A few months ago I bought some gym equipment and a motorbike.  The Zongshen 200 has contributed most to me getting fit and losing weight.  You see I don’t actually need the Trojan equipment because the Zongshen is far more effective.

Rather than riding the bike I get to walk or if I take the risk of riding it chances are that I am going to be some pushing and or lifting it onto the back of a bakkie.  In the time I have owned this magnificent Zongshen training machine It has been off the road more than on the road.

The local Zongshen dealer is claiming that my riding style is the problem. Strange that I have never had the same kind of trouble with any of my previous bikes. I have ridden in my past one beat up Yamaha MR 50. This was way beyond what anyone can call in reasonable condition, yet I manage to ride it for about 8 months without any issues. Nothing ever fell off of it.

Next I had a Honda MT 50  that I rode for 12 months with never an issue despite riding MX courses, doing wheelies and racing it around the local go kart track. I sold it to someone else who rode it for two years without any issues. PS I hammered the daylights out of that particular bike.

Next came a Honda CB250 Hawk which once again gave good service untill someone skipped a robot on me about 14 months after I bought it. My little brother canabalised it and put it back on the road, riding the same basic bike but with a Suzuki GS250 front end for a year or two.

My CB 750 FII once again gave great service until some bastard stole it in Germiston.

I also rode a CBF 600 in the UK without any trouble. All of the bikes mentioned went in for services when I remembered. They never broke down, lost their ignitions, had exhausts fall off or even had the chokes break because I rode them badly.

I am 43, I have no need to prove how fast i can ride, I have no need to race other people, My bones are way too brittle for me to try stunts, ride on MX tracks and stuff like that.  I use the Zongshen as a runabout. yet it’s my fault that the ignition fell off. Its my fault that the exhaust fell off, It’s the way I ride that caused the choke to fail.

I fail to believe that. Its the inferior quality of the bike that is enriching the Kawasaki brand and dealerships.

UPDATE Race Around Kawasaki has been sold. Jackie the owner of Race Around Kawasaki is a rep at Conway Kawasaki – The new Nelspruit Kawasaki dealers. I would recommend avoiding her and talking to Neil Oberholzer.

I bought a Zongshen 200 from Kawasaki Nelspruit. Here are my ideas of some slogans for the bike

Zongshen

it’s cheap because it’s rubbish

Zongshen

because a first class walk is better than a second class ride

Zongshen

gets me fit, pushing it to the Kawasaki dealership.

Thats right folks Nelspruit Kawasaki and Zongshen put me back on my feet again. I spend more time walking and pushing the Zongshen than actually riding it.

Worst motorbike in the world.

I made the worst decision of my life when I decided to buy a Zongshen 200 as a run about. I bought the Zongshen from the Kawasaki dealer in Nelspruit, thinking that a bike with a 3 month guarantee, that has done only 850kms cannot be a bad buy.  That was about 4 months ago. In that time I have added less than 200kms to the mileage traveled.

As this bike is supplied without engine mount dampers, seriously they  have bolted the engine to the frame without any kind of vibration damping, shit keeps falling off the bike.

I was riding along and the exhaust suddenly dropped 3 inches. I replaced the bolt. The next 40 k’s or so were uneventful then the ignition fell off.  The bike stood in my garage for a bit as I was disgusted and didn’t have time to get the bike fixed.

I had it fixed last week as I needed transport due to car trouble. In the week I have had to replace the numberplate which fell off because the rattling and vibration actually tore the number plate. I heard something vibrating and have been unable to find the source of the rattle.

On Wednesday night the bike just stopped. Now I want you to not that this is not some old rattle trap but a bike that has done 942 km’s. I am feeling seriously like I was ripped off.

If you need reliable transport for your kid to get to school and back on stay away from Zongshen motorbikes.