Chinese Motorcycles

There are quite a few Chinese motorcycle manufacturers popping out over there. They somewhat tickles my nostalgic feeling; 60's of Japanese and British Motorcycles or 40's of BMW. Some are looking quite modern now a days and I don't mind owning one.

"Their just cheap garbage." Some said. Yes, maybe so right now but that sounds bit familiar, isn't it? I have heard that before.

Back in the early 1960s, Triumphs, BSAs, Nortons and all bikes British were king of the motorcycle hill. Some said if you ain't riding a Harley, you ain't a real biker...Japanese bikes were small, cheap and sold out of little hole-in-the-wall store fronts... In fact, some Honda Cubs were sold in sporting good stores or even grocery stores. At the time, all the magazines and British shop all said the Jap bikes were junk: Poor quality, unreliable and used funny (JIS) metric tools. Just stay with good, reliable British bikes or King of the road, Harley Davidson.

That really worked out as we all know. Now I hear the same thing about the Chinese bikes. So what is the real truth? According to some mechanics that have worked on Chinese bikes, their quality is just fine but there is a problem. You get what you pay for. There are literally a dozen of Chinese motorcycle factories over there. There are hundreds of parts suppliers. They build a bike and sell it cheap. Trouble is that there is basically no support. No parts support, No shop manuals. No factory training . " We just build them; anything happens to it after the purchase is your problem" attitude. As if they are telling you that they are so busy clanking bikes so fast that there is no time for after care service. I guess when you buy bike that cheap, you are taking over the dealer's job; you are responsible for the support of the bike and we are getting paid for it. Our pay is the money we saved by buying a cheap bike.

I hear that these bikes are well made for the most part. The only real problem is that the Chinese have not totally figured out what is required to make a good reliable motorcycle for the US market... yet. For example. One of the bikes' rear chain was not adjustable from side to side so the chain was not perfectly aligned with the front sprocket. However, they put the heavy duty 630 chain on it. The engine was a 250cc. Even with a lot of side wear, the monster chain will never break. Their philosophy of good reliable machines might be bit off from ours...

I also heard that they are producing so many bikes and models like cell phone companies; two year old models are already obsolete in their book. You will not be able to get parts for it. Yeah they sell parts. But they like to sell complete assemblies rather than tiny individual parts. such as complete carburetor assembly, complete clutch assembly, complete magneto assembly...Yeah they are cheap so you might not mind. But I bet you will have many extra parts in your garage.

I toyed with the idea that becoming a dealer for those Chinese bikes especially the one with a side car. But as I learned those facts, I realize that I should wait at least they start publishing decent shop manuals for each models in decent English language. (They are known for not having native speakers to correct any awkward sentences in any language) Thus the web site page like Engrish.com, or the term Chinglish

Chinese Motorcycle Industry Factoids from Motorcycle.com

1. There are more than 130 motorcycle manufacturers in China

2. Chongqing-based manufacturers produced 10 million units

3. Twenty-three Chinese OEMs each produce more than 100,000 units annually

4. Twelve manufacturers produce more than 500,000 units a year

5. At least five manufacturers produce more than 1 million units a year (four are based in Chongqing)

6. China produced 27.5 million bikes in 2008, nearly half the world's production

7. China has passed Japan as the number-one motorcycle producer

8. More than 15 million motorcycles are sold annually in China

9. Less than 20% of China's production goes to foreign markets

10. Chinese bikes sold in export markets like America are often marketed by independent companies operating under different names.