here it is. i have a formal version of this review with pictures that i will be putting on my site in the near future. in the mean time this will have to do.
Waiting. Three weeks of waiting finaly came to an end when the Fed-Ex finaly delivered the new pitster pro. After a few lengthy phone calls with Vince pale of T-Bolt racing concerning setup and specs, I was eager to test this new rebuilt Asian mini. From the specs it seems as though it should easily contend with the many other "pit bikes" out there, if not dominate. The fist thing I noticed about the bike as we were dismantling the metal crate that it came in was that this bike was huge! The seat height is about 7 to 10 inches taller then most 50's. This new bike features a +2 chromo frame, 12'' front and 10'' rear wheels, heavy duty spokes, (after about 30 hrs of hard riding the spokes were all tight) kenda Millville tires, front and rear hydraulic disk brakes.
On the go the pitster pro revs quite fast and pulls hard all the way through the power band. The main reason for this is that the clutch in the GPX motor is not mounted on the crank like some of the other pit bikes out there. The clutch works effortlessly and feels very smooth. This is one of the biggest displacement engines in its class weighing in at 124cc. one of the best features about this engine is that you can start it in any gear. If you plan on racing this is a must have. Compared with other 120cc class engines. We drag raced the pitster against a TAC 88cc equipped Honda and a Lifan 120cc equipped Honda, the pitster always seemed to get the other bikes off the start and usually dominated unless it was a longer course. This is a result of the extremely low gearing. In the test we rarely used first gear. Compared with other 120cc class engines. Although it seems really low this gearing may be beneficial on some of the smaller mini motocross tracks. The GPX engine runs somewhat hot but compared to other engines in its class it is one of the cooler engines I have ridden. If racing were in your pitster’s future oil cooler wouldn’t be a bad idea. The GPX shifts flawlessly through all the gears even after hours of hard riding. The only downside to the gearbox is that neutral was always a bit tricky to find, we developed a technique of shifting to second then lightly tapping it down into neautral.the crab seems to fit the engine very well, it never felt like the engine was being starved or overly fed. The air filter on the other hand seems to be more suited for road use, We have never used the K&N style filters for off road applications so it might be ok but we plan on changing it soon just to be safe. The pipe that comes stock one the GPX looks really trick and sounds decent for a stock pipe. It seems like the pipe is a bit restrictive for a 125cc engine but it did not make a noticeable impact on performance. I would recommend not wearing any shorts that will melt wile riding the pitster, it seems to burn perfectly symmetrical holes in them and produce some interesting smells.
Chassis and handling. At first we were all skeptical about the size of the bike. We wondered if it would handle the same as the smaller 50's we were used to riding. After about 30 hours on the bike we agreed that the bikes size did not negatively affect it at all. I liked the added legroom; this is the only pit bike that I have ridden so far that didn’t beat my knees like a redheaded stepchild in k-mart. I actually felt comfortable for once.
