Ducatisti: do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is that the market for motorcycles 500cc and up is down 17% worldwide for the first quarter of this year, which means the “good” news is that Ducati is only down 5% for Q1 2013. Not exactly the start out of the gate that Audi was hoping for its newly acquired two-wheeled brand, but what are you going to do? Western Europe is a mess, with Spain and Italy continuing to go down like a…well, you know. While we don’t enjoy the misery of motorcycle brands, the fact that Ducati Motor Holding is now under the Audi AG umbrella means that we get far more detailed quarterly and yearly reports from the two-wheeled marque, and we’ve got the digits after the jump.
Mission Motors tweeted out something interesting just a moment ago, a link to a new website for Mission Motorcycles. Teasing there a photo of the Mission R, it would seem that the electric superbike that does competitive AMA Supersport lap times at Laguna Seca, is finally set to come to production. It seems we won’t know everything about the new Mission Motorcycles project until June 3rd, though we can speculate pretty accurately on what the A&R Bothan spy network has been telling us. Expect to see the Mission R electric superbike in street legal trim, honed even further than when we rode the machine back in August last year.
Stefan Pierer’s acquisition of Husqvarna continues to baffle me. You will note I say Pierer, and not KTM, bought Husqvarna, since the Austrian CEO used Pierer Industrie AG in the transaction as a means to help side-step European antitrust issues. After all, we can’t have Europe’s largest dirt bike manufacturer, nay largest total motorcycle manufacturer, gobbling up even more brands in the two-wheeled world. But, I digress. Developing three road bikes (Husqvarna Nuda 900, Husqvarna Strada 650, & Husqvarna Terra 650), with three more concepts waiting in the wings (Husqvarna Moab, Husqvarna Baja, & Husqvarna E-G0), it is with even more confusion that we learn that Pierer & Co. intend to kill the Husqvarna Nuda project and its other street siblings.
In case you missed the story last week, Kevin Schwantz is preparing to race in this year’s Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race. For the race, Schwantz will be riding on a team formed by Yukio Kagayama, who in addition to having raced in the MotoGP, World Superbike, and British Superbike Championships, is also a previous Suzuka 8-Hour winner with the Suzuki Endurance Race Team (also joining the three-rider team Noriyuki “Nitro” Haga). Releasing a Q&A about his team’s Suzuka 8-Hour entry, Kagayama-san walks us through how the team came together, what equipment the riders will use, and his outlook on the team’s competitiveness.
A single-cylinder hooligan-maker, the KTM 690 Duke is 330 lbs (curbside without fuel) and 67hp of two-wheeled fun, and we hope that the Austrians bring the KTM 690 Duke R our way as well. While we are on the topic of things missing from KTM’s American line-up, a decent supersport is painfully obvious, yet we can’t see the folks at KTM following the paths of other brands. That’s where our friend Luca Bar comes to mind with his latest concept: the KTM RC4. Using the KTM 690 Duke platform and its LC4 engine, Bar has designed a super-single full-fairing sport bike that takes the Austrian company’s “Ready to Race” DNA and applies it to an idea that is not all that disimilar to the Ducati Supermono.
When I sat down with Claudio Domenicali at the Ducati 1199 Panigale R launch, the now-CEO of Ducati Motor Holding was still just the General Manager of the Italian motorcycle company. Four weeks after our interview though, Gabriele del Torchio would leave Ducati for Alitalia; and Domenicali, a 21-year veteran of both the racing and production departments of Ducati, would take his place at the top of Italy’s most prestigious motorcycle brand. After reading our interview from Austin, Texas after the jump, I think you will agree too.
That Yamaha is working on a seamless gearbox is no secret, with Yamaha’s test riders currently racking up the kilometers around tracks in Japan. Recently, however, Spanish magazine SoloMoto published an article suggesting that Yamaha has already been using its new seamless gearbox since the beginning of the season. My own enquiries to check whether Yamaha was using a seamless gearbox or not always received the same answer: no, Yamaha is not using the seamless gearbox. To test this denial, I went out to the side of the track on Friday morning at Jerez to record the bikes as they went by.
After a very public father/son break-up between Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr., a steroid-ring scandal involving Paul Sr., and finally a bankruptcy proceeding, it appears that Orange County Choppers is the impossible to kill multi-headed hydra of doom that we all knew it was, as the custom chopper shop is once again headed to the small screen and recruiting some talent, on and off the show. Looking for “someone who will work alongside Paul Senior, running the shop and helping build some of the best custom motorcycles in the world,” OCC says it will be back on television with a new show later this month. Please for the love of god, will someone give this man the attention he craves so dearly??! Or, just shoot us in the face.
We love us some concept bikes here at Asphalt & Rubber, and we have featured more than a few pieces of stunning design and imagination on our pages. Though, we can’t remember the last time one of these works of art were brought to us by a legitimate racing team, but that is what we have here with the Team Alstare Superbike Concept. A nod to the former Suzuki team’s return to the World Superbike Championship as the Ducati factory squad with Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini, Alstare has enlisted the help of designer Serge Rusak of Rusak Kreaktive Designworks to ink the shape of its futuristic Superbike concept, while Tryptik Studios handled the 3D modeling prowess.
