From installing accessories on your bike to doing basic maintenance, pretty much everyone is looking to save money. But at the same time, there's still such a thing as deals that are too good to be true. And of course, the quantifiable truth that a lot of things just aren't built to last anymore, from clothing to appliances.
Now, bearing that in mind, did you know that online retail mega-site Temu sells motorcycle parts and tools? I'll admit, I hadn't really given it a lot of thought, despite seeing multiple videos looking at assortments of cheap car stuff from competing site Wish.com.
But they're not the same site. And just like there's some overlap between sellers on eBay and sellers on Amazon, it's probably worth considering Temu separately. That's exactly what The Bearded Mechanic does in his most recent video, where he's trying to fix up a seriously abused Yamaha TT-R 125 that he scored off of Facebook Marketplace using only parts he found on Temu.
Anyone who wrenches on any vehicles in the US is likely familiar with Harbor Freight. Likewise, they also walk into that store knowing not to expect Snap-On quality, and accepting that there's a place for both levels of equipment within the DIY ecosystem.
So, with that metaphor in mind, is Temu sometimes a solid option in the same way that Harbor Freight can be, or not?
First of all, it's worth noting that Craig (The Bearded Mechanic) is a pretty experienced wrench. He knows what to look for, and he knows what he's looking at most of the time. Since he's been working on bikes of all kinds for a long time, that means he has an advantage over a total newbie when shopping on a site like Temu.
Still, even he didn't know what would show up at his door, or even when or if it would appear. Luckily, after about six weeks, he said that everything he'd ordered did show up. Some of it was packaged well, and other things were packaged in pretty sketchy ways.
He ordered some things with specific bike projects in mind, and other things just to have on hand in his shop since he works on a lot of different bikes.
Two extreme examples of what Craig found came in the form of a big bore kit for the TT-R 125 and a set of aluminum foot pegs. While the big bore kit was labeled inconsistently enough that at first, Craig thought it was actually the stock bore kit sent by mistake. Measuring the components soon showed that it was the big bore kit after all.
While the piston ring gap needed some filing to get within spec, Craig said that the overall quality of the thing turned out to be quite good, and for a fraction of the price you'd normally expect to pay for a kit like this.
The foot pegs, on the other hand, weren't cast very well. Craig is a rider on the bigger side, so he's a bit concerned about how they'll hold up if anyone other than a small kid is using them. But if you're buying these pegs for a kid's bike, he says they seem trustworthy enough.
The only real disappointment so far was a carburetor labeled as a Mikuni, but that almost certainly isn't a real one. At first, he thought a stuck float was the reason it kept leaking copious amounts of gas everywhere, but it wasn't. By the end of the video, he was still trying to diagnose why this carb was behaving the way that it was, even while everything else was remarkably good for the price.
So basically, the finding is like a lot of online shopping nowadays. You pay your money and you take your chance. Still, here's hoping that doesn't discourage you if you are new. There's cool, useful stuff to do and to learn at every price point.
You can do it!
