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Im 36 years old and I'm looking to get my six year old son into riding , so I've been looking at all the 50cc models including Honda,yamaha,suzuki, but have also looked at a lot of the no name chines 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.

Don't recommend them. They'll work OK for some period of time, then you'll need to fix it. That's when the fun begins. The chinese knock-offs are cheap for a reason. The parts may work (again for some length of time not known), then they will fail. The durability and tolerancing on all the parts is WAY loose specification-wise. Meaning that even if you find a part to replace the broken one, and that's if you find the part, it may not even fit on your bike because the tolerancing is jacked.

The golden rule: You get what you pay for applies 10X here...

Buy a Honda. Even if the boy hates it, you'll only lose a couple hundred. Resale is astronomically good on the little bikes.

It really helps to see the warranty btw.

if it's like, 1 month warranty, stay clear of that D: cause they know that's how long the blasted thing will last.

Aside from the quality issues I feel they are dangerous and will turn your boy off from riding. I have seen it with two of my neighbors.

The bikes look good and the price is attractive, but the just donut ride or handle like a motorcycle should. As a result the kids are afraid of them and think all motorcycles are like that.

One of my neighbors has two of them in his garage that he cant give away, one never ridden. The other neighbor only has one taking up space in his garage.

Meanwhile my daughter (CRF100) and I are going riding tomorrow and neither of the neighbors care to join us. Those bikes are flat out scary.

stick with the honda or yamaha they are bullet proof and the new little yammie has electric start .
around here you can get 1 or 2 year old honda 50's for about 800 bucks that are in mint condition .

Not to mention that most of those "knock-off" bikes incorporate the engine as part of the frame...

Last year my father in law shows up with a quad for my 8 year old for Christmas. Much to my surprise! It's at 110CC made by coolster. He bought it at a gas station in Big Bear, CA for around 700.00 (at least that is what the MSR sheet said when I went to register it). The bike didn't run very well during the break in period. It was hard to keep running and bogged down quite a bit. Now after quite a few hours on it the bike starts right up and runs well. I will say the tires are alsolute junk on it. I agree with what everyone says about these bikes to some extent. I myself would have never bought one of these bikes, simply because there is no where to get parts for them and the re-sell aspect. But I can't look a gift horse in the mouth. On the positive my kid has a great time on the bike and if he can get a few years out of it then I guess it will be worth the money spent.

redrooster65 wrote:Aside from the quality issues I feel they are dangerous and will turn your boy off from riding. I have seen it with two of my neighbors.

The bikes look good and the price is attractive, but the just donut ride or handle like a motorcycle should. As a result the kids are afraid of them and think all motorcycles are like that.

One of my neighbors has two of them in his garage that he cant give away, one never ridden. The other neighbor only has one taking up space in his garage.

Meanwhile my daughter (CRF100) and I are going riding tomorrow and neither of the neighbors care to join us. Those bikes are flat out scary.

I agree. Dangerous! No resale value. Always wrenching not riding. I have had great luck with used bikes, XR's, CRF's. They are durable! Use them for a year or two and sell them for almost what you paid for them. Good luck, Guy

Geez, I can see all of us on those Pocket Rockets; not!!!

i had a chinese 50 it lasted but don't crap out of them and don't let heavy riders ride them beacause it stresses the motor and it will break