Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Not every bike that comes over here is gonna sell like hotcakes, but how many are they going to sell if it's not even an option? People might not want to drop 13K on a 1340cc full size B-King but I bet they might consider a 600 at less than half the cost. I know I would.

Gunslinger wrote:Not every bike that comes over here is gonna sell like hotcakes, but how many are they going to sell if it's not even an option? People might not want to drop 13K on a 1340cc full size B-King but I bet they might consider a 600 at less than half the cost. I know I would.

I'm with you 100%. I didn't drop 13K (or whatever it would be OTD) on the Bee, either. If I had had to pay that much, I wouldn't have bought it.

As it is the place I'm getting my Bee worked on has a new one for sale - with an OTD price of 9300 instead of OTD price of 10,500 I got mine for.

Of course its always lovely when the guy working at the dealer says 'So what'd they get you for that?' Bleh.

RhadamYgg

Well here in the good old USA, we what the biggest and the badest and the fastest we can get, If you guys really want something that we can not get here . write to honda or the others, if there is a large number of people that want kind , they will then sell it here.

Economics is probably more effective than letters - especially give the vibrant failure of my bike - with thousands of people saying they wanted it and very few in reality buying the bike when it went to production.

RhadamYgg

RhadamYgg wrote: with thousands of people saying they wanted it and very few in reality buying the bike when it went to production.

Actually this is a very common phenomenon in the US. It's what I call the convertible or the manual tranny syndrome. When market researches are done, plethora of people always claim if a so and so manufacturer made a convertible, they would buy it. Or if a so and so car came in a manual transmission, they would buy it. Well guess what? practically nobody in the US buys convertibles or manual trannys. That is why almost no manufacturer imports convertibles and sticks to the US anymore. This happens in the US all the time. People claim to love a certain car and swear they will buy it. Remember the original Lexus SC400 Coupe that came out around 1992? Everyone "loved" it but nobody bought it.
Another thing about the US is that it is a country with very conservative taste. Wild or radical just do not sell. The strange thing is, people will claim to love a wild radical design during market research studies but when it comes down to it, wild and radical do not sell in the US. Never did.
Many times a manufacturer will bring a bike over due to overwhelming demand by potential buyers, but when they do, it is a sales flop. I think Harley themselves learned this when they decided to "bring" the overseas only XR1200R to the US because of all these buyers screaming that they will buy it. Well guess what? The bike is a sales flop and it is collecting dust in the corner of HD dealerships while other Sportsters fly off the shelf.

HYPERR wrote:

RhadamYgg wrote: with thousands of people saying they wanted it and very few in reality buying the bike when it went to production.

Actually this is a very common phenomenon in the US. It's what I call the convertible or the manual tranny syndrome. When market researches are done, plethora of people always claim if a so and so manufacturer made a convertible, they would buy it. Or if a so and so car came in a manual transmission, they would buy it. Well guess what? practically nobody in the US buys convertibles or manual trannys. That is why almost no manufacturer imports convertibles and sticks to the US anymore. This happens in the US all the time. People claim to love a certain car and swear they will buy it. Remember the original Lexus SC400 Coupe that came out around 1992? Everyone "loved" it but nobody bought it.
Another thing about the US is that it is a country with very conservative taste. Wild or radical just do not sell. The strange thing is, people will claim to love a wild radical design during market research studies but when it comes down to it, wild and radical do not sell in the US. Never did.
Many times a manufacturer will bring a bike over due to overwhelming demand by potential buyers, but when they do, it is a sales flop. I think Harley themselves learned this when they decided to "bring" the overseas only XR1200R to the US because of all these buyers screaming that they will buy it. Well guess what? The bike is a sales flop and it is collecting dust in the corner of HD dealerships while other Sportsters fly off the shelf.

That's too funny. I like the SC400 and the XR1200.

But it is interesting that people vote in surveys never matches what they vote for with their dollars.

Of course timing might be everything - just like in comedy. Coming out with new large displacement non-traditional bikes might not have worked well for Suzuki or HD, but 2 years before or 2 years from now it may have been ok.

RhadamYgg

I think Hyper is exactly right. Americans yip-n-yap about how they want all these radical designs (in everything from cars to toasters) but then don't buy them when offered. And us Canucks get screwed over by being lumped in with them.

It is the opposite with sex. Show half a boob on tv and they lose their minds. And leading the outrage is your American girlfriend, but walk through the park after dark and she's half nekkid and got your pants down in 15 seconds, ready to do all sorts of kinky things. But don't dare speak those things outloud, or she is offended. Doing them... no problem. Saying them.... slap in the face. Yous guys is weird about sex. And I have lots of personal experience supporting this..... with several women down there.

Hard to figure that country out when they say one thing and do another with such regularity.

but thanx for the memories....

BuzZz wrote:I think Hyper is exactly right. Americans yip-n-yap about how they want all these radical designs (in everything from cars to toasters) but then don't buy them when offered. And us Canucks get screwed over by being lumped in with them.

It is the opposite with sex. Show half a boob on tv and they lose their minds. And leading the outrage is your American girlfriend, but walk through the park after dark and she's half nekkid and got your pants down in 15 seconds, ready to do all sorts of kinky things. But don't dare speak those things outloud, or she is offended. Doing them... no problem. Saying them.... slap in the face. Yous guys is weird about sex. And I have lots of personal experience supporting this..... with several women down there.

Hard to figure that country out when they say one thing and do another with such regularity.

but thanx for the memories....

Where do you meet these women? Maybe its your accent.

RhadamYgg

Well it ain't my stunning good looks or winning personality..... so maybe it is the accent.

BuzZz wrote:Well it ain't my stunning good looks or winning personality..... so maybe it is the accent.

I dunno about that Buzzz... From what I've seen... Hubba hubba!

As for what sells, just take a look at the Kawi ER650N. Naked Ninja 650 and not selling well at all. You've also got the Suzuki SV1000N. Sold so poorly they only sold it for 1 year - 2003.