Does anyone have one of these dirt bikes or know anything about it? Price is about THB 50,000 and THB 3,500 for plates?

Talking about buying a Platinum motorcycle is not that popular, on one side you have happy users which smile daily from ear to ear, and on the other side you have people who belief that for a dirt cheap bike they can buy something comparable to, what best is explained by a Harley or comparable Japanese motorcycle with the same cubic engine volume.

It is true; you cannot compare the engine of 150cc Platinum to the performance of any Japanese or European motorcycle engine of the same cubic volume. But then motorcycles from Europe or Japanese motorcycles (made in Thailand or abroad) are also much more in currency. It is similar as eating at McDonalds and complaining that it not taste like that little bistro in Paris with 4 or 5 Michelin stars, where the 'burger' plate is about 100 times more expensive.

Personally I know several extremely happy Platinum owners, which, other then the usual motorcycle maintenance are very happy with there bike. In 'usual maintenance' I mean motorcycle chain/sprockets, engine oil, brake fluid ... etc

Hi: I don't have a PX but I did buy one of the first 150 Choppers sold in the south.
I have had it for 21/2 years and done 22,000 km on it.
The worst problem for me was that it was "assembled" in Thailand. I did have problems with electrics not working and bits dropping off. Due to the poor quality control on assembly.
The local dealer has worked on my bike several times and now the learning curve has ended he does a good job.
Sure its nowhere near the quality of my 750 Honda, but it does nearly 140 km to 4.5 ltr and repairs are so cheap.
Are these motorcycles a piece of crap? All in all, I will say NO. But you do get what you pay for.
I think I got a good deal.

We maintain about 60 motorcycles, of many builds and brands, mostly owned by foreigners, who stay within the Kingdom some of these bikes, are the latest superbikes and some are, what we consider regular shopping motorcycles.

We also have some service contracts with individual; government workers and officers and we therefore have signed contacts to service some Platinum Motorcycles. At the moment, this service agreement is for about 50 Platinum motorcycles. For which we setup production facility to manufacture all possible engine parts, if in case the original manufacturer, Platinum Motorcycle is by some mishap unable to supply parts.

Back to the original story, the early Platinum PX175 motorcycles where.. Something I would say less then good. This is no secret, even Platinum Motorcycle agrees with this assumption, they even offered to help and services unhappy buyers.

Dealing with Platinum motorcycles, meanly by Thai government offices, we not have any problems and we tested some larger bikes to the extremes we could thing off. Nothing shows, no problems and road handling of a Platinum Monaco 250cc is very much into the correct weight, power, and control ratio. Compared to other, low cost cruisers available on the Thai market, the Platinum Monaco 250cc takes the Crown, with the Kawasaki Boss 175cc coming as second. The Honda Phantom coming in as last, skipping a few blank positions.

I bought a Platinum bike for my Thai GF. Junk is too kind a word. Within the first 1400 kms, the fuel hoses rotted out and the gas on/off lever fell apart spilling fuel, the turn signals failed twice, the horn fell out because the metal bracket holding it had broken from metal fatigue (probably caused by the excessive engine vibrartion), the headlight burnt out. Also, the rear wheel wobbles, the brakes are dangerously inadequate and the fuel tank is so small it must be filled every other day. I wish I had just come up with the additional 20,000 baht and bought a Honda. My Honda has 39,000 km on it with no problems other than normal maintenance. PS I later discovered that my Platinum bike bought new in January 2008 had been manufatured in February 2005!

Just curious, was this the PX175 model?

I bought a Platinum PX175 Dirt Bike almost 6 months ago, I have not done a lot of km on the bike because I only use it for short journeys, but as an actual owner I feel I'm in an ideal position to dispel some of the myths surrounding these bikes.

You must bear in mind that even today the PX175 is under 60,000 baht, this is very cheap for this kind of bike, the next cheapest fully registered and legal enduro style bike in Thailand is 149,000 (The KDX-250), and that has only been available for a couple of months.

The PX175 is based on 80's honda technology with more modern styling, and as anyone who owned a honda in the 80's will tell you, that's no bad thing. The engine in this bike is a 175cc single cylinder version of the old honda XL185, even many of the parts such as clutch can be used.

The PX175 is a full sized bike, with full sized wheels and tyres, in most countries this does not mean much, but in Thailand the alternatives at that price are smaller bikes with skinny tyres and small wheels. I'm a fairly heavy guy so I don't really feel safe on those little bikes.

As far as reliability goes I can only say that I have had no issues with the PX175, it starts and runs perfect every time. I did notice recently that the HT lead has a couple of cracks and I will be changing it soon as a precaution, it also seems very tight and part of it is bent at 90 degrees, this is clearly a assembly fault that unless I spend a hundred baht or so on a decent longer cable would cause a problem in the future, I also changed a load of the standard nuts on the bike for high quality stainless steel hex-head fasteners which are cheap in Thailand.

Fuel economy is good enough, though I don't do long enough runs to really be sure, it seems no more expensive than my old Yamaha Nouvo to run.

I have never taken it properly off-road, my honest opinion is that it's a road bike dressed up as a dirt bike, but that's not really a problem so long as you understand that.

All said and done it's not as well finished as a modern Jap bike, it's more like a 80's jap bike really, but i'll bet that it will still be on the road 15 years from now.

