You know what?
I would like to see a document from a real study that proves the Chinese are using inferior metal in comparison to the Japanese in the production of their scooters.
Chinese materials ARE inferior to Japanese materials.
Not by much, but they are. There are lots more impurities found in Chinese manufactured aluminum than in aluminum manufactured in older manufacturing plants outside of China. But it's still aluminum.
Especially the same with Steel! There are several grades of steel, depending on how it's manufactured.
The best steel was originally manufactured in the 1950's in Belgium, where steel factories created the 'perfect chemical balance' between iron and carbon. Many of their products can still be found today, as in fork lifts, reach trucks, and guns. That steel was the hardest steel, that you could ever get; especially if the alloy is mixed with Chrome and Vanadium.
The Chinese use a spinoff method,that still makes steel, but the steel is no longer hard. It's just iron and carbon, and the carbon particles are just poured into a liquid bowl of molten iron, and not really mixed very well, resulting in steel that has particles of carbon in it, kind of like pebbles in sand or clay. The steel bends much like lead, aluminum, or iron, by a lower force than what good grade steel can withstand, and is not bouncing back to it's original state.
The chinese do this, because the process is quicker, and saves them a few dollars per pound of steel.
The only thing chinese are manufacturing really BAD, is chrome. It seems for some reason that their 'chrome' and 'inox steel' or 'stainless steel' always gets rusted.
In fact most of the chrome I've seen on chinese bikes rust and is just polished steel. I'm glad the chinese are learning, and dealers are picking out less and less bikes showing chrome, due to the quick formation of rust; and in most of their 2013 model bikes they get rid of a lot of chrome, especially on the muffler.
I remember a time when in my home country, you could place an Inox steel knife in the sink for days, weeks or months, and it won't rust.
I've seen Chinese knives form rust in a matter of 2 days.
Another example on lower grade materials, my TaoTao ATM50 for instance, the rear trunk holder should support only 10LBS according to the chinese. It does support upto 20LBS, and on occasion I pulled up the rear end of the scoot with it, but putting a little more force on it (like 40-50LBS), makes it bend.
Clearly an inferior steel compared to the Japanese, because should a Japanese bike have an exactly the same trunk holder like that, it could carry a 225LBS person! I was surprised I could actually bend the trunk holder with one arm!
So the chinese use lower quality steel too, it's easier to manufacture, but bends easier too...
When I look at my Honda VT750, it's made out of glass hard steel and chrome, and gives me the impression I could frontal hit a wall at 40MPH, and apart of the fairings, and cosmetics, the bike would still ride after that.
When I look at my chinese bikes, and I would be able to do a front wheelie by braking, and would hit a small pothole while doing so, I have the impression that the front fork would collapse and the front wheel would hit the engine.
Just small ideas about inferior qualities of the Chinese. Does that make them bad? No. Just not as good. But the reality is that the Chinese DEFINITELY use inferior quality material in their products!
And that not only in steel. Facts are known that chinese imported plastics for food, contain over 25% of non-food grade plastics, as they buy the leftover plastics of plastic manufacturing plants over the world, and sort out the plastics, by sniffing and smelling the fumes from a pellet, and by the smell grade the plastic.
Think it's unreal?
One of the companies doing this is called Ravago; I got intel from a friend who actually works there, and sees and knows the process.
Me, working in a plastic factory, know how hard we work to keep food grade plastic separate from other plastics, but ravago takes transition plastics and mixes it all into one pot of luck!
They could be mixing food grade plastic with plastics that contain cancerous substances, and melt it in one batch.
Granted, the cancerous substances are in such a small quantity present within the plastics, that a person might eat his whole life with Chinese plastic spoons, forks and knives, and never get cancer.
However, all that has to happen is one cancerous substance particle that detaches from the utensil, and affect one cell in the body, that becomes a tumor, and turns into a cancer cell.
Just saying...
