"The Open Day is going ahead, however, and Mick hopes to display the full range of Hesketh V-Twin motorcycles, from the original V1000 to the latest Vulcan 1200. Staff will be available for demonstrations and to answer questions; other British manufactures will be in attendance with trade stands, and some notable bikes of interest have been invited. The day coincides with the airfield's vintage aircraft fly in, with a classic vehicle family day, and hog roast to add to the attractions. Vulcan?? Now you're talking. And with a v-twin engine too.
... they weren't referring to that piece of shit vulcan and besides , haven't you got a stranded , in dire straits , about to die motorcycle rider to save somewhere because they are too fucking stupid to fix a flat tire without a center stand. p.s ... dire straits wasn't in reference to an 80's band and being a member there of. .
If I am to assume you mean that the size of the market for a vehicle type is represented by it's percentage of total vehicles on the road, then what the numbers you've given are saying is; A) The US bike market is roughly half the size of the US car market (bike companies that sell in the US can only dream of such a world) B) Cars and bikes together only make up about 9% of the vehicles on the road (Granted there are a lot of SUVS and trucks out there, but 9 out of every 10 vehicles?) C) I'd be about twice as likely to succeed starting a new car company than I would be starting a new bike company, simply because of market size. (Oh if only it were that simple) I don't know if Motus will make it or not. I hope they do. I'm not arguing either way. I just have a thing about arguments that don't pass a basic math reality check.
Every company starts somewhere. I've been following the Motus story over the years. I'm anxious to see how these bikes do. I'm hoping to see Erik Buell put out his affordable street bikes. Motus is just down the road from me in Birmingham. I'd love to go down for a factory visit.
Same here. I got my deposit back for the same reason. And I'm competent enough with working on stuff that I'm not worried about something going awry and a dealer not being nearby (2 1/2 hours to Austin). Several brands and vintage of bike over the past 2 decades have made me a good wrencher out of necessity. But just because I can not justify more than $25k for a bike (or afford it) doesn't mean someone else can't. Look at all those custom fat tire chopper pieces of fancy rolling ill handling crap. Every weekend, I see at least 10 choppers that cost someone $40k on the Texas rural roads. Sure, Texas is a cruiser state. HDs make up 90% of the bikes out on the road each weekend. But I'm just saying there isn't a shortage of people with $40k of disposable income to be put towards a bike. I think the Carter guy either doesn't like the price because he can't afford it, so he bashes them, or he really just doesn't understand the market, or get far enough away from home regularly to see that market. Maybe both. It isn't for him or Jerry. They should just tuen their heads the other way.
When those people fork over 40K, there are doing so in large part to buy the image and status that the Motus won't give them.
Depends on the person. I, for one, would much rather have a motorcycle that makes people say, "What kind of motorcycle is that?" rather than "Nice Harley".
Exactly. Those $40K choppers make them look like badass bikers, which is what they want. The Motus seems to be aimed mostly at the BMW crowd, and you are not likely to get them off their BMWs with anything else. BMW has amazing brand loyalty, probably as good as HD. Motus has, well, nothing. Most people, riders and non riders alike, have never heard of them. BTW, the bottom fell out of the $40K chopper business. You can now find these bikes on Craigslist for $10K or less. Most of them were bought with home equity loans, and since most people no longer have any home equity, there are no more loans.
You just proved my point. Then not only did you decide not to buy one but you then go ahead and make a comment that other people probably will. Seriously... And you're comparing apples to oranges talking about choppers. As it's been said $40k choppers are an image thing. It's all about looking cool. The Motus may look cool to us nerdy bike guys cause it's got a V4 and Ohlins suspension, but the guys with the disposable income that are riding choppers wouldn't even give that bike a second glance. If they were building an adventure bike I might change my tune because that's a hot market right now. It's the market that's stealing customers away from sport touring bikes. BMW hands down outsells every other bike they make with their GS line. They sell almost 4 times as much of them as they do the K16. Ducati stopped making the ST, replaced with an adv type bike, Triumph is dropping the Sprint soon but only after they made that Explorer and the Tiger 800, Suzuki will keep the bandit because it's cheap, and Honda came out with the VFR but only so they could share the motor with what? An Adventure bike. Just look at this forum. This is one of the biggest bike forums out there and it's not called Sport Touring Rider. Again, I'm not bashing the bike, I just have very little hope on this companies success purely from a business investors standpoint. It's a tough formula to make work and they're going after a dying market. They're are smarter and safer ways of going about this type of venture that would better ensure success. But best of luck to Motus either way. These comments come from personal knowledge and experience and are purely opinions. I say these things not of jealousy from a lack of income. I have worked in the bike industry, I currently make my living off of understanding markets, and I just got back from a 4200 mile road trip. I've seen some things... So in an effort to make you sound less foolish may I ask you to please refrain from making comments as if you know anything about me.
