have done almost 300 miles in less than a week and have to say it is brilliant.

    I know this does not help those out there having problems, but I am glad I did not buy an import.......The reason for my post is not to gloat, it is to say I will do my upmost to inform others about your experiences and ensure others are not found in the same situation.

    Good luck on getting your problems resolved.

54. Michael Liebeck said on: August 23rd, 2007 at 11:22 PM

    Hi Guy's. Suggestions please. My 125-8 has been fantastic. Done 4,000 miles last month and all of a sudden started to die after 10 minutes. I wait another 10 minutes and it starts again only to stop a few miles down the road. The mechannic is baffled, tried fuel, checked wires both he and I are out of ideas. Can anyone give me ideas. Regards Michael

55. chris said on: September 7th, 2007 at 02:22 PM

    hi every one l.s imports are still on ebay trading under cypruspounds

    chinese import spares as the ebayshop

56. jim said on: September 7th, 2007 at 08:24 PM

    anyone try the 50cc version of this bike how well does it ride up a steep uphill (35-45 degree angle) and what speed? they call the 50cc versions "charmed"

57. Robi said on: September 8th, 2007 at 01:52 PM

    I ride a Sanya SY125-11 for almost an year now. The bolt of the swingarm broke two times and the chrome plate left of the cylinder due to bad design (the chrome plate was fitted only with one bolt and broke of only by the driving wind) I wrote an email directly to Sanya but they said they only gave warranty for an year on the engine; the other parts I could purchase by my dealer.

58. Ash said on: September 10th, 2007 at 04:04 PM

    I own a Sanya SY125, it not all that, i've had it for about 2 months. no major problems except a puncture, i still can't find the oil filter, i changed the engin oil a couple of times but couldn't find the oil filter also engin back funny noise once in a while no idea why, its running a little dawl too if you know anything that might help please let me know Emaill; arashomar@hotmail.com

59. Richard Smith said on: September 14th, 2007 at 12:24 PM

    I have a Haitoan vixen and have had the problem withit cutting out and not starting when hot i as a 52yr old who only remembers bikes that i had 35 yrs ago firstly changed the oil for a good Quality oil as i thought it was semi seizing, then run the bike in at 40 mph for about 500 miles then cange the oul again i have not had another problem exept for tail light bulb and i broken manifold stud wich i drilled out then put a 8mm bolt in also i drilled the hole in the bracket bigger to compensate i took my test and passed onit the other advice i would give is to have the bike built by a reputable dealer i bought mine from mowers direct in Oldbury West Middlands with a limeted Garentee for £820 00 this was the on the road price all in i am aware that i could have bought cheaper but this company came recomended to me and i have recomended others to them Also remember you get what you pay for i have done 3000 miles driving at around 55 mph even thoughit will reach just over 60mph

60. David A said on: September 20th, 2007 at 08:36 PM

    Hey there, im very glad ive found this site! Lots of useful info, despite all the bad feedback im still slightly tempted by one of these bikes..Just wondering if people with running issues replaced the oil that came in the bike before running it? Ive heard its very cheap oil and could cause problems? I know its a big gamble going for one of these but being a Student I dont have much choice. I am competent with many aspects of mechanics/engineering so I think I would manage with the maintenence side etc.

    Dave

61. frainey said on: September 20th, 2007 at 08:45 PM

    Hi people, i have just purchased an XTQ 125 Off ebay From the user "americanroubles" The bike arrives next friday, i have been doing research and have found a site with info on the bike you might wish to look at. http://picasaweb.google.com/slacker75/XIONGTAIXTQ125

    And Baz the fuel line comes disconnected on all of the bikes, you plug it into the carb first then fill the bike up. Dont ask me why something to do with shipping safety.

    These bikes come crated so obviously you will need some mechanical knowledge, just make sure you follow the instructions and use your initiative everything SHOULD be fine.

    Just remember In this world you get what you pay for.

62. Ashley said on: September 20th, 2007 at 11:08 PM

    Hello there, I thought I would share mine and my friends experience so far with the Haotian Vixen 125. It's not the most interesting story i'm sure, but hopefully someone can take our experience and gain something useful from it.

    We brought our one just short of a month ago now from www.marshysmotorcycles.com who ever since we brought it, have been nothing but helpful. The added bonus with buying the bike through them is that you don't have to put it together yourself and come with PDI check etc etc. Ours was delivered on a palette without much of a wait.

    All good so far. All the paperwork came with the bike, invoices, registration application part filled in, manual and the certificate of conformity but we have to register the bike ourselves.

    Problem number one - Getting insurance for the darned thing. A lot of insurance companies won't touch it because it's a Chinese import and because they don't have the name of the bike on their drop down menu's, they aren't very helpful. Several painful hours were spent trying to find an insurance company who would entertain us (with a reasonable price). Also, a lot of companies won't touch it if the bike isn't registered. Which is really helpful as you can't register a bike without insurance. They can insure the bike using the frame number of the bike.

    Problem number two - Getting it registered. Now the insurance company couldn't be bothered to post the certificate to us, no. instead, my friend has to go to a bike dealership where the certificate was then emailed and they had to print it on their printer. That's quality customer service for you. Now a painful lesson was learned here.. read every piece of paper that comes with the policy. The insurance company didn't have a registration number for the bike so decided to put CHA 55 1S (CHASSIS using letters and numbers) in the registration number part of the paperwork which the DVLA didn't find amusing and rejected the application.

    Because of this, the DVLA then decided that they wanted to see the bike and give it an inspection before they would register it. Great! now we've got to try and get a trailer and vehicle to pull the trailer to get the bike to the DVLA.

    Meanwhile, after several heated phone calls to the insurance company, we arrange for the certificate to be posted. When it arrives (after about a week and a half) they have corrected the problem with the registration number (namely removed it) but decided to change my date of birth on the policy! How many times can they get this wrong I wonder? After more phone calls, it's decided that we will change company. It's probably for the best anyway as the new company got it right first time.

