Ducati 2016 World Première Chat Thread

Pikes Peak Multistrada is coming too.

It'll be over £19k and will have Ohlins instead of Skyhook. I predict :wink:




ETA - Hi all, long time lurker here. Nice to have finally made a post.

 

Hint: location

 

So are you suggesting that Ducati can save cost by building a 400 in a cheaper location, say Thailand, but cannot save cost by building an 800 in a cheaper location, say Thailand? Why would that be?

 

No, that's not what I'm saying.

Ever noticed the price difference between a Scrambler in the UK (£6795) and one in the US ($8495 ~ £5600)? Why do you think it's cheaper?

You do know that all European Scramblers are built in Italy whereas the rest of the world get theirs from Thailand?

I'm surprised that you need to be schooled in your own style on this Peter!

 

So you make an obscure post in elliptical terms. I try to puzzle out what you might mean by it, and ask you a question. You respond with an even more obscure, confused post.
OK, fill your boots. I'm out.

 

I thought those boots fit quite well!

Sorry, back on topic...

In simple terms: the labour is cheaper to build the machine and that's where you find the saving.
There can also be cost savings in sourcing materials in other "cheap" ("labour depressed"/"cost efficient") nations as well, to give you a bit more of a saving. You can source your aluminium stock cheaper and use a cheaper foundry to product the cases or other castings. After all, the work has already been done in Italy to define the moulds so they only have to knock out the items now.

When you combine the two, you can reduce the price and still make a profit.

It also works in economies of scale because the market is much bigger and therefore you can reduce the price further to expand your potential market, sell more bikes and make more profit than you would have done if they cost more.

This is why "cheaper" bikes will also have savings like single disc front brakes: half the discs, half the calipers, half the hoses, cheaper master cylinder. It may save just €200 in wholesale parts prices but it'll reduce the labour costs to fit them too, and also add profit or reduce the price (or both) as necessary.

But I'm sure you knew all that...

 

I visited Ducati about a 10 years ago or so at their behest (not that they paid by airfare...). They pointed out to me at the time that they were going to abandon the entry-level market as it just wasn't really any cheaper to make a 400 vs say a 900 and once you'd factored in the sales price, they couldn't make any money on it.
But over the decade, I guess they have solved their problem by manufacturing in other geographies.

Things are cheaper in the US because of the economies of scale for indigenous manufacturers and foreign ones just have to suck it up because that is where the market is at. If they maintained European pricing, they wouldn't sell anything. It's only the volume that makes it an interesting market. Maybe that is why Alfa Romeo haven't favoured it for years. As a low volume producer, it wouldn't make any sense to sell cars in the US until they had got as far in Europe as they thought they could go.

 

Of course I knew all that. Everybody's grandmother knows all that, along with how to suck eggs.

All those considerations apply to manufacturing 800s and they also apply to manufacturing 400s. Manufacturing in Thailand is cheaper than manufacturing in Europe, obviously, which is why Ducati have been making bikes there for years - everybody knows that too. The question I raised is how a 400 could be made at lower cost than an 800. By moving production to Thailand, you think - even though the 800 is already made in Thailand. Well thanks for that insight.

The 800 Scrambler has a single front disc brake anyway, so you think fitting a single front disc brake to a 400 Scrambler would save cost, do you? [No need to answer that one, it's a rhetorical question.]

 

The first point I made was that it's cheaper to produce A bike in certain geographic locations because labour/parts/materials are cheaper.

The second point I made was that you can use cheaper components (or less, in the case of brake discs) to build a cheaper bike.

I apologise if you were not able to put those two together, to understand that the 400 will be a down-spec'ed version of the 800 with a smaller front disk, cheaper caliper, cheaper wheels, cheaper forks, cheaper shock, cheaper swingarm, cheaper seat, cheaper headlight, cheaper tail-light... in fact cheaper components all round, compared to the current 800 and therefore that's how it will be cheaper; however, your ignorance is not my problem and your education is not my concern.

 

Multistrada Adventure

 

The X project thing? That's th big new reveal isn't it? Or is that going to be the belt driven Diavel?

 

The X is the Diavel.

 

Esclusivo! EICMA 2015: le novità Ducati - InMoto

In Italian I'm afraid, one of the several articles which announce a new Multi with a 19inch front spoked wheel and increased suspension excursion. The Italian MTS forum gives it for certain

 

Ducati scoop: X-Diavel, Scrambler 400 e Multistrada Adventure a EICMA!

Another one

 

Do I have to point you back to my posts every time we do this?

 

Ah - something actually a bit different - almost a new model. This launch was poised to be a snooze-fest but this sounds interesting. I might actually consider a Multi if it has some genuine off-road capability. Otherwise I'll probably have another KTM in my garage next year.