My son broke his chinese dirt bike in half the other day.  He was just riding down the side of the road going to his friend's house about 1/4 mile away.  He called me and said something's wrong with my bike...the front end is leaning one way and the back end is leaning the other.

The tubing broke under the tank right at the back of the gusset from the steering head.  I guess the gusset didn't go back far enough to distribute enough of the load and it started bending right there at some point.

The tubing is about the same stuff you see on the metal kid's gym sets. It's roughly the same size and thickness and is quite soft metal.

We got everything back in position and tacked it to hold it together.
I started welding on it today.  Even at very low power, it's easy to burn through.  I am going to add some additional stiffening metal to it to hopefully prevent this problem from happening again.

Anybody have any suggestions about helping to prevent this from happening again?  

And, anybody who might have a kid with one of these, you might want to check the tubing under the tank to make sure it isn't flexing and bending.

Isn't there ANY quality control for something like that? I mean it's probably not street legal (or is it?) but it can kill you if it fails.

Kris01 wrote on 09/20/15 at 20:34:54:


There is very little quality control on this kind of stuff from China......and most likely very little engineering.  They just copy stuff and make it as cheaply as they can.

My neighbor was working on a friends "pit bike", as the chain kept coming off.  The chain tensioner just had a steel shaft mounted in a steel tube welded to the bottom of the swing arm, with an external spring.  No bushings, no bearings, no grease fittings, no seals to keep the dirt out.  When the tensioner wore it would no longer stay straight and the chain could flop around and come off.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 09/20/15 at 21:17:04:



My buddy told me if you had a grinder, you could be a welder.  According to that philosophy, I'm a welder.  

OK, actually, I'm a dauber. But the grinder makes it better, some.  

A guy I know toured some Chinese industrial facilities and he had some real horror stories about their practices.  He went through a building where they were stick welding assemblies.  Crude homemade  transformers with exposed wiring, no covers whatsoever, were bolted to the wall at each weld station.  No controls or settings of any sort.  From there mostly bare wires ran from these transformers to the ground clamps and the rod holders.  That was what they called a welder.

You ain't seen Nothin yet. Wait till this last Trade Agreement gets enacted.We deny an import, the country of origin gets to sue Us in international court. We pay for the losses. Wait,

You might be ahead to strip the bike and hang the frame on a wall in his bedroom and tell him when he has the money for a replacement, then he rides. It might have saved me some pain if, when I destroyed a bicycle in a crash, I had been walking a while. I only suffered the pain of the crash. I had another bike ready to ride about the time I was healed up enough to go play. My attitudes didn't change. Maybe nothing would have changed them, I don't know.. but busting your butt to give him the opportunity to have fun is one thing, fun can be had at less than breakneck speed, or, so I've heard...Didn't work for me,  And I have the damage to prove it.
How crazy was I?I had a three speed, twenty six inch, Sears Austrian racer.
The guys were having a little jump competition, coupla judges, watching landings, moving a rock, inches gained,, and I got enough of it. Went to the end of the cul de sac, started running on the pedals, thru the gears, a ditch was the launch, down inches leaving the road, up a couple of feet on the back side. Threw me off the seat, hands clinging to the bars, upside down, head thrown back, to see where i was going, and I was looking down at the top bar of a swingset. The tire hit about a foot ahead of two swings I went between. I was rigid, stomach hit the seat, feet didn't hit dirt.. And I didn't crash. And we never had a jump contest again.
The bike that was destroyed was from not being able to complete a turn. Went off a twelvish foot cliff. That , I only remember leaving flat dirt, and waking up once as the guys were dragging me thru a fence, musta been out for at least half an hour..
I don't know if anyone could have corralled the reckless streak...
At least you have a kid who has an adventurous heart, and doesn't sit and play stupid video games all day. I'm sick of driving around and not seeing kids out doing things. It's RARE to see a few boys on bicycles, heading out to do stuff..