Imported Bikes
I have a motorcycle business and we work on all manner of bikes and trikes and sometimes even a car :-(.
It's a fantasy that Jap bikes have a higher build quality and are better value. I hear rubbish like "is it one of those cheap imported Chinese bikes or is it Japanese?". Japan is further away than China!
I have along career in Engineering and Quality Assurance and fail to see any real difference between what comes through the workshop.
We only have one bike that was made here, a 1935 Dunelt 250 special.
The Chinese now produce and buy more motorcycles than any other country and are moving on to bigger machines with more modern technology. The economies of scale that they have allow them to keep the cost down.
I judge each bike on it's merits, not where it was made. Unfortunately Jap bikes are not designed with servicing in mind and this therefore shows in any copies the Chinese have made, so blame Japan for that. With so many alternatives to Jap bikes I expect the Chinese to both copy the better aspects of them and maybe even bring some new designs to the mix.
What I would love to see is some British designed and engineered bikes, AJS are doing that already and they are built in China.
Remember this: the jap bikes stole the market with cheap imports in the1970's. There were some classics admittedly but mostly they were not.
dedge10, if you like Kinroad, the service parts are affordable and it has good spares/dealer backup then buy it.
I hate the word cheap, we all want value for money right?
