[kz1000st]

What you are saying has a great deal of substance but old timers like me have seen it before. In the seventies and eighties cheap Japanese motorcycles abounded. You could buy a 750cc for a couple of thousand dollars less than a Harley or European bike. Flogged to within an inch of its life they ended up back at the dealer where the estimated repair cost could be three quarters of original MSRP. The dealer would offer a pittance for trade in, sell the abusive owner a new bike, scrap the bike and the cycle repeated. Of course Harley and BMW owners derided the rice cookers. They didn't mind paying comparable repair costs because their bikes cost more originally.

BUT. Every so often someone like me or RKS came along. You see we knew what we were doing, didn't flog the bike and got tremendous service for our money. My 1979 KZ1000st was with me for 125,000 miles before I sold it to my brother. Even my 1974 Kawasaki H-1 two stroke gave me 30,000 miles over six years before I sold it. Both with all original engine bits.

As you can see I have two Chinese scooters with decent mileage that were manufactured in the "Bad Old Days". I find it amusing that mine work just fine while those around me suffered such ailments. Maybe because I don't beat my equipment, fix it when it needs it and do the scheduled maintenance.

Also. I did own a Big Ruckus for a year. Sadly it was in a flood, something I didn't know when I bought it. I didn't keep it after having to fix too many things and discovering rust was inside the engine. I replaced it with my CF Moto Fashion, a decent Honda copy that has given me fair service for 15,000 miles of its near 17,000 mile life.

I don't like the word overpriced in referring to brand name scooters. More expensive describes it better without sounding judgemental.