The Amazing Model 30

[Paul IOMParticipant]

I have recently taken delivery of a Model 30, and In the past couple of days have done around 30 miles on it, so I thought I would write a short review.

I can honestly say that up to now the bike has met or exceeded my expectations, firstly, having never owned a Chinese bike I was a little concerned about build quality, but as soon as I started to assemble the bike I could immediately see that they have come a long way in the past few years when it comes to quality, ok it’s not quite Japanese standard, but to be fair it’s not far away either, and this is from a person who has worked on all types of Japanese racing machines over the past 30 odd years, I would say the Chinese are now at the level of the Japanese around 20 years ago, and I mean that as a complement, Japan were churning out great bikes 20 years ago.

So what is it like to ride? Out on the road it is very capable, performance wise it punches away from the traffic lights quickly enough to match any other vehicle in town traffic, zipping up to 30mph effortlessly, I’ve seen an indicated 35mph several times on the level, and 45mph on some slight downhill stretches, I’ve also tackled some pretty steep hills too, and although it drops to 20mph it then just sits there and holds that speed until it gets to the top, and this is carrying a 6ft tall 12 stone bloke, so don’t worry about getting in the way because it’s more than capable of mixing it with the urban traffic.

Suspension is adequate, its probably the only area where it lacks the refinement of more expensive machines, it is a bit underdamped leading to a pogo stick effect on some of the really bumpy roads, it does the job though.

Initially I inflated the tyres to the maximum shown on the sidewalls which is 38psi, my logic being that using the maximum permitted pressures would give me the best range due to less drag, this is probably true, but a trip along a bumpy road at 30mph was quite crashy and uncomfortable, every manhole cover was rattling my eyes out their sockets, so I dropped them to 30psi front and 32psi rear and the result is a much nicer ride on the rough bits.

The longest ride I’ve done up to now was around 16 miles on a mixture of town and country roads, with a couple of long uphill sections which would have even the fittest cyclist walking, the Model 30 took all this in its stride.

The riding position is great, the seat is comfortable, and all the switches are exactly where your thumbs expect to find them, so it really is a joy to ride.

I haven’t fitted the rear storage box yet, simply because I don’t need it, there is still enough space under the seat for wallet, phone, keys and other bits and pieces, even though I keep the charger under there too so it’s always with the bike if I need to top up anywhere, which brings me on to the next bit, range.

It’s early days yet, but on my recent 16 mile round trip the gauge never moved from full, so I have no reason to disbelieve the figures quoted in the spec, of 40+ miles.

All in all I am amazed by this little gem, I never thought after having competitively raced some seriously fast motorbikes in my younger days, and having 2 high performance cars in the garage nowadays, that I would look forward so much to zipping out on It at every opportunity, and wherever I park up it gets lots of attention from people of all ages, even the local boy racers think it’s cool.

There is more to come on this story, I’ve recently discussed a tough challenge with Ken, which I think the Model 30 might just be able to pull off, It should take place within the next few weeks, weather and time permitting, when it takes place I’ll tell you all about it.

Watch this space!!

• This topic was modified 2 weeks, 4 days ago by  Paul IOM.

[Paul IOMParticipant]

Time for an update on my earlier review, in the past 2 weeks i’ve covered over 250km’s on my Model 30, this includes a couple of 17 mile single trips with plenty of hills, and the bike has coped admirably.

The only issue i’ve had up to now was when the bike was accidently knocked over whilst parked by someone not paying attention, would you believe a youth on a mountain bike reversed into it and tipped it off its side stand whilst chatting to his friends grrr!!, this caused some minor scratching to the side panels and bent the front brake lever, nothing major, but later that day the indicators also stopped working, I traced the fault to the indicator relay, this may have have been a result of the fall, anyway I obtained a replacment generic 2 pin relay for £4.99 from a local motorcycle dealer and it took 10 minutes to replace, job sorted.

I have just been involved in a really busy local sporting event here, the Classic TT & Manx Grand Prix, and as a result the roads have been crazy around town, the Model 30 has therefore been worth its weight in gold for nipping through all the traffic to get parts for the race bikes etc.

Last Friday it really saved the day, when 30 minutes before the start of the Senior Manx Grand Prix my mate who was about to compete in the race and was up at the pits getting changed into his riding kit, suddenly discovered that he only had one racing boot in his kit bag, after a couple of minutes of panic, some words not repeatable here, and frantic searching, it was decided the other boot must still be down town in the apartment he’d rented!!

With time ticking away, and no chance of shoehorning the van out of the paddock, then squeezing through the traffic through town to the apartment, and then getting back in time, he jumped on the Model 30 and whizzed away, returning 10 minutes later with the missing boot and a big grin before taking his place on the startline!!

Watch this space as we head for 500km, which will hopefully be before it gets too cold out there.

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