My advice for anyone looking dirt bike of around 50-60k is go buy a Platinum, if you can afford 150k for a Kawasaki KDX then buy that instead, the Kawasaki is better of course, and it would be unfair to compare the bikes given the price difference, though that's exactly what many people with opinions on the forums are doing.

Cheap and cheerful, bargain basement, good value.

Bought a 1 year old, 3 months ago, dirt cheap. Fun to ride. No probs what so ever. Is axactly the same as a 1980's Honda offroad. Great bike for the money it costs.

I found this thread by chance and would like to share some experiences. PX-175 is not my first dirt bike, in fact it's my fourth but it's the first one that I bought first-handed, brandnew. I bought it (camouflaged one) in September 2006 for 41,550.- Baht plus 1-2 thousand for the license plate (luckily I got # 700 same number as my third bike). My earlier bikes were Honda SL-125, Honda XL-100 and Honda MTX-125, all bought second-handed. Dirt bikes are my vehicle of choice. It's a rare case to find someone my age and occupation riding dirt bike in Bangkok, sometimes under heavy rain. I'll be 58 next month, my monthly income is six figures and I'm single. I can buy a car but I've never needed one all my life. I have maintained a personal website showing military models and dioramas for more than 10 years but I have never owned a cell phone. Same as the car, I don't need one.

My first few months with PX-175 were less than satisfactory. The battery failed to retain power, and after a few times claiming, I bought a decent one for 1,350.- Baht. That has solved the problem until this day, nearly three years on. The gas tank also got a leak and the replacement one doesn't have fuel gauge. The rear fender broke and was replaced twice. The kick-start lever tends to roll back then spring forward. I solved the problem by binding it with bodyframe using an iron wire, Apart from that it has been quite reliable and fun to ride. It's easy to start by just one click. The engine is much more powerful than any bikes that I had used before. The acceleration speed is also impressive. But beginning last month, a problem has occured. It's ignition failure while driving, whether fast or slow. It doesn't occur everyday but when it occurs, many times it's very hard to re-start the engine, until some 20-30 minutes later. I had it checked by a bike shop and the CDI box is suspected to be the cause of engine failure. I'll go to Platinum HQ tomorrow to have it replaced. And if the replacement doesn't solve the problem, I'll have to buy a new one. I've looked for options but there seems to be no company sellling dirt bikes now except Kawasaki. I just visited Platinum's website and it doesn't display PX series any more. The KLX series offers two options, a 140cc or 250cc. I don't know how much the 140cc cost but I know that the 250cc costs some 14x,xxx Baht. Maybe 140cc is two small now that I've used 175cc for almost three years.

Hello Model Maniac,

First we very sorry for your bad experience with Platinum motorcycles, but let get a few things straight, you had SL-125, Honda XL-100 and Honda MTX-125 legally in Thailand with license plates and proper insurance and paid tax? All this motorcycles where never sold in Thailand, and, some models are not even known to Thai authorities so they never issued a license for a bike like that.

Currently the Platinum PX175 costs, and yes they still sell them, costs 47,000 Baht, including license plates and one year insurance, the Kawasaki KLX250 costs near 150,000 Baht without the recommended insurance. The Platinum PX175 comes with one year warranty, which is not that bad, the Kawasaki KLX250 comes with 1-year parts and 3 year service warranty.

The cost of the new battery, is what worried me the most, and it is probably the indication that it is not the bike who has the problem, it is probably the rider. Somebody in Thailand who spends 1,350 Baht on a motorcycle battery has clearly a sign on his head "I'm a easy guy to take advantage off".

P.S. I paid 650 Baht for the few for registering this motorcycle, as standard of any motorcycle larger in displacement of 150cc.

Hello news,

Nice to hear feedbacks from you. My experience with Platinum isn't all that bad, at least it has been good for more than 2.5 years. Today I went to Platinum HQ and the service was very impressive. I had the CDI box, the front and rear lamps replaced, turning lights restored to order, for only 265 baht. (front lamp 70.-. rear lamp 30.-, CDI box 165.-, all they said at costs and labor is free). (Do you know how much Japanese-made bike's CDI box cost?, I think in the thousands). The service finished within half an hour, but it'll take a few weeks to know whether the problem of ignition failure while driving has been solved or not. I hope to continue using my PX-175 for two more years until retirement.

Honda SL-125, XL-100 and MTX-125 were formerly sold and registered in great number. My bank alone had in hundreds and I bought written-off ones (SL-125 & XL-100) for my own use. The MTX-125 was the last dirt bike sold here by Honda some 20 years ago. I still have one parking around with license plate # 700 which I've registered as "not in use" (it can be re-instated for use if wanted).

Yes, I saw many PX-175 in their showroom and they still sell it at 47,000.- like you said. This is the same price as in late 2006. As for batteries, there are many types and prices vary. The Monaco use cheaper batteries than the PX series. 1,350.- baht for the type of 7A12V battery required by the PX is the best price my brother could find in the Vorajak area. Do you know a better source? Later versions of the PX might had come with better batteries. There's a guy here who said he has no problems with the PX whatsoever. As far as I know the PXs were ordered from three different factories in China, so if you want to order parts they need to know your engine number to determine its 'version'.