    While all this is going on, a letter arrives from the DVLA, they had decided to cancel the appointment booked for the inspection and were now saying that the certificate of conformity (which is the piece of paper that says it's road legal for the UK) is not sufficient and that the bike now needs an SVA test which costs another 70 quid. After a heated phone call, it's established that the certificate had a small tear and had some cello-tape on it and the DVLA didn't like it. A call to the SVA department and they say that the bike wouldn't need an SVA test if it had the certificate of conformity.

    MarshysMotorcycles sent out a new certificate straight away by next day business delivery (hats off chaps!)

    We were then able to get our appointment back with the DVLA, didn't need the SVA test at all and it went for it's inspection. Some inspection! This comprised of some old guy with a clipboard writing down the chassis number and engine number on a form (which we'd already filled in once) and then asking one question "is it all standard?", that was it! Less than 10 minutes! Good thing we were able to get out of hiring a trailer to carry it all the way there. Could have been a right waste of money.

    Bike is now registered and taxed and road legal. At last!

    Problem number three - Starting the bike and keeping it running. Well, both I and my friend were at our wits end with the bike already. But to top it all off, we could get it started, but it wanted to stall all the time. Adjusted the choke, adjusted the idle speed, cleaned the spark plug etc but all to no avail. Turns out, the problem was a combination of a knackered battery and a crap start plug. My advice, change the spark plug for a decent one, the stock one is rubbish and runs a lot nicer now. New battery is on it's way too (Thanks again MarshysMotorcycles)

    The manual has been translated from Chinese to English quite poorly (it's laughable in places) but a little tip which isn't mentioned in the manual... The choke is off when the switch is all the way down. Middle means it's on, all the way up cuts the engine off. This is the extent of our mechanical problems so far.

    Buy the bike from the dealer unless you are or know a mechanic who can put it together properly. With some dealers, you are covered for replacement parts for 12 months as part of their warranty. It costs a few extra quid but it's worth it in the end.

63. craig said on: September 20th, 2007 at 11:45 PM

    im 17 and needed a cheep bike to get to college and back, bought the hn125 back in june, done over 3000miles and havnt had a problem apart from today, due to an earlier accident the bracket that holds my rear brake cracked went for 2 weeks fine then failed today as i was trying to slow down to park...great fun emailed ls imports and got a replay saying my part would cost 60quid now just waiting to order it...other than that no problems even in quite heavy rain...maybe the build quailtiys improved?

    good luck to those who are having problems

64. David A said on: September 21st, 2007 at 04:46 PM

    Just a quick thought, I dont know anything about motorbikes really but wouldnt the fuel/air mixture have to be adjusted as maybe they are correct for use in china or abroad where they mean run in different condition.Maybe the engines are set to run too lean or rich?? Still tempted to go for one...

    Dave

65. Burim said on: September 22nd, 2007 at 03:48 PM

    Oh my god, thank you sooo much for creating this post as i was going to buy a skyjet RR7 from the cypruspounds on EBAY on the 30th sept. I had some spare time today an though id do a little research about this UNKNOWN bike and came up with this great post/forum and i thank you soo much as i will not even be thinking of driving all the way to pourtsmouth and then riding back!

    Im looking to buy a 125cc but cheap i dont mind if its second hand but i just want it to be reiable. Any advice will be very much apperciated as im only 19 and student soo i have to look after thepennies :(.

    Thank you soo much AGAIN i dont know how to thank you for creating this post as its been 100% helpfull

66. Dave said on: September 22nd, 2007 at 10:37 PM

    Hey 'Burim' Im in the exact same situation as you. Just passed my CBT today and now possibly looking for a bike. Honda CG125's are good bikes to learn on. Infact Cypruspounds were selling CG125 copies a bit ago and there was one of these being used when I did my cbt, it didnt look too bad in all honesty. I personally rode a Suzuki GS125 which felt nice.

67. Fred said on: September 23rd, 2007 at 08:43 AM

    Hi All, Just found this site whilst surfing. I to have a Skyjet 125 sports bike bought two months ago from LS Imports been all ok bike took two days to arrive and the dvla office three days to register does any one know if you can fit a bigger engine in may be a 200cc and would you need to change the exhaust pipe.

68. Dave A said on: September 25th, 2007 at 03:53 PM

    What companies has everyone got their bike insured through? I can't find the manufacturers name on bennets website...

    Dave

69. Jamie van Dyke said on: September 26th, 2007 at 09:09 AM

    Hi Dave, I went with http://www.rampdale.co.uk/ as they have the Huoniao on their books. Hope that helps.

70. dave said on: September 27th, 2007 at 05:51 PM

    Ok that 500 mile review I promised earlier

    First, I got the un-regged bike insured, this took three days to recieve the policy due to it being a weekend then I was able to get it regged. I took the import docs, certificate of insurance and my photo licence to my local DVLA on a Monday afternoon, it took around five minutes to sort it and I was told it would take approx 48 hours, I got the Tax disc and reg plate form back on the Wednesday morning post, this enabled me to get a reg plate and on the road that day. The V5 followed a week later, not bad.

    Well, I was on the road that night but something was not right... the bike seemed to start ok but would not tick over correctly and running the bike it was not running smooth at all, unsure why after a short while I found it ran best on half choke, so I put around 10 miles on but was not 100% and left it till next morning where it was still the same, so that evening decided to check the carb out and took it off, then blushingly I soon realised my mistake, simply I had been running with the choke full on and thats why it had not been running right. Let me explain why I made this mistake, simply every bike I owned in the far off past had been Suzukis and everyone of those used the choke on method of choke lever pushed down for on and up for off, this bike was the opposite from what I expected but there you go, my fault which was quickly put right and the bike ran fine, this is also mentioned by Ashley in an earlier post.

