What does a factory bike cost?

RandyS
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RandyS
Edited Date/Time 9/23/2018 8:26am
I was looking at the mud pictures and wondering what it would cost if the factories just threw those bikes away and built an exact replica. Not how much do they spend developing the bikes but lets say Monday morning after Seattle they said "let's build a brand new bike for Vegas". This would be assuming they made every custom part including suspension. $15,000, $20,000, $25,000??? I would guess $20,000 range, maybe I'm way off but once the CNC programming is done it's pretty cheap considering to reproduce.
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mxb2
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mxb2 4/10/2018 8:55am
4/10/2018 8:55am Edited Date/Time 4/10/2018 8:56am
RandyS wrote:
I was looking at the mud pictures and wondering what it would cost if the factories just threw those bikes away and built an exact replica...
I was looking at the mud pictures and wondering what it would cost if the factories just threw those bikes away and built an exact replica. Not how much do they spend developing the bikes but lets say Monday morning after Seattle they said "let's build a brand new bike for Vegas". This would be assuming they made every custom part including suspension. $15,000, $20,000, $25,000??? I would guess $20,000 range, maybe I'm way off but once the CNC programming is done it's pretty cheap considering to reproduce.
Hrc pegs, clamps 5k apiece, motor 15k, suspension., 20k , add wheels, spec pipe, factory calipers. Carbon fiber. I wd guess 100k
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kb228
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kb228 4/10/2018 9:00am
4/10/2018 9:00am
Id probably guess somewhere north of 500k when you factor in true costs. R&D, Engineering, manufacturing etc.. its not like they mass produce these parts to lower costs. 1 off parts are MUCH more expensive than running a set of 1000.
Xeno
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Xeno 4/10/2018 9:03am
4/10/2018 9:03am
Nobody knows- not even the guys who build them!
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zehn
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zehn 4/10/2018 9:04am
4/10/2018 9:04am
I would guess the majority of the "cost" of a factory bike is in the testing.
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loftyair
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loftyair 4/10/2018 9:07am
4/10/2018 9:07am
Here's a trick. The cost to reproduce a single penny. If the us mint does it, it probably costs 1/10 a cent. If you or I were to do it from scratch, it would cost a fortune. If we were to hire someone to do that, then 2 fortunes. Mr. Honda could do some things for quite cheap, other things cost way too much.
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Blade Flanagan jr. 4/10/2018 9:31am
4/10/2018 9:31am
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the actual bill American Honda paid to Honda in Japan for the parts, not shop time or CNC time or any of that.
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AB#81
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AB#81 4/10/2018 9:54am
4/10/2018 9:54am
Blade Flanagan jr. wrote:
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the...
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the actual bill American Honda paid to Honda in Japan for the parts, not shop time or CNC time or any of that.
why would they pay that? are they not supplied these factory parts free?
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tkimb
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tkimb 4/10/2018 10:02am
4/10/2018 10:02am
Depends how many titanium parts it has. I would guess 50k-100k depending on specific parts.
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RandyS
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RandyS 4/10/2018 10:03am
4/10/2018 10:03am
Blade Flanagan jr. wrote:
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the...
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the actual bill American Honda paid to Honda in Japan for the parts, not shop time or CNC time or any of that.
AB#81 wrote:
why would they pay that? are they not supplied these factory parts free?
Honda Japan giveth and then taketh away.
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2WheelsForTheMasses 4/10/2018 10:10am
4/10/2018 10:10am
150,000 dollars for a complete factory race bike as they sit..now if you factor in all the r&d, materials and man hours your looking at substantially more. So to get the bike to where it is, is a much greater cost.
Holigan
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Holigan 4/10/2018 11:30am
4/10/2018 11:30am
Blade Flanagan jr. wrote:
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the...
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the actual bill American Honda paid to Honda in Japan for the parts, not shop time or CNC time or any of that.
AB#81 wrote:
why would they pay that? are they not supplied these factory parts free?
To move profit from the USA to Japan and avoid additional taxes.
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.kyle
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.kyle 4/10/2018 11:50am
4/10/2018 11:50am Edited Date/Time 4/10/2018 11:51am
A few years ago (no more than 10) there was an article in one of the magazines that gave a cost of all the top riders 450 bikes. Just about all were $80-100k each. One may have even hit $120k. And that was the figure given by the mechanics.
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Phillip_Lamb
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Phillip_Lamb 4/10/2018 11:50am
4/10/2018 11:50am
RandyS wrote:
I was looking at the mud pictures and wondering what it would cost if the factories just threw those bikes away and built an exact replica...
I was looking at the mud pictures and wondering what it would cost if the factories just threw those bikes away and built an exact replica. Not how much do they spend developing the bikes but lets say Monday morning after Seattle they said "let's build a brand new bike for Vegas". This would be assuming they made every custom part including suspension. $15,000, $20,000, $25,000??? I would guess $20,000 range, maybe I'm way off but once the CNC programming is done it's pretty cheap considering to reproduce.
transworld tested Sean Hamblins Factory RM250 in 2004 stating it costed around $60k
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Polski934
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Polski934 4/10/2018 11:54am
4/10/2018 11:54am
Blade Flanagan jr. wrote:
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the...
I was talking to an HRC guy at Hangtown years ago and he told me that Carmichael's CRF 450 cost $120,000! He said that was the actual bill American Honda paid to Honda in Japan for the parts, not shop time or CNC time or any of that.
AB#81 wrote:
why would they pay that? are they not supplied these factory parts free?
Holigan wrote:
To move profit from the USA to Japan and avoid additional taxes.
Regardless if HRC Japan provides them to HRC US they still cost Honda money and have to be calculated in the total cost of the bike. These machines are easy $100k+ not including the labor, testing, etc...and even if you have a hundy grand laying around you can't build one yourself. Now scroll through Pit Bits and think about what a true works bike costs...
Katoomey
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Katoomey 4/10/2018 12:33pm
4/10/2018 12:33pm
I heard from a source that knows a guy who's related to a mechanic's wife and he said they could be as much as eleventy billion.

