They were a US-based marketeers scheme to cash in on the Volkswagen aura with a Japanese made bike during the height of the bike-boom. I'm pretty sure it was a West Coast importer, maybe LA Calif. and typical bike was a pretty horrid gaspipe monster. Though they might have improved a little as they went along. Reminded me of another marketing special of the '70s that I'm pretty sure originated in LA: the Campania...a cheap Japanese bike along the lines of the Centurion LeMans, but with all kinds of Italian flag details so the masses would think they were buying something from Naples. You can fool some of the peeps etc., etc.