    So after 500 miles what have I found out about this cheap as chips bike? well starting although not a real problem seems to have its quirks, for instance it does not matter if the engines blisteringly hot or ice cold, standing for 5 minutes or 5 hours it likes to start on half choke, I tried changing to an NGK spark plug correctly gapped but this made no difference, anyone got any ideas? Now because I have fussy neibours I tend to start and ride straight away with no warm up time so the half choke is the best to get away quickly, I then find I can turn it off after a hundered metres and the bike works fine, but until the bike is warm it sometimes stalls at junctions, traffic lights and busy roundabouts a bit of a pain but I am aware of it. Plug colour is on the lean side I think but as it runs ok I will leave it for now. I changed the oil for decent 10-40 after the first 100 miles and got rid of the delivery oil, I was going to change it before I rode the bike but thought hey I might as well get some milage out of it, 100 miles seemed to be a good point as gear changing seemed to be sticky around about then, which was rectified with new oil. I checked all nuts bolts and checked over various settings and at that time also changed the plug as mentioned above. The bike ran fine with daily checking of all nuts and bolts then at 350 miles I turned the rear brake nut one flat to compansate for daily wear and also took some extra slack on the clutch cable, another quirk Im finding is at 5000 revs only in any gear there seems to be a slight stalling effect as if its not getting enough juice, I dont know whats causing this but go off this 5000 revs mark in any direction and the bike is fine, something to look into as this seems to be the best rev range in normal traffic. I also think the console neutral and indicator lights are of no use in bright sunlight otherwise nothing bad to report, until the first rain shower, since getting this bike Northern England was blessed with virtual hot weather which was opposite to what we had before I got the bike. Now just the other day it rained and while at traffic lights in pouring rain the bike stalled and appeared compleatly dead (no electric start) , despite the bike lights shining brightly, this was not the choke effect mentioned above, this could be water in the cut out switch on the side stand as mentioned by other people but Im unsure as it re-started within a minute or so later and was fine. I re-greased the switch and it has rained several times since while riding and the problem has not re-surfaced so Im unsure what the cause was

    So in summary, I am warming to this bike and despite the small quirks it has for starting it has no real problems, nuts and bolts stayed put, nothing dropped off or broke yet, chrome seems fine even on the rear luggage carrier I had missgivings about, and we have had some wet weather as of late so things would normally show when the weather changes. Ohh! petrol consumption, well its doing at least 120 mpg maybe more, put it this way I put 4 litre in when I got it to try it out, then at approx 120 miles on the clock I filled it up to the top and I have just reached 500 miles and theres still juice in the tank it lies just above the word MOTOR if I sight it in the tank on level ground, great for us Mc Scrooge types, Im going to let it run to reserve which is approx 1 litre left. Of course as it gets used to more revs I expect the consumption to rise. These bikes actually remind me of the early invasion of small Italian bikes, similar quality and problems but people still bought them and now think nothing of going Italian.

    Finally for now, as I was running the bike in I kept the revs and speed down and never went above 30mph and around 4 to 5000 revs max in the first two weeks but soon found it best to keep with the traffic speed after this, which in all honesty is above the road speed limit by my speedo and find most cars seem to travel at the 33 to 37 mark by my speedo, in a 30mph zone, Honest officer I tried to stick at exactly 30 but the car drivers just get annoyed and pass me or bunch up behind as if we were in a supermarket checkout. Strangly while following a car that is doing 30 by my speedo the following cars behind me tend to give me room, maybe the just dont like to be behind a bike if theres nothing in front of it, dunno?

    Next review will be at 1000 miles, Although this blogg still is and has been great for potential owners and we have taken over this with our own thoughts and experience I may put this on a Tripod site and show some pics and add info for any interested buyers/owners as I think there could be quite an interest in a collation of info for this bike..

    dave

71. Ashley said on: October 3rd, 2007 at 08:57 PM

    "I tried changing to an NGK spark plug correctly gapped but this made no difference, anyone got any ideas?"

    Dave, My one stalls when i start it too, seems to always stall twice then it's fine third go provided you don't let the revs die below 2000 for about 30 meters. Also, I don't use any choke whatsoever. the only other thing i've done is just tweak the idle speed up a little higher.. not even quarter turn on the adjustment screw.

    Like you, I changed the spark plug but have yet to change the oil so I too suffer with a sticky gear shifter.

    I've been riding in wet and rain the last three days and have not suffered from any cut out... yet...

72. dave said on: October 10th, 2007 at 06:04 PM

    Ok, just an update. I gave the bike a service at around 600 miles adjusting the chain, regreasing and checking the bike out. I also changed the oil trying out Shell fully synthetic 10/40 the bike seems to run slightly cooler with this than the standard 10/40 I first used. While doing the service I also backed off the carb mixture screw (at the front underneath) around 1/8 a turn, this has completly cured the stalling effect I was getting at 5000RPM and has also helped the starting without half choke. The bike seems to run much better and revs cleanly thoughout the rev range with this adjustment and maybe more miles on the clock as seen the bike bedding in nicely and has been through several rain deluges without cutting out.

    Although Im liking it more, shame it wasnt a bit faster for those dual carriageway journeys as 50-55mph seems like warp speed as the bike reaches its higher rev range ( I darn't take it higher but Im sure it would go) and a bit embarrasing when cars just seem to be plodding on quietly but I suppose most 125s are like this nowadays in the UK and not like those 2-stroke twins of years ago where you would be just cruising at that speed..

73. Iain McLaughlan said on: October 14th, 2007 at 09:31 PM

    My housemate has got one of these bikes and I thought I would have a look to see if there was anything about it on the internet. Looks like I will have to think long and hard...

