And Now: The RXB150L
 

Nyeh. Heh. Heh.

https://i.imgur.com/sASVQRm.jpg?1

No, we're not done yet.

Roughly at the same time as I ordered my 250, a buddy of mine ordered a 150. Well, last night while he was at work the trucking carrier dropped a large crate off at the end of his driveway and scarpered without informing anybody in advance. Luckily I work about two blocks away from his house so I was able to run over there and drag it to a hidden location so nobody would steal it from.

His place is not an adequate location to work, so the two of us were able to muscle the crate onto the back of the truck last night and take it to my shop. We wound up doing the initial uncrating and assembly right there in the bed of the truck so we could roll the bike off on a ramp.

Believe it or not my original plan was to get the 150, but I wound up getting the 250 for a combination of reasons, mostly that it's more practical and also because Orion told me that I'd get it sooner (which turned out to be technically true).

I have seen virtually nothing about this bike online, so, here you go.

It's about half the size of my RXB250. It's the same size as, and likely shares a bunch of componentry with, various "adult and teen" sized pit bikes, which is basically what it is. If you've ever sat on one of those, you know that calling it "adult" size is sort of generous. You'll wind up riding it like a circus bear on a tricycle. I shall call him: Mini Me.

I slapped the bike together last night and it wasn't too tough with one notable exception. I have not done all of the final checking and tuning, nor greased anything or added any Loctite. I'll do that tomorrow. Assembly consists of mounting the front wheel and front brake caliper, handlebars, gauge cluster, handlebar mounts, and putting the lower pivot bolt in the rear shock, filling up and installing the battery, and applying the stickers (if you feel like it). I did not observe that anything had been greased but did not tear into the headstock yet.

This thing is obviously a different OEM from the RXB250 and shares no commonality whatsoever. Interestingly, it does come with a manual as well as the world's lousiest tool kit, but the manual is extremely generic and does not contain any assembly instructions. When we get the MCO we'll see who actually makes the thing.

Assembly was relatively straightforward except for mounting the headlight. The clearances on the headlight assembly are super tight, and you have to have all the wiring around the headstock tucked away just right so that the back of the reflector has enough room to allow you to shove the entire assembly back far enough to mount it. The bike came with a pair of dirt bike style rubber straps to mount 'round the forks, but these are not for the headlight -- I suspect they are for the blank number plate (also included). The headlight assembly mounts to a pair of arms on the gauge cluster and with and is structurally supported by the turn signal stalks. No joke. The bottom of it slots into two holes on the front fender, but these really don't line up very well and you have to bend it a little. The upshot of this is that you have to unplug and completely remove the turn signals every time you want to take this area apart and also plug the turn signals in last, after everything is assembled, with very little space to work with. I'm going to hope we don't have to mess around in there very often.

I am kind of miffed that the headlight is better than my 250's is. Instead of (poorly) trying to copy the projector setup from KTM, this one just has a normal reflector type housing with an LED H4 type module in it. It has a much wider cast than my 250's headlight, although the overall lumen output is probably similar. It will also need some messing with as it, too, perfectly illuminates pretty much nothing other than a patch of ground about six feet ahead of the front tire...

Also of note is that while this thing has most street legal equipment including headlight, taillight, turn signals, a horn, and front reflectors, it has no rear reflectors, no license plate bracket (!?) and no license plate light. These are kind of weird omissions given all the other stuff it has. I'll have to rig those up for inspection but that shouldn't be too tough.

The gauge cluster appears to be another Yum-Cha off the shelf component common to many of these Chinese bikes. Here's a picture of it. It's green backlit with a normal segmented LCD display for speed, mileage, gear position, and has a bar graph tach. No temperature or voltage level display on this one. Switching it to MPH is accomplished by holding down the rightmost button on power-up. If you can't figure out where the heck to mount it, don't feel bad -- it took me a minute, too. It gets mounted to the underside of the top triple tree clamp using the handlebar mount bolts.

