Sanya Style

Sanya Good Points

I like this Sanya. I know it's not really done it for me in the 40mph over 50-mile commute stakes, but let's just step back a moment and look at this thing in the round.

It cost just on £700 to put on the road and it's an almost exact replica of the Suxuki EN-125 listed at £1600 (currently at Granby Motorcycles).



That's £900 cheaper. What don't you get for £900? Probably fleeced, first, and second there might be some quality differences in incidental parts like those bloody nuts that score so easily, or the Torch spark plug that was pretty close to crap, or the worst tool kit since Action Man's WW1 slick-haired engineer tipped up in my parent's garden in 1971. The guarantee may not be as robust and the general feel of the platic may be lighter - I don't know, frankly. But, when you compare the images of the EN-125 and the SY-125-11, there's not a great deal in it.



There are some nice touches. I like the colour printed onto the side panels, the switch gear (lifted directly, it seems, from the Suzuki), and the digital gear indicator in the tachiometer.



The engine block has a nice laquered quality to it and there are trinket side panels attached at the top of the cylinder head just to look smart and get in the way of the plug removal. The battery was a doddle to install with its ant-erasing-strength acid and the wheels look, well, they look like they are right for the style of bike. It's a photocopy of the Suzuki, I feel, if not second generation in parts.



And considering that I remember when the MZ-250 was considerd a cheaply made bike, which made motorcycling accessible to the scroats I lived with in 1983 with all the same reputation as I read for Sanya and some of those machines still turn over, things may not be all that bad. The difference here though, is that the Sanya has some good looking features and graphics, where the MZ looked like it'd come direct off a war movie.



However, that £900 also buys peace of mind. Horror stories about Chinese bikes having poor quality frames that collapse, or chains that snap, or push-rods that crumple, or brakes that fall off, or forks that don't absorb shock, etc., are difficult to ignore when sat astride only a few kilograms of metal behind not so much as an airbag. I'm most concerned by the rear shocks - those bolts can twist the top housing clean off the frame if you over-torque them.



Pretty, or not, any major failure of even a minor component can throw you off and there is no evidence of a single drop of Lock-tite or any nylon threads throughout the bike's fastenings. The most secure bolt I know of is the underseat one I attached the tax-disc holder to where I put my own locking nut against it. So I guess if anything major did go wrong, at least the Road Rozzers would tell I'd payed up my extortion fee to the Chancellor.

No, really. That £900 could be spun as being the price of your peace of mind or even safety, but I'd not have bought a 125 if I'd not bought this one, or equally cheap 2nd-hand trouble maker, so the argument is duff. For my £700 (and new spak plug and wrench) I'm getting some 2-wheel experience (of sharp bends and &%$£ing dust-carts), maintaining my motivation to swap the Alpha for a bike on the daily commute, and some knowledge of how to keep such a machine maintained.


Pig in the middle - Dilbert, Phut-Phut, and Alpha

You get some useful feedback on the machine from my blog before you give any opinion to your mentees on what they should buy. Oh - that seat; now that might be worth £900 for the Suzuki not to have the inner-thigh chaffing effect the Sanya's square-edged scaffolding board has on my delicate bod.