[culcune]

I see a few Italika bikes down this way, including near daily on my commute which takes me from Yuma proper south to near the border. A few employees of some industrial businesses I pass, commute to the businesses on what I am guessing are Chinese motorcycles; actually, one is a 150cc Italika dual-sport. The rider who I have seen several times actually pulled up next to me in the left-hand lane at a red light, so I saw 'Italika' and '150cc'. I understand that Italika are distributed via a large Mexican department store chain, and offer financing and all that, so they became very popular in the mid-2000s for many Mexican residents. I used to see quite a lot more back then here in Yuma. With the lines to cross the border being massive and hours-long during the agricultural season, Mexican commuters use motorcycles as 'loopholes' to get back and forth across the border crossings both north and south (sometime quite a while ago, we assured Mexico we would do what we could to stop firearms, so the lines are quite long via car going into Mexico in the afternoons during the agricultural season commutes).

There are other Chinese brands nowadays in Mexico, but Italika is still going strong, and they offer proper dealer and repair networks. We have had several people from Mexico join us who own Italikas.