Jialing JL-250 - LEAVE WELL ALONE (Other Motorcycles...)

Member Name: Paul-B

Product:	Other Motorcycles...
Date:	30/10/07 (2085 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap. If you get a good'un, you'll get a bargain.

Disadvantages: You will almost certainly get a bad'un

The Jailing JL-250 is a Chinese copy of the old Honda CN250 "Helix", one of the first maxi scooters to come on the market. The JL-250 comes complete with a fitted alarm, stereo radio cassette player, colour LCD speedometer and large top box (in addition to its large boot.)

I first became aware of the bike being imported in to the country as a "grey" import a couple of years ago, where it was advertised in the scooter magazine "Twist and Go."

The bike was ridiculously cheap for a 250cc scooter, and so I decided to investigate.

After reading a couple of good reviews (one from a pleased owner), I decided to take the plunge and buy one of these beasties.

When it was finally delivered there appeared to be absolutely no documentation at all with the vehicle - frequent pestering of the supplier (who was situated the other side of the country) eventually yielded a poor photocopy of a user manual, but unfortunately I never received any documentation at all regarding the bike alarm fitted. This was a blow as the alarm was so sensitive that a gnat's cough would trigger it at 1/4 mile rendering it unusable, and I couldn't figure out how to adjust the sensitivity. The supplier kept suggesting various combinations of buttons to press on the remote key fob, but none of these related to the alarm fitted to my bike. It wasn't until I was due ship the bike out to its new owner over a year later that I located a set of instructions for a different alarm which seemed to work on the one fitted to the bike.

I also received no paperwork for the 12 month extended warranty agreement I had paid for.

The first thing that hit me on inspection of the machine was that the bike seemed a bit "tacky", with lots of cheap shiny plastic. This didn't put me off - I am no bike snob, having ridden MZs for most of my motorcycling life, so I decided that the cheap finish was only to be expected at this price level.

I discovered that the LCD speedometer, despite bearing the legend "miles" actually read in kilometres - I had to quickly learn that 30MPH = 48KHM, 40MPH = 64KMH, etc... The original Helix had a button to swap between MPH and KMH - the JL250 does not.

(I have noted that one enthusiastic owner on the internet claims that his JL-250 tops 90MPH - there is no way on God's green earth that this contraption would get anywhere near that speed (unless you rode it off of Beachy Head), so I assume that he may have fallen foul of this problem.)

(*Footnote to the above - the owner in question claimed that his bike did "90mph/95mpg". Once his initial enthusiasm had been replaced by everyday realism, however, it became apparent that he could only achieve 60-80MPG, and that his indicated speed of 95mph was actually 70mph in reality - his speedometer and odometer seemed to overread by a substantial amount. )

The bike did tend to vibrate a bit, causing the cheap plastic bodywork to resonate - again, being charitable, I put this down to newness.
The next nasty shock occurred on day 2, when, whilst attempting to turn right at a busy junction the indicators and horn stopped working.
After a few emails to the supplier I was sent a poor photocopy of a Honda Helix workshop manual - after a bit of dismantling I located a connector that had vibrated loose and rectified the problem.

I continued riding the bike (which became known as "The Chinese Object") for another month or so, all the time being shaken to virtual oblivion whilst trying to calculate my speed in my head before the next problem struck - the headlamp failed whilst I was negotiating a particularly dark unlit country lane. This potentially lethal episode was shortly followed by the slightly more comical incident when the handbrake lever pulled straight out of the dashboard whilst I was attempting a hill start.
After fixing these problems I acquired a new MPH speedo from the supplier - sadly, this too read in KMH and so he sent me one of those things that go on the speedo cable to convert KMH to MPH. This worked, but unfortunately caused the forks to foul slightly against the cable meaning that turning the handlebars to left lock caused the speedo to creak ominously..

The first oil change came, and seemed to make the vibration situation much better. I also fiddled with the mixture (at the suggestion of the supplier), making it slightly richer - this improved things substantially.

Unfortunately this wasn't the end of my woes - the horn packed up, the indicators would cease to function if water got in the hazard warning light switch, the stereo was virtually inaudible and the bike battery went completely flat if the bike remained unused for a week.

By now thoroughly disenchanted, I went back to my old 125 (which I hadn't got around to selling.)

By the time I came to sell the bike on Ebay I had fixed all of the problems that had I had experienced, but my confidence in the bike had evaporated - I was just waiting for the next thing to go wrong. I certainly didn't want to ride any distance on the machine.

Chances are that the new owner hasn't had a single problem - all I know is that I spent far more time fixing the thing than a 12 month old scooter warranted. It also scared me a bit that the supplier didn't seem to know much about his product, and certainly didn't have a clue regarding the alarm...
(footnote to the above - the "Chinese Object" is currently off the road, and appears to have been since Jan 07. I suspect that the new owner was as impressed with it as I was...)

About the only good thing I can say about the Jialing was that it was exemplary when it came to starting - it would start first turn, first time, almost every time. I was the best starter of any vehicle I have ever owned or driven. Storage space was also something of a positive, although the rear boot space was not as big as it appeared from the outside and was largely filled with the stereo and speakers.

Since then I have seen several of these bikes for sale second hand which, bearing in mind the low key selling and distribution, must represent quite a chunk of those initially sold - every one seems to be just over a year old and has covered a surprisingly low mileage. I think that this speaks volumes in itself.

As a postscript I noted that the owner who wrote the original glowing review (which persuaded me and a number of others to part with our money) later attempted to sell his bike on Ebay after covering a paltry 400 miles - perhaps the bike didn't live up to his expectations either, and if my memory serves me correctly it didn't do anything for potential buyers - it was a no sale...

Summary: Jialing JL-250 - Avoid like the plague!

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Driving comfort:
on skiddy terrain:
on dry terrain: