The chance to substitute in the Repsol Honda team for the injured Casey Stoner was a great opportunity for Jonathan…
Making effective market communications in the motorcycle industry should be a relatively straight-forward and easy task. After all, motorcycles in North America and Europe have a strong personal component that revolves around self-expression and a rider personal identity. The idea that an ad or campaign should reach out and grab the intended consumer is not a novel concept, and motorcycle marketing professionals have their job simplified since they need only to develop and publish creative that would speak to them personally, in order to be successful. For whatever reason though, motorcycle industry marketers, by-in-large, were absent the day they taught marketing in business school…and it shows.
We have already shown you photos of the Ducati 1199 Panigale RS12, the 2012-spec version of the race bike that is only available to motorcycle race teams. For 2013, not too much about the race package has changed (note the Ducati Test Team livery that the 2013 Ducati Superbike 848 EVO Corse SE wears as well), but honestly…we will use any excuse possible to post up pictures of this tasty machine. Not to be confused with the Ducati 1199 Panigale R, which will debut at EICMA and be available to mere mortals, the Ducati 1199 Panigale RS13 is not a street bike, and unless your name is Carlos Checa, you’re unlikely to get your hands on one.
Clocking a $19,990 price tag MSRP, as usual, there is more to BMW’s pricing scheme than meets the eye. While BMW plays its usual tricks, what is interesting is that despite all the add-ons, the BMW HP4 remains a relatively affordable premium sport bike. Punching just above the Ducati 1199 Panigale’s price tag, the German steed could easily justify its added cost with the inclusion of BMW’s Dynamic Damping Control, a semi-active suspension system. Available in Q4 2012, the BMW HP4 comes with a variety of packages that significantly boost the HP4’s price into the mid-$20,000 range. We break down the cost of the packages and what you get with them, after the jump (mega photo gallery here).
While the KTM 1190 Adventure and BMW R1200GS were grabbing all the headlines from INTERMOT today, we think the real news from the adventure-touring section is the Suzuki V-Strom 1000 concept, a nearly production ready bike that will debut in 2014. While Suzuki V-Strom owners we preach from the mountain the off-road prowess of their bikes, the truth is that Suzuki did not have adventure-touring on its mind when it built the V-Strom 1000 (or 650 for that matter), with the emphasis more on the touring side of that designation, than the adventure. A quick look at the Suzuki V-Strom 1000 Concept for the 2014 model, and that has clearly changed.
Bridgepoint has announced today that it has brought MotoGP and World Superbike, the two motorcycle racing series it owns, under a single umbrella organization. The reorganization will see Dorna Sports become the parent organization for both series, though Infront will operate as an independent entity and continue to organize World Superbike under its own banner. Infront has also been named as “marketing advisor and global advisor” for both MotoGP and WSBK. The implications of this announcement are huge, but not immediately clear. The logic behind the move is impeccable: the two series are spending too much of their time competing against each other instead of working together to promote the sport of motorcycle racing.