You know what they say, unhappy customers are the most likely to talk.  Can you blame them?  They feel they have been mistreated.  Forums are a favorite place to vent.  I've been there.

However, a person can go over board when trying to get the treatment they deserve.  This usually leads to the decline of a forums overall quality.  Sometimes it also paints an unfair picture of a business.  If you hang out on forums enough you know what I mean.

I want this forum to be a voice of Lifan (and Lifan based) machine owners and enthusiasts.  Good and bad experiences are welcome.  Because people who feel they have been mistreated tend to be more tenacious than others I am going to have to be slightly biased in my control of negative postings.
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So, here are the guidelines for posting about your issues with a company...
1) Post all the details of your experiences and state the facts in one post only.
2) In future threads started by others, if it makes sense you can post a link to your original post about your bad experiences.

Here are some examples of when it does and doesn't make sense:
- Someone posts "What do you think of so and so company?"  If your bad experience post is about this company it would make sense.  Post your link.
- If someone posts "I had a bad experience with so and so company".  This is a good time to post you link. 
- If someone posts about how much they love their Lifan, that would be a bad time. 
- If someone posts "So and so company is awesome!" and you had a bad experience with that company, that would be a bad time to post the link.

3) If the business makes things right please update your original post and let everyone know.
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If you don't follow these terms I will move your post out of view.  I will email you the contents of the post on request as I value the time people take to post.

That is about it.  I think people who follow these guidelines will get better results and this forum will be better off.  Feel free to leave your input.  I am interested to hear what you think but I am pretty confident these terms are fair.

Below are some more things to consider if you are interested.
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Things to think about before you post:
1) Are you sure you read the terms, warranty info, etc that you agreed to?  Is your issue still an issue in this light?

Things to keep in mind about businesses:
1) They are run by humans and mistakes happen.  Most businesses want to make it right.
2) If you keep a professional tone and try to contact the business directly first the business will probably respond faster.
3) If you try to use forums to get them to take action they will probably ignore you.  If you think hard about it, can you really blame them?  If the tactic was successful for one person than everyone would follow suit.  I have seen people get burned by this so be careful.
4) If you explain your situation to people on this (or any) forum and don't come in with strong words about the company you might be surprised at how well it turns out.

OK, this thread is locked. 

Let's start over with no personal attacks.

No personal attacks please.

Hey DFoyd, sounds like you have a cool job.  Welcome to the forum.  Congrats on the new bike!

Here is the engine setup vid he mentions...

I am looking forward to seeing all these new bikes.

Is the Xi 500 a single cyclindar? 

Interviews and articles I have read about Tank seem to indicate they are serious about the American market.

I took some notes on an interview with Tank's VP:

Parts Warehouse
- 10 K SKUs’ for over 30 different brand names including Lifan, Honda, Yamaha
- Largest Chinese parts distributor in US.

http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070522/0256410.html

Interesting they are looking to distribute Lifan parts.  Is this still the case?

Both are made for the American Market - as are Skygo, Roketa, TMS, or whatever have you. . .

A Grey Market Lifan would be one made for Britian, India, or Canada, but redirected to the USA.

So your saying the Lifan’s branded by Skygo, Roketa, TMS, Galata are built by Lifan with the intention of selling them in the United States with the respective brand names on them. 

If that is the case I agree, they should NOT be called “Grey Market”.

There are those that think that the Chinese government has allowed their people to travel to far down the road of capitalism that there is no turning back.  

This is a good point and a major arguement against most investments in Chinese companies.  I would not bank my nest egg on it but I would use some play money and pull my initial investment out at a certain point.

Kramer (TV investment guy) recommends buying American companies that stand to capitialize on Chinese success to stem you exposure to risk.  Not a bad idea.  Not sure it is an option with Lifan though.