Starting at the front, the 12'' front rim really helps the bike navigate the rough stuff allot better. After riding many bikes with 10'' front rims, this was a major improvement. The kenda tires grip very well on everything but asphalt. The aggressive tread will shred anything that is in its path. According to the local PD these tires "caused many deep ruts and allot of other property damage to the local schools lawn" needless to say they also provide adequate propulsion for running from the cops and angry janitors when after they catch u hitting a sweet cut-in at the local school. The rims are nicely powder coated and we never managed to scratch them. The spokes and rims work very well together, we never had to tighten the spokes once during the review. They seem like a very heavy-duty combo. Out of the box the front brakes were somewhat spongy, the rear felt the same. After bleeding the front and rear brakes at the banjo and at the bleeder screw they seemed to work allot better. The rear brakes worked well until one of the test riders (Adam) crashed hard and bent the brake pedal. We bent it back and it was fine after that. The front forks are quite beefy and work well throughout the travel, after about 20 hours the triple clamp did start to loosen up but it was fine after we tightened it (we never checked it when we uncrated the bike). The handlebars felt extremely nice for stock. The grips are even comfortable. The brake and clutch levers felt weird from what we are used to (they looked like something I would eat my lucky charms with when I run out of clean spoons) even though they looked weird they felt fine when we were riding the machine. They held up very well through all the crashes and never bent or broke. The GPX frame fleet very solid and never felt like it was flexing even when flat landing jumps hard with our test riders 190+ pounds of lard along for the ride. The +2 frame really seems to add the stability of the bike and accounts for much of the added legroom when compared to a stock Honda frame. The powder coating on the frame and the other pieces of the bike is very sturdy and we never managed to scratch it except on the engine side covers, which is normal. The peg mounts and pegs are very solid and never bent a bit during our testing even with our heaviest riders doing full size motocross jumps and sometimes flat-landing them. The skid plate is super thick and protected the engine well even when casing hard on a few large doubles. The seat and plastics on the GPX seem to be very high quality they were very durable throughout the test and even after hrs of natural sandblasting they still retained their stock shine. The seat is a bit too firm for my taste. It is comparable to a KTM mix bike. The seat cover is super grippe and keeps you planted in the turns .the shock is my only complaint about the bike. The shock is very stiff and even after adjusting numerous times we could not dial the shock in for the mx courses we were riding. It’s hard to keep the rear end planted through whoops or similar terrain. At first I loved the shock when I was just hitting kickers and putting around, even after about 45 hrs of riding I have not been able to bottom the shock out. If you plan on just hitting jumps all day and don’t want to race or ride technical terrain I would stick with this shock. If you plan on racing I would go with something a bit softer like a fox air shock or possibly an I-shock. The swing arm works flawlessly and appears to be very heavy duty. The only complaint about the swing arm was the chain slide. From the factory they come with a rubber chain slide, this wears out in about 5 hrs of riding. T-bolt racing is making a derlin replacement unit and it should be out shortly after this review. We ended up making one out of some scrap derlin to get us through the review.
Final thoughts. In the end it all comes down to wither or not this bike holds up compared to a Honda. In the opinions of many die-hard Honda fanatics nothing will ever compare to a built Honda. And I must admit I was quite skeptical as to if this bike would be reliable. I am happy to say that it was very reliable and held up extremely well through all the torture we put it through. The only thing we managed to bend or brake was the brake pedal and that only took a few minutes to bend back. In my opinion this is the first Chinese "knock off" that will actually hold up. GPX has made an excellent bike that does what it is supposed to without braking. Although it is an excellent bike it still may need a few minor mods to get it race ready such as a softer rear shock, chain slide, foam type air filter, some minor brake work and possibly a less restrictive pipe. Even with these shortcomings it is still an excellent deal for the money. From my experience t-bolt racing really stands behind these bikes if anything should go wrong with them. The question is simple, why pay 3 or 4 times as much to build a Honda to this point when you can have a GPX and not have to worry if its going to brake or not.
Specs. (provided by gpx)
Engine Type - 125cc Single Cylinder, More power then any other Pitbike in its class!
Air Cooled - 4 Stroke
Max Power - 8 HP @ 8500 RPM
Compression - Ratio 9.6:1
Valve Train - SOHC: Two Valve
Transmission - 4 Speed with Manual Clutch
Final Drive - #420 16T Front / 41 T Rear Front Suspension - 36mm Long Travel Forks
Rear Suspension - Long Travel Shock, Adjustable pre-load!
Aluminum - Swingarm
Wheelbase - 40.5 Inches
Seat Height - 26.75 Inches
Bar Height - 38.5 Inches
Ground Clearance - 9.5 Inches
Fuel Capacity - 0.8 Gallon
Frame - Chromo
Front Brake - Hydraulic Disc
Rear Brake - Hydraulic Disc, Stronger and easy maintance! Front - Tire 2.50 x 12
Rear - Tire 2.75 x 10
Performance- Exhaust
Performance - Kenda Milville Tires
Wheels - Black Wheels w/ HD Spokes
Grips - GPX Stage Compound
Seat - GPX 40mm Tall Gripper
Seat Color Black / Black
GPX Graphics Full Graphics Kit
Shrouds, # Plates, F & R Fenders and Bar Pad
Protection - Heavy Duty Skid Plate
Pegs - Oversized
Shifter - Long / Folding
Waiting. Three weeks of waiting finaly came to an end when the Fed-Ex finaly delivered the new pitster pro. After a few lengthy phone calls with Vince pale of T-Bolt racing concerning setup and specs, I was eager to test this new rebuilt Asian mini. From the specs it seems as though it should easily contend with the many other "pit bikes" out there, if not dominate. The fist thing I noticed about the bike as we were dismantling the metal crate that it came in was that this bike was huge! The seat height is about 7 to 10 inches taller then most 50's. This new bike features a +2 chromo frame, 12'' front and 10'' rear wheels, heavy duty spokes, (after about 30 hrs of hard riding the spokes were all tight) kenda Millville tires, front and rear hydraulic disk brakes.
