What about Chinese bikes?

[NWTrtle]

Hyosung is celebrating 30 years of making motorcycles this year and celebrating 3 years of selling their bikes in the USA. Granted, they have mostly done scooters for their earlier years, but they are not new to making bikes.

[High_Side]

Like Rodney Dangerfield said in a Simpson's episode: falls apart like a chinese motorcycle .

The Kymco was reviewed some time ago by a motorcycle mag and it was considered a good bike along with the 250cc Hyosung. Besides Kymco has been building pretty good scooters for Taiwan (publications said good but I have no experience with them).

TMW tested one and we were very impressed.....so much so that we were accused of being "on the take"
The Kymco is a great little starter bike. The only potential issue is the relative proximity in price to the Japaneese rivals ( whcih is tough to swallow with the smaller dealer network, questionable resale at this point etc...). Personally I would take the new Ninja 250 which is an awesome deal for an undoubtably awesome starter bike, but if you want a cruiser the Kymco is the way to go.

[JC Viper]

Like Rodney Dangerfield said in a Simpson's episode: falls apart like a chinese motorcycle .

The Kymco was reviewed some time ago by a motorcycle mag and it was considered a good bike along with the 250cc Hyosung. Besides Kymco has been building pretty good scooters for Taiwan (publications said good but I have no experience with them).

TMW tested one and we were very impressed.....so much so that we were accused of being "on the take"
The Kymco is a great little starter bike. The only potential issue is the relative proximity in price to the Japaneese rivals ( whcih is tough to swallow with the smaller dealer network, questionable resale at this point etc...). Personally I would take the new Ninja 250 which is an awesome deal for an undoubtably awesome starter bike, but if you want a cruiser the Kymco is the way to go.

Yeah but that Ninja 250 will be hell with insurance premiums for newbies that's why cruisers, esp. cheap brands are good.

[High_Side]

Yeah but that Ninja 250 will be hell with insurance premiums for newbies that's why cruisers, esp. cheap brands are good.

Hellish insurance on a 250?????? Never heard of it where I am from.
When my wife started riding on a VTR250 sportbike the insurance was $87 a year.