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Old 09-01-2020, 07:19 PM   #1
My experience buying Chinese. The good (bobcatsmotorsports) and the criminally bad.
by iridiumblue iridiumblue is offline 09-01-2020, 07:19 PM


During the pandemic I decided to get myself a 150 cc motor scooter. I've had experience with Chinese brands before and knew well that the cost savings comes with the understanding the buyer needs to do their own maintenance, PDI, and due diligence before purchasing.

I settled on the Amigo Jax 150. I liked it because Amigo does a very smart thing - buy from China and then upgrade some critical components. What I would ideally do myself. The original bike is a ZNen Rx 150, then they swap in :

Japanese-made carburetor (with accessible fuel/air screw.)

Better exhaust, Gates engine belt and NGK spark plug.

Disk brakes on both front and back, rims increased to 13'' alloy with duro tread. Also better suspension.

And a nice-to-have, a really cool looking LCD dash. (Personally, I'd be more comfortable with electro-mechanical, as it's one less thing to break some day. But nice to show off.)

Finally, it comes fully assembled, which saves a lot of time.

OK, so my mind made up, I found the best deal I could online. (Mistake #1.) I found the bike at superiorpowersports.com for $1500. I did not do a check of their online reputation (mistake #2). They literally took my money and nothing else. Told me "on its way!" for three weeks (no tracking information), then at the end of 3 weeks said, "Oh - it's out of stock. We'll refund you in 7 working days (!?)." Then they just ghosted me. Fortunately, bank did a charge-back to recover my money.

Heed well - stay far, far away from superiorpowersports.com. They appear to be liquidating their stock at fire-sale prices, right now. Wouldn't be surprised if some of them get cuffed and stuffed. Google "superiorpowersports fraud" if you need a second opinion.

Now it was July, and I had the cash back but riding season was ticking away (and the pandemic left me with nothing else to fill the gap.) This time, I was less concerned with the best price and paid more attention to company reputation. This brought me to bobcatsmotorsports.com.

With all Chinese scoot importers you get some level of 'noise' with reviews. The low price attracts a lot of novices, who don't know how to do simple things like adjust the idle. Their engine floods and they get online and complain. Or their real dispute is with the manufacturer and their warrantee.

The dealership stands apart from those issues. Their job is to ship accurately, undamaged, respond to queries, be honest about any slips or slowdowns, and broker the warrantee with the manufacturer as best they can (research the manufacturer, btw).

Bobcats checked out on all these counts. The price was higher - $1699. I was more than happy to pay more to a dealer that would actually ship the damn thing.

And ship they did, within a couple days. With tracking. Follow up questions were answered same day. Delivery company got confused on last leg of trip, Bobcat's got on the phone and made sure it got here the next day.

Scoot arrived exactly as advertised, in a sturdy-as-hell crate to prevent damage. Changed out oil and tranny fluid right away, checked every bolt (locktite) and electrical connection, took it easy for 300 miles. Been a trouble-free awesome ride since.

Dropping this note just in case I can save somebody time and aggravation.
Caveat Emptor and ride safe,



TLDR; buy Chinese from bobcatsmotorsports.com, do NOT buy from superiorpowersports, and either learn to do a PDI yourself or find someone to do it for you. Here's scootdawg's "missing manual" put together by the awesome community here.

https://absolutelyscooters.net/pdf/C...ter_manual.pdf

Here's a more in depth GY6 (most common chinese engine type) shop manual : https://drive.google.com/file/d/127F...ew?usp=sharing



Last edited by iridiumblue; 09-02-2020 at 07:32 PM..
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