Snorton,

You may be right that a few people will bare the burn and grudge for the rest of eternity but that's not likely to have a huge impact unless they start picketting up and down every Main Street in America. Let's not underestimate the value and power of marketing and advertising dollars on the media and American consumer public.

The bikes themselves aren't going to be as much of a real problem as the lack of marketing and advertising dollars that would put full spread reviews of their machines in the press. Kymco places full page adds like mad, and it's partly the generally good quality of their machines and the weight these ad dollars spends that has even gotten them this far. I really can't see any reason why China would not be able to produce a bike a least as good as Korea... if not better considering their many joint partnerships. The new BMW F800 rotax engine is made in China and also used in their 650.

Although not the exact same, Japanese bikes had a stigma about them too when they first came out. I think there's plenty of races that need to be won (just like Mr. Honda had to do) and marketing stragtegies which need to be learned and invested in. If these two things can fall in place (with maybe some help from a poor economy) they could be as competitive as anyone else, but we're still talking years.

What we can do to help t he situation is be positive, be willing to throw some ideas at these guys and hope <crossed fingers> they pick it up. Eventually things can and do change. And if you can imagine, I've even heard of some smart ass, Expresso swillin', dirt track building, mud slingin', Culcune harassin', Brit-bike nut job is willing to give them a shot so things can't be all that bad!

Paz,
CC