Greetings from Chongqing.

[David McMullan]

Dave here, English bloke living and working in the motorcycle industry in Chongqing, China.

Hello to everone and hope you have a great Christmas!

[bikerdoc]

Gidday Dave, all the seasons festive greetings back at ya. I'm sure many of us would be interested to know more about your involvement in the motorcycle industry especially seen as you are located in ChongQing where the majority of Chinese motorcycle manufacturing is based. So spill the beans, what you up to down there?

[David McMullan]

Hello mate, Yuletide greetings to you too!

I'm the chief foreign editor of China motor magazine and China E-Vehicle, I also do marketing work for the CIMAmoto expo and a few Chinese and foreign motorcycle related companies.

My last motorcycle experience was last week on the back of my beer delivery man's 30cc cub. a real hair-raising adventure when we went around corners and nearly came off with me shouting "save the beer, save the beer!"

[euphonius]

Welcome to MCM, David. Glad to have you among us. Hopefully you'll find MCM to be a good source of first-hand experience in English about Chinese motorbikes, both from inside China and from riders all over the world. We have members across Latin America, many in North America, a smattering from across Europe from Finland and Sweden to the Mediterranean, and even a handful in Africa and central Asia. You'll read a lot of unvarnished views about the various Chinese manufacturers and their products. Above all, you'll find a lot of enthusiasm for Chinabikes, and all the joys and frustrations that go with them. It's an excellent resource for motorcycle trade journalist.

A view you'll hear a lot from me and many others is that the Chinese manufacturers need to substantially raise their game beyond mere manufacturing and into marketing, design and above all customer support, which are all intimately related but are not something that state enterprises regard as important. We get little sense at all that any of the major brands are even bothering to listen to the expert and passionate views that we offer up free of charge, day in and day out, in MCM. And for this reason, they continue to make horrific blunders that keep them from rising to the level of the major international brands, even though their sheer numbers are probably far greater. Check out the various threads on Qingqi (bikes announced two or three years ago but still unlaunched), Jialing (trying to sweep under the rug some serious and dangerous EFI problems that in countries with actual consumer protections would prompt a safety recall), Loncin (idly assuming that merely wrenching their BMW 650 thumper engine into some frankenbike will make that bike a top seller), etc, etc.

Interested to know more about this curious tradition of beer delivery in Chongqing, whereby the purchaser has to ride with the delivery man during delivery! Seems less than efficient!

Incidentally, what do YOU ride (when you are not pillioning on beer deliveries)?

Again, welcome, and hope you'll be a frequent contributor.

cheers

[David McMullan]

Thanks for the greeting. I couldn't agree with you more. Lots of the smaller factories will have the shock of their lives when they realise that they can no longer stick carburretors in units but need EFI.

An American EFI company has employed me to do some marketing but it is mostly banging my head on the wall.

Anyone heard anything about the Loncin-Kawasaki rumours?

[ZMC888]

Hi David, nice to have you aboard! Tough job dealing with Chinese businesses for sure.

Lots of the smaller factories will have the shock of their lives when they realise that they can no longer stick carburretors in units but need EFI.

I think that EFI is generally only needed above 150cc at current E3 emission levels, so it is going to become a bigger problem later.

I heard some rumours about Kawasaki-Qian Jiang, but not Loncin. But Loncin already have some dealing with BMW.

[euphonius]

....Anyone heard anything about the Loncin-Kawasaki rumours?

You sure that's not Loncin-Keweseki?

No, have not heard that rumor, but it's pretty tantalizing, especially if Kawasaki have the guts to think beyond the sub-250cc niche that has seduced Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda in their China forays. Does Loncin have legal scope (haha) to partner the BMW-friendly 650cc single with manufacturers that are not BMW or Loncin?

cheers!

[David McMullan]

The rumours about Loncin and Kawa were there at the CIMA expo, but nothings come of it yet. husqvarna have agreed something with Loncin but they're BMW anyway.

MCN wrote to me about rumours of a Keeway 650 hitting the UK market next year but I can't get anything about it from Qjiang. Most of these factories just like speading rumours of their new high cc bikes, I've seen the Zongshen but also know that it's nowhere near production.

[bigdamo]

The rumours about Loncin and Kawa were there at the CIMA expo, but nothings come of it yet. husqvarna have agreed something with Loncin but they're BMW anyway.

MCN wrote to me about rumours of a Keeway 650 hitting the UK market next year but I can't get anything about it from Qjiang. Most of these factories just like speading rumours of their new high cc bikes, I've seen the Zongshen but also know that it's nowhere near production.

Was it BMW or Husqvarna(same company) agreeing to do something with loncin.I really really hope Husqvarna are not going to start sourcing parts from Loncin.I really really like my Husky TE310 I think BMW stuffed it with the new 449 and 510 .

[David McMullan]

Husqvarna will be colaborating with Loncin from next year. BMW already share technical knowhow and staff with Loncin. It's pretty wierd looking inside the Loncin factory because there is a section which is clearly more technically advanced and safety concsious than the rest of the factory, it is of course the BMW part.