I guess its a case of growing up but I dont buy into brand crap anymore.

Now its a case of

How much?

Does it work?

Is it more or less acceptable to look at?

Can I fix it myself without dragging it to some 12 year old to plug a lap top computer into it before a spanner is lifted.

So I bought a brand new Korean Chevrolet several years ago, those of you familiar with the BBC Top Gear show will know the Lacetti. I got it brand new for cash at a huge discount as Chevrolet the brand were pulling out of the European market I paid the same price as I had originally budgeted to buy a used Volkswagen Golf. Now when I mentioned my plan all the self declared experts, and my word there were many pointed out that parts would be impossible, service would be impossible, that I would be stuck with a pile of junk that I could not use. Well here we are years later and a 100K on the clock and the car is spot on and has crossed Europe 4 times so far, fully loaded with family and all the junk they insist on dragging with them. Its cracking little motor and has years more life in it.

So now I am looking for a bike, traffic in the city is now ridiculous. An hour + to crawl from one side of the city to the other. Nobody has time for that so I decided I would get another bike, and started my search. It needs to be Dual Sport I want to be sitting upright with a good field of view and to be visible. I looked at the usual suspects and narrowed it down to a DRZ 400, DR350, XR 250, you get the drift.

All of them I looked at were worn out, end of service life, covered in stickers of wannabe supercross riders and generally tired looking things.

Brand new is out of the question, so I came accross Chinese bikes and applying the same logic as the car if I take care of it (I do) and apply some preventative maintenace (I enjoy it) I could get a halfway decent looking bike for next to nothing money I save 2 hours on my commute and I can go exploring the local undemanding trails or along the river that nobody here even looks at.

Thats my reason for joining and I hope I will be able to contribute and learn.

Cheers.