Lifan Pony 100cc

If you're not on Facebook or the other Mini forum, I purchased one of the new Lifan Pony 100cc bikes. I was ask to write a review of my experience purchasing the bike and an overview of the bike itself. Below is my first review:

9/19/15

I have a bike!

This will be the first of a couple of reviews:

I found out about these bikes when a friend posted a craigslist ad link on Facebook. I thought the bike looked kinda fun and who doesn't need more mini bikes?

On 9/8/15, I ordered one from American Power Sports Center thru their website. They had a sale price of $1,099 with free shipping. I received an email within a few minutes confirming my order.

On 9/11/15, I received two emails from APSC. One stated the order had shipped, the other was suppose to have the Bill of Lading info, but nothing was attached. I called APSC on 9/11/15, just to confirm everything and get an ETA of delivery. I was told I should have the bike on Monday 9/14/15. On Tuesday I called back and told them no bike had arrived and that the tracking info they gave me came up "invalid". They said they had to check on it.

APSC called back a short time later and stated the shipper had not pick up the bike as planned and my new scheduled delivery date was Friday 9/18/15. They also sent a new email with new tracking info. This time the info work. I'm not sure who dropped the ball the first time, but because of the invalid tracking number, I don't think anyone actually put the order in. Not sure if that was APSC problem or shipper problem.

So...from Wed thru Friday, I followed along with the progress thru the shipper tracking system. At around 2:00pm on Friday 9/18/15, a truck did show up with the bike.

I'll add pics in next post, but I was a little worried when the trailer door was opened on I saw the crate. Very poorly packaged. They had built a box from 3/4" steel angle iron. The front tire was removed and they had run the axle bolt thru some brackets to hold bike upright. Because of some shitty welds, that whole support system had broken loose and the forks were hanging below the rest of the crate. They also had supported the bike with a metal bracket bolted to the handle bar risers. When the bottom support broke, it ripped the metal loose from the risers. I'm not sure how it happened, but nothing seemed damaged. They only thing I've found is a cut on the rear tire, but don't think it's related to the front brackets letting go.

The bike came mostly complete. I had to install the front tire and front fender. Kickstand, foot pegs and handle bars. Very easy, you can tell they had it together and just broke down a few items to get it in the crate. Within an hour I had it together, minus the battery. I checked the oil and put some fuel in it and decided to see if it would run without the battery installed. Third kick and it fired right up. All lights worked great. 4down manual shift worked great. Bike was advertised as being able to hit 55mph. I'm 225pounds and it pulled me to 50 pretty easy. I believe it has more, but want to break it in a little before hammering it.

No instructions come with the bike and the owners manual said the battery was behind the right side case. Wrong. The battery goes under the seat and it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to get that off. The bike comes with a tool kit, but not sure where it goes, because the seat and side cases requires tools to take them off.

I put about 1 1/2 miles on it yesterday and called it a day. I was very surprised and pleased that the speedo was in MPH, not KPH. It has a digital cluster/speedo, kinda cool.

Next up is tackling the MSO and seeing if I can get a title.

It's raining in Indy today. When I get a chance to ride more, I'll post another update.

Looks cool!

Those look pretty cool! They are now on sale for $999 too! I'll be following this report


http://www.apscusa.com/SALE-Lifan-P...Free-Shipping-Commercial-Dock-Only_p_443.html

Hello WarnerSteel,

I purchased a Lifan 100CC as well. I have been unable to figure out how to get it started or remove the seat and insert the battery. I would love some advice on what you did exactly from when you receieved your bike from APSC to get it working. I have been unable to get it started even trying to kick start it.

Thank you in advance for your help,

You have to remove the round tube hoop around the back of the seat. One bolt on each side of the seat and one on each side below the seat. Once hoop is removed, you can take seat off, battery goes below seat.

I didn't put a battery in until the second day I owned bike. I didn't like the battery that came with the bike, I wanted a sealed battery.

The day my bike showed up: I assembled the pieces, put gas in the tank, lifted the choke and it fired on the 2nd or 3rd kick.

