Once upon a time British bikes pretty much ruled the world, there were some Italian oddities around that were exotic and a bit crap and BMW made boring bikes for architects to ride. Harley Davidson was horrendously expensive and out of the reach of most British bikers. Then along came the Jap bike revolution.
Japanese bikes were pretty badly made back then, the materials were sub standard and they rusted if you looked at them too hard but what they did have was innovation and speed, the British bike industry had basically stopped developing things according to riders demands and gave people what the manufacturers decided they should have so saving money on R&D. The products were solid and made with good materials but they were outdated. The Japanese saw the opportunity and in they came and instantly dominated the market, their bikes cost less and were faster and speed was the order of the day.
Fast forward to today, Italian exotica has gained reliability in the most part, the Japanese still dominate the market and we even have a successful British bike manufacturer, BMW have branched out a bit but retain their core customers. Enter China.
China is seeking to build itself into the world’s manufacturing system and everything is game, motorcycles are a prime target for them but what are they offering? Poor copies, crap build quality and no innovation. They are bringing nothing to the table other than cheap bikes for people without any sense. They are buying up old bike brand names and sticking it on small capacity crap bikes instead of lifting up their manufacturing standards and actually developing new and exciting products. All they have a reputation for is being crap. There is no upside. The early Jap bikes were fast, China has got it all wrong.
