American Lifan (renamed)

Well, any of you who are familiar with my problems and ongoing crap with wheeling cycle will be not-so-surprised to hear this.

today as I was removing the sprocket that they put on without asking me, I discovered that ALL 4 OF THE SPROCKET MOUNTING BOLTS WERE SO LOOSE I WAS ABLE TO REMOVE THEM WITH MY BARE FINGERS!!!!!!!!!

edited the title so as not to imply that wheeling cycle actually attempted to kill me

[kczukiman]

Thats one way to not have to do warranty work.

[frostbite]

Originally Posted by zapkin

Well, any of you who are familiar with my problems and ongoing crap with wheeling cycle will be not-so-surprised to hear this.

today as I was removing the sprocket that they put on without asking me, I discovered that ALL 4 OF THE SPROCKET MOUNTING BOLTS WERE SO LOOSE I WAS ABLE TO REMOVE THEM WITH MY BARE FINGERS!!!!!!!!!

Bad, but maybe not as bad as you think.

On my bike the sprocket is actually held on to the hub with a snap ring. The wheel studs/nuts simply transfer the force of the sprocket to the wheel. Even if all of the nuts fell off, the sprockets would simply spin without moving the rim, and that would only happen if the studs fell out (btw, they just sit in recesses in the hub. Similar behaviour to revving in neutral. The chain and sprockets would be moving but independent of the hub.

yeh thankfully for the C clip. I know one thing, I am going in there Monday and have a talk with the owner. He seems like a decent guy and I just cannot help but wonder if he is in the dark about the crap work they are doing. But...i got my 42 tooth on...and changed my oil to synthetic mobil 1 and the bike is running great. Tomorrow I go riding.

[almonpoole]

Hey Zapkin,

This happened to me twice on my first LF200-III. I finally had the idea to use a little red loctite on all of the bolts, never happened again on any of my Lifan bikes.

before they removed my old sprocket (without consulting me) I'd checked the bolts on it many times as part of going over the bike and they were very snug. factory they were nice and tight.


Today I used permatex threadlocker when I installed the new 42. I can now once again cruise at 55.

[katoranger]

I used threadlock on mine too. They were all loose after the initial 200 miles before I got the 45T.

Allen

i think its pretty clear that they either cannot be bothered or simply dont give a shit. either way, i learnt myself a lesson. I'll deal elsewhere henceforth!

[americanlifan]

Last I heard your problems had been cleared up... Is this not the case?

Shawn

[ambassador]

Zap,
How do you like the 42???

shawn i took the sprocket they installed without asking off because it was revving me too high...and when I went to remove it discovered that the bolts holding it on were so loose I could take them off by hand. they should have had threadlocker on them. they dont care and I wont deal with them again.

and shawn for what it is worth, you'll find that I am not the only person whos had problems with wheeling cycle. they have an attitude of not giving a crap and when you are dealing with something as potentially dangerous as a motorcycle (especially one made from inferior materials) attention to details count.

what if one of those nuts had come flying off there?

they simply cannot be bothered to work on these bikes. you should have seen how tight my chain was when they delivered the bike and there was no way to loosen it as the axle was all the way forward.

dealers like this are going to screw you guys at AL. IF i ever buy another chinabike it will either be through Bruce or mail order.

if the dealer doesnt stand behind the product then he is making that product look bad.

I had a friend who was almost ready to buy until he saw what happened with wheeling cycles.

he may still take the leap if I can talk him into going up to see bruce, otherwise he will buy online and we'll put it together ourselves. what use is a warranty anyway when you cannot even trust your local dealer.

I'd keep my eye on them if I were AL...and you might wanna ask around for other's opinions.

[TeamCheap]

They took care of the noise what else do you want.
ZAPKIN they needed to have that chain that tight to keep the engine from rattling around and making all that noise.
You just dont understand. Of couse I'm just kidding you.

Just think if you had just ridden it the way that so called dealer gave it to you and taken a nasty spill you may have owned that dealership.
(if you survived the crash :( )

That dealer doesnt know or care how to fix it.(probably because A.L. hasnt figured it out and told them yet)
American Lifan doesnt know how to build it right in the first place and I cant image riding a 300-400cc bike from them with this kind of quality, it'll tear itself apart.
(well not just american lifan but lifan in general)

American Lifan doesnt know how to monitor their dealers and it is costing them.

TC I hope AL gets to give the Lifan guys some feedback on what needs to be done for this market. I hate to see them go hog wild with expensive goodies and drive the price of the bikes up, but something as simple as using quality fasteners should be doable without driving prices too far up.

If I were an AL dealer, I'd replace the stock bolts with grade 8's as part of the prep. It takes no more than 30 minutes and costs no more than 14.00 .. probably a lot faster and cheaper with experienced mechanic and bulk order bolts.

Man do I wish I had the resources to start my own business.

As far as litigiousness, I aint no scientologist. Big words make me feel smart when I am drinking. hehe. :P

[SamM]

No reply back? Imagine that!

SamM