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Im 36 years old and I'm looking to get my six year old son into riding. I've been looking at all the 50cc models including Honda,yamaha,suzuki, but have also looked at a lot of the no name chinese knockoffs. Does anyone here have experience with this? looking for some insight about how they compare and maybe what companies have a good reputation. Any help would be appreciated.

Friend of mine got a BBB 110cc pit bike. It ran but had harsh shifting (semi-auto) and was weird to ride because the bars were very wide and pulled back quite a bit. Turns out about a week later the it would run but when hot it would stall out there was a short in the stator company sent a new one from China and it took a month to arrive. After that the chain popped and cracked the case new case another month. The bike was laid down for a max of 20 seconds and would not start all day. They just don't have the quality of the Japanese bikes

See your other post...

STAY AWAY FOR CHINESE IMITATIONS!!!! Go any of the big 4 (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki). They last longer, the parts are more readily availible and they will last you much longer. I have have a built CRF 50 and i HAD a chinese imitation. It fell apart and I couldn't get any parts for it and the real honda parts didn't fit. Trust me, Spend the extra $300. You will be happier in the long run.

PJ Riley wrote:STAY AWAY FOR CHINESE IMITATIONS!!!! Go any of the big 4 (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki). They last longer, the parts are more readily availible and they will last you much longer. I have have a built CRF 50 and i HAD a chinese imitation. It fell apart and I couldn't get any parts for it and the real honda parts didn't fit. Trust me, Spend the extra $300. You will be happier in the long run.

Ended up buying a TTR-50 07 For my son...glad i did.

Amen to that brother!!!

used to have a thumpstar 125. its abuot the size of a built 50. i cracked the frame and i never cased a jump on it.

then i bought a crf50 and put a big frame on it. so much better than the knock off

buy a name brand

i havn't cracked the frame on my thumpstar 110, but i can't jump it too much cuz i bottom out pretty bad and i'm 120lb

these bikes are horendous. I used to be the mechanic for a shop that sold all of these bikes. and they were a nightmare. 70% of the time the carbs would gunk up with debris from the crappy metal the carbs are made from. then they would idle extremely high with in a couple days after selling it or they would idle so low to the point it would not run untill on half throttle. and if that wasn't bad enough. the starters always went. then electrical would die a lot of the time. we lost mpre money bfixing the machines that we made in sales. there great for someone who is mechanical savy and likes a beater bike. but not for a reliable bike. they required maintenance ever week or so. if I had to put a number on it. id probly say 1 out of every 10 machines assembled and sold was a good bike that stayed running and problem free