Hmmmm....that's interesting. I bought one of these a few years ago that also had some sort of nasty looking clear coat on it. I thought it was just something that one of the owners of my bike had done. Now that I hear about yours, I think maybe it was a factory thing.

I don't think I tried paint stripper, but that is a good idea, and you should probably try it first. I tried a bunch of different solvents on mine, and the only one that worked was denatured alcohol, which led me to believe that it was some sort of shellac. I used the alcohol with some bronze wool and several hours of labor to remove the clear coat. As with your bike, the chrome underneath was dazzling!