michnus
Bachelor Dog
2004 and there's a new in-thing going around, for one, many of the 1980's 50cc laaites are getting back into biking, but not road bikes, off road, d/p bikes, maybe because they pull more to the 4x4 side of things than the apie-op-n-rugby bal style of the superbikes.
Yes Ewan and whatever also got onto it and the whole series had a huge impact on the D/S market.
It's not a new thing, there was the GS range and the Africa Twin as popular round the world bikes before, the KLR and the Tiger to a lesser extend. But never before 2004 was there such a big market and growth in this segment for bikes.
But also over the pond in the USA and Europe it seems to catch on big time. In the same time, we got a new series of off-roads bikes, the HP2 and then KTM's version the SE. Then BMW came with the X-bikes and KTM with the 690 which we all thought would evolve into D/S bike but alas they spend their money on the X-bow and thus all else fell flat on it's nose.
Triumph and Yamaha came in to play, Honda added a rather poor attempt at some poefter bike that is not D/S but road tourer.
And now in 2011, what happened there's no more hypes like we had with when the new GSA got launched in 2005 or the newer KTMs. There's no more new bikes like the X or 690 ,Hp's and SE's.
Was it the recession in 2008/9 that got the manufacturers to stop spending on new developments?
Is it that there's just no more market for dirt road bikes? In Germany you are not allowed on a dirt road and they sell 10 times more GS's than SA.
On the forum the last 6 years we had many people come and go. But the majority started riding and then stopped, either due to work or due to family, biking is a selfish game, if the wife is not going with then she will allow the man one weekend a month to ride, never mind camping for a weekend, the kids and family is more important. They then buy a 4x4 again and the bike has got to go. Many of the people I have met on the forum this was one the reasons they stopped I bought good kit for nothing.
What happened is all over or am I missing the point?
Yes Ewan and whatever also got onto it and the whole series had a huge impact on the D/S market.
It's not a new thing, there was the GS range and the Africa Twin as popular round the world bikes before, the KLR and the Tiger to a lesser extend. But never before 2004 was there such a big market and growth in this segment for bikes.
But also over the pond in the USA and Europe it seems to catch on big time. In the same time, we got a new series of off-roads bikes, the HP2 and then KTM's version the SE. Then BMW came with the X-bikes and KTM with the 690 which we all thought would evolve into D/S bike but alas they spend their money on the X-bow and thus all else fell flat on it's nose.
Triumph and Yamaha came in to play, Honda added a rather poor attempt at some poefter bike that is not D/S but road tourer.
And now in 2011, what happened there's no more hypes like we had with when the new GSA got launched in 2005 or the newer KTMs. There's no more new bikes like the X or 690 ,Hp's and SE's.
Was it the recession in 2008/9 that got the manufacturers to stop spending on new developments?
Is it that there's just no more market for dirt road bikes? In Germany you are not allowed on a dirt road and they sell 10 times more GS's than SA.
On the forum the last 6 years we had many people come and go. But the majority started riding and then stopped, either due to work or due to family, biking is a selfish game, if the wife is not going with then she will allow the man one weekend a month to ride, never mind camping for a weekend, the kids and family is more important. They then buy a 4x4 again and the bike has got to go. Many of the people I have met on the forum this was one the reasons they stopped I bought good kit for nothing.
What happened is all over or am I missing the point?