On the go the pitster pro revs quite fast and pulls hard all the way through the power band. The main reason for this is that the clutch in the GPX motor is not mounted on the crank like some of the other pit bikes out there. The clutch works effortlessly and feels very smooth. This is one of the biggest displacement engines in its class weighing in at 124cc. one of the best features about this engine is that you can start it in any gear. If you plan on racing this is a must have. Compared with other 120cc class engines. We drag raced the pitster against a TAC 88cc equipped Honda and a Lifan 120cc equipped Honda, the pitster always seemed to get the other bikes off the start and usually dominated unless it was a longer course. This is a result of the extremely low gearing. In the test we rarely used first gear. Compared with other 120cc class engines. Although it seems really low this gearing may be beneficial on some of the smaller mini motocross tracks. The GPX engine runs somewhat hot but compared to other engines in its class it is one of the cooler engines I have ridden. If racing were in your pitster’s future oil cooler wouldn’t be a bad idea. The GPX shifts flawlessly through all the gears even after hours of hard riding. The only downside to the gearbox is that neutral was always a bit tricky to find, we developed a technique of shifting to second then lightly tapping it down into neautral.the crab seems to fit the engine very well, it never felt like the engine was being starved or overly fed. The air filter on the other hand seems to be more suited for road use, We have never used the K&N style filters for off road applications so it might be ok but we plan on changing it soon just to be safe. The pipe that comes stock one the GPX looks really trick and sounds decent for a stock pipe. It seems like the pipe is a bit restrictive for a 125cc engine but it did not make a noticeable impact on performance. I would recommend not wearing any shorts that will melt wile riding the pitster, it seems to burn perfectly symmetrical holes in them and produce some interesting smells.
Chassis and handling. At first we were all skeptical about the size of the bike. We wondered if it would handle the same as the smaller 50's we were used to riding. After about 30 hours on the bike we agreed that the bikes size did not negatively affect it at all. I liked the added legroom; this is the only pit bike that I have ridden so far that didn’t beat my knees like a redheaded stepchild in k-mart. I actually felt comfortable for once.
Starting at the front, the 12'' front rim really helps the bike navigate the rough stuff allot better. After riding many bikes with 10'' front rims, this was a major improvement. The kenda tires grip very well on everything but asphalt. The aggressive tread will shred anything that is in its path. According to the local PD these tires "caused many deep ruts and allot of other property damage to the local schools lawn" needless to say they also provide adequate propulsion for running from the cops and angry janitors when after they catch u hitting a sweet cut-in at the local school. The rims are nicely powder coated and we never managed to scratch them. The spokes and rims work very well together, we never had to tighten the spokes once during the review. They seem like a very heavy-duty combo. Out of the box the front brakes were somewhat spongy, the rear felt the same. After bleeding the front and rear brakes at the banjo and at the bleeder screw they seemed to work allot better. The rear brakes worked well until one of the test riders (Adam) crashed hard and bent the brake pedal. We bent it back and it was fine after that. The front forks are quite beefy and work well throughout the travel, after about 20 hours the triple clamp did start to loosen up but it was fine after we tightened it (we never checked it when we uncrated the bike). The handlebars felt extremely nice for stock. The grips are even comfortable. The brake and clutch levers felt weird from what we are used to (they looked like something I would eat my lucky charms with when I run out of clean spoons) even though they looked weird they felt fine when we were riding the machine. They held up very well through all the crashes and never bent or broke. The GPX frame fleet