You guys just can't see far enough past your own neighborhood. There's a group of people out there that live in a land of $2000 pens, and $20,000 watches. They own quantities of them. Go and buy a copy of the Robb Report, and then ask yourself if there 200 people per year for this bike. Now add in the other rich people who love motorcycles around the rest of the world. They must have at least one sold already to the Barber Museum.
I know people like that. The things they buy have name brands that have perceived value that goes along with the high price. Sure, there are going to be a few people out there who will want to buy a MOTUS. Those people will not be buying the bike as a status symbol. It has no status, and it has no perceived value. The biggest problem with MOTUS at this point is they are simply not available for purchase. And, may never be.
The baby boomer's drove the custom chopper boom since that's what they rode in their twenty's. Maybe the Gen Y (or X or whatever they/me are called) will drive a custom sport tourer boom, or enough of a boom to support Motus. The lack of name recognition can actually increase the prestige factor for some. Try telling anyone that's not really 'into' bikes you have a bi-moto, and they'll say "wow- I never even heard of them, must be exclusive!" It certainly looks the part.
The fact that "I" took my money back because "I" can not personally afford doesn't prove your point in the least. It only proves that I don't earn enough to own specialty items like this. I can't afford the new Vette either, BTW. . You've stated in prior post that "no one" will buy it because it's too expensive for what you get. My neighbor owns several good looking claasic hot rods, he digs the V4, he just doesn't ride. If he rode, he would have it and said so. He can well afford it. Even a $15k chooper is about looking cool, never mind the extra $25k. Some people want to be perceive as looking cool not matter what price or hobby. You completely missed my point. Of course the chopper guys won't give the Motus a second look if it isn't a chopper. What a ridiculous statement. The point was that there are people with $40k disposable incomes out there that would buy the Motus. One look at the local rich boys country club track around here (Motorsport Ranch) and you'll see exotic race bikes in their garage next to their exotic cars. I admit to not knowing them personally but I do know they have the bank account for it. I can even see then throwing the engine into a chassis for their spec car series. Let's not forget the crowd that streches swingarms, adds a 240 and polishes every bit of exposed metal and applies custom paint to their open class bikes. Locally I recognize about an extra $15k on top of the bike price on these machines. Even the hoodlums have the money. How many people on this site have farkled a bike to a $30k mark so they can extended tour and do IBA runs? So you're saying that they're doomed because it is a sport tourer? An adventure bike is a much bigger risk. The adv market is saturated. There's 650, 800, 1200 of various levels of build from every manufacturer but Suzuki. There's a lot less options in the sport touring market if you don't want something that's a bloated FJR or the like. I think they've found a hole to fill. You couldn't possibly make me look foolish. You've may have seen some things. I know things because I've experienced it. Born out of a racing hobby that snowballed, I created and ran a business that specialized in building high performance drivetrain and chassis aftermarket parts for American V-twins and dirt singles. I know exactly how tough the market is. I engineered, manufactured, marketed and sold everything single handedly and was succesful for a good 6 years before the market no longer was thriving enough for me to justify keeping the doors open and pay for the machinery and building space. Not to mention I got older and needed more sleep. I sold everything via internet and directly to dealerships, even doing the build work for the dealerships as required. I've been there and did it out of my own pocket. I can only imagine that with investors and the influx of money that could allow me to run the business full time instead of as a side job to my regualr job, I could likely still be doing it and doing it bigger. This knowledge of running the business and knowing the market makes me believe they'll do well. Just slowly. Hell, they couldn't do any worse than Indian or Exelsior Henderson. Still none of this means I know the Motus business plan anymore than anyone else here. Like others have said, they surely have one and there's also experience from working at Confederate on their side. It's not like they don't know what they've gotten into. And the market? By looking around, everywhere I go, I would never know an economic crisis has hit us. There's hope for them.
So you believe that in order to have status you must be well known in addition to being expensive? Perhaps with the "label" crowd. What about all the upstart, exclusive car manufacturers out there that have no history in manufacturing or racing, yet they still build a car or 2 per year at 1/2 million+ for the insanely rich? They buy it because no one else has one. I'm sure that qualifies as status.
Motus looks like they have a great product. If it's as good in reality as it appears to be, the moto mags should slobber all over them. I'm pulling for them. They are a couple of hours down the road from me and I'd love to see them become the Koenigsegg (or at the very lease Shelby or Saleen) of motorcycles.