englishjenny
21-04-2007, 04:16 PM
Review by jenny kingman for
110cc venom bm racing mamba
I got this bike for a measly £220 as a last minute spur of the moment bid on ebay.
The bike came as stated within 48hours.
For a small bike it weighed a ton and me and the courier struggled to get in my garden.
The stupid courier obviously couldn?t read the big sign on the box which said ?this way up? and had my bike upside down so all the shipping oil had leaked all over the bike totally destroying the graphics causing them to bubble and peal off.
Assembly was very easy and took a matter of minutes to put bars and front wheel on then tighten all the bolts. I then changed the shipping oil which was like water with decent castrol 10w/40 oil, added petrol and bike fired up after 2kicks and idled nicely.
I took out for some gentle off road riding to run bike in, but after a few seconds riding I realized that there was a problem with the ignition coil and the spark plug cap was faulty and kept coming off, at one point I got a nasty electric shock trying to put the cap back on. So I took bike home until I had fitted a new ignition coil. So after receiving a new coil I took the bike back off road to test it out properly.
The suspension on this bike is terrible I felt every single lump and bump I went over no matter how small, unfortunately the shock wasn?t adjustable so I could not adjust it to see if it made a difference.
After doing a minor jump and falling off partly due to poor suspension the plastics cracked into a million little pieces, I didn?t even fall hard the plastics where just poor quality.
The stock tyres weren?t all that bad and had a decent grip. I was quite impressed with the tyre quality actually.
The front forks where very flimsy and stiff. When i jumped the smallest of jumps I seriously thought that the forks would snap. Even after changing fork oil they remained stiff.
The standard carb lasted all of 5days before the float kept getting jammed time and time again. Eventually I got tired of fixing it and bought a mikuni carb instead.
The brakes I?d give a 9/10 a they were very responsive ad not to sharp.
The swing arm was poorly welded and very thin it wouldn?t of handled hard off roading to well and eventually it would probably of snapped.
The gearing was really short so I changed the sprocket setup to 17t front 37t rear which made a noticeable difference.
After a month of riding at a moderate pace with a few jumps and flat out moments the kick start broke and engine seized so I broke the bike and sold the frame and other parts.
For £220 I got what I paid for but expected it to last a little longer than it did. This bike would be ok for field use and mild of roading, but it wouldn?t cope to well at tracks with a lot of jumps and it is certainly not designed for the more extreme rider.
110cc venom bm racing mamba
I got this bike for a measly £220 as a last minute spur of the moment bid on ebay.
The bike came as stated within 48hours.
For a small bike it weighed a ton and me and the courier struggled to get in my garden.
The stupid courier obviously couldn?t read the big sign on the box which said ?this way up? and had my bike upside down so all the shipping oil had leaked all over the bike totally destroying the graphics causing them to bubble and peal off.
Assembly was very easy and took a matter of minutes to put bars and front wheel on then tighten all the bolts. I then changed the shipping oil which was like water with decent castrol 10w/40 oil, added petrol and bike fired up after 2kicks and idled nicely.
I took out for some gentle off road riding to run bike in, but after a few seconds riding I realized that there was a problem with the ignition coil and the spark plug cap was faulty and kept coming off, at one point I got a nasty electric shock trying to put the cap back on. So I took bike home until I had fitted a new ignition coil. So after receiving a new coil I took the bike back off road to test it out properly.
The suspension on this bike is terrible I felt every single lump and bump I went over no matter how small, unfortunately the shock wasn?t adjustable so I could not adjust it to see if it made a difference.
After doing a minor jump and falling off partly due to poor suspension the plastics cracked into a million little pieces, I didn?t even fall hard the plastics where just poor quality.
The stock tyres weren?t all that bad and had a decent grip. I was quite impressed with the tyre quality actually.
The front forks where very flimsy and stiff. When i jumped the smallest of jumps I seriously thought that the forks would snap. Even after changing fork oil they remained stiff.
The standard carb lasted all of 5days before the float kept getting jammed time and time again. Eventually I got tired of fixing it and bought a mikuni carb instead.
The brakes I?d give a 9/10 a they were very responsive ad not to sharp.
The swing arm was poorly welded and very thin it wouldn?t of handled hard off roading to well and eventually it would probably of snapped.
The gearing was really short so I changed the sprocket setup to 17t front 37t rear which made a noticeable difference.
After a month of riding at a moderate pace with a few jumps and flat out moments the kick start broke and engine seized so I broke the bike and sold the frame and other parts.
For £220 I got what I paid for but expected it to last a little longer than it did. This bike would be ok for field use and mild of roading, but it wouldn?t cope to well at tracks with a lot of jumps and it is certainly not designed for the more extreme rider.