Big difference between semiconductors, firearms & motorcycles Dave.

Not suggesting that either the Chinese or the Russians are incapable of making quality items, just that (up to now) neither have made particularly good motorcycles. Neither appeared to make very good copies of the German original (in this case), mainly due to poor choices or low quality of materials. I replaced the rear light unit on Mark D's Ural sidecar during a rewire of his R75 outfit (the one in "that" photo). The Russian item was abysmal quality, made of some extremely lightweight die cast metal that had to be handled with kid gloves to prevent stripping threads. The one I took off literally disintegrated as it was removed - the "metal" just collapsed.

The Russians seem to have largely given up trying to improve or indeed manufacture motorcycles in any sort of quantity, but the Chinese (mainly due joint ventures with established European or Japanese manufacturers) do seem to be improving to the point that some of their products appear to be worthy of consideration. Unfortunately (for them) by the time the build quality & riding experience have improved to this point, their prices have also risen to be in the same ballpark as the established manufacturers.

Only India seems to be able to both improve the quality of their products while keeping prices low.

The only Russian pistol I shot was (IIRC) a Vostock .22 semi-automatic target pistol. By the time I was in a position to consider going down that route they had been banned.

My Baikal IJ38 air rifle is on a par with similar price point Chinese stuff - i.e not great ! Fun to knock tin cans about with - while it works, between rebuilds. Weihrauch have nothing to fear from either country, though their prices are getting a bit steep these days & the Chinese stuff is getting better all the time.

Nigel B.