Lifan motor experiences?

I am considering power upgrades to my little 125cc honda and it pretty much comes down to two paths.

Buy a crankshaft, rod, piston, jug and cylinderhead from an early 80's XR200. Machine the case to fit the jug and put it all together with who knows what carb for a 17hp 200cc. Looks like that will set me back almost $600 unless I can find a whole xr200 cheap (not likely)

Buy an off the shelf Lifan 200cc motor. 16-17hp with CDI, carb, 12V electronics, electric start and everything for around $500 landed.

Sure it's a chinese clone but it is really tempting. Google turns up positive experiences and people with no experience saying they are crap.

It looks like you may be the GRM pioneer on this motor. It sounds like a great idea.

I had one of there 150cc singles in a small hardtail chopper. Thing ran like a beast, will need a really big muffler though they are unbelievably loud.

More then a few people have major 20K miles on them, I would suggest buying the higher power CDI box and leaving it kickstart if you have the space.

No experience with them over here in the US, but in the UK the problem was always spares supply for these motors.

Lifan is one of the better "cheap" knock off brands. From what i've heard they used to cast alot of parts for the large "S" brand from Japan.

I do know a guy with boat loads of XR200 stuff....

I joined a forum for one of the Bobber bikes, don't recall which one just so I could ask about the Lifan engines they use. I got nothing but very positve response for the 125, 200, & 250 twin.

How about the Chinese 2 stroke engines. Does anyone here know anything about them?

This is good news. A week of googling has turned up a million "It is chinese, therefore it is crap" references and a few dozen "Really good little motors"

I think it is the way forward. I need to sell off a few things and order one.

In reply to ditchdigger:

If you will post the link for the engine, and related parts for $500. The site I was on a few days ago was more that that. They did have prettier pictures though.

Can't seem to find the really cheap option yet but these guys are close enough to me to pick it up.

http://www.hooperimports.com/dept.aspx?dept_id=04

529 for the OHV or 549 for OHC 200s

You can't go wrong with the Lifans. Their motors are some of the better Chinese stuff. Not all of it is bad. Again, check out Chinariders. You may find a good source for reasonably priced ones there.

Zomby woof wrote: You can't go wrong with the Lifans. Their motors are some of the better Chinese stuff. Not all of it is bad. Again, check out Chinariders. You may find a good source for reasonably priced ones there.

This is true, I have one in my mini-motard...14 hp lifan makes my tiny super motard a BLAST! And if you blow the engine, buy another one!

CLNSC3 wrote:

Zomby woof wrote: You can't go wrong with the Lifans. Their motors are some of the better Chinese stuff. Not all of it is bad. Again, check out Chinariders. You may find a good source for reasonably priced ones there.

This is true, I have one in my mini-motard...14 hp lifan makes my tiny super motard a BLAST! And if you blow the engine, buy another one!

This is where I got mine, good people....

http://www.pccmotor.com/engine.html

(I have no affiliation with company besides having bought a few things from them)