MJH thanks for your detailed reply. I've seen a lot of the 125-150cc bikes on various manufacturer's websites - like you say mainly scooters, Cub and CG/CB replicas. I presume that if these are the staple fayre of Chinese commuters then they must be fairly reliable.

In the UK, the Baotian BT49QT(?) scooter was the best selling scooter last year to the surprise of many, and small dealers are springing up all over the place. The main problem with Chinese bikes in the UK is in how they were sold until fairly recently... many were bought on Ebay and were delivered to the buyer's home in a crate with basic assembly instructions, or were sold through dealers who were amateurs and who didn't really know bikes. Things have moved on and it is rare that Chinese bikes are sold in crates on Ebay now as there's dedicated importers for most of the different brands. It's still far from perfect as plenty of the so called 'dealers' are garges selling cars that have decided to diversify into Chinese bikes, yet they have absolutely no background in bike sales and maintenance and assemble them quickly which leads to problems for the bike's owner. Things will change in time and these amateurs will be weeded out and dropped by the manufacturers as Chinese bikes become more mainstream. Taiwanese manufacturer SYM started selling scooters and bikes with a bit of a sketchy dealer network but now the quality of their bikes are being recognised and bigger dealers are taking on SYM franchises. My local Suzuki dealership in Edinburgh is excellent, and in the last year or two have started selling SYM bikes and also brands like Generic (Chinese I think). I would have no hesitation buying from them (unlike some other incompetent main Edinburgh dealers who deal solely in Jap bikes). Chinese bikes sold by proper bike dealers, assembled by bike mechanics who know what they're doing, front to rear nut and bolt checks - threadlock etc, will see these bikes providing much more reliable service to their owners than has perhaps been the case up until now.

I can't tell you too much about how these bikes meet Euro 3 emmissions other than as far as I am aware, new vehicles are independently tested to check they conform. Once certified, the bikes can be sold freely throughout Europe. There's load of different Chinese bikes now for sale in the UK/Europe. Regardless, I'm quite happy that I can buy the bike legitimately - the dealers near me provide them registered, taxed, and on-the-road all set to go. My local guy mainly stock AJP bikes from Portugal and also does HMC (Zongshen), Pulse (Qingqi I think), Lexmoto and Shineray. He only stocks one or two of each make/model due to him operating out of a small industrial unit so is limited in terms of space. Once one is sold, he can get another one in in a couple of days from the importer, build it up and put it on display,

UK publication MotorCycleMonthly magazine did a review last month of three 125 commuters - a Zontes and a Moto-Roma (Chinese), and the SYM Wolf (Taiwan). I can't remember what manufacturers the Zontes or Moto-Roma were from as these names are for the European market (though the magazinbe did say). The Zontes and the Moto-Roma came in at £1500 and the SYM at £2300. The Zontes won the group test through its build quality which the magazine reckoned was better than a Yamaha YBR125 and the fact that it cost £1000 less.

It's these types of reviews in the motorcycle press that are becoming more common and more positive that are turning me on to the idea of buying Chinese. I understand that Chinese bikes are becoming much more popular throughout Europe also, although as usual we in Britain will be amongst the last to adopt them as biking in the UK is so snobby... unlike most countries, bikes are 95% recreation here and 5% work-horses and as such, a lot of people can't see past their Fireblades, ZX10R's, GS1200's etc. Anything else will always be considered inferior. I've never followed the herd though, so am tempted to take a punt on that Shineray.