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At the level of Suzuki: Willing to supply factory bikes and parts, but basically just dropped the ball on getting sponsors/teams on board. Imo just bad management, could have ended up with HSF as MX2 suzuki factory team and Standing construct MXGP factory suzuki team. If you know you need sponsors then don't pick up AJ's option for 2018 but sign Lieber (dad's $) or Bogers (HSF) asap.
At the GP level: All the factories should have seen this coming for years. kill off the whole infrastructure where in the past a privateer who qualified for all gp's could have a decent living. And now GP's are to expensive to run for everyone and we haven't seen any increase in exposure or other income streams for teams to offset cost. If you don't act on that as OEM's then well shame on you. Same for the GP riders, it sucks for guys like Bobry and Nagl, but come on these top riders should have seen this coming as well for ages, and they just let it happen.
And finally the factories in their actual business, the motocross market: expensive 4-strokes, no low cost entry level bike, not offering bikes for kids, less tracks, millions in star rider salaries but not a $/euro/yen spend on keeping circuits/getting additional circuits, etc. etc.
Quite simple the japanese manufacturers only seem to look at keeping the same piece of the pie, but don't seem to realise that the pie is getting smaller and smaller and that they should be working on that.
Time to get over it and move on.
Supporting the sport starts with building good bikes, not ten year old boat anchors on wheels.
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This is so true ... maybe people don't like to hear but the grassroots of Motocross are not the most sophisticated folks, mostly working class and white trash trailer park audience so to speak, who are crazy enough to put their kids of 4 years old on a dirt bike (this group is also hit the hardest by the economic crisis)... if you know the background of some pro's haha... and on the otherside of the spectrum you have the business owners, manager type of people etc. let's call them the real middle class who think MX is to dangerous but like to ride off road ounces in a while they may have a 2-stroke and 4-stroke maybe also a street bike, jetski or a snowmobile in their garage, just because they can afford it... these of type poeple sell their bikes with only 50 hours on clock who look brand new with all the bells and whistles on it (they shopped really well in the power parts catalog... so to speak) KTM has this audience covered!!!
I just checked and the last time at least 1 Suzuki competed in the 85cc World Championship was in 2014.
What will his brother do though? And Pichon and Vaessen?
Pit Row
Anyone could see that Townley was never gonna finish the season.
Everyone else didn't, yet they seem bothered Suzuki are getting out of the sport. Time to move on people.
Is that simple. They had 3 Factory Racing programs in 2017, that I can recall for this discussion.
Europe
Japan
USA
In Europe they had a Factory Program to support a 19 race series. That program is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE & has to show a DIRECT BENEFIT to Suzuki's "bottom-line". That means they need to see that the expense of running a race program is beneficial to their bike sales. So, at the end of the year, someone's asking the question(s): "What do we have to show for all the money we've spent on the GPs this year? How many bikes did we sell due to this effort?"
Same goes for Japan: a Ten Race Series that also, to be fair, has huge R&D benefits and it's their "home series"; but, still...it costs A TON of money to support that series...day to day costs in Japan are insane for a team...things we take for granted like affordable travel (think fuel), lodging, food...those things are astronomically expensive in Japan. So, again, does the expense have a "Return On Investment" that makes sense or is reasonably reflected in their bottom-line?
Then there's the USA: here we have 18 SX races (AMA SX + MEC) & 12 NatIonal Motocross races. 30 races for a budget that's not a whole lot more than what you'd spend in Europe or Japan. Why isn't it "a lot more money"? For starters, JGR has a solid sponsorship package that pays for things that Suzuki paid for in other programs, in-house technical support to off-set what would usually be a Suzuki corporate expense, an unbelievably better amortization schedule for the dollars/yen spent, vastly greater media exposure per dollar/yen (more Magazines and On-Line media, Major Network coverage of SX & sports network coverage of MX...multiple pod-casts...etc.) and...here's the big one...they sell a helluva lot more bikes here.
So, there it is. And...Yes...
It is sad. Suzuki's history in Motocross GPs is paramount. They are almost single handedly responsible for the "Japanese Invasion" of MX-GPs...well, if you're a Suzuki fan you might see it that way...
Roger
Joel
Etc.
So, their absence will be felt and it's something to ponder; but, I'm not going join the fray of Nay-Sayers due to the simple fact that I don't think the sky is falling. This is a corporate financial decision made by a notoriously conservative Japanese corporation (LTD).
Meanwhile, other manufacturers are doubling down and I have a sneaking suspicion we may hear about a new blue team in Europe real soon, too.
Edit: I'd put the US Nationals race qty (12) down as the number of races for the GPs...NOT!
Perhaps Suzuki plans to focus solely on street bikes and drop moto completely?
Yes it is a stretch but...
Post a reply to: Latest Rumor/Fact: No Suzuki Factory Team in MXGP and MX2 for 2018