As the title says- I have a very cool 1975 xl 70. I picked it up dirt cheap. It has great paint with a couple of dings and dents, that definitely tell a story. The guy I bought it off of said everything was good except that he was missing the kickstarter. I thought no big deal and picked one up on ebay. Well come to find out the internal gear is fukt. It is in the middle case. A few friends say that I should just by a new chinese engine for a couple of beans and drop it in...doesnt sound to bad, does anyone have any experience with these "replicas"? I also have my racebike under rebuild so I would rather not tear the little guy down. Besides, I have already found that parts are not real easy to find for a XL of that age, and I dont know what other stuff might fit. What say the beeb?
I woukdnt do Chinese myself. I ahve a vintage CT70 and a newer XR70 in the garage for work this winter, if I get to them. I plan on FT the XR in the backyard and making the CT my street legal pitbike. There are lots of parts and hop ups for that motor. They made that same basic parallel motor since Jesus was around, lol. You can get a DOHC quad valve head if you want. I am geting 90cc cylinders, head, hot cam, etc for each of mine. Only a couple hundred for all that. You CAN go up to >120cc in the stock cases with machining. There are some sick minis out there. Try http://dratv.com/index.html http://www.hondaminitrail.com/ http://www.hondatrailbikes.com/index2.html and theres a bunch more out there. check this bling out Thats a 124cc kit, with quad valve DOHC, all aftermarket. Their dyno sheet shows 18hp with that 124 kit.
We have run a couple of chinese motors in honda chassis with no trouble. I put one in my kid's crf 50. Within 2 hours of the motor coming off the UPS truck, I had already installed the motor and lowsided the little bike under my truck. Ouch! He ran it wide open doing mini moto for a few months. No issues. I have used the bike as a loaner for new kids the last couple of years. Still runs fine.
I raced a Chinese pit bike last year with no issues. I would stick with Lifan if you do go that rout.
