140cc Lifan Engine from Atomik - Personal Experience

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onlife

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Before you buy a 140cc Lifan engine motorbike you should read the trouble i have had.

About a year ago i bought a 140cc motorbike from Atomik and have had nothing but troubles with it.

The kickstart was always tough and then after only a few weeks something snapped inside the engine and the kick start was 'cactus'.

I sent the engine back to Atomik and they sent it back saying it was fixed. Only hours after reinstalling the engine the same thing happened.

I tried to get in contact with them to get the issue resolved but was ignored.

I took the engine apart to find the centre crank case had a massive crack where the middle gear rod sat in the piston (no way of seeing the crack from the outside). This had put all the gears out of alignment which in turn put the kick start mechanism out of whack whcih caused even more damage.

I sent and email recently and the response i got was "it is out of warranty now so you will have to buy everything"

If you get a bike and the kick start plays up send it back immediately and ask for a brand new one.

This just sucks when you spend not a hell of a lot of money, but to get only a few hundred kms out of it stinks.

I would also be very interested to know if other people have had a similar problem to this. Please let me know.

Images:

crankcase.jpg

gearrod.jpg
 
thats why u start it at tdc and put the kickstart shaft in your self
 
Sorry to hear this , Atomic at there best , you can always replace the motor from DHZ for 399 , cheaper if you call him and tell him miniriders sent you

i know this not what you want to hear but ,, if you came here first you would have known not to go anywhere near these guys

between the members here and so forth we have seen nearly every bike made and sold in aus , so some 1 here always can point you in the right direction

welcome to miniriders
 
Atomik aren't known for their customer service after a sale.
I have however bought 3 bikes in the past from them and never actually had any problems with them (and they have been WELL abused!).

I'm not doubting you as a rider but it definately seems that the starting technique used wasn't correct. There should be (but isn't) some literature on the correct starting of bikes when they are purchased as this is an all too common problem. It unfortunately isn't a matter of kicking the guts out of it till it starts.

I have many mates who are VERY experienced riders (used to de-comp levers though) who had to be educated on going just past TDC before kicking. The general thought is "it's little, just kick and go!"

Don't give up too quickly on getting them to replace it. If you don't get anywhere give Ken at DHZ a call and get a replacement. Sure it'll be half the price of the initial bike but it's a bike none the less.

Following the replacement, search for the proper way to start a pit bike. The is a vid on youtube from one of the members here.

Wow, that's gotta be my longest post!
Rant over...
 
oh an yes there service is crap... but

you cant really blame them, you have bought a reliable lifan 140 and it is rare they have issues.
 
lifan 140's are crap and pretty far from reliable, yx 140 is the one you want,they're much tougher, especially the kick start gears.

but this isn't atomiks problem, it's you not starting it properly. Although kickback can still happen when using the proper starting technique (happened to me lol, probly didn't kick hard enuff). It's obvious you were just kicking it like a madman and smashed the crap out of the gears.

so if you get a replacement motor stay away from lifan, back when I didn't know how to start a bike I abused the crap out of my YX140 never kicked it right and got kickback nearly every time I started it, never had a problem. then I got a lifan and I knew how to start it by then, one accidental kickback even while being very careful and the gears crunched.

this is how you kick a hi-comp bike properly: YouTube - How to start a pit bike properly. Top Dead Center.

you'll need this if you get another lifan: YouTube - How to fix broken Kick start gears, Lifan 140, Pit Bike engine
 
^^^^ yeh that cuz you got suckered into buyin g a second hand motor for twice what they sell brand new lol
 
lol Rip at the ride day there were YX140's kicking back, not starting etc etc all over the place... The three Lifan 140's there were just kick and go... no decomp kick, no need for TDC...

Arent china's awesome levels of consistency astounding!! ha ha..
 
yea the lifan IS easier to start, but all those YX's kicking back I'm sure not a single one smashed the kickstart gears. It's only takes one good kickback on a lifan 140 and it goes crunch.
 