74. tom said on: October 16th, 2007 at 02:47 PM

    i bought a better 125-6 for my son as his first bike,after 2 weeks he came off and damaged some parts so i asked ls imports for spares so they said send a picture of the bike by e mail and we will see if we have the parts. so i did but so there wouldnt be any confusion i also sent closeup photos of the parts needed,i got an e mail saying yes they had the parts so i ordered the parts,after 8 days i phoned up and said the parts havent arrived yet so he said get in touch with natlee and she will sort it out,so i did and was told to phone city-link and ask for a certain girl so i did and this person was on holiday and they couldnt find any parcel for my postcode. so back to natlee and i told her what was said and i got a sigh from her and down went the phone,so i phoned back and she lifted the reciever and put it down again,this happened about 6 times so i phoned the warehouse number and the same thing happened there so sent an e mail which to this day hasnt been answered. i sent a registered letter to the managing director explaining what was going on and 3 days later the parcel arrived so i opened it only to find that not one thing was identical the parts i ordered except the horn. so i wrot another letter to the manager and explained and included photos of the parts he sent next to the parts i wanted and the original photo and closeups i sent when ordering,and up to date no reply,the letter was sent on the 8 sept. i asked for a full set of indicators and recieved 3,i have never seen a bike with 3 indicators and guess what they sent 3 left hand ones DOH!!!it seems you dont need an IQ OF MORE THAN 1 TO WORK IN THE PARTS DEPT. ANYWAY TO SUM UP,I WOULDNT TOUCH THEM WITH A BARGE POLE after this,natlee is an illmanered and very rude person and shouldnt be working with the public as is one of the warehouse guys he was very abrupt with me on the phone too and they dont deserver to have loyal customers so take my heed DO NOT BYE FROM THEM you will never get any satisfaction from them.

75. tom said on: October 16th, 2007 at 03:11 PM

    oh by the way jamie thanks for starting this site people power will win, i thought you would like a laugh,this is what they say on ebay on there page.

    We carry a full line of replacement parts for every product line we carry. Our parts department has most parts in stock, but if you need something else, we'll try to get it for you. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE OUR CUSTOMERS ARE TAKEN CARE OF, SO OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE PRIORITY ON OUR PARTS INVENTORY! As one of the largest importer of products from China we also carry the largest inventory of parts on hand.

    there's one part of it right,our customers are taken care of,YEAH TO THE CLEANERS!!!lol

76. dave said on: October 17th, 2007 at 08:26 PM

    Ok, not much to add since 500 miles , reached 1000 miles and bike is going strong and no problems to report, in fact as long as I keep adjustment of all parts up to date I dont see any more problems than you would get with a more expensive Jap bike...

    Sorry to hear of problems with LS imports you peeps have; so far I only bought the bike otherwise no contact with them; not needed any spares so far, no doubt as the miles pile up I will reach the need for spares, then I will find out how good or bad things may get. I did take this into consideration when buying the bike so expect things not to be to smooth lets hope I can source them from other areas.

77. Terry Brookes said on: October 18th, 2007 at 01:27 PM

    I To needed to order some spares from Ls Imports no problems there end but City Link left card as i was not in and i called them to arrange delivery to my mates house but they would not so the parcel ended up going back to LS Imports who then sent parcel again but to my mates house now on road going smooth. So tip is stay in because its a night mare to talk any sense with City Link.

78. john mckinney said on: October 22nd, 2007 at 10:37 PM

    Hi, Ive just ordered a HN 125 AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF SEARCHING FOR A CHEAP BIKE. AFTER LOOKING AT ALL ALTERNATIVES THE HN BIKE WAS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE COMPARED TO A AJS 250E WHICH LOOKS THE SAME AND IS RETAILED AT £1599. I decided to take the risk on this bike and will assemble and try. I dont expect a dream, fault free machine for the actual price of £549.00 but as a motor mechanic feel its value for money as long as the bike literally blows up then i would not be happy

79. dave said on: October 24th, 2007 at 01:29 PM

    Hey john, in my experience it aint a bad buy, as long as your used to bikes and dont expect it to last forever it should serve you well, thats what im finding in the short while I have had one, read my posts here to find out what I think of them.

    On a side note, its a very pretty bike and looks even better in the flesh (metal?), I have start calling it my celebrity bike as everyone, well at least non-bikers seems to take pictures of it when ever I go anywhere, its almost a shock when they find out how cheap it was. Still no problems or rust either.

80. Dave Tee said on: October 25th, 2007 at 09:42 AM

    Hi Jamie I read about your demise with your new Huoniao HN125-8 with great interest and just had to send you this message. With all due respect and as an Engineer, Metallurgist, Welder, Fabricator and Quality Assurance Fracture and Crack Tester with the qualifications to show and years of experience, I feel I must agree with some of the points that people have said in their replies to you.

    Firstly, if a person has very little mechanical or engineering experience under their belt, they should never contemplate to undertake the building or setting up of a new Motorcycle for use on British roads, as it would be like asking a fisherman to do a formula 1 mechanics job.

    I would like to point out at this stage that Chinese imported Motorbikes (though built for less than Japanese bikes cost) still have to be built to very rigorous safety standards before they are allowed to be used safely by anyone on British roads. Peoples far fetched ideas about them being absolutely sub standard and not fit for the road is absolute rubbish and if anyone has a case to prove such a thing, then the should take it up with DVLA and their police department before ever complaining about the company that provided it. The British government of this country and DVLA would never allow any new or unsafe vehicle to be used on British roads at all as lives of others are at stake. Before any new motorcycle is allowed to be sold in this Country, they have to undergo very rigorous stress testing by the Ministry of Transport and other departments to deem them safe and fit for use on British roads, and they have to prove that the bikes design is both safe and able to exceed the three years (exempt from MOT) safety standard. A newly designed motorcycle would never even be allowed to be sold in this country if it didn't pass such tests with flying colors and it would never receive its ticket of road worthiness and mechanical competency if it didn't pass the tests that were set out for it.

