Chinese motorcycle manufacturers have long had a bad reputation for being industry copycats—taking the design and engineering concepts of other manufacturers, reverse-engineering them into substandard knock-offs, then selling them for a fraction of the cost. While this may be true to a certain extent even to this day, there’s no denying that Chinese companies are playing a huge role in keeping the brands we love alive and kicking.
Whether or not Chinese manufacturers upping their game in terms of design originality and build quality is a result of these partnerships is an interesting topic for discussion—perhaps something we can talk about in the future. What we do have up for discussion today, however, is a new heavyweight cruiser launched by Gaokin, a popular Chinese company with ties to some European manufacturers.
