A new brand of chinese "sports bikes"?

[Katman]

Thats part of the joys of ownership. Like rusty fords and holdens that constantly need repairing and spend most of their lives on bricks in driveways. Same could be said about alot of bikes that spend most of their time in sheds.

What if all those repairs needed doing within the first 12 months of ownership.

[5150]

Personal preference. I will never buy anything that only has 2 seats and less than 400 kw.

Thats a bit of a contradiction for someone who owns a bike...

[ducatilover]

funny how you note the 4age and 3sge as unreliable, I've been thrashing every kind of 4age since I got my license and never had a single problem, my old flatmate drove a ae92 Corolla about 20k without a radiator with no damage done. And my cousin had a 20v AE101 that never saw an oil change in about 7 years and managed to do the last six months of that with a fucked water pump, good Service and she runs good as new (I currently own a AE101 myself and an AW11 with a 20v), and I only ever saw 1 3sge fail, due to an oil leak that was never topped up (ex girlfriends car, I got sick of maintaining it) and even that managed about 50k after dropping the big end bearing even the turbo 3sgte seems to take a beating, although they kill turbos if the anti lag is enabled(over the years I've owned at least 13 Toyotas all of them either corollas or Celicas, and one MR2 so I know both those engines very well)

Oh I only have to work on them ya know seen plenty of reliable examples of the engines I mentioned, seen enough of the unreliable ones though. I've seen a Volvo like mine with over 400,000km on the clock, unopened original motor. Anything will last if you take care of it.
If you haven't come across an oil burning 20v, you haven't been out the front door much

Personal preference. I will never buy anything that only has 2 seats and less than 400 kw. Don't see the point - bikes are cheaper and more fun.
Plus when you have family and friends.......4 seats makes sense. More space to store shit.

Almost got an AW11 once. But instead went with an 83' Sapporo and never regretted that decision - but regretted selling that Sapporo. One of my most favourite cars ever. Twin-Mikuni Carb used to scream as I wrecked tyres. Ol' Single Cam Mitsi's were way more fun than the DOHC ones.

As for bad 3SGE's. I never had one. All of mine did 350k before I on sold em. Same with 3SFE I had.

My Vauxhall was a great shape - but tech was POS. I had a stereo that was mono. Steering was like a hacked bedford and the suspension was where the chassis flexed. The Toyota SR coupe and Nissan SSS of the same vintage made is look like a lame duck.

Funny thing was at the time. China had really good car manufacturing. They were making reliable VW (Santana's) and Buicks. So it went downhill when people wanted cheap crap.

I've got the bikes for fun, so in my head my car makes sense (it is a bit oversized for just a single guy) because every trip I do in it seems to involve travelling half the north island, and it's absolutely brilliant at doing it. four seats is a bit much, I have no friends
Those Sapporos were bloody cool little cars! Speaking of single cam Mitsis, where did all the Starions go? I service an old EX Turbo on rallies often, it's almost kind of cool. I have yet to drive a Vauxhaull that I like, or work on one that's not a screaming heap of shit.

Put it this way, if the Chinese started to build copies of the Boeing 787, powered by copies of Roll Royce engines, and sold them to airlines for half the price of the Boeing original, would you fly in one?

I would hazard a guess at nobody even noticing that it's a copy... I'm not too sure, but aren't they already copying planes?

[Katman]

I would hazard a guess at nobody even noticing that it's a copy...

Maybe not.

At least, not until they started falling out of the skies.

[huff3r]

Put it this way, if the Chinese started to build copies of the Boeing 787, powered by copies of Roll Royce engines, and sold them to airlines for half the price of the Boeing original, would you fly in one?

Probably. People fly in Airbuses, can't be worse than them.

[chasio]

There's a huge difference between products manufactured in China under strict quality controls imposed by the parent companies and products manufactured cheaply and distributed by Chinese companies though.

Shark helmets have a factory in China but would you wear a Chinese brand helmet that you'd never heard of before?

Exactly. Thank you for making the point explicitly.

I am not anti-chinese manufacturing but the reality is that none of us believes that chinese made items are well made across the board. I would happily buy a chinese made bike but only if I can pay the extra for the security of Suzuki's oversight, technical depth of knowledge, service network and warranty. And they will have learned something from their GN woes by now.

[jasonu]

Which is made in..... guess where?!

China

But most likely to Japanese standards and QC set by Suzuki. Just like Nike shoes that are made in Indonesia, China, and most recently Vietnam and are made to specs set by Nike in the states.
What we have here is a Chinese bike made to dubious Chinese 'specifications' using equally dubious Chinese quality control.

[avgas]

Put it this way, if the Chinese started to build copies of the Boeing 787, powered by copies of Roll Royce engines, and sold them to airlines for half the price of the Boeing original, would you fly in one?

Do you use a computer or a phone?
Have you done you banking on it?

[avgas]

Thats a bit of a contradiction for someone who owns a bike...

Not really. The "and" part means that the first part of the sentence must be combined with the second to make the statement valid. It is not an exclusionary statement.
So while I would never own a sub-400kw 2 seater...........I own a sub-400kw 5 seater.

But it is still RWD.

2 seaters and fun an all. But pointless if its your only car and you have kids. Trade it in a get a CJ750 with a sidecar.

[avgas]

if I can pay the extra for the security of Suzuki's oversight, technical depth of knowledge, service network

You would pay for a cracked frame, rusted brakes and failed computers?

Or would you just pay for the warranty and forget that Suzuki have sold duds before? Recalls anyone?

Man people have fish bowl memories here. GSXR cracked frames? RG/SV rusted brakes?

[avgas]

Maybe not.

At least, not until they started falling out of the skies.

We still fly on Boeings don't we. Google "Boeing + Crash".

Not saying they have shocking track record. Just saying that six sigma still means a 0.00034% failure rate. Which is fine unless you do 3,000 flights.......

[scumdog]

Once an item has to be repaired often enough it becomes neither cheap nor a bargain.

You gettin' at my Marina????

[scumdog]

What we have here is a Chinese bike made to dubious Chinese 'specifications' using equally dubious Chinese quality control.

Yet they make SKS and AK47 clones that work 100% - go figure!

[chasio]

You would pay for a cracked frame, rusted brakes and failed computers?

Or would you just pay for the warranty and forget that Suzuki have sold duds before? Recalls anyone?

Man people have fish bowl memories here. GSXR cracked frames? RG/SV rusted brakes?

Nope, not forgotten. You may consider me naive, but I believe Suzuki is able to learn from past issues. To my mind, Suzuki is less likely to have cracked frames and rusted brakes than this new outfit precisely because they have had them before.

I'll bet you one whole dollar that owners will be calling these unknown machines nasty names a lot sooner than they would a GW250. Of course I may be wrong, but I'd be happier trusting my life to the Suzuki, thanks.

[98tls]

You would pay for a cracked frame, rusted brakes and failed computers?

Or would you just pay for the warranty and forget that Suzuki have sold duds before? Recalls anyone?

Man people have fish bowl memories here. GSXR cracked frames? RG/SV rusted brakes?

TL1000 cracked frame/steering head/fuel tank replaced under recall etc etc etc.