- If you own a Fly Wing 250 EFI, you might want to be careful when braking.
- A recall reveals that the brakes don’t perform as well in the wet as they should.
- Retailers have been ordered to replace the brake pads with new ones at no cost.
You may never have heard of Fly Wing, but the name has been attached for years to a rotating cast of China-built dirt bikes, road bikes, and scooters sold across several markets, the United States included. The company behind one specific Fly Wing model now has a problem on its hands, or rather, in its owners’.
A recall notice issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reveals that Taizhou Qianxin Vehicle Co. Ltd., which builds the 2024 Fly Wing Snake 250 EFI, has identified a defect. According to the company itself, the brake pads fitted to the bike “may fail to stop the motorcycle as intended in wet road conditions.”
Read: China’s GWM Souo S2000 Flat-8 Motorcycle Wants To Run The Honda Goldwing Off The Road
The recall documents spell out the shortfall. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require wet-brake deceleration to come in at no less than 60 percent of the average recorded during a dry baseline test, measured between 0.5 and 1.0 seconds after the lever is pulled. The Fly Wing Snake 250 managed just 29.26 percent, less than half of what the rule allows.
The manufacturer of the motorbike pins the blame on a defective brake pad, although it doesn’t specify if the brake pads used are perhaps too small, made from inadequate materials, or suffer from some other issue. Either way, the horrible wet-braking performance obviously poses a serious safety risk to anyone who owns one of these motorcycles.
A total of 216 units are being recalled, all of which were produced between February 1, 2024, and August 30, 2024, and then sold in the US.
Taizhou Qianxin Vehicle Co will begin notifying owners of the recall between June 1 and June 15, instructing them to take their bike to the nearest Fly Wing retailer, where the brake pads will be replaced free of charge. Apparently, these new brake pads have been tested and meet the applicable safety standards.
