The Gio Beast 200cc ATV (maybe other Chinese ATV to) : eBay Guides

I just picked up one of these Gio Beast 200cc ATV's.  I was looking for information about it before I got it and could not find much, so I will relay what I know about it now.

First don't expect to buy this and just ride it, if you don't like mechanical tinkering don't bother.  The following mods and repairs are in addition to carefull assembly and rechecking most bolts (some are not tight) including the axle nuts and tierod ends.  Don't assume anything is tight even if that part is assembled when you get your bike.

My first problem was the carb was missing the idle screw.  Allstarsales quickly sent me a new carb to fix that.  But the carb does need adjustments, they are the same as the typical round slide japanise carb they copied.  Needle hieght and mixture screw both need adjustment.  Mine worked best with the needle in the middle position and the idle screw about 3 turns out.

The chain is junk and the rear swing arm alignment is not great.  The rear swing arm bushings are too soft and deflect underload making the swing arm chain alignment even worse under load which can throw the chain.  To correct this, I purchased a good DID o ring chain (428 series), stock length is 102 links.  I also installed autmotive style heim joints on the rear swing arm to correct the bushing deflection, which did help it handle better with less rear sway as well.  This was not something that most DIY repair types would do as it takes full on fab work (welding etc.)

The spark plug is weak and can be replaced by a NGK DP8EA-9 or a DPREA-9 (resistor type).  The DPR8EA-9 is normally in stock at Canadian Tire.

The exhaust on these little units is very restrictive which is not bad for noise but there is power to be had in a muffler upgrade.  The stock muffler is a dead end style with tiny holes for the exhaust to get through, the motor really feels better with a better flowing muffler (mine was custom so I have no part numbers).

The shocks and springs are marginal and they have no compression dampening.  The front springs hardly move with a 170lb rider, very stiff.  I figured out how to compress the spring and take the front coil over spring assemblies apart and cut 2 coils from the tightly spaced end of the coils.  This helped a lot but would not be an easy thing to do without some creative spring compessor tools.  The rear coil over shock is adjustable for spring rate but the shock itself is way over dampened on rebound.  If you push the rear of the ATV down it very slowly rises back up.

The Zonshen engine seems to run well (I installed proper 10W40) oil right away and changed it after a couple rides.  But the motor does vibrate pretty bad at some RPMS, not a very well balanced one cylinder. 

I do enjoy riding the ATV, but I also enjoy fixing, so it works for me.  Because fixing is part of the Cheap Chinese Bike experiance.