then again I've heard as little as 25 schmeckles. so who knows...
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 4/10/2018 12:42pm
4/10/2018 12:42pm Edited Date/Time 4/10/2018 12:43pm
If you factor in all of the R&D time/costs and all of the parts, the bikes, suspension tuning etc I heard that the 250's are about 150-250k and the 450's are about 250-400k per bike.

Suspension alone can cost 50-100k when you really look at the costs. It's not just in parts. It's in time as well. Time is money.

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deluxeman
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deluxeman 4/10/2018 12:44pm
4/10/2018 12:44pm
Honda used to lease RC211v MotoGP bikes for a million per season each including spares. There is a ton more parts and technology involved in those bikes. The engines are sealed, so you can’t wrench on them yourselves. So the cost of R&D is high.

I would guess US SX/MX bikes because they are production based are $100,000-$150,000 per copy. MXGP bikes are probably double that or more. Lots of trick one off parts on those!!!
RandyS
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RandyS 4/10/2018 12:45pm
4/10/2018 12:45pm Edited Date/Time 4/10/2018 12:46pm
I know the magazines have always said 100K+ but I don't see it. You take any factory bike and have them go back and replicate it being that the R&D and setup is already done, aside for the insane profit that the suspension companies probably make every time they sell a works fork and shock I don't see were it could cost more than 30 tops. They're not building a chassis or engine from scratch. I say tree fiddy is low and I don't think most businesses accept schmeckles after the scheckle bubble bust at the end of last century.
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agn5009
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agn5009 4/10/2018 12:47pm
4/10/2018 12:47pm
I had a certain offroad rider tell me there was roughly 20k in his suspension alone.
Devenhallen 4/10/2018 1:03pm
4/10/2018 1:03pm
Back when the rmz250 came out factory Suzuki was using a special transmission gear set. Escondido at the time was allotted 1 set for the team. The cost, $25k. There is a lot of expensive trick parts.
davis224
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davis224 4/10/2018 1:09pm
4/10/2018 1:09pm
Hasn't Mitch Payton said that the switch to 4 strokes more than doubled their cost to go racing? Largely due to the cranks costing them around $15-20K a pop?
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jtiger12
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jtiger12 4/10/2018 1:13pm
4/10/2018 1:13pm
I thought these guys all leased their suspension nowadays at the factory level. Are we taking 20k for a season to LEASE factory showa stuff?
RandyS
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RandyS 4/10/2018 1:18pm
4/10/2018 1:18pm
I'm not asking what they pay, I'm talking about what it costs to reproduce an already developed bike in house. No way it costs $15k to build a crank. Again, I know that certain parts aren't done in house but if they were there's no way it's anywhere near 100K.
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Braaaphole
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Braaaphole 4/10/2018 1:43pm
4/10/2018 1:43pm
There was an article several years ago talking about Doug Henry and his YZ400F. They were talking about the costs of the parts and getting the bike competitive. I don't recall all the numbers, but I do recall them saying Yamaha spent $10,000 for every pound that bike lost.
vschaik141
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vschaik141 4/10/2018 4:43pm
4/10/2018 4:43pm
Last year mxmag.be got to test the factory KTM machines of Prado, Jonass, Herlings and Cairoli. they said the bike of Jonass costs around € 60k.
kkawboy14
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kkawboy14 4/10/2018 5:00pm
4/10/2018 5:00pm
Have you ever ridden a Pros bike? Freaky Fast.....right now!
GoggleFiend904 4/10/2018 5:03pm
4/10/2018 5:03pm Edited Date/Time 4/10/2018 5:04pm
RandyS wrote:
I know the magazines have always said 100K+ but I don't see it. You take any factory bike and have them go back and replicate it...
I know the magazines have always said 100K+ but I don't see it. You take any factory bike and have them go back and replicate it being that the R&D and setup is already done, aside for the insane profit that the suspension companies probably make every time they sell a works fork and shock I don't see were it could cost more than 30 tops. They're not building a chassis or engine from scratch. I say tree fiddy is low and I don't think most businesses accept schmeckles after the scheckle bubble bust at the end of last century.
No way.. 10k for ti bolt kit alone. 10k for the bike.. engine is probably 10k or more? 5k for HRC ti footpegs. Then there is carbon fiber and suspension. Not to mention all the other small stuff to make it pretty
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