The Detech Honda Win manual

The Honda Win and Google Searches

A simple google of “Honda Win” will reveal the reputable sources and their opinions on the Honda Win motorbike. Most of us won’t touch the motorbike, the risk of reputation damage is not worth it. Some reputable places will stock it to get people in the door, but they don’t actually want backpackers to buy it.
At Tigit we do not use the Honda Win. We deal with genuine motorbikes for travelling Vietnam.

The truth about the Honda Win.

The Honda Win is a toy motorbike. A $600 piece of garbage that is so bad, it does not exist anywhere else in the world.

“Ah but Sufat Honda Win is made in Vietnam”.

Let Tigit explain:  Before Sufat it was Ferroli, before Ferroli is was Mekado before Mekado…. well it was real bikers and this Chinese stuff didn’t exist until the top gear Vietnam special came along.

Common marketing tactics. As a brand gets tarnished we move onto the next “brand” and say it is better than all the others models because ….. “insert sales pitch”.

The Win is unreliable, unpredictable and generally expensive to fix. Even if they do work, they will never drive properly and have no handling and no build quality!

It is the new drivers who end up on these motorbikes. New drivers have no comparison to compare from driving a real motorbike. A shame in our eyes to see backpackers missing out on an amazing opportunity to drive a good motorbike through some of the greatest mountain roads in the world.

Buy a cheap Honda Win

Lets assume a Honda Win purchased for $250!

Assume a 2000km journey. 2000km/300km (suggested oil changes) = 6 times at 4usd a time. Total = $24
Breakdowns (realistically) between $50 and $100. Will continue this maths with $50 on the low end.
Expected sale value (leaving country quickly) = $150,   Purchase value less the sale value, $250-150 = $100

$100 (loss on sale) + $24 (oil changes) + $50 maintenance = $174 total expense

This is excluding the maths on the useless gas consumption of a Chinese motorbike over a 2000km journey against an authentic motorbike.
It is also excluding the math on what holiday time is worth to you! Yes, some people believe that spending their holiday on the inside of a random countryside mechanic is good value, but I imagine the majority of people out there, would rather be on a beach!

For the sake of argument and to shut the people up saying “but I spent less”. These numbers are definitely on the generous side to the Win and I think it is hard to massively dispute these costs.

Take a $174 holiday on a Chinese toy motorbike that may or may not work VS a $250 rent on a genuine motorbike by a reputable proven company.

These numbers show that the argument of ” small budget” from backpackers really is incredibly weak

The worst motorbike in South East Asia.

Looking around the city streets and it can be seen that locals do not use the Honda Win. They can be found in the mountains used by farmers. The nice thing about the Win is that it is so cheap to buy that it never depreciates. For farmers who can do maintenance at Vietnamese prices then the Win serves a purpose. For backpackers, they are a disaster of expensive breakdowns. On your journey, remember the key phrase motorcycle repair shops near my location.

But all the other backpackers are on Honda Wins!

Yes, because all the other backpackers have no idea what they are doing and seem perfectly happy to lie to eachother to save cash on ruined holidays of over budget breakdowns.

Just look on craigslist and facebook to see that every Honda Win advert has a copied and pasted “no breakdowns” and oil changes every “200-400km”. Take 14l gas tank of $10 which will go approximately 200km. This is claiming one oil change for every two gas tank fills.
This is $5 to every $20 of gas…. not a particularly economical way to travel long distance.

To put it in perspective, most motorbikes Tigit rents will need oil changes every 1000km. Our top end imported motorbikes and bikes found overseas will have oil changes every 10,000km.
The Honda Win needs these regular oil changes due to a cheap Chinese engine that burns and leaks oil at the same time. This rapid oil consumption means that oil must frequently be changed.

The Honda Win is dangerous

Tigit Motorbikes started as a Honda Win dealer and we ran away from this horrible and dangerous market. The Honda Win catches fire, brakes fail and it wobbles around with no stability, control or handling.
We could use our reputation and scale to buy and sell to clueless backpackers who have no idea what they are doing. However we would rather try to educate and use our presence to steer people away from this horrific motorbike.
Tigit’s resilience to not get involved in the easy money grab of shoestring backpackers pretending to have no money is one of the reasons for our success.

