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From my experience, the Chinese companies that are involved with any production/assembly of Euro or Jap motorcycles or parts that do sell their own bikes are often priced not much less than said Japanese and Euro bikes of equal size/type.
In my experience, the biggest issues with most Chinese made bikes to date is never really anything big. Motor and transmission wise, brakes, and even suspension on some higher end bikes like the SSR 250 and 450's and the Pitster Pro LXR line are always fairly reliable.
The biggest issue with most Chinese bikes tends to be consistency with quality control, and sometimes cheaper materials. Again, this is usually only an issue with the lower end of the spectrum, such as the Hawk 250. Brittle plastics, and issues like the cush drive studs being mismatched in size, or inconsistently sized, or the snap ring groove is machined a fraction of a mm too far out and allowing for play.
The REAL issue with the majority of Chinese bikes is a lack of factory or dealer support. All manufacturers let bad products slip through the cracks from time to time, or have some sort of design flaw. With an American, Euro, or Japanese brand bike you can take it to a dealer that services them and have the issue resolved, or get the parts you need. With a Chinese bike, you are pretty much left to your own devices. The ONLY company that offers any sort of support even close to this right now is CSC. Owners of Hawks, Bashans, and even to some extent SSR or Pitster Pro bikes, are kind of left standing naked in the middle of nowhere.
Then there are some bikes that I would LOVE to have in the U.S. that we simply don't get. The CFMoto 650NK comes to mind. Good suspension and brakes, power that is close to equal to it's class, and as far as I have read it is overall a good bike, if a bit heavier than the Japanese equivalents, but it's about 1500 to 2k cheaper with a sticker price around $5000-5500. While CF Moto is in the US, I have yet to see any of the new models up for sale, although I have seen some 2014 and 2015 bikes on CycleTrader. I would honestly love to get my hands on one for a daily/commuter bike.
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