    Now to the other issues: From a trained engineers point of view, the problem that you had with the suspension unit can easily be explained. The reason for the failure of the rear suspension unit and its hanger bolt (shaft) is likely down to the fact that (from new), "you yourself" seriously over tightened the chrome hanger nut to the point where the nut reached the end of its internal thread distance and could go no further. This produces a serious clockwise sheering action on the hangar bolt which internally weakens and fractures the bolt - eventually causing it to fail like it did when you tried to re-tighten the nut a second time. I have seen this happen several times in the past and it has always been the result of someone seriously over tightening the nut from start. Because the nut was overtightened, the rear suspension unit on your bike very likely failed because of its seriously reduced ability to mildly move and rotate within its rubber bush and on its retaining bolt, this caused it to undergo stresses and strains that eventually caused the suspension unit to fail under the increased strain that it was put under.

    If the unit had been initially tightened correctly with the proper use of a torque wrench or care, then it is very likely that the failure would never have occurred. Out of all of the Chinese imported bikes that I have heard of, yours is the only one that I have ever heard of that has had a rear suspension unit fail in such a manner, failures like that are very rare and that truth was what drew me to being interested in writing this message to you in the first instant.

    You might not agree with what I have written Jamie, but it is sound advise for an engineer and metallurgist who knows about stresses and strains that can occur within metals (as it is my trade). Over tightening of any nut will eventually result in its overall failure because of the undue stresses placed upon it.

    Finally I would like to advice you to exercise caution when it comes to (excuse my expression) slagging off a company for what it has sold you unless you are from an engineering background and can conclusively prove what your say (I say this personally and can assure you that I am nothing whatsoever to do with the company in any way, as I live in Plymouth).

    As was said in some of the replies on your site - "you get what you pay for" - and the money that these new Chinese bikes cost is a give away price compared to similar Japanese bikes. The metal quality of the Chinese Motorcycles is obviously not going to be "as good" as the metal found on Japanese parts and this is directly because of the price of Chinese bike parts, so don't expect to much from any of them as they are a cheap (but safe) alternative to the more expensive options.

    My personal advise to you Jamie, is that you thoroughly learn your subject before you fire your mouth off at any company(this sound and good advise). Solicitors would also strongly advise you to do this, for if you do decide to continue slagging off companies, you could land yourself in a lot of legal trouble, because if your bike was to be recalled and tested by experts to see what caused your problems you could be in deep trouble. If they were to find and prove that the troubles you had were purely because of a lack of mechanical and engineering experience and general motorbike building knowledge, you would legally be in very deep water and would wish that you have not gone down the avenue that you did.

    It is hardly surprising that you have received the attitude that you did from L&S Imports, (the Company that you said you bought the bike off)and it surprises me that you have not already been taken to court for slagging them off in such a way, because they could easily do such a thing to you if they wished too.

    Please be advised about a fact that they state in their advert, that they have been motorcycle importers since 1995, so let me bring something to your attention about this Jamie. If the said Company has been trading and importing new foreign bikes for that long, then they know what they are doing and if they were bad traders, they would not have lasted this long, because the Government and police of this Country would have shut them down for dealing in unroadworthy vehicles. If DVLA are prepared to register a Chinese bike from new (from that company and by the certification that company provides, they are fine) and if the Police don't stop that companies motorbikes from being on the road, then both the Police, DVLA and the Ministry of Transport consider that they are totally road safe (for at least three years).

    So if your bike wasn't road worthy (when supplied to you in its crate), then its best you prove that point in court and stop whining on to the world about your lot. We are all sorry to hear about what you went through and we hope that things are resolved for you soon, but it was very probably your own lack of mechanical and engineering knowledge that caused the problem in the first place.

    Dave Tee - Plymouth If you want to email me, then please do so on: davetee07@blueyonder.co.uk

81. Jamie van Dyke said on: October 25th, 2007 at 11:03 AM

    Dave Tee - Are you 100% sure you aren't in any way affiliated with Chinese Motorbikes or the company in question? If you read the comments, I'm not the only one with problems, and if you actually asked questions about whether or not that nut in question is fitted by an end user, you'd discover it isn't. I never tightened that nut because the rear wheel is fitted on delivery and I carelessly expected it to be tightened to an adequate standard. If you had been there at the time (as my mechanic friend was) you would know that I was applying a tiny amount of pressure using a short arm wrench, as explained in the article. So clearly all that training and experience didn't help you with your reading ability.

    As for the company being able to take me to court? I also checked that out too, and as I have only stated fact and opinion with a witness involved, they have no grounds for action. You'd know that if you had years of training and experience in that area, but you didn't state it in your huge list of qualifications, oh Masterful one!

    Here's the pattern broken down for you, Dave. Buy a cheap chinese bike off eBay...have a problem with it...get sent a replacement part...fit it...void all comeback from the company you bought it from (Trading Standards pointed this one out). The company at this point is legally allowed to ignore you without worry of official's knocking on their door.

    I'm amused that it took so long for me to receive an anally retentive comment like this, but you've really put the icing on the cake with the condescending attitude and insults. 'We' are sorry to hear that you have a lack of reading and brain engagement knowledge, which usually causes problems like yours in the first place.

    Jamie van Dyke - Skipton. If you want to email me, then please do so.

82. dave said on: October 25th, 2007 at 11:21 AM

    An excellent post there Dave Tee.

    I agree on a lot of your points and took them in to account when going for my bike. I too read this about the problems the original poster had when searching about the HN125-8 but came to similar conclusions, hence why I went ahead and bought the bike, I mean most mechanical people have sheared a bolt sometime in their life Im sure, haven't they?

    Thats why I have been posting here to give my views, either good or bad on the bike, luckily most of it has been mainly positive but Im sure you will get a bad'un no matter where it was made and believe me I have had a few new jap bikes in the far off past which gave me more trouble than the HN125-8.

    Im glad the original poster made this page because it does at least allow people who may be tempted to buy a bike like this really think about it, its not hard but if you have no previous biking skills then maybe think twice to avoid dissapointment, maybe the original poster was unlucky or unskilled I cant be sure not knowing him but I have gave my experience of this way of buying this bike in posts numbered, 47, 70, 72, 76, 79. Theres a few daves posted here so its best to state which posts I have added.

