I have long said that a simple lower cost bike would sell, IE......No linkage suspenion like PDS, Aircooled. standard cartridge forks or at least open chamber forks. Simple like a Honda XR200 or Hodaka. OR, A Hodaka 125 / 175 engine in a Honda XR200R frame with a PDS type rear shock. Disc brakes if possible but nothing wrong with a good set of drum brakes. Simple like what Hodaka or Honda offered. Maybe not state of the art but solid reliable and decent handling. I would go for one for sure.
But it has to be reasonably priced. That's my beef with the Japanese manufacturers. They keep churning out bikes many years past their prime for today's money. When dual sports started to get popular, Honda street legalized the CRF 230 (a throwback from the 70's), and it was almost $6000 in Canada. When that didn't work, they came out with the CRF250L. It was cheaper, and a much better bike, but still less bike than Kawasaki's 80's tech KLX250, and it's a new bike.
I don't think they would do well here. People want to finer things in life and would probably just buy used. What they need to do is build the mx bikes bulletproof so people arent nervouse buying used.
But the DRz is street legal and you can swap in supermoto wheels. Far more versatile. Unless you buy a non-street legal version of course, but why would anyone buy a non-street legal DRz?
It is sad imo that there's very little to fill the gap between the venerable and portly DRZ and pukka enduro machines. I guess that it's just too easy for manufacturers to take a competition bike, cork it up to the point where it barely runs in order to get it through emissions / noise, put a plate on it and stick it in the showroom window - complete with close ratio gearbox, a fuel tank that's half a gallon short, a sump that holds a spoonful of oil, a headlight that is worse than useless, a seat that's too high for many mere mortals and a general air of "money pit". Supermotos suffer a lot of the same problems, so perhaps it's no coincidence that no-one seems to be buying them either. Race bikes are for racing - tooling around on one for "pleasure" takes a lot of dedication. Ever ride a GSXR-SP homologation bike on a public road? it gets old pretty quickly! Cheap plated secondhand thumpers are ten a penny over here - you can't give one away, because unless you have access to a closed area where you can let one rip they just don't make that much sense. Our local dirt bike workshop is full of grenaded ones too... A lot of the older guys here (and most of us are "older") are still riding DRs, CRMs and other twenty-odd year old tackle because they're maybe not tall, or particularly fit, or because they prefer to "finesse" their way up a tricky climb, rather than go balls-out and risk eating tree! We also share public access with dog walkers, hikers, horse riders and 4x4 drivers, so race pace is out of the question. A bit of tarmac is also unavoidable on a ride out and being relegated to 50mph in order to keep your conrod where it belongs is a drag. Many of the enduro bike's shortcomings can be fixed with hard parts (or a Beta-style build-your-own scheme), but imo a practical bike really needs a motor and ancilliaries designed from the ground up for that purpose, but the problem is whether anyone is actually willing to pay for one. Purists will probably balk at the idea of extra weight in the form of a bulkier motor, but any extra weight will be low and central and designing a mechanically quiet engine and airbox from the outset will make the bike easier to silence without corking it up completely. Pragmatically speaking any extra weight could be mitigated by losing an inch of suspension travel and lowering the seat - we're not building a race bike, after all. I don't think that existing enduro style chassis are otherwise impractical, but the option of a headlight that doesn't suck shouldn't be too much to ask in the 21st century (it gets dark pretty early here in winter). Perhaps I could live without linkage suspension, but I get the feeling that leaving the linkage off won't make a bike any cheaper. It's a few less Chinese bearings for the factory to forget to fill with grease though, so maybe it's a good idea to get rid of 'em. Get the right spring and PDS isn't too bad and if the tech became commonplace it would only improve. Did someone mention drum brakes? Egad, no! Too much unsprung mass and rotational inertia, plus there's that millisecond of waiting for the lock up every time they're applied. I don't imagine that they would save any money either, or attract a lot of customers. Widowmakers. Anyway, that's enough ranting and wishful thinking for one night.
I was thinking to myself the other day a 400 and 600/650 version of Yamaha's WR-R would be good. Good performance plus good reliability. Only problem they would be marked as 'Trailbikes' and 'Dual-sport'. Nothing wrong with that but think of the last time you spoke to someone who wasn't totally into bikes, I'll bet the only bike they know of that is any good is a 450 cause that's what the pros race, so thats what they buy. Prompting manufactures to drop other lines in favour of high tech high strung machines that require more care than an xr/dr-z platform. Man I miss the 90's.
First world yes ... Over here, where 30MPH is fast, you gotta have a disc front brake for a couple reasons, but drums will work on the rear ... They'll move to all discs in the near future I'd guess but not wearing helmets are the widow-makers here .... Rusi's competition here (~$1,300) -- Check out the 2-3 piece rear fender with the light and tag holder under the bottom ... If anyone remembers the $800 Schucks bikes sold in the states, this bike here is 1 notch above it ... 1 small notch because the Schucks bike was total crap.
How much do those sort of bikes cost over there? My Dad keeps trying to get me to go over with him, might factor one of those into the budget when I head over one day.
Its about 1,300$ at todays $ exchange rate but you don't want that bike ... Its gonna break for sure if you do anything other than street riding or very very slow dirt riding ... Where is your Dad? Is he riding dirt bikes over here? I need to talk with him if so .. There is a big rubber problem here ... Bald eagle brand tires are the norm here because of the expense of tires ...
Thats all I'd use it for, just exploring, maybe get up to the provinces for a look. I dont realy see the point of going to another country just to hang around the bars that are run to make westerners feel at home. My dad is in Australia, his wife is a Phillipino though. The old boy hasn't ridden since the DT 250 first came out
drum brakes???? no way, go through water and you are doomed remember once my brother crossed a creek took a run at a hill, did not make it and the brakes were wet on descent
Australians and Filipinos are a great matchup :0) for a few reasons ... You better stop here and get a Husky if headed to the providences ... You'll be glad you did after you see the cool riding terrain and the DT 125 is work horse here today ... Dad can probably find his 1st model here and I bet he is ready to ride by now... Don't under estimate these bikes or this crowd for technical ST ... I got whipped so badly last weekend that I'll be taking my Husky back to finish a climb out of a valley that I balked on due to fatigue ..
I just uncork it, change the teaspoon of oil frequently, and ride like hell (or at least the old fat guy version of it). If it grenades, I'll box up the engine and ship it to ZipTy and see what they can do about it.
Yeah, the little WR-R would have benefitted hugely from a couple hundred extra cc. Not a bad bike with an FMF and a couple of teeth on the rear sprocket though, even if it was a lot of money and too road biassed in the chassis / bodywork department. As for a 600 / 650 - that would have been sweet, a next-gen XT...
Having somewhere to ride like hell makes it all worthwhile (apart from the grenading bit), but sometimes it's a marathon, not a sprint.
I don't mind the grenading part, in fact, oil doesn't really need to be changed. Just relax and enjoy your ride...
So... any actual news on the buy out? Since the move of the warehouses is happening at this time I thought maybe something official would be announced this week.
