Mooner

As was posted above, I rather enjoy watching machines that relate to street use. Sure the RC-51 that Colin Edwards ride is not the same as the one on the showroom floor, but they are close. I think if the GP bikes do start showing up in a consumer package of some sort, WSB is done for. That's why people watch WSB. The biggest problem with that is us poor saps will have that much less racing to watch.

.......Andy

Gabe

Anybody who complains about the price of modern motorcycles hasn't priced cars lately! Philip still bought the cheapest open-class bike around. Why not just buy a 20-year-old KZ1000? Or a surplus po-lice bike?



Honda's racing effort is probably self-supporting. They sell lots of advertising, lease out GP bikes to the big teams, and probably consult for other Honda divisions and other manufacturing. But even if it did cost an extra $200, it would be a bargain.



Are factory test riders going to push test bikes beyond their envelopes? Nope. And where do test riders develop their skills testing bikes and more importantly, delivering feedback to the engineers who make our bikes stronger, more durable, and safer? On the racetrack.



Without a race effort, all bikes would be like the bikes made by a certain two manufacturers. These two manufacturers utilize antiquated designs and overprice their products. Makes you think, huh? Maybe racing SAVES manucturers money? And maybe that's how a cheapskate like you, who selects things mostly by price, can afford to have some pretty cutting-edge technology in his bike. Something that weighs 500 pounds and can go 150 mph for $7500 brand new is pretty cool, and you can bet it would cost $16,000, weigh 700 pounds, and start to redline and speed-wobble at 95 if it wasn't for racers and race engineers slaving away (and risking life and limb) for your ungrateful ass.

__________________
Gabe Ets-Hokin

Just a guy in the ether...

luvmyvfr

"Race on Sunday, sell on Monday," A platitude I see all the time on MO. What I don't understand is this: All the bike shops in the greater Seattle area are closed on Mondays!



luvmyvfr

sarnali

Watch the race on TV on Sunday, Smear your nose all over the bike shop window on Monday, go to the bank and check on a loan on tuesday, buy a new bike on wednesday, call in sick for the rest of the week and go see how many miles you can do.,, works for me!!

Buzglyd

I hate to say this but you're just as ignorant as the guy who wrote the original post.



Do you think Honda, Suzuki, et al sell their high perfomance products at a low price out of benevolence to you the customer? Do you think if Honda could sell a CBR954RR for $18,000 they wouldn't?



That "certain" motorcycle company to which you refer hasn't been in business for 100 years by making huge mistakes. Do you see many 1986 GSXR750s with 100,000 miles on them?



Face it: Harleys are built to last and Repli-racers are built to perform. Two very different ends of the riding spectrum. I always find those with the strongest opinions against Harleys have never owned nor ridden one.



I've happily got my 2003 Ultra Classic Electra Glide on the way, coming to my garage in January. It will sit right next to my Ducati ST4 in my garage because I understand both sides of the riding spectrum.



Open your mind squid and learn to enjoy life!



Ride Safely,



buzz

KPaulCook

LOL good one.

KPaulCook

The guy didn't even mention Harley and you got your panties in a twist. Hmm maybe you got upset cause he is right. Do you think if you took Harley's bikes and put a different name on them and tried to sell them here at the same inflated prices they would? Metric cruisers are not direct copies rather style copies but mechanically superior and priced realistically. Yep Harley's are built to last as long as you only ride them on weekends and only on sunny days. Don't see many folks riding Harleys every day do you? Harley without the name would be looked upon like antique replicas of the 50s. The equivalent of a 57 Chevy manufactured in 2002. Excluding the Porche designed VRod of course.

sarnali

You have to give the devil his due, Harley and Bmw, though completly different target markets, both have to upgrade and modernize their designs while sticking to an extremely narrow focus of what's considered acceptable by their target demographic, case in point Bmw's K series and Harley's V rod, In the mid 80's Bmw's focus was to phase out the air cooled boxer in favour of the K bikes, they've since backed away from that goal in the face of resistance from their core market, the best they could do was upgrade to the 259 series motors in modern [butt-ug IMHO] versions of the old R series, Harley had to get Porsche to design them an engine for whatever reason, I know their own attempt at a sportbike that they raced in AMA superbike pretty well stunk, Alot of Harley guys I know say they wouldn't own a V-rod because it looks like a Japanese bike, how do you market to that mindset? when you put out a realitivly modern design your target market denigrates it as "asian". The best you can do is upgrade what you have, and play up the nostalgia happy days theme, or the bad boy custom theme and watch 'em line up at the door, Harley has some good designs like the superglide sport and the T-sport, which is a fairly competent all-rounder, but even THAT don't sell well. go figure. The Japanese don't have those constraints, in fact their target market expects cutting edge technology and will switch brands in a minute if they don't keep up, so they race and develop the best they can. AAAAAND up untill the last few years you didn't see to many 100k Harley's unless you rebuilt them a few times, none of my shovelhead top ends lasted more than 30k without valves or guides or rings or something.

vfrpinckney

Roadracing World is reporting that Kawi, Yamaha, and Suzuki may not field factory efforts in the Superbike class because the rules will not allow their litre bikes to be competitive with the Hondas (and Ducs). They would presumably field factory efforts in Formula Extreme instead.



Wow, wouldn't it be exciting watching a race between 2 or 3 Hondas and a couple of Ducatis? Not.

VAX

* The rules should be simple: 2 cylinder limit, no turbos, no restrictor plates, no weight limits, no displacement limits. I'd love to see a superbike with a modern (liquid cooled, four valve/cyl., overhead cams) 2 cylinder design and 1600cc.