83. dave said on: October 25th, 2007 at 01:31 PM

    Hi Jamie

    Not to argue but just wondering about that sheared off bolt you said it was attached from delivery? When I got my bike that nut actually needed to be loosened to take off the spacer bar that held it in the angle bar delivery frame, maybe due to the amount of things held on by that nut, for instance spacers, suspension arm and the luggage rack this caused a problem you may not have noticed or even possibly the frame spacer was overtightened while at the factory, hense not your fault?

    Have you still got the bike and if so do you still use it?

    dave

84. Dave Tee said on: October 26th, 2007 at 11:33 AM

    To Jamie I can firmly say (and with complete and total honesty) that I in "no way" either "know", "work with", or have "anything to do with" and "have never" had "anything to do with" anyone at L&S Imports whatsoever (you are allowing yourself and your reasoning to become a little paranoid on this subject Jamie).

    As for my comment/s being "Anally retentive", - "well" you really went all out on that one. The term "Anally Retentive" that you chose to use to describe how you felt about what I said in my reply to you - would in a court of Law be classed as being personally slanderous, as a comment like that is tantamount to calling someone an "Asshole" (check that out if you will). I am who I am and have the relevant qualifications to show for it, (unlike yourself who needed a mechanic in the beginning to help you to put your motorcycle together in the first place - something which (due to a good grounding of complex engineering) I myself would not have had need of). In my post to you and everyone else on this site, I gave you and all a very good reason for why such a fracture and failure could happen in the first place. If you were not to blame for the problem that happened on your motorcycle, I totally an willingly accept that, but still think that your return comments to me were a little too harsh and not needed in this case. All you really had to say Jamie, was that you were unhappy about it being said that the problem could have been down to you. You need not have attacked anything to do with my skills as an engineer because (and this is correct)you personally know absolutely nothing about my level of skills or anything about me whatsoever. You know nothing about where I have worked and/or my technical ability as an engineer etc etc etc, so you should not have attacked someone over there ability as an engineer without first knowing exactly what you are talking about. If you are wanting to be sore at anyone at all then perhaps you should contact your MP or the Government over your problem, as it is people like those, that pass the laws in this country that allow sub standard machinery to be sold by companies such as the one you bought your Motorcycle from.

    Anyway Jamie despite your attitude toward me, I do hope and pray that your situation is resolved in the very near future and that your enjoyment of motorcycle riding in general has not been damaged for ever, as that would be a shame on all accounts. Good luck with your problems and I truly hope that the Government quickly does something about such instances and that they help to protect people like yourself who have spent good honest money on a product that should have safely been able to do the job that it was designed to do in the first place.

    Good luck in the future Jamie Dave Tee Plymouth email: davetee07@blueyonder.co.uk

85. Jamie van Dyke said on: October 26th, 2007 at 02:16 PM

    I don't have time to answer you fully, Dave. However I would like to point out that the phrase 'Anally Retentive' in no way means asshole. It in fact more accurately translates to 'Stoid, fixed in own ways, unchanging, perfectionist.'. It referred to your writing style, which reminded me of a teenager writing a letter for work experience. Far too many repeated phrases about the law and what I should and shouldn't have done. Come back down to reality, please!

    Let's be clear on this, Dave Tee, this article is not a whinge but a documentation of my experience with a bike and the company I purchased it from. It is here merely as an indication of what could and did happen when dealing with ebay bike purchases.

    As I clearly state in the article, what I have said is my own opinion, and as this is not a media publication for a company of any sort then I am perfectly within my legal right to document my experience.

    As for you repeatedly saying I was 'slagging the company off', I have in no way done that and to be completely 'anal' as you have been, you're the one in the wrong here by misrepresenting what I have written. I stated everything that happened, and how I felt treated by the company. That's all.

86. Dave Tee said on: October 26th, 2007 at 08:32 PM

    Jamie, grow up and use your memory a little better, and remember (and re-read) what you said when you posted a reply message back to Tony in posting No 35 saying:

    And I Quote: I can't find them, would you mind providing a link so we can name and shame them once again.

    Thats quite obviously you "not trying" to damage somebodies reputation over the whole matter of defective parts and the way you consider you have been treated regarding your Huoniao HN125 bike.

    I don't know what others think about this whole matter and it is of course, up to them to decide on that, but if what you have said in posting 35 is anything to go by - "well" mate - naming and shaming anyone and any company - would (in most peoples books) fall into the realm of "slagging" off either a person or company and/or his /her business.

    "I rest my case"

    Take Care Jamie and I hope that your opinions and efforts to "name and shame" whoever you wish too, doesn't become such an obsession that you end up drowning in it. Dave Tee

87. Chris said on: October 31st, 2007 at 11:04 AM

    I was sorry to read about your problems with the bike. But a number is factors are worth highlighting here:

    1. At such a low price you can expect to have a very DIY machine. This is evidenced by the fact it comes requiring assembly. You are not a qualified mechanic and by admission have no experience with motorcycle maintenance prior to purchase. Additionally, I would stress the following:

    i. If you are going to buy a self assembly machine, you better know what you are doing beforehand.

    ii. The suspension arm issue you described was a direct result of you failing to check the tension of ALL fixtures and fittings before taking the machine on the road. You have never mentioned Loctite? I presume you haven't used any. Or been over these key 'stress' areas. That is your fault, the blame lies with you. If you had bought it from a dealer pre-assembled and warrantied, it would lie with them. Your reaction and indignation suggests a mindset associated with the latter not the former route of ownership.

    iii. The sheered bolt you pictured is clearly a result of you turning the bolt past it's tolerance. Usually this is acheived by turning your ratched clockwise not counter-clockwise when attempting to loose and vice versa. Again, that is your fault. Not the suppliers. It is a classic unskilled or inexperienced mistake to make.

    In summary, you have no skill or expertise with motorcycles, are not a mechanic or even possess knowledge and foreseight gained by long term motorcycle maintenance.Yet you still bought a bike in a box and rode it, despite clearly not checking or properly conducting pre-road testing and preventative maintenance.

