I don't buy Japanese bikes these days for reasons really nothing to do with the products that they build which i think are now generally of a good to very high quality.

But i won't go into my reasons at all its a personal thing.

Right lets hold on to them hats !!!!! - here we go.

Now i am very particular to my very rosey tinted specs - comes with age me thinks - But to say the Japs were building quality back in the 70's seems to be stretching it more than a little bit

The actual build quality of many of the bikes was simply appauling, They were often very heavy,handled like bags of potatoes, paint peeled - that's if they were painted my Yamaha (an xs 1100 sport) had no paint on the underside of the tank, the engine paint peeled within months, chrome 1 micron thick if you were lucky and the downpipes rusted quicker than a Lancia beta.

Engines were often reliable but dont forget the many were not - design failures chocolate cams etc come to mind - you just do not hear of the failures so much these days. Even the premium jap stuff of the day were not in the same league as the premium European built bikes.

Generally the bikes rusted the electrics could not cope with wet conditions, (am i talking about jap or italian here - hard to tell isn't it they were both bad) but the japs also added cheap frames some were pressed steel and fairly poor quality with flex very common. cheapest of the cheap brakes, suspension and tyres all built down to a budget for very dry climates in The wet cold UK - They were terrible.

Performance wise against European competition at the time they were poor (i owned Ducatis, Laverdas, Moto guzzis and BMW's during that period the laverda was very very reliable ( and had jap electrics !), the Ducati i also used as an everyday bike and travelled often between Cornwall and Scotland it never let me down My BMW r65 was very reliable and my bmw r80 and r100s was exceptionally good. (my Guzzis were generally poor on the reliability front and worse than the japs on finish -i have owned several since that time all have been pretty unreliable - but they are still my favourite bike !!


These days I think the Jap's Builds good quality at the budget, with good engines and electrics if largely bland bikes in my eye (rose tints coming on here).

But look to quality stuff like KTM , Norton (Big price) certainly - Ducati and even to a degree Moto guzzi have upped the quality control and reliability and finish and build in many instances and i would say (slipping on those specs again- are again ahead of Japan on build, quality, design and materials. (I do not include BMW here as they sold themselves down the river to the marketing men big style).

Anyway give me a bike designed and built in a European factory with its foibles, failings and eccentricities (moto Guzzi , Norton and to a degree KTM any day over a bland bit of tin from the land of the rising sun.

By the way i currently run a ducati engined cagiva a 750 with 60hp good mid range torque, very reliable weighs in at 180kgs, thats quite a bit lighter than many jap 650's with far better and more usable power, suspension etc. and its 20 years old and still going strong.

On the main content of this subject though it doesn,t really matter what you choose - most bikes will do the job to a reasonable degree - you just need to chose your route and the area you ride to suit.