Chinese bikes

[qcnr]

Now before you get all uppitty, this is my opinion and I recognise that everyone can do as they wish and make their own choices.
But why is there such a drooling craze over stuff from China?
Have people forgotten what this country represents, or is it ok to support a regime as long as the price is right?
Oh yes here come the, yeah but your iPhone, etc, etc. Well if you can't distinguish that thought then carry on being ignorant.
If you buy a Chineseum bike (no matter how good and cheap) you may as well import your fuel from Russia, get a mechanic from N. Korea
and sort your lubricants from Iran. Which I am certain no one would do.
But China is exactly the same as these other countries, yet we welcome them with open arms, why?

[Billy Bananahead]

You said it in your post when you said "as long as the price is right".
It's all to do with price and i have bought stuff which has been defective as soon as i've taken it out of the packet and so i do try to not buy any of their sh!te though it is quite difficult at times.
If the importers stopped trading with the fookers it would surely help us all, the importers and the British Government are to blame, China is just taking advantage of the situation as far as i can see. The whole lot from top to bottom stinks. Bastards.

[dave h]

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

People are turning to the Chinese bikes because:

1) European and Japanese manufacturers are having their bikes built in China: even the premium brands like BMW.

2) The Chinese have 'borrowed/adapted/stolen' a lot of the tech from the 'premium European' bikes they assemble and put it into their own brands/designs.

3) People have become used to buying stuff generally that is made in China...my shoes are made in China, the MarBook Air I am writing on is made in China, my 'forest and garden' powertools are made in China (with the exception of the Honda lawnmower, which is made in France). Some of those tools bear famous non-Chinese names.

4) China can bring huge economies of scale to pretty much anything it puts its mind to, plus it has a cheap and subservient workforce.

5) As we switch from ICE vehicles to BEV, everything with wheels is going to end up coming from China. China is decades ahead on this front. While we agonise about putting up charging stations for heavy commercial vehicles, the Chinese now have a standard battery interchangable on all 5 makes of truck in their home market. Swapping a battery takes about as long as filling a truck with diesel.

I've genuinely liked most Chinese people that I've met. But I loath their political system and their Government, to the extent that a few years ago I turned down a chance to spend a week in China as a guest of BYD.

Most other people couldn't care less. As late as the 1980s, when I was working for Classic Bike magazine, I recall taking a very angry call from a guy who said we should have turned down (very lucrative) full-page ads from Kawasaki..."because of what the filthy nips did to our lads in the war." But Japanese goods had already become perfectly acceptable, and even desirable. We will see Chinese goods go the same way, and there's nothing we can do about it.

A bloke I know runs a haulage company. He was horrified when an expensive component failed on a brand-new Swedish-built truck and it had 'Made in China' on it. He wouldn't so much as buy a Chinese kettle for the office...it took he weeks to find one made elsewhere in the far east. Sadly, he's in the minority.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

I was very suspicious of the Morini X-Cape because every launch review of it in English appeared to have been written by one Alan Cathcart: the gentleman who sung the praises of all the Garner-era Nortons. You know, the ones that have been subsequently judged to be too dangerous to ride on the road and too badly made to be repaired. Cathcart, apparently, didn't notice any of this.

He wrote: "As the only person outside Norton to have test ridden both the 1200 V4 SS and the Atlas 650 Nomad and Ranger models in production-ready guise, I can only applaud Skinner and his R&D team for having produced two such excellent platforms on the most slender of resources."


hahaha!

[Magnusson]

What is happening is not so much that people are starting to purchase Chinese products, but that people are starting to purchase Chinese branded products. At half the price of Chinese made (but differently branded) products.
China is horrible in human rights but those of you without sin throw the first stone.

[DavidS]

My probably ignorant take is….
Western products made in China come under western standards of scrutiny.
Chinese designed and made products are or have been made on the ‘we don’t give a toss’ policy.

I know of two or three companies who were or are involved with Chinese manufacturing and their morals are non-existent. They will breach copyrights/patents, substitute cheaper and inferior materials once production is under way and generally try and get away with all sorts of dodgyness.


That said, loads of useful bits and pieces we buy from ebay etc just wouldn’t be available if they didn’t make them.
But I do want a level trading playing field and fair conditions for workers, not excessive state subsidies to stifle competition or subsistence living (that applies world wide).

[Magnusson]

You cannot avoid Chinese made. I have Czech made car and US made motorcycle. Many parts in both of these are made in China. Same with my "assembled in Czech" Japanese Panasonic TV. Is there any cell phone that is not made in China?
China is bad. There is no doubt about that. From suppression of minority groups to executions and organ harvesting from political prisoners. They've poisoned the land and mined out sources of materials. Which is why they support Russia in its invasion into Ukraine, in exchange for access to Siberian land.

As bad as China is, US is still the country where the largest percentage of the population is in prison.
Here is link to how UK is doing.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/12/hum ... verdict-uk
"“In 2022, we saw the most significant assault on human rights protections in the UK in decades,” said Yasmine Ahmed, UK director at Human Rights Watch."

[Tramp]

A bmw etc made or assembled in china has the big boys underwritten warrenty, the china phones for example warrenty are useless unlike samsung etc which are probably made or assembled in china...

Kove etc are well designed what the market wants only time will tell for parts availability in 5 to 10 years.

New European and mainstream bikes are crazy prices now...with far too much tech...Lean abs ...ain't riders got a brain these days...

I'll keep my 15 year old reliable works for me xt660z...

[fatowl]

Samsung phones are made in Vietnam.