    While I synmpathise with you, and agree that the traditional dealership pre-assembly by trained, experienced professionals is why most of us take such things for granted; new markets, new methods of direct purchase and delivery, lack of legislation and ignorance among the end user are to blame.

    You are a victim of direct purchasing. The blame lies with customs and the government for not legislating adequately against this sort of 'buy, build, ride' crap that is clearly against everything the DVLA and MOT testing stands for.

    There is, however, the immutable fact: You cut corners (financially) without the neccessary skill to compensate. As such, you are cannot complain when it goes wrong. You can be annoyed and dissapointed, but you cannot complain.

    All my own opinion, and yes, I am sure some people get dangerous lemons. But that is not evidenced by the majority of posts on this board. I think you had a learning experience and reacted in accordance with usual consumer outrage with percieved shoddy goods and services, despite there clearly being no middle man to become outraged at. There was only yourself .. and that is the point of these cheap imports.

    The buck stops with you.

    It might not be ideal, or desirable, but there you have it. You wouldn't buy a PC in bits as a self-assembly kit then get upset when you fail to apply enough thermal paste and it blows a fuse etc. This is the same thing!

88. Robert Bills said on: November 9th, 2007 at 11:32 AM

    Thank you. I will not bother to buy anything Chinese now at all. I will get a second-hand known quality bike instead. Once again, thank you for bothering to warn others.

89. Jon said on: November 9th, 2007 at 12:48 PM

    Hi there,

    While we are all ranting about bad/good bikes, I have bought a SY125 from these people. Too soon to say anything good or bad, if I am honest.

    I am putting it up together, and while I am not a mechanic, everything is going fine, and I will also use all the guidance given here in terms of maintenace and all the rest. Only the front wheel, the rear indicators and the battery to go on now. I have only had a couple of hours with the bike , so most of the time was unbolting the thing from the crate, and if I can get that much done, I am sure a mechanic with the right tools will get it done in no time.

    I put this question there for anybody that has bought and build one:

    How and where does the battery go? I had a quick look and I am not sure if I have to remove any of the side panels or the seat.

    Also in the same box as the tools and the mirrors, there are several bolts and rubber washers. What are these for?

    I supose that the possibility of an assembly guide is not a real one.

    As a last note, everyone that buys cheap is because they have to. Would I like to have a brand new Honda/Yamaha?, yes , but unfortunately I cannot aford it so I have to resort to these kind of deals. For the price I paid for this, I could have bought a 15 year old Honda CG with thousands of miles on the clock. It is my choice and my decision to go this way and I have to put up with the consequences if it goes pearshaped.

    Regards

    Jon

90. Howard said on: November 16th, 2007 at 04:59 PM

    We've been selling Huoniao bikes for 5 years now and we've had very few problems that weren't easily dealt with. Sure, it's not a Honda but it's less than half the price. Properly looked after, they go really well. The HN125-8 is one of their older, cheaper models and not as good as the newer stuff but as far as Chinese imports go, Huoniao is among the best.

    The real secret though is that we're proper motorcycle dealers, not "entrepreneurs" with an e-bay account and a lock-up.

    A reputable dealer will sell you a bike prepared by qualified motorcycle mechanics with the proper tools and with spares available FROM STOCK. The assembled bike will be tested and any problems sorted out before the customer gets to turn a wheel. So you pay more but the bike doesn't fall apart on you spontaneously and there's, like...errr... a "real shop", yeah?... where someone will actually "speak to you", if things do go wrong.

    Questions like "How and where does the battery go?" indicate a dangerous lack of competence. Jon: I'm not sure you've fully considered the consequences - I hope you didn't take the same approach when you bought your safety gear... or do you have a GRP-do-it-yourself-helmet kit? Nowhere truer than in the field of motorcycle maintenance is the adage "A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing". Would you try to save money by servicing a gas boiler yourself? Of course not! Pay a professional, unless you like hospital food.

91. Jon said on: November 18th, 2007 at 01:23 PM

    To Howard:

    My question was simply to reassure myself. I knew that the battery went on the side of the bike I just didn't want to pull anything without full knowledge and brake my brand new bike.

    You will be happy(or maybe not) to know that it is up and running. It took me, an ignorant nobody, 3-4 hours on and off to put up together. A mechanic would have spent less than 1-2 hours to put it all together. I will let you do the maths on that to check how much do they make by just tighting a few bolts and filling the new battery with acid!!!

    While I agree with you in that someone that has NO idea of this stuff should not attemp to put one together, I am not prepared to pay someone hundrdds of pounds to do this for me.

    And for your info I have done all the plumbing on my house, apart checking the boiler!!! And that's only because I am not CORGI registered. But we'll get there.

    It's funny to see that all these dealers are saying how terrible it is to buy these kind of bikes. It is hard for me to believe that they are that concerned about our safety!!! I would rather think that they are more concerned about their wallets!!! Together with the construction industry, in which I am involved, the Motor industry gives people the lowest of confidence and veryone that goes into a garage has teh fear of being ripped off all the time!!

    There you go, you got me going now mate

92. trevor said on: November 19th, 2007 at 08:11 PM

    bought a hn125-8 in july from jingermans .We have had no trouble with the bike.its riden every day. Although being a motor cycle mech i have noticed that some of the bolts and studs are made of a softer grade of metal, as with all bikes,and if the bolts or studs are over tightened they will faulter thus snap ,this is due to lack of knowledge and information ,torque ranches should be used with the correct information,and settings

93. dave said on: November 21st, 2007 at 06:54 PM

    Ok, I've copied and added some info to what I have said here with pictures so as not to fill jamies page, jamie may delete this if he wishes as it is his page afterall but it does show at least im a happy bunny so far with my bike.

    this is my tale of buying a boxed HN125-8: http://elvgren1.tripod.com/

    dave

94. Dan said on: November 29th, 2007 at 11:04 AM

    Just a word of advise......

