Originally Posted by
2old
My daughter's bike has a 10 year old DIY system and still functions perfectly even after three trips to Burning Man and its oppressive sand/heat environment. My BBS02 equipped bike (given to my son after six or so years) still runs strong after eight or nine years, and the new one replacing it has been perfect for the past two or three years. I think individuals regard the Chinese as backward when they probably have the most modern equipment of any country.
It's not that Chinese CAN'T do quality, it's that companies go to them for cheap bulk manufacturing rather than quality.
Oh, and they
do need to be supervised pretty closely, so that they don't make substitutions or cut corners. Not to mention the fact that anything that's produced there will immediately be reverse-engineered and the design stolen.