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Triumph Factory Team Announcement?
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Wouldn't surprise me to hear it announced at the MXoN.
Explain it to me like I’m 5, how are they homologated before the season? Or do they have to be?
In order to be homologated they need 400 units on US dealership floors.
I'm not sure of the dates, but I think it's 200 by March and another 200 by June/July.
Interesting, so basically “yeah we’ll get them there” and they can race.
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I'm sure it's a little more complicated than that. Most likely have documents to fill out and send as proof.
I don't think they work with a trust me, bro system.
Kind of, yes although I don’t think we’ve ever had a situation where a bike manufacturer couldn’t get the units on showroom floors in the allotted time frame. My local dealer said they will start receiving parts for them at the beginning of December and will have models in store by the beginning of January.
I’m guessing they’ll announce one rider at a time over the next few months.
I may have over simplified haha, but interesting nonetheless how that works. Took them this long to even show a bike, now they have to deliver a bunch.
There was a story on one of the podcasts about KTM not having the required number of Factory Edition bikes in the wild by the deadline. They ended up clustering the ones they had at KTM dealerships near the AMA so that if the AMA went to their nearest dealerships to check, it would give the appearance of the bikes being readily available.
Unfortunately there are so many podcasts out there these days that I can't remember which podcast or even who told the story.
freakin waaa waaa waaa.
I would imagine starting next week you will see riders showing up on new teams.
So what happens if a manufacturer cannot fulfill the obligation for whatever reason?
That would be spicy to watch, but undoubtedly probably a whole lot of nothing. Wheels would be greased so to speak.
That’s always been a bad rule in my opinion, as a manufacturer doesn’t have to have the whole amount available until after the SX season is completely over.
IMO, the only thing bad about it is that it prevents smaller manufacturers like TM, Sherco, etc. from building MX bikes/entering the sport.
It's the number of bikes available to the dealers not at the dealers.
In Sherco's case, they could enter MXGP, MX2, or EMX250 and haven't chosen to do so yet.
I asked the AMA what would happen if an OEM didn't meet the requirements for model homologation on time but having had races on that model already happen. They said there would be a large financial penalty placed on the OEM and they wouldn't penalize the riders themselves in a sporting way (points and results taken away).
Pit Row
Homologation should be based on the manufacturers size, the model used should be a percentage of total production, not an absolute number. 400 models to Honda is probably less than 1% of total production, to TM it is closer to 50%, who thinks this is fair?
Personally, I think it could be a little lower but at the same time, 400 units isn't that many bikes. If a brand can't make 400 of a model and sell it, then why let them race a production-based series? If they can't financially do that, then how can they financially afford or justify doing a meaningful racing operation?
But TM is a great example .
They dont make a lot of bikes, but they sell them all and stay in business, without having a racing effort subsidised by a million bike global road bike market.
Obviously where this got silly was with the KTM FE stuff, but do you really not think that the introduction of Beta , Triumph, Sherco TM etc, should be 'phased' to allow them to build brand awareness to drive sales and create a dealer network ?
That is potentially another 16 factory seats if the do 250 and 450, and while i doubt that will ever happen, another 4 would be nice, 8 would be great .
I think TM isn’t a great example when you look at how in and out of Grand Prix racing they are. They let them race whatever they want but haven’t really ramped up their moto line sales, they haven’t stuck to racing for more than a year or two at a time in one class…
If they can’t afford to make a full production run and market a model, they can’t afford to race in a meaningful way.
No offense intended but it sounds like you are describing many privateer's efforts. Perhaps this is why privateers are so often taken for granted in this sport, they can't "afford to race in a meaningful way." What would be the harm in TM hiring some folks and riding around mid pack half a season, who is that hurting? Why shouldn't as many competitors as possible be encouraged? Honest question, not trying to be a wise ass.
400 mx bikes, or 800 if you include both classes is a he'll of a lot of bikes for TM, Beta and maybe Triumpf.
Let these boutique manufactures half that quantity.
You also mention that it is a production bases series, we all know the big 4 fucked it up when they piled dollar apon dollar on works bikes, exceptions need to be made.
Certainly it's production based, but the factory bikes are not production bikes, right? Not even close, right? But if TM, Beta, or whomever enters they better be tighter to production than Honda, Kawasaki, certainly. I mean the big teams all get the nudge, wink, right?
Beta and Triumph are racing next year so it’s obviously not a problem for them.
Pretty hard to fake a stock frame and stock cases
So, have they done away with the one-year exemption for development purposes, like when Yamaha used it (along with others) for the original YZF with Doug Henry racing/testing/developing it?
Wasn't the original KTM RFS raced under that rule (with the huge motors pulling monster holeshots)?
It's been a minute since then, so it's a little fuzzy.
The “works bike” rule expired quite a few years ago.
The picture is pretty clear, as far as homologation. Pro racing in American is a party for large manufacturers, and large sponsors, to bring brand awareness to them. If you are neither, a small builder, a mid pack privateer, your efforts are not "meaningful" enough to matter. If you are a multi-billion dollar international and you want to shill $6 a can energy drinks to 14year olds, have at it, if you're a small family owned bike maker in Italy, or an independent family with a moderately fast 18 year old even, you are not really needed. The fans thinking boutique bikes would be a cool inclusion isn't part of the picture.
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