Reliable Hondas

[Jon]

I think there must also be a difference between Chinese and Corean.
Hyundai/Kia/Daewoo have good cars. They're Corean if I'm not mistaken?
They seem to be the "new" japanese.

What does "tbh" mean in your text above?

To Be Honest!

The simple fact is, engines only wear when the moving bits touch and the moving bits only touch when the oil film between them fails. The oil film fails due to heat and that happens during cold starts when the oil is too thick so can't flow past the hot bits fast enough, and also if the engine is overheated and is simply too hot for the oil to cope. Most engines wear out due to the cold start bit.
your Daelim will probably be able to do twice the distance it has already done because it is doing very few cold miles compared to 'hot' miles and never gets pushed hard enough to get overly hot.

[Black Sheep Radical]

It is a Daelim 125 S2.
http://www.daelim.fr/sc_detail.php?ArNum=15&FaNum=6
When he bought this, I thought he was buying a piece of chinese sh*t.
Well...seems I was wrong OR he picked up the good one.
Maybe it's simply because the corean do a good job?

Yes, Daelim are a decent make in my experience. I know a couple of folks who've had them, and I ran an NS125 Trans Eagle myself for a year - no complaints at all

The build quality was actually quite good, certainly better than the Innova I'm currently riding.

[digger06]

and also probably looked after properly,

[digger06]

we had several bikes going well over 100,000 miles. One, a Suzuki 850 shaft was bought new for the job and at 100,000 was partially stripped and measured. Even the cam chain was still within new spec. It still sounded like new. My BMW 750 had 120,000 when i sold it after a year and was still perfect in regard to compression...No oil use etc

Most of our journeys were between 60 and 200 miles

the 850 shafty was bullet proof,
and like em or loath em, bmw,s method of matching piston to bore clearance and plain bearing clearance matching is far far superior to anyone elses,
1 size bore in A,B or c tolerance, matched to a standard piston/rings also in A B or C tolerances, to ensure the best fit,
bmw engines rarely burn oil, nor wear out the top ends

[Jon]

we had several bikes going well over 100,000 miles. One, a Suzuki 850 shaft was bought new for the job and at 100,000 was partially stripped and measured. Even the cam chain was still within new spec. It still sounded like new. My BMW 750 had 120,000 when i sold it after a year and was still perfect in regard to compression...No oil use etc

Most of our journeys were between 60 and 200 miles

the 850 shafty was bullet proof,
and like em or loath em, bmw,s method of matching piston to bore clearance and plain bearing clearance matching is far far superior to anyone elses,
1 size bore in A,B or c tolerance, matched to a standard piston/rings also in A B or C tolerances, to ensure the best fit,
bmw engines rarely burn oil, nor wear out the top ends

No question, the old '70's twins were exceptionally well engineered...Needle bearings in the rockers, adjustable wheel bearings and so on. When I got mine, you could kick it over ance once the oil pressure light went out it would stay out for 7 seconds. After 120,000 miles of more or less flat out dispatching ( I used to cruise up the motorways at a 100 and red lined it through the box all the time) it still stayed out for 7 seconds. Only the electric starter bendix was a bit iffy...It would throw but not always catch, fortunately mine had the optional kick starter fitted although after I 'lost' it in a deep ford, I snapped it in half from hydraulic lock! they were impossible to bump start alone when cold due to the drag of the gearbox/shaft oils, but if you took a plug out you could push-start it on one cylinder and then it would light up easily on both once the other plug was back in.