The engine appears to be the usual Honda derived clone. As usual for those, maintenance should be extremely simple and parts readily available. It comes with a Nibbi carb similar to the 250 but obviously smaller and a pod filter of unknown quality. Since I haven't started it yet I have no idea if the carb will need tuning. I would not be surprised if it does.

It's got the weensiest little inverted forks I've ever seen. There is a single unlabeled adjustment screw on top of each, which I assume is damping adjustment. The rear shock looks pretty basic and has a preload adjustment. There are also two mounting positions for it in case you want to shorten the seat height slightly. I guess. Anyone who is too short to straddle this thing as-is will have other problems with it, I think.

The bike bay is getting pretty crowded these days. I guess there are worse problems to have.

It's a sickness. There are many here with the same affliction.

I know i have that same affliction. :ohno:

Nice write up, but one small point: it's not based on a GY, it's based on the Honda horizontal cylinder engines. The GYs are CVT.

I have thought about that bike for a good while. I think it would be a blast on single track. Alas I too have the China bike syndrome (affliction)!

They all are? I was always under the impression that the only difference was the output end.



What's the designation for the Cub derived 110/125/150cc pit bike engines that are all over on everything? Is there even one?

Honda horizontal clone. GY-6s use shrouded, forced-air cooling, too.

Well, we've already had it apart. Out of the box the clutch would not disengage. I have no idea why. I took the cover off, fooled with the actuator rod and its little plunger, verified that nothing was binding or backwards, took the pusher thing off with its throwout bearing and the springs, and put it all back together. It works fine now.


:shrug:


Maybe something was slightly out of alignment in there.



Anyway, we obviously finally ran it. Runs great. I found some Rotella to replace the factory donkey snot before we started it. The carb doesn't seem to need any fooling with, which feels unusual to me. The little bastard likes to go and it wants to wheelie. We, uh, ignored the recommended "heat cycle procedure." (Let it idle in 20 minute increments four times and the putter it around slowly in 15-20 minute blocks until it runs out of gas? WTF?) We idled it for a while, changed the oil again (only takes 1 quart), did five minutes of low speed stuff, and then it was off to the races. If it blows up, it blows up. I can buy an entire new engine for the damn thing for $200.



The rear shock is definitely a wee little bit undersprung for someone near 200 pounds. Luckily the owner is not -- he's probably 140 soaking wet. I think this thing is going to rule on single track, provided he can manage not to smash the engine case on anything.

zero_dgz: THANK YOU for the comprehensive write-up!!! You helped quench my thirst for knowledge on these little beasts. :-)



I started looking a the RXB150XL last year as a first motorcycle for my daughter. When I saw the upgrades on the new RXB150L, I was intrigued but not enough to pull the trigger and order one. There isn't enough info on the interwebs about them as of yet.



Please keep us up to date on the little bugger. It sounds like a blast and half to hop on and twist the throttle!!

http://chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=29206

I have two of them. Great little bikes. Make sure to do daily/weekly pre ride checks and maybe your motors will last longer than mine hahaha.

I had some time off today, so I went ahead and committed a few crimes against metalworking.

I had to make a license plate bracket for the little bike. Figured some 1/16" aluminum flat stock ought to do it. Went to Lowes, two separate Home Depots, and the local hardware store while I was out and about. No one had any in stock. Welcome to the new normal.

I had some 1/8" lying around. Fair enough, but I always annoy myself bending that stuff cleanly. Started shopping for a small bench vise metal brake. $60? Plus back ordered? No thanks.

I made one out of some readily available steel angle stock and several of my patented lousy welds (previously featured in my RXB250 thread).

One license plate and rear reflector bracket, coming right up. Offset to accommodate its own mounting bolts without bending the plate, plus some ears for side reflectors. I don't think I've ever bent a more symmetrical piece of flat stock in my entire life. I'll affix it to the underside of the flap under the brake light with a couple of small angle brackets I already have lying around.