It’s the Mission One. It’s the electric motorcycle the blogsphere is buzzing about. It’s green (in energy, not color…although there are a lot of earth tones going on in its design).
It’s electric. It will hit 150mph, go 150 miles, make 100 ft lbs of torque, and take 8hrs to charge on a standard home outlet. Oh, and it’s also going to cost $68,995. That’s the bike in a nutshell, but digging deeper finds there is much more to it.
Yamaha is reporting its first quarterly loss in over 4 years, with a fourth-quarter loss of $467 million (compare that to its profit of $41 million in the fourth-quarter of 2007). Since Yamaha gets nearly 90% of its revenue outside of Japan, the strong yen doesn’t help matters much either. The yen gained 17% against the U.S. dollar in the fourth quarter, thus eroding the value of overseas sales from their usually fat margins.
It should shock few people at that is point that in 2008, Yamaha lost customers in North America and Europe as would-be buyers cut recreational toys like motorcycles out of their budgets due to the…you guessed it…credit crisis and falling home values. In response to this, Yamaha is expected to cut the salaries of its executives by as much as 20% from February to December in order to hedge cut-costs and as a sign of unification within the corporation (a common act in Japanese corporations, GM take note).
Despite this litany of bad news, Yamaha’s shares were seemingly unaffected, and closed at 880 yen at the end of trading yesterday. Also, the stock has only dropped 5.6%t so far this year. Investors are either hopefully of Yamaha’s ability to weather the financial storm or saw this coming a mile away. We’re guessing the latter.
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The 2008 financial for BMW Motorrad are in, and the verdict is CH-CHING! Despite what the economies around the world are saying, BMW sold 101,685 bikes in 2008, just .8% off of last year’s numbers. Continue reading to see the full sales breakdown, and win a free kitten.
UPDATE: It looks like Alex Debon could be the Spanish rider that Jorge Martinez could tap to be one of his MotoGP riders.
You would think that Kawasaki’s announcement to leave MotoGP put’s to rest whether or not they will be racing next year in MotoGP, but you’d be wrong….at least sort of wrong. There has been if someone else would come along and direct/finance a Kawi MotoGP effort, and many people have pointed that finger at Jorge “Aspar” Martinez. That rumor would appear to have gained new credence today with the latest comment from Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, continuing reading for more.
The Piaggio Group, which owns Piaggio, Vespa, Gilera, Aprilia, Derbi and Moto Guzzi, has just been given the green light on a seven year, €150 million loan from the European Investment Bank (). The money is ear-marked to be used for R&D, with a focus on hybrid and electric vehicles. Read more about the loan after the jump.
Spanish magazine Solo Moto has gotten word that Harley-Davidson has put together a plan to revive the Cagiva brand. Cagiva, like many Italian marks, has struggled the past years because of poor financing and business management. In its deal to acquire MV Agusta, Harley-Davidson also acquired Cagiva with that hopes that the American company could provide a remedy to these problems, and has recently laid out its plan on how it is going to achieve those goals. Read more about their road map for Cagiva after the jump.
J.D. Power and Associates has just released a report that details some of the major reasons why motorcycle buyers purchase one bike over another. After talking to over 3000 customers in September and October, the report outlines four major factors for purchasing desiions, namely: why a buyer bought from one brand rather than another. The short answer is: The Dealer, the long answer is after the jump.
If proposed legislation goes through, European motorcycles are about to double in price because of increased tariffs. The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is already fighting the proposed tariff by writing to the Office of the U.S. trade Representative.
The proposed tariff would place a 100% duty on more than 100 European goods, including smaller capacity motorcycles with an engine size in the 51cc-250cc and 251cc-500cc range. This act comes in response to the European Union’s ban on American beef treated with growth hormones.
While this won’t affect larger displacement bikes like the Ducati Monster 1100, KTM RC8, or Aprilia RSV4, it will adversely affect almost all European dirt bikes and scooters. Like Vespas weren’t overpriced already.
New Year’s Eve may not only be ushering in the year 2009, but also closing the door on two generations of American stunt jumping. Robbie Knievel, son of famed stunter Evel Knievel, says that his upcoming big jump over an artificial volcano is likely to be his last jump in the USA.
The Knievel has been studying the $25 million volcano newly refurbished outside the Mirage in Las Vegas for his next last stunt. Robbie will make the jump as part of a television special on New Year’s Eve.
According to a dealer announcement, the Harley Davidson XR1200 will be released in the U.S. at the IMS show in Long Beach, California this December 5th. If you’re not quite up to speed on Harley’s performance oriented bikes, the XR1200 is based off of the 1200cc air-cooled Sportster engine, and has styling and design that harken back to Harley-Davidson’s dirt-tracking days with the XR750. Read more after the jump.
Everyone knows that the Ducati Desmosedici is the closest us mortal men will get to riding a true GP bike, and everyone knows they were produced in limited numbers. Because of this even the social elite had a hard time getting their hands on them since they ran out so quickly. So how does such a limited edition bike all of a sudden find a way to be un-sold-out all of a sudden?
According to Michael Lock, CEO of Ducati North America:
“We are fortunate to offer a few units to those interested individuals who were closed out of the initial ordering process…as the global run of 1500 bikes comes to an end we are notifying interested parties that we have secured inventory to deliver in the coming months, but only if they act quickly.”
I have a couple theories on this:
1) Bologna has switched to the base-8 counting system, and undercounted how many bikes they produced.
2) A box of Desmo’s fell-off the boat on their way to America, and until now were thought lost at sea.
3) The economy
4) El Niño
5) Ducati of North America saw that they under-priced the Desmosedici, and thus sold it at a price far-below what the market was willing to bare, and as any good micro-economics professor would suggest is bumping up supply to meet the demand curve for peak efficiency.
Regardless of what answer you choose, the news is this…if you missed your chance to buy a Desmosedici in the United Stats, Canada, or Mexico, here is your second chance.
Source: visordown
The correct answer is #4. El Niño (Spanish for: The Nino) is in fact the cause of mysterious bike productions, the current economy, and French-Canadians.
