[culcune]

Tommy, we were discussing the fat tires on the XF250--are they only available through SSR or are they available easily elsewhere?

Your terrain, sand, sounds a lot like Yuma--that is the reason I chose and preferred street tires for both of my TMEC 200 enduro bikes rather than the knobbies. I still wouldn't be able to ride most any of the terrain around here, and most of my riding was commuting 33 miles a day, so I simply didn't even want to try riding in the sand.

Pioneer is the OEM for SSR's XF250, and they are affiliated with Qingqi. There was a company called Dafier out of Virginia who, until recently, were listed on the EPA certification for the Pioneer/Qingqi enduros year after year. I think the last time was 2015. They were a really weird importer. They were only opened for like 3 or 4 hours a day, and the two times I called, they answered "hello" (but not in a friendly way). Both times I had to ask them if they were Dafier, and both times they hesitantly said yes, and, while not directly, they implied that the next thing they were going to say was 'what the h%^& do you want?!' Both times they stated that they only dealt wholesale as they were trying to get me off the phone, but I persisted and asked who their dealers were. The guy couldn't answer! I am guessing it took several years of few to ZERO sales until Pioneer/Qingqi realized that Dafier was worthless.

Which brings me to my next question--Pioneer is willing to sell you bikes directly from China? I am sure they are certified (probably under SSR's certification somewhere, somehow), but I am surprised they are willing to sell around their main US distributor. Okay, maybe not. Qlink and SSR were both selling these bikes for a couple years overlapping each other, so maybe they 'play' off each other--Qingqi AND Shandong Pioneer are probably considered two separate companies, so they wouldn't technically be underminding SSR. Maybe it is more complicated than that, but still interested to hear how it plays out for you guys!