1500+ Mile Tao TBR7 250 Deep Dive Review!

[Wild Dog]

While i was watching your video, this song came to my mind.

[wedooit]

Lol lol!!!! Can you hear megadan singing this song on his riding videos? AS i drive today, i will be thinking of some hawk lyrics to fit into a song....lol? There was a song by some of our northern friends....something about ....starts ....hmmmm....out there for a rip are ya bud?

Thanks again for your videos guys!

[paulsstag]

I liked the video , I'm sorry your bike had the missing parts and bad steering stem bearings from the start ( not a great start to chinese bike ownership ). You must have got the bike assembled by the new guy/girl at the factory.

You did touch on it on your video about a known entity needing work from the factory but for $1350 you have to be the quality control guy that honda /yamaha/suz/kawasaki pays to have checking every step of the way.

Another thing to remember for anyone considering buying a slightly used Jap enduro is would you just as readily take your jap bike out in the woods and enjoy it as much thinking every time you drop it $$$$$ are flying out of your wallet vs the china bike where you just upgrade the parts that break and make it yours ? I don't know how much a mirror costs for the xt , or how much value it loses every time you put extra road rash on it. The china bike is not perfect but i think for the money you can have a lot of cheap safe(your the QC remember).

Thanks for sharing.

[Wild Dog]

I start to see the problem with the china bike sold in the US. For what i can see, the dealers don't do their own QC and just ship the crate.
Here it's like this
China QC -- Wholesale QC -- Retailer QC once they get the crate, Retailer QC just before they give you the motorcycle. Single Cylinder bikes 1 year warranty for the Bicylinder 2 Year or 36.000.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by wedooit

Can you hear megadan singing this song on his riding videos?

Don't tempt me. I was a choir and stage singer in my early years.

Originally Posted by Wild Dog

I start to see the problem with the china bike sold in the US. For what i can see, the dealers don't do their own QC and just ship the crate.
Here it's like this
China QC -- Wholesale QC -- Retailer QC once they get the crate, Retailer QC just before they give you the motorcycle. Single Cylinder bikes 1 year warranty for the Bicylinder 2 Year or 36.000.

The dealers here for many of these bikes aren't even dealers, just drop shippers. The bikes literally come out of the crate they were shipped to the States in, sit in a warehouse, then are shipped to the buyer.

There are some more local retailers that will assemble them, but even their level of quality control is minimal. A local shop here actually sells Hawks, and a friend of mine bought one. Had to do everything I did to my bike to his. The only difference between them was that I saved $300 on my bike.

[GronkFries]

Originally Posted by Wild Dog

I start to see the problem with the china bike sold in the US. For what i can see, the dealers don't do their own QC and just ship the crate.
Here it's like this
China QC -- Wholesale QC -- Retailer QC once they get the crate, Retailer QC just before they give you the motorcycle. Single Cylinder bikes 1 year warranty for the Bicylinder 2 Year or 36.000.

That is a great point - One thing that would be handy is some kind of detailed prep list. I would imagine there is something like that for a name brand bike that dealers use. My biggest issue is that never having put one together before, or having ever prepped any kind of vehicle at all for that matter, a fully detailed checklist with torque specs would have been very useful to me.

I made my own list and looked up general torque specs before assembly but missed a couple things like checking the steering stem. So these "dealers" have nothing to go by, because the master document would have been released somewhere on the net by now. Because of this, I doubt I would have a so called dealer put my bike together anyway. My CBR1000F service manual is a couple inches thick, and I'm sure the prep guide was exhaustively detailed as well.

Now I have lots of notes, and the next one will be much easier.

[GronkFries]

Originally Posted by Megadan

The dealers here for many of these bikes aren't even dealers, just drop shippers. The bikes literally come out of the crate they were shipped to the States in, sit in a warehouse, then are shipped to the buyer.

There are some more local retailers that will assemble them, but even their level of quality control is minimal. A local shop here actually sells Hawks, and a friend of mine bought one. Had to do everything I did to my bike to his. The only difference between them was that I saved $300 on my bike.

I missed this , you must have fired it off a few minutes before me in mid post. Yes, I think you are right that there aren't any or many qualified retailers for the prep work. For $300 (And a little more) someone is probably better off to take the crate to a Honda dealer or similar and have them put it together if they don't want to do it themselves.

I've read from you and elsewhere that many overlooked steps need to be taken before putting a bike to use - It will save loads of time and prevent most future problems.

Also, I don't see where anyone wouldn't bring a toolbag and a couple of spark plugs with them riding a china bike unless it's close enough to walk home...

[Wild Dog]

Originally Posted by Megadan

The dealers here for many of these bikes aren't even dealers, just drop shippers. The bikes literally come out of the crate they were shipped to the States in, sit in a warehouse, then are shipped to the buyer.

