Keep in mind that local brands, such as Honley, source their various bikes from different factories. My guess is the 125 is not manufactured by Zongshen who make the RX-3.

That being said, and I am not trying to convince you to reconsider a Chinese bike, it does not bode well for a company to use cheap OEMs for some of their lineup as it makes the whole lineup appear shoddy, as your original comment above, of them being off your list.

In the US, as we really do not have any solid dealer network of any Chinese-sourced bikes like you guys have in the UK, people do purchase them knowing they will have to turn wrenches rather than having a dealer to take them back for repairs or warranty work. Plus, our low, low prices for non-branded bikes reflect that. Fortunately, Chinariders.net has grown leaps and bounds, and is enabling people to purchase $1300 USD 229cc enduros with some semblance of confidence. Besides the fact that the bikes are better than they were 10 years ago, at least as far as the US market goes (our weather is way different than the UK, and most people don't ride in rainy weather, nor keep their bikes exposed to the elements in places that snow). One doesn't see these bikes rusting away, en masse, like you guys see in the UK.

The bike has had a few good write ups, I seem to remember it was being sold with full luggage as well at some point. It is what it is, unfortunately because of that some people write it off. I would not buy it expecting to get huge residuals, but if it covers all the bases then why not...... :mchappy:

That is how the US distributor is selling them--with full luggage as stock. The company selling them has been very active with PR, and have made sure these bikes are the (minimum of a) real deal. By minimum, they are selling them for a low entry price, but have ensured that Zongshen is giving them the best bike they can get. The US bikes are fuel injected, and there have not been too many problems reported with the Delphi system on the Chinariders.net forum. They don't use a dealer network, and have been very good with customer service. Also, they have organized trips on them with purchasers of the bikes to Baja California. They are in the middle of one now, in fact.

Other countries' distributors have spec'd them out with carbs, and some of the members on chinariders.net who are from some of these countries are reporting some issues here and there. We do have few Honley members from the UK, and I cannot recall if the Honley version comes with a carb or fuel injection. Come to think of it, you guys in the UK might have two distributors for these bikes?