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Mark Hinchliffe·
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··15 Comments·2 min read

Would you buy a Chinese-made helmet?

Chinese KBC helmet

Would you wear a Chinese-made helmet, jacket, gloves, or motorcycle, in the wake of the escalating trade war with Australia?

The Communist Party of China has imposed hefty tariffs and threatened other measures on some Australian exports after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus outbreak.

When we published a recent article about the CFMoto FC1250J, the biggest capacity bike to come out of China, it was met by uproar from readers saying they would never buy products made in China.

CFMoto CF1250J police bike
CFMoto CF1250J police bike

Comments included:

I feel sorry for the importers of Chinese products in the future because the Chinese Government have shown their contempt for Australia which has fired up our patriotism to buy local, or from any other country except China or not at all.

Even if this were the world’s greatest motorcycle (which I doubt it is), after learning how Australia has been treated by China in recent days, I would rather roll on my balls before supporting Chinese manufacturing. Let’s get our onshore manufacturing started again and make a real effort to self sufficiency. In the mean time, support Australian made.No Chinese products for me after there political bullying and deception

One might have considered it before China decided to be an arsehole. I would rather walk than buy anything from them.

Yet Michael Poynton, director of Australian importer Mojo Motorcycles, says they have “not experienced any backlash”.

He says CFMoto sales have actually increased over the first four months of 2020.

Chinese components

The fact is, most motorcycles have some Chinese components and most motorcycle accessories and rider gear such as jackets and helmets are made in China. Even established European brands get much of their gear made in China.

Check the labels in your gear and see where it is made. You may be surprised.

See also

So good luck trying to impose your own personal trade ban on China.

And while Australia suffers from the Chinese-imposed trade war, the US has just announced that Chinese motorcycle helmets would be exempt from recent traffic hikes.

American icon Harley-Davidson is also set to begin production in China of a range of smaller-capacity bikes, unless the new boss changes plans.

Harley's 338cc bike to be made by Qianjiang Motorcycle barenuckle
Harley’s 338cc bike to be made by Qianjiang Motorcycle

Even the first Australian full-size electric motorcycle, the Savic, will have parts made in China.

Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers are ripping off motorcycle designs for their own markets.

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15 Comments

  4. Most products have at least some Chinese content. But we should they to minimise how much we buy. Send a message to OEMs that we don’t want Chinese content

  5. I look at it this way. Buy local where possible. However if the product you’re after can’t be soused locally, weigh up the options. If I buy a $50 tool from China that then helps me to build something I can sell for $120 then why not. The Australian economy gets the better end of that equation. Now if I then build a second item with said tool, even better again.

    We will never be able to beat at its own game. Our economy is too small and theirs is too big. What we can do though is value add to Chinese products to make them worth more or even better yet, value add to our abundant natural resources so that they are worth more in a global market.

    1. Looking at this another way, would you buy American products if you thought President Trump is a lying buffoon?

      1. Trump is just a court jester distracting attention from the real king who ever that is.
        Are there any American products?
        Aren’t they all made in some third world country and labeled product of merica?

  7. Nothing Chinese. I rather eat potatoes and sardine to save for a good helmet than buying Chinese goods. Look at the tools, I got spanners bought in the 70’s still as good as new and whenever I buy a tool made in China can t even finish the job without breaking it! All countries should say no to Chinese garbage.

  8. If I were a conspiracy nut I would believe that the virus is just the latest tool in an ongoing attempt at world domination. First the lizard people flooded markets with cheap products knock offs and counterfeits until local manufacturers couldn’t compete and had to either shut up shop or move to lizard town or curry town or other such places, then they started buying up big things like resorts ports and airports. But that wasn’t fast enough so they recruited the chicken little and snowflake set to drum up fear of falling sky’s melting icecaps dying coral and polar bears to trick the few hold outs to either move to lizard town too or get carbon taxed out of business, funny how moving to lizard town somehow reduces greenhouse emissions even though they are building hundreds of coal fired power plants without all the restrictions the ones that are being dismantled here have. But still it’s not fast enough for our future lizard overlords so they drag out a can of slightly nastier common cold and run a scare campaign claiming its the worst thing since the Black Death yet it really only kills those who were about to die anyway. The suspicious thing about the government response to this fairly mild common cold that has little to no effect on fit young healthy people was to lock these people up and take away what crappy jobs they might still have while failing to put proper measures in place to protect those who are actually at risk.

    Note those at risk are,
    The elderly especially those with health conditions
    Anyone with a chronic illness
    Anyone will allergies
    Anyone with malnutrition and especially vitamin D deficiency.

  11. If it was a very lite and cool looking and functional open Face I would have no problem with buying Chinese….lets face it most stuff comes from there already, even a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t think. You can try and hide from china, but not for very long. I have a Metzeler tyre on one of my bikes that has -Made in China – printed on the sidewall. I was a little concerned at first but the tyre has performed beautifully. Where does most of your electronics come from????are you going to throw away your mobile, etc etc. Where is Benelli homed these days, MV is Russian. It’s an international world out there.

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