cheap .. but are they dodgy ? – OLD Bull Trailriders

This topic contains 15 replies, has 0 voices, and was last updated by nathan steele 11 years, 6 months ago.

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July 2, 2013 at 9:40 am #102954

nathan steele
Member

Righto as some of you know I had an incident that seen my radiator dodgy repaired with some liquid metal and some pepper in the system for good measure.

Now the racing as quieten off a bit I’ve taken advantage to rebuild the big girl ( see other thread ) and fix anything that may cause me a DNF … in this case my dodgy radiator.

Shopping around as you guys would know radiators arn’t cheap, i came across API racing, a EBay radiator supplier from .. wait for it … china. If that doesn’t worry you the price for both radiators and a hose kit ( blue ) delivered to my door was … wait for it … $120.

Now I know what your thinking, rookie you idiot. In some respects I agree, i’m taking a fair risk on these radiators. But seeing a large majority of positive feed back and the little reviews on the internet all seemed to be pretty impressed I’ve taken the risk.

after purchasing the radiators they where on my door step within a week, laughing. I was excited to open the package and when I pulled them out .. well you be the judge.

In my opinion they look pretty good ! they feel heavier ( in the walls ) but feel nice and light. They are thinker in the core then standard radiators but clear the frame well. The hoses feel of good quality too!

Once my bike is back together ill be testing these pretty hard with a few practice 4 hour rides, also deliberately getting the big girl hot ( not to KTM hot .. but still hot ) keep you guys posted on how i go!

rookie

July 2, 2013 at 9:45 am #245392

Geoff Forshaw
Member

Hey Rookie,
Time will tell eh! :unsure: It would be a good idea to pressure test when they are installed before your 1st ride.

Cheers,
Lefty

July 2, 2013 at 9:50 am #245397

nathan steele
Member

have some faith lefty dont be so worried haha

yeah good thinking i forgot that ( shows how good of a mechanic i am )

rookie

July 2, 2013 at 10:08 am #245398

Dean
Member

Nice one Rookie, I have just got a pair as well from an Australian seller (obviously chinese tho) $79 delivered for the XR650R. One thing I noticed tho is the radiator cap is only rated to 1.1 bar. The cap I have on the XR is a 1.6 and the Silicone hoses handle it easy.

Ollie

July 2, 2013 at 10:17 am #245401

nathan steele
Member

cheers for that ollie ill have to double check my caps!

July 2, 2013 at 10:34 am #245402

Nick Dole
Member

I’ve used a few of them now, no problems. made one into a banana on a CRF250R, massive crash, didn’t leak. Impressed.
1.1 bar is fine, you will hold almost 1L more water, no need for the big pressure cap.

July 2, 2013 at 10:46 am #245393

Aaron Wilde
Member

Well the thread title pretty well says it all. Will be interesting to see how they fit in and perform. On a similar line a couple of years back i bought after market indicators that looked virtually identical to wr Yamaha items. The problem was it took about an hour to fit the two rear ones after cutting and shutting the wires off the broken originals so they would reach far enough. In the end I said I don’t care about the price as my time was worth more to me. Even the young bloke behind the counter said they were no different. :blink: I did tell him what I thought of them next time I went in though. I hope for your sake your story will be different.

July 2, 2013 at 11:16 am #245422

James Rookyard
Member

Might be wrong but… Lots of welding on the Chinese ones. No welding on the stock ones. That’s where they will fail in time. Might go for years though.

July 2, 2013 at 11:59 am #245426

Dean
Member

jimmy wrote:

Might be wrong but… Lots of welding on the Chinese ones. No welding on the stock ones. That’s where they will fail in time. Might go for years though.

Then just buy another set for $79 :laugh:

Ollie

July 2, 2013 at 12:53 pm #245427

nathan steele
Member

jimmy wrote:

Might be wrong but… Lots of welding on the Chinese ones. No welding on the stock ones. That’s where they will fail in time. Might go for years though.

this is why i thought id start this review, im gonna give them a solid work out that for sure.

cheers for the advice on that nick puts my mind at ease a little

July 2, 2013 at 10:32 pm #245394

andrew
Member

ill be interested to see how they go rookie,
I got some blue silicon hoses from e-bay I found them to be thicker in the walls than the stock pipes. they have been on for around a month now and no problems. only problem was they sent me the wrongs ones to start of with I was told to keep the wrong ones as it was there fault and they didn’t want me to bear the cost of re shipping back to china.. so my local got a gift of me the next time I went in.. still cheap though pipes alone in aus range from $70 to well over $100 these ones came in at around $25!!!!!!

no wonder we have to try and support our locals it must be so hard to compete these days!!!!

cheers

July 4, 2013 at 12:41 pm #245432

James Rookyard
Member

Ollie wrote:

jimmy wrote:

Might be wrong but… Lots of welding on the Chinese ones. No welding on the stock ones. That’s where they will fail in time. Might go for years though.

Then just buy another set for $79 :laugh:

Ollie

Hmm. Just not so easy 100km from home… But I need a new left radiator for my cr250 so I am interested to see how they go.

July 5, 2013 at 7:52 am #245575

Harold Withington
Member

I think you will be ok
Generally speaking they look the part from the photos
IMO not all Chinese stuff is shit they actually produce some good stuff.
Granted a lot of crap but some of it is good

August 17, 2013 at 3:00 am #245395

nathan steele
Member

Well while the bike was pulled down the old bent up radiators where removed and the new Chinese ones where fitted, fitment of the radiators wasn’t a hassle at all and they fit in the radiator guards quiet nicely, one thing i did notice was the hose running from the water pump to the bottom of the right radiator was sitting on the exhaust pipe flange, a cable tie soon sorted this problem.

They look great and the blue hoses set it off, after 45 minutes of putting around running the fresh motor i couldn’t fault the radiators or hoses, no leaks, no bulges it all looked good. Tomorrow will be the real test a denman in the 4 hr ironman, if they fail ill be one unhappy camper! Will keep you posted !

August 27, 2013 at 12:05 pm #248182

nathan steele
Member

Well if you’ve read the other thread ( the rookies head job ) you’ll know i couldnt fault the motor at Denman in the 4hr.

The radiators where no different, they did not give me the slightest bit of trouble! It was a warm day out there and i wasn’t been kind on the throttle all day and the radiators kept everything cool, no leaks, no smell.

I suggest these radiators too all of you don’t want to fork out big dollars for original radiators, or if you want to give your bike some bling.
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