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Friend knocked off his bike this afternoon. Stopped at a junction when a Freelander caught his exhaust tipping him over. Very experienced rider, many years and many thousands of miles under his belt both home and abroad. Nothing he could do. Not injured just breakages to his much loved Chinese 125....
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Did your friend get the driver details?
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Yes...no consolation to him. He's afraid his beloved bike is a write off. He's well gutted.
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Glad your mate is ok, but I never thought I'd hear the words "Beloved" and "Chinese bike" in the same sentence.
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i asume a replacement can be found... those orientals arent well known for one-offs
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Yeah you're right, but he's TLC'd this...spent some notes getting it through an MoT, people are emotional about their wheels sometimes. He's owned it 6 years - been abroad on it and on many UK based trips.
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If the bike just got knocked over while stopped at a light, after a car caught its exhaust, surely it doesn't have to be a write-off? Are Oriental bikes that flimsy?
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An economic write off - its paper value is in the very low hundreds.
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One of my mates has a Piaggio scooter. A while back I helped him remove the back wheel and was surprised to see Made in China both on the alloy wheel and the gearbox hub. I assumed it would be all Italian.
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>> One of my mates has a Piaggio scooter. A while back I helped him remove
>> the back wheel and was surprised to see Made in China both on the alloy
>> wheel and the gearbox hub. I assumed it would be all Italian.
>>
Even Honda outsource much of their manufacturing to the far east now, and even to Brazil. The difference is firms who get the contracts have to meet Honda's standards whereas the home produced stuff has a reputation for dire quality.
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Triumph have opened a plant in Thailand, and are about to in Brazil and India - hopefully one of these plants will produce a 250cc model.
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>> Triumph have opened a plant in Thailand, and are about to in Brazil and India
>> - hopefully one of these plants will produce a 250cc model.
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It's supposed to be on the cards along with a 350, both singles. The link below shows a sketch of a prototype, probably nothing like what will be produced as is the case with these things.
A 250 single would tick all the boxes for me, light and cheap to run. I've always been a lover of small capacity bikes on between 175 and 400cc, I've had bigger stuff but megablasters don't really do it for me.
www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/triumph-250cc-motorcycle-2015/
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Sun 24 Nov 13 at 19:32
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I've only driven rough old scooters and weird-low-powered mopeds. So I can't really comment. But I will anyway: those side-by-side Triumph, Norton and BSA 500-650 twins, in a low state of tune and gently driven, are probably very nice. I also remember from the fifties a dykey woman who rode a Sunbeam in-line twin with shaft drive, another subdued big tourer, in Hungerford I think on the old A4. I saw her there several times in my hitching days. 50+ years ago those were.
I've been a passenger on several very fast bikes, fortunately only once driven very fast (it scared even me).
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Take care two wheelers... - Haywain
