While it is encouraging to report that some Chinese-manufactured motorcycles are getting infinitely better and more in line with what the European and Japanese manufacturers are building, it is also necessary to understand that the Chinese ability to make cheap and cheerful motorcycles continues unabated.
In South Africa, the only time you will see such motorcycles being ridden is by the army of delivery riders that have sprung up in vast numbers in a short space of time. That these same motorcycles might make sensible alternatives for general transport requirements has been largely lost on the motorcycle buying public, who remain at best sceptical and at worst downright dismissive.
Is it fair to ignore the advantages of a motorcycle that costs very little to buy and peanuts to run? It’s not going to get the heart racing; it’s not going to raise your social standing; it’s not something that is going to inspire pride-of-ownership; it is transport in its most basic form, which is, after all, what many of us need most of the time.
What these inexpensive Chinese bikes are not is sexy in any shape or form. South Africans do not ride motorcycles for practical purposes; they are seen as toys and, as such, they have to appeal to the heart more than the head.
However, what the LIFAN X-Trail 250 has on its side is practicality. I mean, here’s a motorcycle that costs R28,000 to buy brand new. It’s got tall, soft suspension, which is perfect for the excuses we call roads. It’s got a 250 cc single-cylinder engine which might not be the last word in performance but, if looked after and serviced, will last as long as you need it to, whether that’s a year or five years.
We look at delivery bikes and judge them entirely on the condition that they are in, which is generally awful. But what do you expect given the hands in which they are operated? No motorcycle comes out of a year of daily hard work looking very good. I remember my time as a courier rider in London in the late 1990s. No Chinese bikes then; they were all Suzukis, Hondas, Yamahas and Kawasakis and they were all completely shagged out and tatty. Meanwhile, there were the same bikes in private hands that were well looked after and were in great condition.
So, it’s the same now. Buy yourself a Chinese motorcycle and you’re going to look after it. You certainly won’t be riding it all day every day in every imaginable weather, so it will last. And the most important thing is that you’ll pile the mileage on the workhorse and not on your pride and joy sitting alongside it in the garage.
The LIFAN X-Trail is the BSA Bantam of today. It’s the Honda Cub, the Honda CX500 or the anonymous YD 100 Yamaha; it’s a no-frills, practical workhorse designed to keep the masses moving in the country where it was built. If the mindset of the SA population could be changed to embrace motorcycles as transport, as has happened in Asia and India, then it would be bikes such as the LIFAN that would sell the most.
It’s not perfect. The seat covering is soft and stretchy; it will last perhaps a month or two of hard use before tearing. KMSA, the importers of LIFAN, had fitted a set of semi-off-road Pirellis to the demo unit, which gripped the road surface superbly.
On the plus side, the LIFAN X-Trail 250 comes equipped with LED lighting all round, disc brakes front and rear, a decent LCD display with a gear, odo, clock, rpm and fuel gauge. We also see a rear rack, plastic sump protector, kickstarter and fork gaiters. For a bike built to a price, it certainly comes packed with many standard features.
The performance isn’t great for a 250 cc, although it has to be pointed out that there was likely some running-in still to be endured on the demo unit, as the mileage was around the 1,000 km mark. But it’s sprightly enough for keeping up with urban traffic, while being light and manoeuvrable enough to make threading through standing traffic easy.
The other thing to realise about such motorcycles as the LIFAN is that they make great beginner’s bikes. As a beginner rider, you have few preconceptions about how a bike should ride, so you’ll likely find joy in the sense of freedom rather than depressing yourself comparing it to the performance and dynamics of your R300,000 investment sitting in the other half of the garage which, of course, it can never match.
And neither was the 50 cc two-stroke you rode when you were 16 (and now wish you hadn’t sold) very good, either. But as a beginner, it was your whole world. That’s what the LIFAN X-Trail 250 represents today; someone’s first bike as much as another person’s means of making a living to feed their family.
As such, it shouldn’t be derided. Rather, let’s just be thankful that there are still two-wheeled options that don’t require a king’s ransom to buy. If we could persuade more people to ride them, then the motorcycle industry in this country might thrive once again.
For more information on the LIFAN range, contact your nearest dealer.