very solid and never felt like it was flexing even when flat landing jumps hard with our test riders 190+ pounds of lard along for the ride. The +2 frame really seems to add the stability of the bike and accounts for much of the added legroom when compared to a stock Honda frame. The powder coating on the frame and the other pieces of the bike is very sturdy and we never managed to scratch it except on the engine side covers, which is normal. The peg mounts and pegs are very solid and never bent a bit during our testing even with our heaviest riders doing full size motocross jumps and sometimes flat-landing them. The skid plate is super thick and protected the engine well even when casing hard on a few large doubles. The seat and plastics on the GPX seem to be very high quality they were very durable throughout the test and even after hrs of natural sandblasting they still retained their stock shine. The seat is a bit too firm for my taste. It is comparable to a KTM mix bike. The seat cover is super grippe and keeps you planted in the turns .the shock is my only complaint about the bike. The shock is very stiff and even after adjusting numerous times we could not dial the shock in for the mx courses we were riding. It’s hard to keep the rear end planted through whoops or similar terrain. At first I loved the shock when I was just hitting kickers and putting around, even after about 45 hrs of riding I have not been able to bottom the shock out. If you plan on just hitting jumps all day and don’t want to race or ride technical terrain I would stick with this shock. If you plan on racing I would go with something a bit softer like a fox air shock or possibly an I-shock. The swing arm works flawlessly and appears to be very heavy duty. The only complaint about the swing arm was the chain slide. From the factory they come with a rubber chain slide, this wears out in about 5 hrs of riding. T-bolt racing is making a derlin replacement unit and it should be out shortly after this review. We ended up making one out of some scrap derlin to get us through the review.
Final thoughts. In the end it all comes down to wither or not this bike holds up compared to a Honda. In the opinions of many die-hard Honda fanatics nothing will ever compare to a built Honda. And I must admit I was quite skeptical as to if this bike would be reliable. I am happy to say that it was very reliable and held up extremely well through all the torture we put it through. The only thing we managed to bend or brake was the brake pedal and that only took a few minutes to bend back. In my opinion this is the first Chinese "knock off" that will actually hold up. GPX has made an excellent bike that does what it is supposed to without braking. Although it is an excellent bike it still may need a few minor mods to get it race ready such as a softer rear shock, chain slide, foam type air filter, some minor brake work and possibly a less restrictive pipe. Even with these shortcomings it is still an excellent deal for the money. From my experience t-bolt racing really stands behind these bikes if anything should go wrong with them. The question is simple, why pay 3 or 4 times as much to build a Honda to this point when you can have a GPX and not have to worry if its going to brake or not.
Specs. (provided by gpx)
Engine Type - 125cc Single Cylinder, More power then any other Pitbike in its class!
Air Cooled - 4 Stroke
Max Power - 8 HP @ 8500 RPM
Compression - Ratio 9.6:1
Valve Train - SOHC: Two Valve
Transmission - 4 Speed with Manual Clutch
Final Drive - #420 16T Front / 41 T Rear Front Suspension - 36mm Long Travel Forks
Rear Suspension - Long Travel Shock, Adjustable pre-load!
Aluminum - Swingarm
Wheelbase - 40.5 Inches
Seat Height - 26.75 Inches
Bar Height - 38.5 Inches
Ground Clearance - 9.5 Inches
Fuel Capacity - 0.8 Gallon
Frame - Chromo
Front Brake - Hydraulic Disc
Rear Brake - Hydraulic Disc, Stronger and easy maintance! Front - Tire 2.50 x 12
Rear - Tire 2.75 x 10
Performance- Exhaust
Performance - Kenda Milville Tires
Wheels - Black Wheels w/ HD Spokes
Grips - GPX Stage Compound
Seat - GPX 40mm Tall Gripper
Seat Color Black / Black
GPX Graphics Full Graphics Kit
Shrouds, # Plates, F & R Fenders and Bar Pad
Protection - Heavy Duty Skid Plate
Pegs - Oversized
Shifter - Long / Folding
