What has made me really laugh is paulo has gave me a useful vote, is that because he has read barstewardsquad post and wants his floors swept
Lol...how the hell have we gone from tatty Chinese parts to nipple sweeping tarts It's your fault Mr Bazza...lowering the tone
I thought you was going to say it’s winter so there is plenty to hang it on Chapel hat pegs comes in mind
) While I agree with your information about the material grades, I don't agree with your assumption that if something comes out of China they have no quality control on the material. It's quite prejudicious. Obviously, I can't speak for all suppliers but I don't think we should generalize this much. "Chinese manufacturing facilities do not." That is a bold statement. I work a lot with Asian suppliers and despite them having much lower costs (than a domestic product) the quality control is equal and in some cases can be better. It's simply what they do on such a large scale that it can be difficult to compete. Nearly every major forging, casting, turned / machined part or welded assembly on your motorcycles comes from China or similar. In fact, almost every part on your motorcycle has either the component, the tooling or the material come out of China or similar. I personally don't have any concerns with any material coming out of China, because a large percentage of them are actually processed there. My biggest concern is generally from a Design point of view. Have they copied something? and if so have they done it well enough that they didnt miss any critical structural or design features for its function. The regulatory bodies which you mentioned also don't help your argument. (MOT, TUEV, EU?) There is no structural durability or failure test which approves them. The only thing these organizations check is if the component fits and works as intended and then it is released for sale under a type approval. The part could actually be weaker and still work and it would pass. And finally, levers are quite a bad example as they are always so much stronger than the possible force a rider can exert with their fingers. As soon as we talk about anything in the hydraulic circuit, then it becomes a different story. Source: Engineer for a major motorcycle manufacturer. I hope I didn't stir up the discussion too much.