Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Anybody ever own or know anyone who owns one of these Chinese dirt bikes? I need a cheap dirt bike to ride with my youngest boy so I was wondering about these things?

NO don't buy it! Chinese dirt bikes and scooters are junk, only designed to run for 8 to 10 hours run time then the engine locks up, nobody can fix it, can't get parts. Look for a used Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, or Kawasaki dirt bike.

Marv to late I already bought a chinese 110 quad no problems at all. The motors are honda knock offs in the 110 and look to be in the 250 as well. Any parts I need I just get Honda parts. The quad is a tao tao though and I am not familiar with apollo?

yes,, for a long time Chinese factories have made and produced some engines and frames for many of the big 4 Japanese brands,,,,, BUT they had to be built under their high standard of specs, like special alloys for the metal, special tollarances and so on, they were made at high quality,, BUT when the big 4 Japanese discontinued those engine designs for new engine designs that Chinese factory purchaced the rights to own and produce that old style discontinued engine, so they cut costs making that engine using cheaper materials and quick assemble tricks so they could make money selling them at a much lower price,, I am telling you, it looks like the same engine, but its made with much cheaper metal alloys that really melts down at a much lower temperature and wears 10 times faster, also when you tear the engine down you'll find the way the inner parts were assembled by press and weld that its impossible to replace those parts without replacing the whole engine,,, its a "throw-a-way" engine,,, it can't be fixed!

Thanks now that is worth looking into that sounds very possible I will be wary.
Dave

I bought one and my oldest kid rode it for three seasons. He submarined it a couple of times, but the motor itself seemed to be incredibly resilient. The rest of the bike was crap though with a weak clutch which constantly required adjustment, and assembly that included no swingarm bushings - just metal on metal. Because there were no official parts you had to get aftermarket parts for everything and make them fit. Still, we bought it for $750 and sold it for $400 and he rode it for 3 years. If you are mechanically competent and get lucky you can make it work, but now that my kids can ride hard they are both on Yamahas. Now when we are out in the bush we know that everything is going to make it out of the bush at the end of the day. We got rid of the Suzuki that the younger boy had as well as it even less reliable than the Chinese bike!

Came across this post and had to chime in...
In 2013, Canadian Tire stores nationally sold the Apollo dirtbikes in 70cc, 110cc and 125cc models. We purchased a couple and so did our friends. Well they turned out to be awesome little bikes. I would argue they are the best bang for your buck out there.

(post edited - Admin)

Don't listen to the China product bashers....these Apollo bikes have been solid!

I ened up breaking open the wallet and I got a Polaris sportsman 400 instead and I am not sorry cause I get to spend some quality time with my boy!!!!

I bought a Apollo dirt bike and it has been a great dirt bike