There is a "kill" switch on the right handlebar control. Do you have this in the correct position?


Edit: I just realized you posted your questions a few days ago, hope you got it going. I only come to this site a couple times a week.

WarnerSteel said:

Click to expand...

With the single rear shock, back fender, digital panel & front fairing, kinda seems like they took some design ideas from Honda Grom. Pretty cool lookin! :10:

Pretty impressive (esp for $1K) check this out.. this one is prob a deluxe model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CC1WTW7yN4

This machine is just a knockoff of the APE 100, which Honda never marketed in the US; that was an updated version of the CY70 "Naughty Dax" which also never made its way to our shores. Honda wanted to crawl out from the shadow of the iconic CT70/Dax in a way that was reminiscent of Volvo wanting some distance from the P1800. Both designs predate the Grom. The CY design is close to its 35th birthday.

In this case, a knockoff provides US enthusiasts with access to an otherwise unobtainable bike. Since 2006, gray market machines have become a nightmare to import & title. As long as you get the required D.O.T. and EPA compliance documentation, your Lifan clone version should carry you past that hurdle.

The conventional design/construction and vertical motor offer a lot of easily-tapped potential. There were (and probably still are) a lot of serious tuning parts for Honda vertical singles. I've also seen a handful of these machines fitted with 200cc vertical twins. A newer 250 would be easy enough to fit. FWIW, I had plans to build a CY70 into a 400cc twin-powered mini-terror...in late `05. By `06, the legal hurdles were more than I cared to deal with. The main difference between the "Naughty Dax and the later "APE" is the rear shock setup. Monoshock is more up-to-date.

Guess I'd never seen a "Nauty" Dax before. Pretty dang cool I'd say.

Thanks for posting this Warner, you got me interested in buying one. Looks like it would be a fun bike to thrash around on. I don't know if I could get this plated for street use in Calif though, that might be a deal breaker for me. Any info on you getting yours registered?

I did some research on these and they appear to be new to the US market. I found a thread on chinariders.net and someone mentioned that these use a TCI (Transistor Controlled Ignition) instead of CDI. My knowledge of electronics is limited but it seems that TCI needs a DC current from that battery to operate, but you said you were able to start your without hooking up the battery.
I found this diagram. http://www.sportdevices.com/rpm_readings/CDI_and_TCI.htm Do any of you know anything about TCI, pros/cons?

Thanks, Scott

Looks like the TCI ignition is an inductive one and needs a special high impedance (resistance) coil while the typical CDI or points coil is low imp...

This ignition system is better at providing a longer spark at low RPM (unlike CDI's), but the CDI ignition has better spark at High RPM's. It' the first I've heard of this type, and Ineed to do more reading on it but here's an interesting explanation i found.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://xs650temp.proboards.com/thread/7929/tci-cdi
TCI is Transistor Controlled Ignition. It's an inductive system the same as a points setup, where the coil is the storage device, only it uses a transistor to switch the coil on and off instead of points.

CDI is Capacitive Discharge Ignition. CDI uses a capacitor as a storage device and the coil is just used to step up the voltage.

An inductive system is simpler and in most cases can store more energy than a CDI. The spark duration of an inductive system is far longer than a CDI. The down side is the long time required to fully charge the coil. At higher rpm the coil won't be completely charged and the ignition will start to cut out. Not so much a problem on bikes since the coil will only fire one or two cylinders but it is quite noticable on cars where there is a single coil for all cylinders. On an 8 cylinder the coil will only fully charge up to about 3000 rpm.

A capacitor can charge in a much shorter time so a CDI can reach much higher rpms before it will cut out. A CDI also produces a much hotter spark but the spark duration is extremely short. Works well at high rpm but can actually be too short at low speeds. To compensate for this some systems (mainly aftermarket automotive) fire the coil multiple times when the motor is spinning at lower rpms.

I live in Indianapolis, IN and had no trouble registering and getting a title for my bike. Took the supplied paperwork to the local BMV and title was mailed to me a few days later.

