Honda should be more like that other manufacturer who thinks racing in GP is going to result in big unit sales of sportbikes that went out of style 15 years ago in developed markets.
Correct, nothing has excited me in that segment since Yamaha started putting traction control on the R6. After they added TC, Throttle by wire, Anti-whoolie control, 200hp+, where do you go from there? Now insurance companies have made them unattainable to the buyer who wants them most. Lots of challenges to the industry that now seems to be going back to low tech / smaller displacement offerings.
Lame? Same reason you spend all of your time growing corn, soybeans, and hay, Garth. So you can sell it at a profit, hopefully. They've likely already been selling these by the bucket-loads in their domestic market. So why not make a few mods to meet US regulations and generate even more revenue on their investment? I'll be putting a deposit on one soon. May even consider selling my 2 month old Trail 125 I waited over 6 months for.
Suzuki should’ve paid heed…and maybe no white towel in MotoGP. Classic shit sells, and Big Red is trying to get as much of that market as possible. They can’t pay MM93 with Crypto. Also, Mir will riding a new Monkey through the paddock next year…giggling…lol.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but I LOVE the Monkey. If they update it with the 5 speed from the Grom I'll put an order in for one the same day. The small city bikes are so much fun and I love the styling of the Monkey, plus I don't want to associate with the Grom squids even though I love the little 125s. Hence, the Monkey is the perfect city runabout bike. I'm personally not a fan of the Navi but all these little bikes get more newbies on bikes and someday those are the people we'll be racing against, not everyone is riding an R1 by age 16. Until recently, motorcycle sales had been on the decline for 10-15 years so anything we can do to get more bikes in peoples garages will help our hobby and sport.
If selling more of these wee bikes gives them the budget to keep racing, then they should build and sell every single one they can to make a profit. Nothing lame about that at all.
Papa bite your neck! VTR1000 was fuggly! Like Pontiac Aztec ugly! There is a hell of a market for RC51's. Not so much for the VTR...
I didn't realize that you were talking about looks and posing. Sorry. I was talking about engine character.
The RC51 did the job it was designed. Slaughter the Ducati's in AMA racing. VTR1000 was know for torched heads and valve issues. Blah, on engine character.