This KZfaq video is the second one in a series documenting my experiences in importing two electric motorcycles from China to Unites States and evaluating and testing them. If you have not watched the first video detailing ordering, arrival and picking up of these motorcycles, I recommend you to watch that one first for the sake of continuity.
First, I would like to provide you a summary of the timeline up to this date, which will also give you an idea how long the ordering, shipping and receiving processes took in my case:
1. I placed the order of these motorcycles from Wuxi Saichi Vehicle Industry in China through Alibaba.com on September 4th 2019.
2. They were shipped from Shanghai, China on October 16th via sea freight.
3. They arrived to Port of Boston on November 20th.
4. Two days later, on November 22nd , the container was “devanned”, meaning that it was unsealed in the presence of customs and all its contents were taken out.
5. Three days later, on November 25th, the motorcycles became available for pick-up at the warehouse in Holbrook Massachusetts located about 20 miles south of Boston.
6. However, by the time I paid the customs duties, fees and warehouse charges, it was November 27th, just before Thanksgiving break, so I had to wait until after.
7. On December 3rd, I rented a 15-foot U-Haul truck and picked up the motorcycles from the warehouse.
8. My older son and I did the uncrating and the first ride around our block the following weekend, on December 7th and 8th.
9. A week later things got a bit crazy at home when both of my sons and I got the flu and were out of commission through the Christmas and New Year’s.
10. We resumed our test rides on January 11th, 2020.
11. And the story continues.
The motorcycles arrived almost fully assembled, even with full batteries. After uncrating, the only things we had to do to get them road-ready were installing the mirrors and bolting on the handlebars.
We discovered four issues during this process:
1. First, the manufacturer had sent us European spec, 220V 50Hz chargers with round-pin plugs. I ended up ordering a correct charger from eBay.
2. Second, one of the bolts fastening the left handlebar to the triple-clamp was misthreaded. I had to extract the bolt and then carefully retap the hole.
3. Third, the speedometer was in km/hr instead of mi/hr.
4. And fourth, my motorcycle already had 68km on the odometer. Since the tires and motorcycle itself looked brand new, I assume that the manufacturer repurposed the instrument cluster from another motorcycle instead of installing a brand new one.
These issues I will cover in a future video that will be documenting my experience as a customer with Alibaba.com and Wuxi Saichi Vehicle Industry.
In any case, here are the clips showing the uncrating of the motorcycles and getting them ready for their first rides. Please stay tuned and check my channel for upcoming videos of reviewing and road testing these motorcycles. Enjoy!