Looks like BMW had the mind set to give us small bore Husky street bikes, here in the USA even. The licenseing with the Loncin motors, I wonder if New Husky wanted to still use them for a 650 build, if they could? I bet New Husky will want/have it's own big bore dual sport motor. I'll say New Husky, instead of SP, or cousin KTM... Cousin Husaberg sounds OK to me though...
Take all that and put it in a brown paper bag and lay it on someones front porch ... Light the bag, ring the doorbell and run ...
a "wanna-be super duke" with a weak engine... i'm impressed. cathcart was surely wearing his bmw glasses when he wrote "compete with the ktm 690 duke". a 690 will eat these things for breakfast. r
It looks like the deal between BMW and TVS is a go. http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/04/08/tvs-motor-bmw-idINDEE93706O20130408 "TVS and BMW Motorrad will develop and produce a series of motorcycles in the sub-500 cubic centimeter segment, TVS said in a press release, but each company will sell individual versions of the bikes through their own distribution channels." "The German manufacturer will use the partnership with TVS to develop small, less powerful motorcycles, BMW Motorrad President Stephan Schaller said."
im my humble opinion, another bad decision (besides selling husky and shutting down alpha racing). bmw purchased husky to attract young(er) customers and to cover the 1-cylinder and sub-500cc market. this made total sense, husqvarna is very competent at doing this. bmw purchased husky to somehow be a "cool" company like ktm. this makes sense, too, husky is a veeeery cool brand, bikes, and people. trying to do the same thing under their own bmw name seems stupid to me. if they want to sell plenty of bikes, they'd need to be cheap. if they were cheap, they are not real bmw. also, bmw lacks "coolness" to develop and market a bike like the ktm duke 125/200/390. the most bitter thing about the announcements to entering the "urban" market is that they actually had everything, but they threw it away. the credibility, the know-how, and the creativity to develop those vehicles, they don't have. their latest effort at "urban mobility" is a 650cc "sport" scooter with 260 kg (!!!) weight, for "only" 11.200 euro. that "scooter-goldwing" does not convince me to trade my 250cc two-stroke supermoto that i use to get around town and through the rush-hour bmw could i.m.h.o. have had a huge-selling "urban" bike years ago if they had ever developed the husqvarna smq. r
I don't know if you all know what is happening here in south east Asia (Biggest grow market for motor bikes) but the last year the market is flooded with 150 cc honda's (CBR), 150 CC Yamahas (street touring model targeting India but imported everywhere else in Asia) Bajaj that put 150CC and 200CC motors in the south east Asia market, KTM with the duke 200, Kymko 150 cc, loads of Chinese lookalikes not that I personally be found of the models but they do sell, and push slowly but steady the 125 cc step through moped from the market (although this is still a big market with a lot of bikes sold) also a big expansion in the scooter market is witnessed. all auto clutches from 100 cc to 125 cc and the odd 150cc Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, are the biggest 3 here in Cambodia these are not just sold a few a day but truck loads (Yes I did bought also a 110CC auto scooter for my wife) If I see the licensing plate nr sequence only in Phnom Penh (city with 2 million inhabitants) there are around 100.000+ registrations issued in the last half year this is only the capital and each province has his own registration set up. When we apply to get the registration plate for our scooter and went to the registration office there are literally hundreds if not thousand of motor bikes plated each day. waiting for the plate is about 1 month but the physically plating takes about 2 minutes and there are about 6 a 8 lines that constantly are busy with plating. Cambodia is a country with just 15 million people imagine Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines. these are huge markets for these type of motor bikes motor cycle business is big booming here. Robert-Jan
Same thing is happening here in the Philippines .. They are bringing in JAP bikes and china made bikes by the truck loads ... 99% or more < 220 CCs... I think the GOV is holding the size of the bikes down and a 125cc bike is all most want here anyway ...
There was a time when motorbikes were designed, made and raced by men in sheds who were dedicated to what they were doing. Today, they´re mass produced and "marketed" by managers who often come from unrelated products such as cosmetics. When they start to lose their connection with latest deverlopments, they tend to buy up smaller innovators in the hope of regaining their image. It doesn´t really work. But we can be sure that there´ll always be smaller companies making what we want. All the rest can buy the large companies´ cheap imitations. The big companies can cater for the mass markets in Asia and over here. Personally, I wouldn´t be seen dead on one of their bikes. There´ll always be an alternative.
