UM motorcycles

[wildbill]

I don`t know if any of you have owned one or not. If you have I would like to hear your opinions. How they hold up, maintenance and how they run. I`am feeling something out right now and don`t want to mess up.
Thanks for your time.

[prometheus578]

I can only think that you are referring to United Motors.
If I may...
Before my present gig at Kawasaki, I worked for two years at a joint that sold products from United Motors, Xtreme Motor Company, Motorized Fun Company, Hyosung, Diamo, Kasea, and all sorts of other second rate brands and hybrids that third world countries squeeze out from their loins like a crack whore on welfare
Quality... well. I won't go into that.
Ok, maybe I will.
Just try to get parts sometime.
Oh, sure, you can go back to the dealer you bought it from. But after a while, he will get tired of dealing with your complaints, as he has by then repaired the same broken component on your bike several times.
They are what they are... and that is cheap, which is why people buy them, and is why I refuse to work on them after they get no satisfaction from the original retailer.
Due to my current boss's friendship with the new warranty manager of Hyosung, she, against my better judgement, said that our shop would do a warranty job for Hyosung after the local dealer refused to serve the customer anymore.
No biggie... The job was just to replace an engine.
Of course... it was the third engine for this bike.(the valve's heads kept breaking off... causing havoc with the pistons)
Then, after replacing the engine, I find that the charging system on the new engine sh!t the bed, so I have to yank the generator from the old engine and put in on the new one.
Of course... then the customer sang to me about the instrument cluster being 'fer sh!t, too.
Sorry, Pal, not my bike, not part of my temporary "contract' with Hyosung, and not my problem.
Oh, but he being a true buyer of third rate products, showed his limited mental faculties by refusing to remove his bike from my shop, which forced me to deal with Hyosung again, who duly sent me out a instrument cluster for me to replace for them in which I charged an additional fee.
Clown finally picked up his bike... but I had to jump start it that morning before he arrived as it STILL had other issues which I wasn't being paid by Hyosung to address.
Sure, this is a Hyosung story... but trust me... It applies equally well to all the other brands I have mentioned.
One gets what one pays for. And if you pay very little, that's exactly what you will receive.

[50gary]

At a recent bike show I looked over a 650 Hyosong sport bike (90 degree v-twin looked a lot likek the SVS 650 layout) and it looked very nice indeed. It's just a matter of time before they come up to the level of the big four Japanese companies. It's already happened in the auto industry, why should the motorcycle industry be any different? If anyone can remember the original Honda cars, ha they were a joke, 600 cc cracker box. Now who could say Honda is not the leader? The Asian countries are if nothing else a quick study.
Cheers, 50gary

[prometheus578]

50Gary,
the very bike I was referring to was the GT650sport bike. I can't recall.. have it written down at work(GT650 or did it say GS650?) either way, that was the bike in question.
I spent two years in South Korea, and am very familiar with how they do things and such.
Their big 3 billion dollar monorail sysytem had to be completely torn down when it was almost completed due to their ineptitude. The new three story barracks that they built for the tankers had to be torn down before the troops moved in as it started leaning to one side... actually, two sides!
No... in many regards, over the years they have moved ahead quickly, but like all third world/second world nations... they now have the technology that was given to them to do stuff... but not the common sense that comes from the experience of working their way up to that advanced level.
sure, Hyosung can build ships, and weapons and everything else that they currently do well(years of experience) but as for bikes...