Triumph, Beta, Ducati...

I'm more curious about what they see in this MX/Off-Road market (especially MX) that is making them all jump in.  We mostly talk about riding area closures, track closures, the dangers of riding and currently declining sales compared to the COVID boom.  The macroeconomics must be better than we think for them to jump in.

Regardless, the extra competition is great for us consumers and I wish them the best.  

Ducati won’t be in 2024. 

Triumph has had pro riders test the bike (Levi Kitchen is an example).

No clue what’s going on with Beta.

We've seen Desalle riding the new ally-framed Triumph a little while ago, regardless of how bad the video quality was

https://www.visordown.com/news/new-bikes/video-emerges-new-triumph-moto…

Since Beta has raced a 450 in Europe and let some pre production bikes get tested here in the US. I’d say they will race a 450 here in the US in 24.  I’m not so sure Ducati actually plans to be in the game.  They could become a player quickly if they want to.  Whats interesting about Triumph is they chose to jump in at 250 level.

I figured one of the big guys would pick up one of the smaller companies, Sherco etc, or boutique like TM to get the jump.  Like most I’d like to see more players in the sport, looks like we are getting some.  
 

Only thing I saw that makes sense to me is Ducati was interested in TM. For the purpose of them being thier moto3 (250cc single) engine supplier for motogp. Maybe this is where the Ducati and mx is coming from? 

Brand awareness. For Ducati, it's also a bike they can build into a Dakar racer.

Ask Rodney Smith for an interview 

Let's not forget ....all these new manufacturers have a 1 year works bike exemption right?

I would be surprised is Triumph makes it to the line for 2024 sx..... something tells me they're not even close to ready. I don't have any insider knowledge but the complete lack of presence, nda's or not, it would seem that theyd be releasing some kind of info to keep the hype going. So far it's been crickets....

I have not looked it up in the rulebook to verify but it has been mentioned here that rule no longer exists.

Didn't ML say they might bring the semi to Redbud, or was it Colorado? When there was a rumor that they were showing up at Salt Lake,  that got scrapped and he mentioned he heard that.

Nope.

In terms of competition why would you give your competition any insight before you race?

Having worked in this industry for 20 years now, every shop I ever worked in it was off road bikes that sold the most, though they didnt have the greatest profit margin.  I think Ducati and Triumph see this as a market segment that still has room to grow, and something dealers have wanted for a while. 

That's a good point. Perhaps a purchase of a Triumph or Ducati dirt bike might be a gateway to an adventure bike or street bike of the same brand down the road.

Indian, Harley, and others have made flat track specific race bikes for sale, certain they didn't make money on those either. Funny how neither Indian or HD haven't developed a 450 for flat track racing purposes now that I think about it.

My friend is a development engineer at triumph however he has not said a single word about the bike or team, as he has a contract that says it's a no go area 

The only thing he told me is it's a very professional outfit , another friend went for a job in the Dyno centre , he was told it's simply a reverse engineered KTM , I would be amazed if it's as revolutionary as they claim, they started in 2019 so the bike will be 5 years old if it is sold in 24 ...KTM would have a new platform twice in the time triumph make one bike .

It isn't the target audience for H-D or Indian. The FTR 750 still fits in with the street crowd. Harley once did brand Rotax's as Harley and even paid contingency but as soon as we started kicking the XR 750 around on anything shorter than a mile they lobbied to get rid of singles all together. That morphed into 600 nationals and 20 years later replaced by the CRF 450 DTX setups you see now.

Yep

Keeps it slimmer I suppose. 

A lot of riders seem to prefer the older chassis KTM. So if they made a chassis like the 19-22 they might  have a winner.  The current KX450 chassis is supposedly very like the 08 CRF450 chassis. Newer is not always better. Take the 97 CR's with aluminium frames  VS the 96 steel frame and I think that just about everybody  would prefer the  older chassis.  

Since some people left the project and were saying that is was a KTM copy, Triumph and people associated with them  have been putting out statements saying its a totally different/new bike. Some people took that to mean that it has some wild new tech, I think they were just trying to get away from people saying it was a KTM copy.And that they mean it is not just a KTM with Triumph slapped on. Perhaps they did take a KTM and use it as a baseline.Took it apart to understand what made it do what.  Stark did that with just about every 450. But its not a copy of any single bike. 

Not seeing a bike in public  yet is not unprecedented , KTM Factory editions tend to be totally new bikes that are not seen in public until a month or 2 before the first race. And then they have to have the 200 bikes available for sale  by March and 400 by June. So The have until today next year to have 400 bikes available for sale. Plenty of time  since it seems like they have a bike that has been ridden.