Falsely advertised, totally fake!
| 4 min read
Well, not totally. I did buy a motorcycle. So that's accurate. But, everything else is pretty much a lie.
The website of the department store told me:
16 horsepower.
Load capacity of a 1000 kilograms.
Top speed of 60km/h.
Fuel range of 400km.
And, most damning, that it's high quality.
Now I knew the brand was Vento. And Vento, at best, is a budget brand. They sell white label motorcycles from China... So high quality was never the expectation. But, I need the cargobed and love riding the motorcycle. So when the quality is lacking and it falls apart after a few years... So be it. I'll either fix it, or buy a new one. Parts are cheap-ish, and the whole vehicle is only like $3500 USD new.
Then I received the Motorcycle and read the owners manual, it told me:
The brute power of 16 horse power.
Load capacity of 500 Kilograms including the driver.
Top speed of 80km/h.
Economic fuel use.
And, if I don't follow the manual exactly all warranty would be void.
At least four of those points are concerning, because the speedometer is so inaccurate that when it indicates 40km/h, I'm actually going 30-ish. And when it says 80km/h (If I'm daring enough to want to endure that) I'm actually going 65-ish. I tested that with my mom riding along with her BMW, matching speeds.
It still feels like I'm going 200km/h though. Rattling, wobbly front-wheel and no suspension or brakes to speak off... It's terrifying.
And the load capacity is suddenly half? Less than, since it includes my weight, which is probably just shy of a 100 kilograms.
The manual looks like a type-writer sheet printed on glossy paper. And some of the pages are reversed. So if I follow the manual to the letter, as Vento demands, I open the choke after starting and accelerating. And I change gears before doing anything else. It's not a very good manual.
oh boy...
I've had the vehicle for about 2 months and already am on my 3rd battery, had a neutral wire patched in because the frame-as-neutral doesn't work for the starter. I had the carburetor rebuilt just a few days ago and replaced the spark plug because it ran so rich, it was blacked out completely. Not necessarily bad, but not good either. I barely made 200 kilometers on a tank of fuel, less than half of what was promised.
That's supposedly fixed now, I'm testing it. The fuel gage is all the way to the right, way past 'maximum' when full, and it didn't move yet. So maybe it's more accurate now? We'll see.
Then another falsely advertised thing, on the speedometer, or the RPM indicator really, the redline is at 10000rpm going up to 12000. Fine. Pretty much like on my BMW F850GSA. But the exhaust would pop and and the engine splutter and struggle at anything higher than 6000rpm. So I had it checked out the other day and the mechanic thought maybe I got shitty fuel and suggested the carburetor rebuild, to clean it. While doing that, he told me, "Vento is Mexican quality and everything is a lie. 300CC? More like 200. However many horsepower, think half."
At first I thought he was just making dumb jokes at the expense of my budget purchase, he's a funny guy like that. So I countered, something like "But really, it's china quality, right?"
Asking a bit further about what he meant, it turned out he was making a bit of a joke, but he was also serious and said to keep the revs under 7000 rpm because that is the actual red line. Otherwise the fuel regulator will not cope and limit fuel to the engine, causing the popping and struggling engine.
I'm not sure if that's true. But for the last week I've been keeping a keen eye on those RPM's and only go over 7000 when I accelerate and shift up, but then settle on 6-7000 for actual driving in 5th gear. And low and behold, the engine runs a million times smoother.
But he's also Mexican, so if I can't trust the motorcycle itself, the manual, the dealer OR the vendor... How can I trust this guy. But then again, he also instantly knew that adding the neutral wire would fix the starter. So maybe there is some truth in his funny warnings after-all.