There are some more local retailers that will assemble them, but even their level of quality control is minimal. A local shop here actually sells Hawks, and a friend of mine bought one. Had to do everything I did to my bike to his. The only difference between them was that I saved $300 on my bike.

That explains a lot, because i was reading oneleggedrider post about the bent wheel
I wonder how much more money it will add to final price, to have a decent team to check the QC.
Sometimes Argentina likes to mimic some aspect of the US... One of that aspect is that people like to sue everyone for anything...
It's so ridiculous that companies have to put warnings like "This product contains Milk and lactose" in a milk bottle...
So wholesalers and retailers they really need to step up their QC or they are going be swimming in a sea of lawsuits....
But in the other hand, you are not allowed to tune the bike, or touch it, otherwise you lose the warranty. So at least the first service must be done with the wholesaler or an authorized dealer.

Originally Posted by GronkFries

That is a great point - One thing that would be handy is some kind of detailed prep list. I would imagine there is something like that for a name brand bike that dealers use. My biggest issue is that never having put one together before, or having ever prepped any kind of vehicle at all for that matter, a fully detailed checklist with torque specs would have been very useful to me.

It is, because when they give you bike, you only have to add fuel and ride it, till the first checkup.

[Forgiven1]

Originally Posted by psychprof

A couple of questions on the video.

1. You said in the video that you’re risking your life more riding this bike compared to other bikes. Did you mean because you think the bike will fall apart while riding it? Can you elaborate a little? You seem to have emphasized that point quite a bit.

Sorry for the late reply. The reason I feel like I'm risking my life more on this bike is because of the increased possibility of mechanical failure. If I had not discovered the bearing issue it could have caused the rear wheel to cease up. Or when the rear brake failed I could have hit something etc. Basically cheaper components are more at risk to fail.

I think there should be a mandatory two week minimum membership here at Chinariders before dealers are allowed to sell one of these bikes to a person. I never would have got this stuff straightened out if not for you guys all!

[wedooit]

[QUOTE=Megadan;311608]Don't tempt me. I was a choir and stage singer in my early years.


Holy cow, I missed this post....you were a stage singer??? Next time you do a video you can sing to us ok!!!!! You might become famous and invite all your friends!!!!!

[wedooit]

Originally Posted by Forgiven1

Sorry for the late reply. The reason I feel like I'm risking my life more on this bike is because of the increased possibility of mechanical failure. If I had not discovered the bearing issue it could have caused the rear wheel to cease up. Or when the rear brake failed I could have hit something etc. Basically cheaper components are more at risk to fail.

I think there should be a mandatory two week minimum membership here at Chinariders before dealers are allowed to sell one of these bikes to a person. I never would have got this stuff straightened out if not for you guys all!

One of many reasons for this forum. I too, cannot thank enough the people that assisted me, and so many others.

[OneLeggedRider]

You should hear Big Dan belt out Paradise by the dashboard light..

I will say this, the TBR we received was much higher quality than the Hawk. Most of it was little things that someone had actually put some thought into, others were big things like high grade bolts and locking nuts.

Also the initial assembly, all it consists of is handlebars headlight and front fender and tire. Didn't even have to adjust the fork height. But an inline fuel filter, protective spring around the clutch cable bend, LED turn signals, all electrical components under the seat, better airbox and intake tube, rear brake pedal, rear rack, better battery and clamp, rear shock, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some things so the list goes on.

The only shortcoming is it doesn't have a sight glass for the oil. Makes you wonder why it's $60 cheaper.. Also has lock nuts on the exhaust flange.

[kingofqueenz]

In fact it is exactly why I arrived at purchasing the TBR as my first bike, for all the reasons OneLeg mentions.

I'm good with the wrench, BUT.. I wanted a solid foundation to start with and unfortunately there are very limited off-road applications where I live , so 80/20% offroad, new bike to make the mistakes on and an underpowered bike to hopefully make the mistakes (and my adrenaline ) less of a factor.

[alex_in_az]

Originally Posted by Forgiven1

Hi all,

I've had a chance to really get to know this bike now. The worst and best of my experience. Overall I've had a lot of great adventures on this bike. For the price I think you get a lot.



Please do let me know what your thoughts are

I watched this last night, it was very informative. Thank you

[jacksonliam341]

I agree 100% with you on the rear swing arm. I would happily pay another $100 if they would just use a better swing arm on all of these bikes. The cheap thin box tubing is the one real drawback.

The quality of the welds on yours was also appalling. That is one thing I think I can say about the Hawks. Had two of them now, neither one has had a weld issue of any kind, even if the welds look like crap lol.