No arguments with much of that and I know that cheap Chinese bikes have been around for a decade or more. We have a shop in the local high street that 20+yrs ago used to be a car spares, go faster bits, fluffy dice kind of place. That market has almost vanished and they've had to diversify so as well as cans of oil they're now selling drones, air rifles - and from about 10yrs ago the occasional no name (and no spares) Chinese mini bike. A teens and twenties (male) toyshop really.

Japan went through its million mini manufacturers phase in the 50's - as the UK did in the twenties. You probably remember Bridgestone, Lilac, maybe even Tohatsu but how about Mitsubishi, Subaru, Showa, Nissan, Mazda and Olympus - all of whom made bikes in the 50's along with hundreds (early 50's) of others. By 1959 competition had reduced it to under 20 and then down to half a dozen 10yrs later. The Chinese are somewhere in that 20yr shake down but I've no idea where and you can't really extrapolate the Japanese experience to what's happening now in China. Whether WK is a Chinese Honda or a Chinese Silver Pigeon (a didn't make it beyond the mid 50's make) only time will tell.

Producing cheap and cheerful for the masses does seem to be the Chinese USP at the moment and I wonder whether there is an upmarket position for them to occupy - with motorcycles anyway. Thinking around it, the majority of aspirational bike brands seem to be supported by (or attached to at least) some other kind of enterprise and I wonder how viable they are as stand alone businesses. At least when the Japanese went up market they were able to push high tech modernity against agricultural machinery (Harley) and staid 30's conservatism (anything British / Euro). Honda also had the sales success of the step thru's to keep them solvent in the meantime.Good luck trying to go down the route of even higher tech nowadays - although there might be an opportunity in F1 at the moment if Honda's engine efforts are anything to go by

I'm not sure the Chinese bike manufacturers face the same export or die dilemma as the Japanese did so the pressures of US or Euro sales success are not as urgent. Their home market is so much bigger that exploiting that will take some time and going head to head with the established brands must look like a very expensive proposition with not that much reward. Fine if they can find a niche (like mid size road trailies) but I'd be amazed to see an R1 lookalike any time soon.

However, what do I know - there will probably be one announced next week.