I have a 140 lifan and the only problem I've had with it is a snapped 2 ear old clutch cable
 
There'd be thousands of Lifan 140's running without problems all around the world ... IF they weren't any good ... Lifan would've quit making them yonks ago ... and /or gone broke according to some people ... LOL ...

When things are mass produced ... a few duds are bound to get past quality control ... and it doesn't matter WHO the manufacturer is ... IF an engine kicks back ... don't be a dick head and keep on kicking it ... FIX it !!!! ... In most cases you'll find that the pickup tab on the flywheel is too advanced ... and that would damage ANY motor no matter WHAT brand ... The YX factory is notorious for dodgy quality control ... far WORSE than Lifan ... Just read the yank forums where you won't find too many complaints about Lifan 140's ...

You don't need to be Einstein to understand that the force a kick back places on the parts is far greater than the normal force placed on the drive train ... IF it wasn't , the cases and shafts would let go the first time you revved the engine and dropped the clutch in gear ... Dork kicking one way , crank booting back the other way ... something's gotta give ... LOL ...

Analogue ignitions (fixed stator backing plate and standard CDI box) are junk ... They should be turfed unless you're going to use your brain and check the timing with a timing light ... Then make any necessary changes/corrections ... Like any decent tuner/mechanic would do ... Fail to heed the warning and you'll end up feeling severely "Anal-logged" ...

There's a very good reason WHY Lifan turfed the cheap ignition on the 150 ...
 
sorry catus. this may sound dump.
but according to u wat do you need to aviod kick back? other that starting from TDC
 
If you don't want to break things then have to repair them ... Then you do whatever you have to do to either prevent OR avoid kick back ... Starting from just after TDC works if the timing and other settings are right ... but if it's still trying to kick back halfway thru the stroke , you need to address the problem and remedy it ... ie fix the timing , fit a decompressor or lower the compression ratio ... If you persist and break something then it's nobody's fault but your own ... After all , the engine doesn't break itself ... it takes two to tango ...

Case breakages are caused by too much cranking compression combined with too much ignition advance ... Add to that the fact that most people haven't checked or tuned their engines properly ... their fuel might be too low octane or their pilot jet/mixture screw adjustment might be too lean ... and you have a recipe for kick back ...

New engines will be tight and have higher cranking resistance until they loosen up a bit and wear in ... so to save the kicker mech and cases it might be better to clutch start it if it feels too hard to kick or is kicking back ... That's more than likely what happened to Rips LF140 ... Tight new bore , carb not tuned spot on , coupled with a kick back = bad luck ...

IF YX 140's have a bigger cam fitted as stock compared to the Lifan 140's ... (which I'm pretty sure they DO have) ... then the cam duration and over lap bleeds off compression at cranking speeds ... meaning they have lower static compression ... reducing the force of kick back ... IF you have a YX 140 cam ... put in into the LF 140 and they'll both be on the same level playing field ...

A person used to kicking over a worn in YX 140 or Lifan 140 could easily over do things on a new Lifan 140 ...

People have found that they have no case breaking issues with Big bore YX 150/160 engines if they fit a Takegawa S35 cam ...

Here's some info on the effects of cams on compression ...

Compression ratio question - Planet Minis
 
Hey Cactus, i should know this, but anyway, old dog question...
what you said about cam overlap reducing static compression...
i run a 7mm cam in the Bling40... despite the fact it's still a tight motor (regular maintenance, oil changes, valve clearances etc keeping a highly strung motor in good condition?? whoda thunk it eh??)
it "feels" like it has low compression, even though psi reading is still up in the 145-150psi region...
thing never EVER kicks back, and could be started by a little kid.... as opposed to kickstarting Sneezy's homo ****pro YX140, which is like being spanked back by an irate woman...

so the big cam (no decomp or anti-kickback mechanism) would be the reason for lack of kickback and starting difficulty?
 
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