    I bought a chinese bike a couple of years ago and no end of problems. I have recently purchased a Yamaha YBR 125 and can not fault it. It is well built costs nothing to run and has only needed servicing.

    I bought mine a year old for £1200, I know more expensive than some of the imports but honestly I feel peace of mind is priceless.

95. Greg said on: December 1st, 2007 at 10:55 AM

    Thanks for keeping eyes open, I was tempted, £500 is a steal but not having the mechanical competence some people do a dealerships going to be a better option than ebay i reckon.

96. paul said on: December 1st, 2007 at 02:21 PM

    I have had a HN125 for nearly a year now and apart from the usall serviceing nothing to write home about. I bought mine in the crate and took about 90 minutes assembly if you cant do this then i wonder how you could possibley ride and maintain a machine your self perhaps four wheel is better for some.

    Paul

97. Mick said on: December 5th, 2007 at 02:51 PM

    Hi I need anew carb for my HN125-8, anyone know of any suppliers based in Scotland? Thanks

98. Dave A said on: December 5th, 2007 at 09:49 PM

    Hey there, could anyone possibly run through how to fill in the DVLA V55/4 form please? I am unsure about a few things on it, any examples? Also do I need to fill in the back of the Customs and excise form where it says "Acquirers details" ?

    Thanks for any help

99. thomas shannon said on: December 20th, 2007 at 11:58 PM

    hi

    another fool to LS imports. hade brought a skyjet rr7 6 months ago. endless poroblems with the bike, welds breaking, nuts shearing, farings cracking, wheel defects, electrical problems, speedo arm waves at you, the latest problem and probebly the end of it, start of the week coming back from work the big end escapes from the arm due to bad material used in the piston. it hit the valves what a mess. the bike not worth fixing. spoke to the man and he said i used the wrong oil and told me the oil i should of used. very suspicious becuse i used the oil specified in the manual, got my mate to phone up a day latter and say the oil type that he told me was the right one for the bike and came out with the same crap (you used the wrong oil) trying to aviod a warrenty clame. i think this man is going to get a hole in his head from the oil companys. its allways the oil!!!! not the cheep shite material. and it must be some thing youve done wrong.

    DO NOT PURCHASE ANY OF LS IMPORTS BIKES
    trust me go for second hand honda

100. Cathrine said on: December 27th, 2007 at 10:13 AM

     Hello Bike riders Well i got my Christmass present a brand new HN125 all shineing and new from my hubby. In three days we have covered 250 miles has not missed a beet. I an only say i love it will have to give her a good wash with all this salt on the roads. This is a job for Hubby and a can of WD40. My bike came from LS and my husband said all waent smooth just had trouble hideing the bike from me xxxxxxx

101. dave said on: December 31st, 2007 at 01:19 PM

     Glad you like your bike Catherine, hope it serves you well. Any problems call in and view my site dedicated to this bike it may help you. I will be adding some more tech tips when I get time and err.. when col1n writes them.

102. Steve said on: January 4th, 2008 at 08:48 PM

     I wish I had found your website before I purchased my HN125 at the end of September 2007. All was fine until about 3 weeks ago just before Christmas. Since the I have exactly the same problems as most other people from your site, cutting out, not re-starting and finding myself stranded in the middle of no-where. Changed spark plug and lead added an in line fuel filter and it seemed fine again. this lasted just 3 days. Tonight 7 miles from home it stopped and refused to re-start. (it was raining) I have sent an e-mail to LS imports as their phone appears to be switched off however after reading your messages i'm not hopeful of receiving correct info if any at all. Steve

103. Dave said on: January 5th, 2008 at 12:03 PM

     New HN125 3 months old Broken down 3 times. Seller LS imports do not seem keen to talk to me or answer an E-mail.No satisfaction at all. Cannot get hold of a manual for this bike. WARNING TO ALL WHO READ THIS> DO NOT BUY THIS BIKE> IT IS RUBBISH

104. dave said on: January 5th, 2008 at 08:01 PM

     Hey Steve & Dave, posts 102 & 103.

     This sounds like the classic side stand switch or block connecter problem that some of us including myself have had problems with in the last few weeks.

     Simply water is getting in to one of these areas, suggest you take a look at the switch or more likely the 4 wire connecter under the centre stand. Either waterproof these or better still remove them, if its this the bike willl run fine after the modification less your sidestand safety switch if you mod it, and with my experience in this Im sure it is.

     I would also try WD40 or Damp Start your switch gear just in case, its simply water in the works else where, but take it from me it will be this connecter as the balance of things says it is..

     So head over to the Chinese bike forum for more details or just click on my website link above for more info, click on my name.

105. Johnny R said on: January 13th, 2008 at 03:08 PM

     Just found this site after someone told me about it.

     Helped a near neighbour put one of hese Huoniao HN125-8s together back at the end of 06. She passed her DAS in March last year and I bought the bike off her as a cheap runaround hack to run into the ground commuting over the Summer and Autumn - over 100 miles a day - far cheaper and more fun than a rail season ticket!

     For the price I paid I expected it to last till Winter set in. After all these chinky bkes are rubbish aren't they?

     What tosh! These things are like Yams and Suzis used to be in the 70s. Yeah they rust and bits fall off now and again but I've paid 3 times a much for bikes and had them do the same.

     The bike has now covered nearly 20k miles and its had the usual chains cables sprockets light bulbs a new sidepanel and the carrier cracked so I had it welded. It was carrying about 30lbs for around 1000 miles so I wasn't too displeased. It gets an oi change every other weekend with cheap Wilkos 10/40 and I made up a foam air filter.

     Other maintenance is confined to oiling the chain daily with car gearbox oil - also cheap stuff from Wilkos, hoseing it down daily and spraying everything metal except brakes with cheap WD40 type stuff from the pound shop.

     You know what? I'm carrying on using it through this Winter then when it does eventually die I will buy another one from LS Imports or maybe the CG125 looky likey one with enclosed chain.

     Forget when the golden age of biking was supposed to be. Wit