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He makes some good arguments, but I'd have to disagree on many fields,
first the price,
It seems they compare a lot of second hand big brand bikes, to new chinese.
A lot of people will prefer a new bike over a used one.
Second, prices of the chinese bikes are a bit bloated. You can easily find a NEW 150cc for under $1000, that includes shipping, tag and taxes.
Third, I don't agree on gas mileage!
The Burgman is not at all that good on gas as most chinese bikes are.
It only gets in the 40's despite fuel injection. Most 300cc BBK bikes go in the high 50's for the carbs, the 260 EFI actually gets 80+MPG's, which is literally almost twice the gas mileage.
Most burgmans don't come with helmets; especially not second hand ones!
The reason why you see so many chinese bike failures 'on a daily basis' is because it's a chinese scoot forum!
Go to the honda forum site, and see for yourself that they are not flawless at all!
Suppose a chinese bike fails with a belt. What do you do?
Buy a $30 hi-quality belt, and get nearly the same miles on that belt as an original Honda belt.
So it's just in the initial purchase, when you purchase crap.
The TaoTao I have has about 2,xxx K miles on it, and the belt is still like new.
It all looks like my $800 scooter is good for another 4-6k miles, before tires and belt need replacement.
Not bad at all...
So why compare second hand jap special prices, but you want to take the new chino bike specials out of the equation?
Issue with used burgmans is that they often get sold after 12k miles, when a maintenance is due. Changing a belt on a Burgman is tens of times more costly than on a chinese scoot, not to mention any other maintenance costs; and in many cases it's not fun to do yourself; because burgmans are solid machines without a lot of support on the internet. If something goes wrong, you're basically forced to go to the dealer, and pay $90-120/hr on labor cost!
Or what happens in a crash, or theft? Immediate $5k loss!
A Chino bike equals a $1-$2k loss, unless you buy the fuel injected bikes, that would be $3k loss.
I had a fuel injected 260cc bike, and I can tell you it tops out at 82MPH, more than plenty fast enough!
Aside from my 50cc, I never watch my rear mirrors. Eyes on the road at all times!
Even on a 150cc you have plenty of power to accelerate. I think it's marketing BS to say you 'need' more power. In most cases, when a bike is properly tuned, even a 150cc, or even a 72cc BBK has plenty of power, especially the 2 strokes!
On my 50cc I top out at 50MPH, 55 with wind in the back.
With a strong wind against me, I'm still doing 35MPH.
Once an engine is broken into, it goes a lot faster, and runs a lot better. So in that respect it's also not a fair comparison (comparing a broken in Suzuki to a new chinese engine, that's less than half the displacement).
If you're so much into eco, buy a chinese bike; they usually get at least 20% better fuel economy, and can go upto 60% better fuel economy!
Prices of those second hand links are no longer valid, and localized.
A Kawasaki eliminator with 20k miles on costs between $2k and 2,5k over here, which makes price comparisons moot.
A Kymco agility, second hand is hardly to be found here, and new is too expensive.
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