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You're wanting to know how much the actual materials would cost to produce a factory bike, right? For instance, not how much they get charged for a set of Ti pegs, but how much the raw materials cost assuming the factory Honda race shop could just whip them up themselves.
And then ask Showa for A forks and a team of 4 suspension folks to spend 8 weeks with you on the track to customize and dial in.
If the question is how much a bike costs? Do the math on aftermarket parts. The factory teams are not all using aftermarket parts. And if it seems they are, they are highly customized beyond what anyone really understands. So therefore they won’t understand the cost associated with something.
I re read it and think he's asking how much to actually build it, not buy the bike then replace everything. Even then, I'd say more than 30k easily. I remember reading a privateer build can be around 40k. Minus the bike cost, and you are at 30k or so. All those little stupid custom ti spacers that probably don't save weight, cost a ton if imagine.
Edit- don't know why I was thinking a privateer build is 40k. I think it was closer to 20-25k
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The original build cost, definitely hundreds of thousands. But to walk into the Honda CNC machining shop on monday, punch in the codes for new clamps, new brake hangers, etc etc, wouldn't be expensive at all. Basically the cost of the aluminium/titanium/etc billet being used, maybe the couple of hours labour the guy overseeing the tooling.
Same with almost any part. The idea that the suspension costs so much, is all development time. If you know exactly the tiny components needed for a certain riders setup, like, exactly the total number of shims, valves, all ID's and spec'd perfectly, you just order the parts. Manufacturing them isn't expensive. Have you guys ever seen how much stuff a CNC mill can churn out running 24/7? It is unbelievable, and can be amazing quality with only one guy supervising the show.
The $5k footpegs keep getting thrown around. There is no way American Honda sends a thick wad of $5k over to Japan everytime they need a set of pegs. The hard work has been done developing the exact material, design, testing, etc - the actual cost to whip up a new set would be less than a fifth of that, perhaps even less, and take a machinist a couple of hours. Of course, Honda Japan will move its 'assets' around how it sees fit and money will cross international waters in the name of Global business a few times....
Raw material cost is relatively cheap. The man hours involved are astronomical.. costing $.
"You got your ass kicked by some motocrosser? Youre a disgrace to me and the baby ...little Blade Flanningan Jr"
"Mah boy not gonna be called no Blade Flannigan Jr!"
"Well he sure as hell's not gonna be called BUBBA Jr ....not after this!"
6x swing arms showed up with price tag of $15,000 each. I freaked out and asked my Japanese boss to find out how the hell they could be that much. He came back with the answer that the price was determined by how long it took for the guys to make them. The division that produced them had 3 guys working on them for 4 weeks and that was what the wages materials and overheads for that department was including rent per square meter machinery leases. ....we did a lot more in house from then on...when you hear the $150,000 forks and such that's the math in play might be a bunch of engineers, machinist, test riders, and mechanics worked on there development for a year and they divided the cost by the 20 sets of forks they made and theirs your price!
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The bike is built in 2017 by giancarlo amerio who also built the bikes to chicco chiodi. :
* NEW CRF 250 F 2016 chassi
* BRAND NEW HONDA CR 125 engine from 1999 prepped by Riwa in Holland - srs top
* Esp1Tech suspension ( Showa conventional 2014 forks / 2017 CRF 250 shock) Showa factory parts in shock
* Scalvini cone pipe and carbon muffler
* CMT carbon tank + many other cmt carbon parts
* the bike has new haan wheels rims with A60 rims / Dunlop tires
* Titanium foot pegs
* Works connection elite pearch, pro launch
* Cycra Factory Plastic
+ + + twin air powerflow kit, PC trottle tube, twinwall bars + + +
I think this is a close as you come to building a factory bike from scratch. Remember this does not include any special electronics to monitor suspension, engine etc.
Even in the highly controlled Moto3 class (meant to cut and control costs), to be competitive at GP levels, it's pretty expensive.
Moto2 - check the price of a Kalex Chassis and Swingarm package.
Leasing MotoGP bikes and parts packages? - I think well over a Million Euro as a starting point. Seamless Gearboxes for them - once again, leasing them (not Owning them) I've seen from 300,000 Euro (and I think that was a bit optimistic on Kevin Camerons part) to near / over I million Euros.
I've got mates that have Huge sums tied up in Shifter Carts. And mates that are into Sports Sedans that 'owe' them over $500,000. Hell, this Chassis I'm building bits for, would cost a mate of mine near / over $100,00 if he didn't have some Cranky, Crippled Old Bastard doing a lot of the fabrication for him:
Even at Factory level, MX / SX is a (relatively) 'cheap' Motorsport.
A major Factory SX budget might be somewhere near an F1 Teams Coffee and Cookies - or other substances - budget.
Then there’s their own special engine parts...
ECUs...
Etc.
All of which is unbelievably expensive.
As someone else mentioned here, Honda's US team is a separate entity, just like KMC is seperate fro KHI (Kawasaki) they pay for their parts.
For the ones that keep asking what would the hard cost be of the bike? Here's my rough estimate if you had access to each supplier and paid the cost of each part that's custom made and the retail cost of all publicly available items.
I'm using a HRC bike as a placeholder and I'm bringing up over $55,000 (no labor or development costs) with rough costs of the initial bike, titanium bolts, brake calipers, wheelsets (including works hubs), works suspension, carbon fiber bits, exhausts, throttle body mods, crank and rod costs, valve train, cams, clutches, custom spec pistons, electronics (ECUs, wiring harnesses, and data acquisition components) footpeg and brackets, controls such as shift and brake levers, handle bar controls, plastics, seat cover, lightweight seat foam, CNC costs for clamps, cylinder heads, fork lugs, linkages, bell cranks, brackets, etc...
Just suspension and works parts such as calipers, hubs, clamps, linkages, and electronics has a rough cost of around $25,000 or more.
I asked J-Bone one time what it costs them to run a 450 for the whole season, not including the rider's salary, he said it was something north of $350,000 just to add a third 450 in rotation with race and practice bike...prior to rider's costs.
Does it really cost that much for a crank, like Payton says, or are there a lot of people making money along the way?
This is capitalism. Dont tell me its harder to get the materials and produce the parts in 2018 than it was in 1986!
Just like it isnt any harder to get oil out of the ground and into our pumps, its actually much easier and efficient, yet a lot more people have to get rich along the way.
Everytime we fill up, we are buying another golden toilet or platinum Lambo for some Arab Prince who is funding Jihad against us.
That went sideways, but I figured I would tell you how I really feel!
Another cost to add is how they do their titanium bolt kits. Some factory teams order custom lengths, shoulders, etc that aren't standard and off the shelf for those guys. While many of us could call up Met-Tec and get a ti kit for 6-8K, a team's version is probably a bit more for the custom order they place.
250's are about $150k-$250k and the 450's are about $250k-$400k.
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