For Tigit, respect on local markets and expat groups has led to word of mouth referrals and articles across the internet. Tigit is a place that gives the blunt truth and will not shy away from of an aggressive topic run by delusional backpackers.

Estimated value – $150-700
The Win and the Detech Honda Win are the most common motorbike to be found in the backpacker street.
A joke of a motorbike that wobbles around and breaks down all through the country. Surprisingly expensive to fix and generally an absolute burner of dollar notes in mechanic bills.

Why do backpackers choose the Honda Win?

Backpackers don’t choose the Win. The Vietnamese dealers choose the Honda Win as it is easy to sell to backpackers with its “cool” and cheap charactistics.

The Win is a dirty cheap manual motorbike that “looks cool”. On the Vietnamese market it can be bought for around $100 and it can be flipped to backpackers for $300+. Shoe string, budget backpackers tend to have no motorbike experience and have no idea what to look out for when purchasing a motorbike. This creates a market of easy money for backpacker street motorbike shops.

Backpackers buy the motorbike, then go up the country breaking down and spending money in mechanic shops. When it comes to the time to sell the motorbike the backpacker must try and sell for as little loss as possible. The best way to do this is to claim “no breakdowns”. The entire market of backpackers selling to each other is full of “no breakdown” motorbikes, so even with a moral compass on-board, a realization that to sell onward to another clueless backpacker then a copied advert of “no breakdowns” is required.
The alternative is to sell to a backpacker dealer for $100, where they will give it a “Matt black paint job” and flip it to the next clueless person that comes along.

This circle of “no breakdowns” creates a false image of the Honda Win within backpacker groups. The people buying this motorbike are the people trying to save money at all costs and they are also the people with no motorbike experience.

The people who know about motorbikes will quickly wise up to this Honda Win scam and start looking for other options. These are the people that end up in shops such as Tigit Motorbikes.

The Detech Honda Win in 2017

The Detech Honda Win has become popular on the backpacker market. A new brand and style of travelling where a new Detech Win can be purchased for around $600-700 with a guaranteed buyback. Essentially the same as a traditional motorbike rental.
Backpackers now have the decision of renting a Detech Honda Win for the difference of $180 or renting a genuine Honda motorbike for $250.

It is common for backpackers to email Tigit and ask if we believe these Detech Wins are reliable, despite the fact we don’t operate in this market. Our thoughts from watching the backpacker sales is that these new Detech Wins tend to work without breakdowns, however they still drive like toy motorbikes that wobble around and have no quality.

Simply put: in performance they can’t be compared to the experience of riding a genuine Honda motorbike. This is something that is difficult to explain in words or even capture on video. It has created a split in the market where experienced riders who understand about performance will use a company like Tigit. Leaving the inexperienced first time riders to the Honda Win.

Huge improvements on years gone by where backpackers were buying and selling incredibly dangerous Honda Win motorbikes on a mass scale. This market still exists, but has become considerably smaller!

I am still not convinced, give me more content about the Honda Win

For those of you who enjoy the Tigit Win bashing articles read our strongest anti Win article to date at why is vietnam popular for travelling by motorbike.
Hopefully you are already convinced and can head straight over to looking at the rental motorbikes that we provide. Guess what, the Win isn’t there… if the motorbike actually worked, we might consider using it. After-all, they are easy enough to sell to clueless backpackers, it is no different from taking candy from a baby.

When should you buy a Honda Win?

Hopefully the answer is never, but perhaps a group of lads on a holiday aimed at laughing at each other whenever anything goes wrong. The Honda Win can provide some additional entertainment and story lines.
Having said that, not even the Top Gear guys were dumb enough to buy these motorbikes, now that is saying something!

What should you do?

Rent a motorbike from Tigit. Breakdown warranty, damage waivers. Safe, reliable and modern motorbikes.
Tigit has scooters, manual motorbikes and large capacity adventure motorbikes.

Still don’t trust dealers? Backpacker to backpacker pact ? Ok then…. watch these!