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100%. I work at a local track in the Northeast. I would bet that less than half the people who are there on a regular practice day know who Prado is. And like 10% of those people actually watch post race interviews or watch moto media. There’s a boat load of Kawasaki’s at the track now and it’s because they are $5995.
Yamaha has always been top 2 in sales nothing has changed in that regard. For the Kawi and cash in hand, personally it wouldn't affect me one iota what Prado, or Tomac are saying about a bike that is drastically different than the one from the show room floor. Put your parts on it that make you comfy, and go. I don't doubt some would be swayed by such a thing, but to me that is silly.
I think 80% of the people buy their favorite color
Ok so for you guys saying “no it doesn’t affect sales.”
Do you guys really believe these manufacturers are paying boatloads of money to have the best guys on their bike and dragging them to the races etc etc for nothing? What would be the point of paying ungodly amounts of money to get these guys out there on their bike if it wasn’t for sales? It obviously has a major impact on the sale of their bike having a guy out there doing well on it, and same could be said for someone out there bashing it…… idk how you could say this has no affect lmao. Affect on sales doesn’t mean tanking a company, but 10000000% some people out there are seeing this and thinking twice about buying a kawi.
Do you same guys also think shootouts have no affect on sales?
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KTM sells a shit load of 350’s (talking mx specific models) and they haven’t raced those in professional MX for like a decade.
I’ve never once talked to an adult about their new bike and they said I bought it cause X rider.
I’ve often thought why do the teams even go racing. They get a lot of promotional material from it (pictures/video/ posters etc). They have to spend marketing dollars somewhere I guess. But I could argue if a manufacturer spent there racing budget on demo bikes and went to tracks throughout the country they would see a better return.
How are Suzuki sales doing lol?
Dude these corporations don’t give a shit about the supermotocross series unless it makes them money. The teams absolutely care, the corporations do not unless they see positive return. They wouldn’t pay these guys the big bucks if it didn’t make financial sense to.
Idk, you won’t change my mind that this doesn’t have some affect on kawi sales. I guess I won’t change yours either and that’s fine.
Suzuki sales are down because they haven’t had a true fully updated bike since 2012. And it’s missing features that consumers expect to have now. And the pricing when compared to say a KX isn’t much different so why wouldn’t you get the bike with more features and development.
without seeing any figures I would guess there isn’t a single manufacturer that is selling enough race bikes to cover there racing costs (rider and team member salaries and R&D for the race programs.).
To add to this. There probably are teams that generate a lot of money in sponsorship dollars.
Axell Hodges is making up for it imho
It has to hurt them. I think the problem is all Prado, but even I have had the thought go through my head about the bike being bad when I see some of the deals I’ve seen lately. That bike would probably be the best 6500 you could spend on a bike, but it still is in the back of your head.
Maybe not as much as Roger and Ian did for Chase (KYB fork inserts etc)
By history (what John T said about Kawi) and i think even RV had comments about Kawi being stubborn on ”changes”?
Just speculating..
Heard Prado saying that Harrison’s bike has all the good parts on it.
Ok, I made that up.
So you think all these manufacturers are losing money to fund the race teams? No way. It’s andvertising cost to them. And none of them would be giving any factory support if it wasn’t for their financial benefit. That’s not how a business works. The moment they don’t see the benefit in supporting a racing team they’re out (Suzuki).
Kawasaki dealers hurt their sales a LOT more than Prado ever will. All these Mega dealers that work on a car sales model lose more sales for each brand than any other factor. Everyone knows that bikes will sit on the showroom floor until a rebate happens and then they get sold. It isn't because of any kind of actual relationship between the buyer and the seller anymore. Most of the slugs working the sales floor couldn't tell you the size of the wheels on a KX450 without looking at a brochure.🤣
Yes. If it weren’t for sponsorships they’d be in the red.
Sexton will likely struggle too.
talk about your all time back fires with Harrison moto 2 dnf
Great pricing deals and bike reliability for Kawi's have a far greater impact than any professional rider could ever dream of impacting in terms of product sales. Kawi makes a quality bike. Kawi often sells their bikes at fantastic prices by comparison to other manufacturers. Kawi sales = good.
90% of people buying a bike have zero clue who the current champion even is, the racing world really inflates their ego on the importance of it. The amount of these bikes that get sold to go ride around a farm or a sand pit and never see a track is massive.
Pit Row
Mirchell Harrison cancels out Prados lack of effort. Anyone paying enough attention to buy a bike based off pro moto results would relate more to a privateer bike anyways and note prado giving up. It's painful to watch. I think Harrison is actually helping sell bikes.
Regardless of Prado, this thread is a good debate on bike sales and marketing. 👍
I think anyone seriously looking at results should ignore all factory bikes. It's like comparing a Chevy Malibu to a "Chevy" in nascar (ok not really) but they are not remotely the same.
That.. and Kawi's contingency is pretty killer compared to other brands.
For me, the answer is no, Prado has not steered me away from purchasing a Kawasaki. I purchased a brand new 2025 KX450 two weeks ago. Not one time did I ever think about Prado and his struggles on the green machine. Been riding for 35 years, this is my first Kawasaki.
Some fairly simple things that have nothing to do with professional race results probably have a large impact on bike sales. Suzuki doesn’t have electric start. That’s going to put a lot of people off - though it might attract a few (talked to one guy who wanted the kickstarter for the simplicity and reliability). Yamaha has the power tuner phone connectivity. KTM charges extra for something similar. I bet this helps Yamaha and hurts KTM quite a bit. If the average person who doesn’t follow racing and knows little about bikes hears “you can change the power on your phone on this one without buying anything extra but you need to spend more to do it on that one” I bet I know which one they’ll buy. Discounts, of course, move bikes but aren’t necessarily a sign of brand health. If there’s tons of Kawasakis at local tracks because they’re so cheap, then they may be selling bikes but not making anything on them. Rebates cost the manufacturer. Dealers have a pretty small margin and if they are paying interest on floor plan financing any discount they offer means making nothing, and possibly losing money.
I’ve got to think that being able to market a bike as “championship winning” has to be worth something. Same with being associated with certain riders. The Lawrences I’m sure are great for marketing. I would think Kawasaki was hoping for something like that from Prado - even if not to the same extent. While I don’t think they are selling fewer bikes than if he’d stayed in Europe with another brand, they sure aren’t getting any kind of boost from him. They made an investment in Prado and the investment has been a bust.
What I do not completely understand. In the 250 class, Mitch and Pro Circuit are making gains on the field over the second half of the season. Probably some from the riders and some from the bikes. They are constantly in the top ten with 2-3 riders. As they share a lot of chassis components, seems as if the 450 guys could learn some things, make some changes and move forward. I am not sure how they test and make changes, but they have been at this sport a few years. They didn't just start (See Triumph and Ducati). Hopefully they get the ship righted and are competitive going forward. More competition the better!
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