Ok, I posted about 3 weeks ago that my 23 year old step son had bought a motorcycle.
Made clear the trials and tribulations of his learning to drive a cage. Made clear my concerns for his being on 2 wheels... all that.
Well, we rode. I was riding behind my boy! Scary and fun all at once! An experience that I will NEVER forget! To quote Mr. Dickens 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times'...
He did great. Listened to me, took advice for once... and after about 150 miles of riding we returned home and in one piece!!!
Thats the good news.
Heres the scoot:
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
He bought this POS from an outfit in California called Viva Motorsports. It is basically a 200cc dirt bike (made in China) with blinkers and a headlight - even has a gear position indicator! I could find nothing on them after doing a Google search tonight so I thought I'd post something here in case any members ever contemplate buying one or know anyone who might.
After that 150 miles this thing is down and out!
The speedo cable broke.
The exhaust fell off - all of it... yeah, we got it back on...
It has this PAIR valve-esque assembly on it that was constructed of rubber fuel line type hose that melted away - they had exhaust gas passing through fuel line!
Nearly every nut and bolt on the thing backed out.
The clutch and front brake levers are made of plastic and yes, one broke - he had to ride home with a 2" clutch lever! Nope, MSF courses dont prepare ya for that one!
Advertised speed is 95 - actual speed... in Lower AL on a flat road is 55 @ 10,000rpm - good thing!
I know, it only cost the boy $1.3K but dang, this thing is atrocious and so is that bunch who sold it to him - they wont ever return an email about initial shipment damage, I dont look for any help with the other stuff!
It is a good thing that he is an aircraft mechanic and I am pretty good with zip ties and duct tape myself or we would had to leave this thing out on the road - after 3 hours we actually have it road worthy again.
I have given him another piece of advice (yeah, he gets sick of this) go buy a Suzuki and lets use this thing for target / fabrication practice!
At any rate, the seed is planted and he apparently loves to ride - we bonded out there. As he has gotten older there has been less and less that a 42 year old and a kid his age has to do together but this weekend this piece of crap brought us WAY together - I owe Viva that much! We laughed, we cried, we killed millions of love bugs, we walked the roadside looking for fallen chinese motorcycle parts and chuckling, we essentially had a good day riding and bad day riding that was worth a post here on the Org!
Should be interesting going forward as he now wants a 'real bike'.... Oh.... I also have a 10 year old who is watching all this!
Yall ride safe!
Made clear the trials and tribulations of his learning to drive a cage. Made clear my concerns for his being on 2 wheels... all that.
Well, we rode. I was riding behind my boy! Scary and fun all at once! An experience that I will NEVER forget! To quote Mr. Dickens 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times'...
He did great. Listened to me, took advice for once... and after about 150 miles of riding we returned home and in one piece!!!
Thats the good news.
Heres the scoot:
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
He bought this POS from an outfit in California called Viva Motorsports. It is basically a 200cc dirt bike (made in China) with blinkers and a headlight - even has a gear position indicator! I could find nothing on them after doing a Google search tonight so I thought I'd post something here in case any members ever contemplate buying one or know anyone who might.
After that 150 miles this thing is down and out!
The speedo cable broke.
The exhaust fell off - all of it... yeah, we got it back on...
It has this PAIR valve-esque assembly on it that was constructed of rubber fuel line type hose that melted away - they had exhaust gas passing through fuel line!
Nearly every nut and bolt on the thing backed out.
The clutch and front brake levers are made of plastic and yes, one broke - he had to ride home with a 2" clutch lever! Nope, MSF courses dont prepare ya for that one!
Advertised speed is 95 - actual speed... in Lower AL on a flat road is 55 @ 10,000rpm - good thing!
I know, it only cost the boy $1.3K but dang, this thing is atrocious and so is that bunch who sold it to him - they wont ever return an email about initial shipment damage, I dont look for any help with the other stuff!
It is a good thing that he is an aircraft mechanic and I am pretty good with zip ties and duct tape myself or we would had to leave this thing out on the road - after 3 hours we actually have it road worthy again.
I have given him another piece of advice (yeah, he gets sick of this) go buy a Suzuki and lets use this thing for target / fabrication practice!
At any rate, the seed is planted and he apparently loves to ride - we bonded out there. As he has gotten older there has been less and less that a 42 year old and a kid his age has to do together but this weekend this piece of crap brought us WAY together - I owe Viva that much! We laughed, we cried, we killed millions of love bugs, we walked the roadside looking for fallen chinese motorcycle parts and chuckling, we essentially had a good day riding and bad day riding that was worth a post here on the Org!
Should be interesting going forward as he now wants a 'real bike'.... Oh.... I also have a 10 year old who is watching all this!
Yall ride safe!
