1) the cheapest bikes are more plentiful, with possibly a small increase in quality, and they cost less, but still same junk we all knew was out there... and lots of it is intermixed to look like better stuff. It's easy to see the low quality without even using tools to take it apart.
2) the midrange bikes are getting more popular, and the costs are often 30% higher if distributed by a larger Exclusive Canadian distributor vs. someone who is importing it through a small company and selling it from there small operation without any national support.
Some bikes come with 6-month warranty and reasonable parts availability... we're hitting $2000 for a reasonable adult-ish playbike which seems like a bit too much, but I'll bet the dealers have alot more margin (probably 30-40%) than they do with Japanese bikes (15-20%)... Possibly identical bikes available via ebay for $1200-1400... of course could also be junk in disguise
Dealers are very plentiful, from pawn-shops, WalMart, CanadianTire, local garages, lots of newbies, etc... and they seem to be selling lots of these bikes too... so as long as they're making money (AND KEEPING SOME PEOPLE HAPPY), the Chinese will continue to grow.
3) some manufacturers have moved to building upgraded adult size bikes to replace a family/playbike trail bike, i.e. TF250 (which appears to be an XR230/CRf230) copy. They now sell at about $3000 CDN whereas an CRF230 is about $4300 up here. Too close in price already to consider the Chinese bikes since the Chinese stuff I saw still didn't have a single brand-name component on them.
They are doing assorted useless things like updating older bikes (that had 16" rear, 19" front tire combo to use a more common 18" and 21" tire combos, but they are just "big-wheel" kits for stuff that isnt worth it. And of course this all adds up to nothing even remotely close to a decent replacement for a japanese motocrosser for 2008... maybe 2011...
One funny aside is the newer TF250 (XR230-copy) has conventional forks vs. the older and cheaper bikes all have upside-downers. I find that to be worth a good giggle... sort like saying we can make them look right, but work like crap, or we we can copy an older design that looks old-school but actually might work better and last longer. So the fashion is losing out to the function. I don't mind a decent conventional fork, like the KDX200 and such use, since the fork seals take less abuse.
//monkey
p.s. I found one Korean manufacturer (Hoysung) has a 450cc liquid-cooled Sport ATV which is overpriced, so still not looking great next to most other ATV manufacturers. Hoysung looks pretty stagnant. Nothing new there, and prices are too close to Japanese on anything I've seen that looks interesting. Wierd that they didn't build a 450 dirtbike or a 450 utility quad. The Sport market is way to competitive and people want serious mods for racing and such... so they probably are dead in the water with the 450 quad. time will tell.
p.p.s. the 200 dualsport I saw a couple yearsa ago has been updated twice since it's intro, 200GY, 200GY5 and now 200GY6. i s'ppose it's getting a little better each time. I couldnt find anyone with one in stock to take for a test ride, but I'll keep looking around to see if I can ride something with a Chinese heritage to gauge where they are at. I think this bike was also $2500 or $3000 retail.