I have no answers on the ignition. But...my bike started and everything operated as it should without a battery. I didn't like the non-sealed battery that came with the bike, so I rode it for two days before picking up and installing a sealed battery.

I'm closing in on 100 miles on mine and am still very happy with it. I own a shop in downtown Indy and use it to buzz around the downtown area to go to lunch, bank, post office, etc. Its very comfortable to ride.

Adam-NLV said:

Looks like the TCI ignition is an inductive one and needs a special high impedance (resistance) coil while the typical CDI or points coil is low imp...

This ignition system is better at providing a longer spark at low RPM (unlike CDI's), but the CDI ignition has better spark at High RPM's. It' the first I've heard of this type, and Ineed to do more reading on it but here's an interesting explanation i found.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://xs650temp.proboards.com/thread/7929/tci-cdi
TCI is Transistor Controlled Ignition. It's an inductive system the same as a points setup, where the coil is the storage device, only it uses a transistor to switch the coil on and off instead of points.

CDI is Capacitive Discharge Ignition. CDI uses a capacitor as a storage device and the coil is just used to step up the voltage.

An inductive system is simpler and in most cases can store more energy than a CDI. The spark duration of an inductive system is far longer than a CDI. The down side is the long time required to fully charge the coil. At higher rpm the coil won't be completely charged and the ignition will start to cut out. Not so much a problem on bikes since the coil will only fire one or two cylinders but it is quite noticable on cars where there is a single coil for all cylinders. On an 8 cylinder the coil will only fully charge up to about 3000 rpm.

A capacitor can charge in a much shorter time so a CDI can reach much higher rpms before it will cut out. A CDI also produces a much hotter spark but the spark duration is extremely short. Works well at high rpm but can actually be too short at low speeds. To compensate for this some systems (mainly aftermarket automotive) fire the coil multiple times when the motor is spinning at lower rpms.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Adam, very interesting! First time Ive heard of this too. It doesn't seem to be used much. Just hope it doesn't cause any reliability issues.

WarnerSteel said:

I live in Indianapolis, IN and had no trouble registering and getting a title for my bike. Took the supplied paperwork to the local BMV and title was mailed to me a few days later.

I have no answers on the ignition. But...my bike started and everything operated as it should without a battery. I didn't like the non-sealed battery that came with the bike, so I rode it for two days before picking up and installing a sealed battery.

I'm closing in on 100 miles on mine and am still very happy with it. I own a shop in downtown Indy and use it to buzz around the downtown area to go to lunch, bank, post office, etc. Its very comfortable to ride.

Click to expand...

Good to know you didnt have any issued getting it titled and registered. Getting this done in Calif is never easy. A lot of times they'll say these things are 49 state compliant, guess what state in not included?


I was at the Honda dealer the other day and I asked the salesman if he had a Grom I could look at. He told me they get about 10 every few months and they're gone in a few days. Lot of demand. Its good to see people are still interested in small bikes. The Grom is expensive and its not a dual purpose bike. The Pony (why did they have to call it Pony?) looks like its designed for dual purpose and its like 1/3 the price of a Grom. I'm sure you're not getting Honda quality, but for a grand I wont feel to bad if something breaks or I damage it. I saw this video on youtube of two guys clowning around on these. I think it was filmed in Turkey. I dont condone their disregard for the environment and public safety, but its pretty funny. Maybe this is acceptable in Turkey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paatmtTfZuc My interest in this video is mainly to show what these lil bikes are capable of doing.

Welp, I pulled the trigger and bought one. I emailed American Products and I was told there was only 2 left, both black, and he said they won't be getting anymore until sometime after Christmas. I asked if these could be titled and registered in Calif. and he said "yes", they are California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved. Cool! I plan on using it mostly for trail riding. It'll be interesting to see how it compares to my CT70's. The 12 inch wheels should be able to handle rough terrain a lil better. Looking forward to playing with my Pony!

Hey, Good for you! It's a dang nice looking bike and the price is right too!

Please keep us updated on ure Lifan Pony, wanna see some pics

Bringing back a long ago thread…….

I recently pulled this bike out of storage and have done a couple videos on my YouTube channel.