For all those people who are thinking of buying a chinese bike,there are some poor ones and good ones.This bike is good for the money.But you must remember a few points.Check the bike regulary,replace any lose bolts with decent ones with nylon thread nuts.Change spark plug to a decent plug.You can as I did change lead to a proper silicon spark plug lead.If buying new put decent oil in.If second hand change oil and put in top notch oil in.It will be worth the money if you are intending to do lots of high speed miles.Cover the bike in wd 40 everywhere.It will stop switches going wrong and cut down on rust.If you do these service points and check every week and service it,you will probably find like me that for the money its fine. remember these bikes probably come out of the factory for maybe £400.So you are getting a bargain really as long as you follow the look after rules.Happy riding and keep safe.

Bought one of these recently after spending many months researching Chinese bikes on the net and finding this to largely being the best rated.I've covered 500km in all weather conditions and have so far been happy. The side stand kill switch WILL give you problems by cutting your bike out intermittently. Don't leave it and hope for the best, its a simple 2 minute job to disconnect or even unscrew and tuck under the seat. this problem is well documented on blogs and forums and simple steps available to cure it. Other than that do your weekly checks to keep everything tight(not to overtighten the exhaust studs we've all done it)change the oil regularly and i keep my bike coated in ACF50 seeing how i ride in all weather.To sum this bike up its very enjoyable and it costs me £3.50 a week to run as a commuter bike instead of £35.00 my car costs a week. I,ve bought this bike brand new out of petrol money

The Haotian HT-8 125 is reliable and good value for money, i have one of these bikes. great mpg as expected and reliable but noisy engine.

got the haotian 125 and its been great to have.reliable and trust worthy.im not dissapointed at all.

The Haotian HT-8 125 (Vixen 125) is exellent value for money.
Look after it and it will look after you. An easy bike to handle great first bike or for those coming back in to bike`s.
I last rode a bike in 1972 an old Ariel Arrow I have`nt `rode a bike until now April 2009. This Haotian Vixen sort of puts me in the mind of the old B S A. Bantam. or Triumph Tiger cub.
Just a bloody good ole work mans bike. Cheap economical and very very presentable.

The Haotian HT-8 125 (Vixen 125) is a nice looking learner bike and sounds much bigger will tell in a few months what reliability is like but pleased so far
searched web and parts seem available?
read some sorry tales from forams but most seem to be from techphobes who want something for nothing seems great value for money to me

The Haotian HT-8 125 is a fantastic buy for commuting (I do 60 miles per day) or as a first bike. and does easily 130 to the gallon. The chrome is as good as new with very little attention and the build quality is amazing for the money. Reliable is not saying enough, it starts everytime and runs sweetly, have clocked up over 3000 miles commuting to work. great in traffic as it is very nippy and manoeuvrable but still manages a steady 60mph on the A3

I have had my bike three weeks and to say i am happy would be an understatement. It looks great sounds great (like a bike three times it's size). Very stable at all speeds with little or no vibration. i only bought the bike as a replacement for my lifan 125 after it got written off when the front tyre blew and i binned. would recomend this bike to any new rider or seasoned rider who wants a cheap a to b bike with great looks.

I bought a Haotian Vixen several weeks ago & have been pleasantly surprised. Despite its reputation for being a bit slow I managed to get mine easily to the red line at 10000 rpm (64mph) & with a bit of a push got it to 70mph, albeit at 11200rpm, something I dont recommend you do too often however it happily cruises at just under 60 which is really quite enough for a learner bike. As for reliability in the wet, I took it from Andover to Glastonbury at the bank holiday weekend in the worst weather imaginable & it never missed a beat. OK, so far I have only had it a few weeks & only covered 1000 miles but its been excellent & represents real value for money.

I bought a Haotian HT-8 125 (aka Vixen 125) from new almost a year ago and although it has only been used for social occasions and has thus only done a little over 1000km it has served me well so far. It has always been very reliable and for the scant £800 I bought it for I must say I have been very impressed. First off this bike looks fantastic, it is an absolute monster much bigger than I was expecting and certainly a lot bigger than most 125's it has loads of chrome and as long as you look after it, it will still look shiny after a year (and I should imagine many years to come). It has a low seat and chopper style sitting position which would make it universally comfortable for male/females of any height, my girlfriend is tiny (just 5ft 2) and she can ride this bike no problem.

It rides and handles well, particular at low speeds (it's only a 125 after all) it's nippy enough to get you through traffic jams and large and stable enough so that you feel safe on it even when it's maxed out. The only negative point about the ride is it's rather poor top speed, it will top out at 55mph on a flat road with no wind with one fairly light adult rider (I'm only 10 stone), the most I've got out of it is 65 on a steep downward slope and as soon as you start going uphill you be lucky to get 45 out of it. Saying this even when it's doing 60 downhill it always feel stable and doesn't vibrate too much, I have always felt safe on this bike, and with some tuning and some new parts it's probably possible to get more out of it (mines still under warranty so I haven't wanted to mess with it yet).

The Fixtures and fittings are of an ok standard and after a year i haven't had a problem with bulbs or wiring going. All of the parts seem of a good quality which was quite surprising given how cheap this bike was! One of the complaints I have often heard about Chinese imports is that you can't source parts for them, the website/company I bought this bike off claim to stock all of the parts for it, a claim i have up until now always felt dubious of, however after over balancing it when i was walking it through a car park once and "gently lowering it to the ground" I managed to shear through the plate that holds the rear brake leaver on, and so had to put the company (llexeter) to the test. I rang them on Monday and had the part delivered to me by Tuesday afternoon for £12 inc VAT, I'm not sure if I was just lucky but for them to stock such a random part on their shelves is pretty impressive.

All in all I would recommend this bike to anyone who wants a cheap new bike to learn on as long as you don't want to be keeping up with Aprilla's or CBR's. It is a stable bike and as the first I have ever ridden it has always been kind to me and I have never come off. I found it very difficult to find a review on this bike when I first thought about getting one so I hope anyone it that position finds it useful.