Typhoon Knock off

[1baddiesel]

Has anyone had a good look at any of the knock off typhoons? If it is relatively close would it not be a good way to save a bit of money to add upgrades rite off the start. From what I've been reading it sounds like the Extreme typhoon motor is not that good, shocks and front a-arms are so so, frame needs to have gussets added. So if you could buy a knock off 125cc for a $1000 and a 125cc xtreme is $1600, I would have $600 rite off the bat to start adding better upgrades. I would really like to hear what everyone has to say because we are ready to move up to a real race quad and just want to get the most out of our money because like everyone else out there money is always tight.

[Ride1Rob]

I think the biggest difference is the way the frame is welded. The knockoffs welds are not as good as the Typhoons. I'm really not sure about much on the knockoffs but if I had to do it all over again I'd find a 70 and pull the motor out of it and mod it rather than a 125.

[1baddiesel]

Rob
Did you have to add the gusset kit to your Typhoon? Are the welds tig welded? Welding is not a big trouble on my end, so when I add the gussets I will check and inspect all welds. Why mod the 70 to make a different class? Is the 70 not base on the 125?

[Ride1Rob]

I'm saying in terms of the price difference. I bought a 125 for $1900 almost 3 yrs ago. If I would have known then what I know now I would have got a 70 for (think they were 1200 then) took the motor out and dropped in a Lifan, GPX, Zongshen, etc... If you can go over the welds on the knockoff I think you can go with it. We did add gussetts but it was more for precaution. Jam finally cracked his frame a few months ago but it was in the rear of the frame above where the swinger bolt goes through. Had my welder reweld it and it has held up fine so far. The better suspension setup in the rear will help with this as well.

[1baddiesel]

Thanks for the reply's Rob, did you order the Chassis Inc rear swing arm for your sons Typhoon?

[91gtig60]

we have had a typhoon and a ssr. only difference is the ssr has no chrome like the ty, but the ssr was 1100 shipped. save all your hop up money and just get a pitster fxr

[joey13]

OUr knock off is doing great! You can read about everything we have done so far on the thread "our budget racer" We are getting ready to start on the motor this year. Let me know if you have any questions!

[Ride1Rob]

Originally posted by 91gtig60
we have had a typhoon and a ssr. only difference is the ssr has no chrome like the ty, but the ssr was 1100 shipped. save all your hop up money and just get a pitster fxr

The Pitster is a very nice bike. But when you factor in spending almost 4g's just to purchase one I still think the Typhoon is a better deal. With all the mods on Jams bike and the rear swinger on the way we'll have barely over 4g's in the bike. The ChassisInc setup raises the front like it should be and widens the bike to 46 inches. The Pitster motor is not much difference hp wise to what we're running in the Lifan. Purchase a Typhoon for $1500 and mod it (Arms, shocks, stem, engine, swinger, gussets) or purchase a Pitster FXR for $3600 and still have to mod it (Arms, swinger, gussets).

[91gtig60]

Originally posted by Ride1Rob
The Pitster is a very nice bike. But when you factor in spending almost 4g's just to purchase one I still think the Typhoon is a better deal. With all the mods on Jams bike and the rear swinger on the way we'll have barely over 4g's in the bike. The ChassisInc setup raises the front like it should be and widens the bike to 46 inches. The Pitster motor is not much difference hp wise to what we're running in the Lifan. Purchase a Typhoon for $1500 and mod it (Arms, shocks, stem, engine, swinger, gussets) or purchase a Pitster FXR for $3600 and still have to mod it (Arms, swinger, gussets). rob i got my fxr for 2500 not 3600 and we dont need arms or a swinger the stock pitsters are fine for a 85lb 11yr. we will be putting on atv fourplay arms once zach is heavier but not replacing the swinger, i think the stock is nice. even the shocks on the fxr are good, we had ours cut and re-valved and we have new elkas still on the shelf zach loves the fxr shocks. we have raced it 5 times this year and got three 1st and two seconds, and we race with five national level apexes and drr's and a hetrick ds90x. all five of them are built to the max and they all finish 1-2 seconds apart. if zach is in the lead then he's gone, but if he is behind the 2stroke he runs on them in the corner and they shut the corner down then he has to catch the autos on the next corner or wait till the straight, since the 2 strokes are auto they react faster off clutch. i still love the ty though, zach had alot of wins on his. but if i was going to go to all the trouble of stripping down to the frame to do gussets, and then replacing the aarms and swinger, and then shocks, and then the motor. i would get the ssr and save about 600 bucks. i was at the point where i spent 1800 on the ty, 1200 on shocks, 800 on motor and exhaust fmf 4.1, add 300 on nerfs. and then needed to spend 1000 on lews arms and swinger. and then the old shocks weren't long enough so another 1200 on elkas again. thats over 5000 in a ty. plus the pitster is bigger framed and he wont out grow it as fast. we have been racing ours in super mini against blasters and raptor 250 as well with 18" tires. once we move up i will be putting in a crf150r engine and will be smoking blasters. these are just my opinions and experiences with both products.

[Ride1Rob]

You do hit on some VERY good points! I've heard how plush the stock FXR shocks were that's why I didn't list them above. But heard the arms and swinger would need replaced because they prob wouldn't hold up. The Pitster is a nice sized quad and that's another reason I was hesitant on getting one. Dade City would prob make us run youth class on it. But doing that with a capable rider and dropping in a crf motor would prob be the trick. But here their dropping in CRF250's so a 150 would be hard to compete against those.

We run against alot of kids that run Nationals as well but they normally drop down and run either 70 or 90 class at Nats. We're running Mod and there are no limits other than it has to be stock cases. Doesn't matter if you run an Apex in a Drr but you can't drop in a CRF powerplant or KX85 motors. There are 2 strokes in the class that are 128cc's. With our setup we're very competitive off the gate but Jam seems to miss a gear every time lol. I recently did a mod to his tranny and the motor shifts silky smooth now so next race should be interesting. He has nowhere close to the experience of the other kids but he's closing the gap every race. Kinda like your son as he also loses time into the corners because he has so much to do with pulling in the clutch and down shifting. By the time he gets back into the gas the cvt's have pulled on him. I figure by the end of the year as he gets better we'll be competing for wins. Next year will be his breakout season.

[1baddiesel]

How does the semi auto shifting work? Is there a clutch, can you stall it out?

[Ride1Rob]

Yes there is a clutch and what do you mean by stall it? When you stop the bike should idle in gear. When you mash the gas the higher the rpm's the clutch begins to engage and the moves forward. Maybe if you tried to pull off in 3rd/4th gear it probably will stall.

[91gtig60]

no you cant set them up with stall like the 2strokes because they are not cvt