Another Chinese bike, but this looks quite nice!

[Jon]

This is the bike it is based upon I believe?



http://www.chinamotorworld.com/index.ph ... ew&id=1849

Doesn't appear that Mash had that much of the design input other than some minore details?

Well, the SR400 is identical to the late '70's SR in styling terms and THAT was designed to mimic an archetypal Brit single albeit very lightly 'flat-tracked'. The Mash is simply another Brit homage. It is inevitable they look similar because the bikes they both mimic look like that. The Mash IS different though,..The SR is a very soft, low powered machine, much less tuned that the original SR whereas the Mash has a similar state of tune to the older SR and coincidentally, a BSA Gold Star from the 50's....

[gtd65]

I'd certainly hope that quality has improved.

I bought a Riders Super Cub to see if a Chinese bike is decent or not. I know it's a cheap quality bike that costs much less than 300 quid from the manufacturer.

So far it's not been disappointing

[gtd65]

The "Jap Crap" term was around for decades, the truth was that the Japanese were generally making extremely reliable products for decades and many people knew this but the Jap Crap term still existed.

I liked it when that attitude persisted, because you could pick up Japanese cars & motorcycles for next to nothing, in the used market (most of the time).

[Jon]

The "Jap Crap" term was around for decades, the truth was that the Japanese were generally making extremely reliable products for decades and many people knew this but the Jap Crap term still existed.

I liked it when that attitude persisted, because you could pick up Japanese cars & motorcycles for next to nothing, in the used market (most of the time).

The thing was, the engineering was generally superb, but the finish was often less impressive. For me, it was the difference between the chrome plating found on Brit stuff and the Japanese bikes, that and the seams everywhere that Jap bikes had. You rarely found exhausts made from two halves on English bikes, tanks didn't have seamed bottom edges and of course the monocoque frames of early Hondas looked 'cheap'.

The bike i round around Zimbabwe on was a Honda Benly, the 125 twin from the early 60's. It was utterly reliable and after all those years, still capable of being thrashed for hundreds of Kilometers non stop flat out.....I can't imaging ANY '60's Brit bike being capable of that...Certainly none of the stuff i had would have!

[digger06]

the brit bike manufacturers were victims of their own complacency,
they thought their outdated models didn't need updating performance/looks wise, ,
and didn't think the jap high performance stuff would catch on, even when the 250cc learner law took hold,
I remember easily seeing off bonnys and the like on my jap crap yam/kawi 250,s,
and when the 4 cyl kawi and Suzuki 1000cc bikes came out, they were strong, pretty well built and handled decent,
it was the end of brit stuff

[Diesel Dave]

Pressed steel frame, swing arm and forks, phwoaaar!

[gtd65]

The company is French and the bike is built for them by Shineray in China.[/img]

That's why I posted the pic of the Shineray XY400 further up.

Surely, this is just the same bike with the Manufacturers name on it rather than Mash?

Shineray XY400



Mash 400 version:

[Jon]

Sorry mate! At a quick glance on my crappy lappy it looked like the new SR400. yes, it does indeed look like a similar machine. I can't find it on the current Shineray website though. Different exhaust pipes, the Mash has a more angular double bend to the top ...and different front mudguard are two of the visible differences

[digger06]

got to admit, very very similar,
could be looking the same because its the style,
the Bonneville type look is common, triumph, new and old, w650,
the yam equivalent to these two pics, all quite similar, especially from a distance,

but then again, two bikes made for different countries can be the same make, same factory,
and look very different, look at American market old triumphs to ours,
and some 80,s/90,s kawis, same model, different wheels, plastics, pipes etc,
I suspect the shineray and the mash are built at the same place to slightly different specs,(and quality)
dependant on emissions,and market styling preferences ...
after all most bikes are bitsa,s to some extent,
eg, you buy a Honda, the same firm that Honda buys exhausts or shocks from could make em for Yamaha or similar also,
however this isn't always advertised on the websites,
its like Suzuki and bmw ,they don't readily advertise the Chinese/jap connections they have
(as far as I know)

[digger06]

shineray is owned by chonqing, (if I spelt it right, )who will do bikes for others with different brand names,
they do the American Cleveland bike of this cc, which again looks very similar, but not quite the same,
the also build husky copys,

all of this which is irrelevant really, as it doesn't really matter if the bikes good,
the mash seems to have a good rep in france and belguim,
the English will take a bit more persuasion though,
and a high price wont help,