I think reinventing the wheel is the only road any new motorcycle company has of succeeding. Look at cars. Tesla turned the industry on it's ear by coming out with three premium offerings first before going after the mass market. They're the newest american make in what, 80 years or something? There would be no way to differentiate the brand if he went known and proven, plus I doubt anyone could offer similar performance for such low prices. I have a hard time believing that a new company could make their version of an R1 for anything close to what Yamaha is selling them for.
I hate to say it but you'd almost need to just go full retard. Find a way to build a cheaper more reliable version of an H2R or the like. Something with mind blowing brochure numbers. Accompany it on the market with a more normal little brother. But get your name out there with shock value if nothing else.
I'll take a vacation if this is deemed "political," but Tesla's business model is not viable without government subsidy for their technology and tax credits for their customers. EBR had neither, so I don't think it's a valid comparison.
Fair enough, but there are other examples in the auto industry to reference. Pagani, McLaren, Konsnnnegg, etc all haven't flourished by copying Ford.
What would constitute particularly good? They took a brand-new motorcycle in 2012 and raced it in AMA superbike. Two separate riders put it on the podium, and they finished 5th and 8th in the championship. They actually had good results for the next two years, despite not having top shelf riders. (all due respect of course). Then they took the bike and raced it against the best technology and superbike riders on the planet, and still made the grid. Canepa broke a record at Jennings set by Ben Bostrom on a Jordan Suzuki. May not mean much to the rest of the world, but to me it means the bike worked just fine.
I'm pretty sure this bandwagon is full. It's clear many of you haven't been paying attention and are hanging on to recollections from years ago. Your call. -jim
[QUOTE="JBraun, post: 5020094, member: 26059" Canepa broke a record at Jennings set by Ben Bostrom on a Jordan Suzuki. May not mean much to the rest of the world, but to me it means the bike worked just fine.[/QUOTE] How many other WSBK riders on WSBK spec'd bikes have been on Jennings? Serious question and not meant to be a dig on EBR. I'm an EBR fan. I've ridden several and owned an 1125. But the RX missed the mark imo. $18k and no QS? Shit brakes, constant chain slider issues, no ABS etc. I also own a Panigale and when compared, yeah, I'd say the RX isn't all that great.
I know standing at the rail, at the kink at vir, watching them go by at wot top gear was amazing. I don't remember who the couple of wera guys were, but around 2010 that was something to see.. I'll never forget listening to those bikes wind up coming out of hog pen and blasting past just a few feet away. What a treat.
That's kinda what I was getting at. You can get a lot more bike, for less money. At the end of the day, to many/most people, that means more than simply being able to say "yeah, but this one is made in America". If they had a price tag of $11-12k, their success rate probably would have been different. But when you can get a ZX10, R1, RSV4, etc for less money...it is hard to convince people that they should buy yours just because it wasn't made overseas.
He did different just to be different. And that's just not a good enough reason in a market place where performance is measured, evaluated, and agonized over annually to determine which bike is best. I don't recall ever seeing anything where he could say his choice of brake design was an advantage over conventional twin rotors/caliper confugurations. Nor have I ever seen where the fuel in the frame was somehow an advantage over putting it in a fuel tank like everyone else.
The huge difference is that Tesla came out with something completely different, that were premium offerings...but they were actually better than anything they were competing against. You can't "reinvent the wheel", go against the grain and come out with things that are completely different...and charge thousands more for it...and then have it be worse than the competition. If he would have came out with those unconventional bikes, while also being able to say "it will accelerate 20% faster, stop 20% sooner, and is 20% lighter than any of its primary competition "....it would be a whole different story. You can't put out a bike that goes against proven technology/designs, and put a higher price tag on it...then have it offer less performance than the competition, and expect the business to be successful.
If I were to roll the dice on an American performance motorcycle I would go the Suter route and build something like their 500 two stroke. I'd build something high end yet different enough that it wouldn't have a direct competitor. Trying to engage any of the major oems in a performance battle is suicide. There's not a lot of point trying to go for budget performance either since the sport bikes devalue so quickly that you can get a used bike for not a lot that still has a ton of performance. If you want to be an American motorcycle company you need to build the next Grom or some other market defining machine.
But they did. Went on and on about unsprung weight, did a side by side weight comparison with a conventional brake setup. If you google it, there's a YouTube video.
Now we are talking. Put that 1190 motor in a bike the size of the Grom. Then you would have an American game-changer for sure.
