Perhaps because Taiwan is the island where the Republic Of China is located.
Not to be confused with the mainland where the People's Republic Of China is located.

Wolf wrote:

wozza wrote:Oh and they are Taiwanese, which should help on the quality front if SYM and Kymco are anything to go by.

where did chinese come from then

Well I thought they were until I read a road test of 125 machines in MCN and they stated WK are Taiwanese.

oh good man still wouldn't have one I'll stick to European or Japanese machines

Wolf wrote:oh good man still wouldn't have one I'll stick to European or Japanese machines

Sorry but you're only buying a European or Japanese brand, many of their bikes are made in the same Taiwanese factories.......

I would agree if it's a Japanese made bike, but many are now made in non-Jap factories, which is one of the reasons I'm interested in the NC700 as they're making them in Japan.

You got me there sir but why do Japanese & European machines seem to be better quality as in better quality steel

One has to be a bit careful.

I remember saying to myself, "Built to Yamaha standards", even though I knew it to be of Chinese origin, when I bought the Vity, and that may well be true, but I also work for a big multinational that supplies it's own brands, (some of them every bit as big, if not bigger, than Yamahonduki), which we source from all over the place. Mostly it's excellent quality to be fair, but some of it, (particularly the Chinese stuff), I have to say is on the crap end of the crap scale, and we don't even check it because it's all budget product for a particular market sector.

I suspect that's just as true with the motorcycle industry, and anyone paying less than a couple of grand for a bike knows darn well that it's cheap and doesn't expect too much, whatever the badge. Peugeot is a prime example - good badge, scrap scooters, (apparantly!). Kymco seems to be on the other end of the scale - crap badge, good scooters, (again, apparently!).

what you say makes sense & answers my question thank you this is why I wont buy Chinese

Wolf wrote:what you say makes sense & answers my question thank you this is why I wont buy Chinese

It comes down to knowledge, experience and applying it. You can buy a perfectly good Chinese bike. You can also buy a completely crap Japanese one.

Sometimes you just get lucky, like the Jinlun 125 my lad had. Bought unseen with the intention of him learning a bit about maintaining a bike. 12000 miles in 10 months and it didn't even need its plugs changing! All we did was change the oil regularly, changed the chain and sprockets and replaced a few bits he broke (£35 worth) by crashing it 3 times.

I agree with you cap it's down to luck sometimes but until Chinese machines get better I'll give them a miss, I like the prices though must say my Mana has been fault free done around 16700 miles 4 years old even the chain & sprockets are in good condition, I did expect electrical faults with it being Italian but so far so good watch it break down saturday now

So its a sort of Kawasaki er600 clone?

Kawasaki finish on some of their bikes of the past was no that fantastic.....GPZ500 (terrible) ZZR600 (even worse).
I managed to keep both the above bikes from eating themselves away...just!
So i would give this one a go.























If i had the readies!.