If you didn’t watch Thursday’s pre-event press conference for MotoGP at Jerez, it is worth a viewing right to the end (assuming you have a MotoGP.com account). Building off the news about the NBA’s Jason Collins coming out as gay in a self-written feature in Sport Illustrated, my good colleague David Emmett had the courage to inquire about the culture and acceptance of the MotoGP paddock for homosexual riders. For the sake of accuracy, after the jump is a full transcript of David’s question, as put to riders Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Stefan Bradl, and Scott Redding, as well as those riders’ responses to David’s inquiry.
Suzuki…. circling the drain.
Makes good economic sense and makes this overly common brand (you can find one it seems every 10 miles) seem a bit more exclusive again.
re: “For some dealers though, the loss of the Suzuki brand could put their business operations in precarious positions — a sign at how fragile the current state of affairs are for powersports dealers and the industry as a whole.”
gentlemen… WELCOME TO THE BLOWBACK. courtesy of devaluing mentalities, all the things you “never thought could happen” are in fact happening right in front of you.
I was a lifelong die-hard Suzuki fan…..right up to the point when they joined with arch-nemesis Kawasaki. Now I ride a Honda. Because Suzuki doesn’t have the foresight to make a small displacement sportbike available here in the US. I’ll probably remain a Honda fan now. RIP brand loyalty — you sold out and I returned the favor.
Brand loyalty is a two way street. If the brand can’t continue to put out good product to keep people excited, your base will simply walk away. Stale products in the showrooms and withdraw from competition translates to shrinking market share. Doesn’t take a scientist to connect the dots here.
Momism # 132-Never put all of your eggs in one basket. (perhaps a less known but viable second or third line of product and service anything, not just your store brand.)
When the economy turned sour, two strategies were taken. The Japanese four cut back on R&D, slapped on bold new graphics, reduced production and decided to weather the storm by hunkering down. Suzuki embraced this strategy the most and didn’t even release a 2010 line up. The Europeans released many new models packed with technology and innovation. Suzuki has now declared bankruptcy and the Europeans have gained market share. A case study for future business classes.
Two local Suzuki dealers have closed recently – one of them just after the first of the year, and a multi-line dealer quit carrying them several years ago. It is now an hours drive to the nearest Suzuki dealer. I wonder how much the failed partnership with Volkswagen factors into Suzuki’s current situation. Does anyone else find it odd that there is a Suzuki add on the right side of the page?
No!
Suzuki’s are selling again. Yes, its true. Their financing program is the best in the business and it attracts all new buyers and returning riders. Since it started these past months they have gone from the worst sellers in our store to the best. and believe me, we are in a huge area to see this effect. they also go for good prices with profits higher than most other japanese brands.
also, most new riders in the market are not in the ‘must be most changed’ game for bike shopping. they never saw any of them over the past few years and they see them for the first time as their first choice. think of it, if you never saw a gsxr and never knew how they havent changed much for a bit, you’d probably still count them evenly with the other choices based on bike and style. think about it. not all, almost any, customers in dealerships today that we can make a dime on are enthusiasts. almost none.
think about it.
Suzuki is coming back.. Already has.
Jc.
Not saying Suzuki isn’t trying. By god they are doing everything they can to stay afloat in the US. But gaining market share is perhaps the toughest thing to, with all your competitors pushing out new products and winning on the race track. I hope Suzuki does turn things around and attracts more buyers, not thru incentives to the dealers and buyers, but thru innovative and superior products. Winning a few more races in WSBK would help, too.
I hope you are right, Jc.
re: “Suzuki embraced this strategy the most and didn’t even release a 2010 line up.”
don’t mis-speak. they didn’t IMPORT a 2010 line up. this because there was already so much inventory on the books. would’ve been bad practice. and let’s face it, there was nothing wrong with the ’09 M.Y. we just suffer from devaluing mentalities and like the thought of being spoiled and having our every whim catered to even to the point of irresponsibility. we know full well we have ZERO intentions of coming off the dime. the euros aren’t doing anything that the japanese hadn’t already done 10 and 20 years ago when their kit was overweight and antique. in fact, if it weren’t for the japanese setting the benchmark so high, we wouldn’t have ANY of what we have now. as a group, we really have to smarten up.
I would be sad if Suzuki quit all together. They have done some very nice customer/rider engineering. Take the Burgman for example, it was way ahead of its time with large engine, built in vast storage, nice touches like the ignition key popping up the seat and plenty of cubby holes for glasses etc. Just now the new BMW scooters are entering the market about 5 years late. Or take the Vstrom, it was the first universal reasonably priced bike for every day use. It puts together just the right amount of speed, torque, and comfort. Those in the know have been avid followers for the ten years that the Vstrom has been on sale.
In sum, Suzuki makes well thought-out bikes. They deserve to be appreciated more. Perhaps it is their maketing that is bad? To me the bikes are great and I would be sad to see the brand disappear.