Posts
221
Joined
8/16/2006
Location
Tokyo
JP
Fantasy
3874th
Edited Date/Time
1/26/2012 11:28pm
I'm not sure if I should be happy about price cut or worry about how serious deflation we are in...
Honda announced that the company is reducing MSRP of all motorcycles sold in Japan to 10 to 30%, back to 2000 level, to fight the slow sales. they build more bikes overseas, to cut cost to meet new pricing (=more factories closing its door!?) .
Japanese newspaper linｋ (use translation feature on your browser)
They will reduce $460 for SuperCub50 on left, and $1,400 for Forza 250 scootor on right!
but... I have a feeling it doesn't include CRF when they use the word "all" though.
Honda announced that the company is reducing MSRP of all motorcycles sold in Japan to 10 to 30%, back to 2000 level, to fight the slow sales. they build more bikes overseas, to cut cost to meet new pricing (=more factories closing its door!?) .
Japanese newspaper linｋ (use translation feature on your browser)
They will reduce $460 for SuperCub50 on left, and $1,400 for Forza 250 scootor on right!
but... I have a feeling it doesn't include CRF when they use the word "all" though.
How full would local amateur gates be if brand new race bikes were $3,000?
Maybe my track would have full gates and still be in operation...but, likely not.
As long as the sport continues to evolve in a way that the bikes need to be faster, and better suspended every year, they are gonna eventually price all but the rich out of the sport. They should have stopped shooting for more h.p. around the mid to late '80s, put a cap on it, and just started working on the quality of the components. People would have still bought new bikes, but they would have stayed cheaper, quieter, and in my opinion more fun to ride the piss out of.
unless, you are self employed.
The Shop
what is really important isn't how much the "new" bike costs!!! since no one is buying the stupid prices they have, but part prices they JACKED UP 30%+ last year to combat low sales need to be reduced also.
Since we all know that thumpers have more parts to buy.
Better yet what don't they offer a reasonable, 3500.00 race/play bike befoe the chinese offer a whole boat load of them?
wait they will just complain the epa and send them back to china...... never mind.
Sell me the old technology, but brand new. I would buy it. I could skim smaller whoops, jump smaller doubles, but take corners just as fast, and have just as much fun for much cheaper.
hummmmmm
I looked at my cell bill (haven't looked lately) and I about shit. I could be paying for a hell of a nice car with that payment. People don't have one or two cars in the driveway anymore. Every kid in the house has a car. Don't even get me started on video games. I know of plenty of people that are not going racing because they are broke but have $5000 worth of gaming in their living room or worse yet, in the kids room.
To much other stuff to spend money on these days.
I can understand why the manufactures quit the two strokes. They were NOT selling. Now that there are just two manufactures with two strokes available it may be the right number of them selling them. Just like 65s. If every brand had a 65 there would not be enough of them sold for any of them to be profitable. 50, 65, and 85 racing has stayed with two strokes that are easy to work on, less expensive(85s anyway), and without a ton of change. Around here, that is the classes that are the weakest right now. If somebody comes out with a cheap MX bike I don't think we are going to see big changes. I think the economy needs to come around and we will see changes.
This is all based on what I have seen working at a shop my whole life.
And that comment about wages not being affected to the self employed could not be farther from the truth. When you are self employed (and responsible), you are often the last to get paid.
About those high prices. Trek Madone 6.9SSL MSRP $8714.99
Reynolds RZR46T wheelset. MSRP $6000.00
Not a surprise to see 85 classes dwindling, you got several years of multiple $3500 50's and 65's before you even get to $3000 85's or $4500 150's. KTM 50's and KX 65's were $1000 less than competition but gates were packed with more expensive Cobra and KTM 65's because just like bigger 4 vs smaller 2stk, the disadvantage wasn't worth the savings for most.
Now a 13 year old needs a $7000 250f, pretty steep especially for someone like a high school kid that may not ride trying to convince his parents to buy a dirt bike about the same time he probably also wants a car.
Most of the neighborhood kids I see know better than to even ask for a bike when they learn how expensive they are, that's pretty much how I remember it being too.
I bought my last bike for $1000. Put a tires, chain and sprockets, new bars & grips on it, and I am racing for under $1,500. I think that is affordable.
There are regional clubs all over the country that do this. Midwest Vintage Motocross, Florida vintage motocross (FLVMX), AVDRA in the pacific northwest, There are also organizations in Texas, the Northeast, California etc.
Just Sayin'
Pit Row
What killed RACING is practice days. Then you can go into the over abundance of classes and short motos. Practice days has turned into poser central 3 or 4 laps and off the track back to the truck to talk about how fast you are, text message, facebook and whatever else people do to distract themselves these days instead of ride.
Nearly every retail store in America is doing the same thing right now. I have less sales volume so I need to raise my margin.
Motorcycle shops are the worst at this. Instead of great service and great marketing they dump their marketing budget and slim their staff and then wonder why their business starts failing... and their solution.... I'll just raise my prices for the few customers I have left.
Look even in 2010 dollars KTM's 250SX has an MSRP of $2,300 less then the 350SX-F.
I only paid $5,300 OTD for my new 2008 250SX the day it showed up in late 2007 in the crate.
What I'm telling you is to go buy a 250SX that is far superior to any 1983 RM125 for a very reasonable price. Price has not even doubled on a 250 2 stroke in 20+ years. but salaries and home prices certainly have.
No one is making you buy an $8K 4 stroke w/ FI. They build them because that is what the market demands.
Based on what my buddies that operate local motorcycle shops say, there is very little demand for $8k dirt bikes.
Honda sold a boat load of new '08 CRF450's last fall for $4,500. The price met the demand and they sold a lot of them. I bought two!
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