Also, when you look at the price of smaller cc bikes they seem really expensive compared to the big boys, a new Ktm 125 is like 4K or a Honda 125 cbr is about the same, I think most people look at that and think for a few grand more I can get a Monster 696 or Suzuki 650 etc.. it just looks like a bad deal. I would love to have a Cagiva Mito to muck about on but there silly money, unless you buy one thats been hammerd to death.
That WK650 road bike comes in at around £4000 brand new on the road. If it gets round the TT course without too much trouble it'll be easy to see the attraction in buying one...
Just watched a review on youtube £4000 not bad, gets a good review, on-line there is talk of poor electrics , I reckon the race version in good 2nd hand condition could be a fun second bike.
This is very true, a very slow four stroke 125cc is almost the same price as a new middleweight. The Japs are starting to make themselves too expensive for the beginner market with expensive bikes with engines that are a bit big for learners or newbies - the detuned 600cc sportsbike motors which Honda and Yamaha offer I might submit are not suitable for the learner or newbie. I'll be interested to see how much the forthcoming Triumph and KTM lightweights go for.
We do forget we only see a small percentage of the range of bikes people like Honda build. The Indian market gets such legends as the Honda hunkey, and the Honda unicorn dazzler. I kid you not, they honestly do...
It's only going one of two ways this one..... Either a stroke of genius and a marketing dream......or the dream is going to end in the back of a van after half a lap. I wish the team well and good luck tho.
I too wish them good luck and to be honest even the best of bikes can end in a van after half a lap ..... it's a real mans circuit is that !
Regardless of if they make it round or not, and I hope that they do, it's nice to see the TT attracting some new manufacturers and interest. It's a superb event and if you take into account all the amature racers that take part each year surely that is what its all about? Taking part. Fair play to them for putting an entry together, I wish them a successful and safe TT.
A few notes on the TT entrant. The bike I've seen seems to me to actually be an ER6 like the majority of the field. The Japanese worked very differently. They did copy ideas to start with but they made them better.They also have a very different work ethic. They still to this day realise just how important those early trips to the TT were and thus support the races whole heartedly regardless of the economic pressures. Today Japanese bikes rule the world due to their desire to be the best. China desires to copy whats made, make money and move on. I'm yet to see anything different from them. They are motivated by far different things to the Japanese. As for the British. Yes, higher management spent years taking out when they should of been putting back in. True of most British manufacturing through the last 60 years. That is what killed the British bike industry.
Dunno about the japs ruling the biking world - I reckon both China and India manufacture far more than the japs. The difference between them is that Japan sought to manufacture machines for a global market and had to face up to the competition. whereas the Chinese and Indian firms had no need to export, they have a big enough domestic market with very little in the way of competition. Times change, though, and with the very open market we now find ourselves in, and with outside investment in design and technology, only a mug would bet against them producing some very decent products very soon. As I previously said, we thought the jap bikes were rubbish when they first appeared...
To add to this comment, Chinese do not care much for copyright/patent law. You see it by copies of European cars sold as Chinese. At start it was only a poor look alike that kept on braking down. Few years after that still poor look alike but reliable if you look at the initial cost (you get what you pay for). Few years more and some of their cars were awarded for best design and quality on number of motor shows. Price remained low. Give them few more years and they will flood us with cheap, reliable, nice looking cars. Same will happen to bikes. Some of the Hyousung offering already looks quite ok.
The big European manufacturers know this is going to happen, that's why they're investing in Asia. Not only is the labour cheap, but the potential for massive sales is there.
what figaro said above. You also need yo realise that Japanese bikes are about same price as ducati at the moment. Reliability wise current range of bikes is quite reliable, i would say about as much as jap counter parts on average. They might have weeker electrics but materials and build quality is better. For many price is everything especially if looks are covered.
This is the point. Ducatis will still sell, they're seen as a premium product, but the japs are suffering through a lack of the same sort of kudos - their bikes are great, and they cost as much as the Ducatis nowadays, but they don't attract the same, more affluent buyers. People seem to be either upgrading or downgrading from the middle ground depending on financial circumstances, and it's the middle ground that the japs occupy. The middle ground is not selling. Step in the asian mob, with assistance from the established bike firms, and the plan is to produce stylish, reasonably performing bikes that are affordable to the average joe and which, rather neatly, dovetail into the new licensing laws. This is what will happen. We know it's going to happen because that's what the major japanese and european bike firms are investing in right now.
Yeah they may make more (although until resently the largest Indian company was still Honda backed), but they dont rule the world in the status, racing and quality of bikes. I still say that theyre mentality towards it all is very different to the Japanese. I can not fault the Japanese aproach to what theyve done in the last 60 years. I've worked on and ridden hundreds of different bikes but theres no bike I'd rather be sat on or riding at the TT than a Honda.
Only because they haven't needed to compete, they've had their market to themselves. 'They' are a very wealthy, very large and very profitable company, by the way. Considerably more so than the company they split from. The one with status.
Hyosung are Korean, but yes they are well on the way to making some good little machines. Its worth noting thou that Benelli is now owned by the Qianjiang group. They are selling their bikes under the Benelli brand across Europe as there is still some level of stigma in regard to Chinese bikes
