Happy new model year
By TMX Archives on 25th Jun 09
This week JD ponders why factories bring out new bikes half-way through the year and not wait for the Dirt Bike Show...AS you will have noticed this week, the factories have got itchy trigger fingers and have started to release their 2010 off-road models. Japanese giant Kawasaki has loaded the chambers with its tasty KX range of motocrossers, headed by the all-powerful 250F/450F duo while Italian minnow Beta has fired-off the first update of their revolutionary EVO trials bikes which of course were all-new last term.And it's only June!
Nothing new here of course. We've been down this route a few times but just a reminder. Time was when new bikes were launched in the Autumn and promised for delivery in January – which never happened and sometimes the new season was already under way before some factories delivered their New Year bikes. Then, for reasons that have never been made clear, the launch dates gradually came forward, along with actual delivery dates and we can fast-forward to the present day when there is no doubt that many new models will be launched, tested, hit the shops and be worn-out on the tracks before the Bike Shows come around at the end of the year. Don't really know who benefits here.
If you have got your figures right it makes sense of a sort. If an importer has budgeted for 500 bikes, say, and by June has shifted them all out to dealers then the importer is sitting pretty. And if the dealer has shifted his current crop of bikes then he's looking for new stock. It is when he hasn't sold all the current year bikes that it all goes a bit pear shaped as the customers are all looking for the Holy Grail that is the new year model.
All these launches add a bit of excitement and glamour mid-season but in this world of swings and roundabouts the downside is that it detracts from the end of year shows. We used to go to the Dirt Bike Show and actually witness the unveiling of the 1982 Green Meanies and Red Rockets and Yellow Perils and all the rest and then undergo the agonising wait until they hit the showrooms. I suppose it is actually just another manifestation of the "NOW” culture that once we see the latest bike, car, phone or bar of chocolate we want it NOW!
Also, we are so used to a ‘new' model each and every year from each and every factory that it is a fact that we have all got far too blase about it all. We all joke about the ‘bold new graphics' and other glib phrases trotted out by the various PR departments. If you have ever been on a bike launch and watched some poor wretch of an industry employee wheeled-out in front of the cynical press to deliver a "bold new graphics” type speech you would know all about embarrassment. Fantastic when you really have got a whizz-bang new model that takes development levels to a new high – but barrel scraping when you have just sanded the black paint off your engine cases and are presenting them, with a flourish, as state-of-the-art.
Trouble is, there are times when we start believing our own jokes.
Yes, it's true that factories effectively go round and round in circles when it comes to development. This year we have aluminium shock bodies for lightness, next year it is back to a steel body for extra cooling, or strength, or whatever. Last season the engine power was shuffled down the rev-band for "mid-range grunt " before the boffins shovel it all back up top this year for "class leading horsepower.”
This jiggery-pokery goes on right through the list of components on every bike, whether trials, motocross or enduro.
Fashion is also a major driver in these stakes. Like virtually every MXer now sports an aluminium chassis. But is it really so superior? KTM seems to manage quite nicely with its ‘old-fashioned' steel tubes. And in trials Gas Gas has led the way forward with its new generaton of steel tubed frames which take lightness, simplicity and strength to new levels.
But for all the jokes and the cynicism, when it really comes down to it would you really rather ride a 1960, a 1990 or a 2010 bike. Pre-65 ,Twin-shock and Evo (as in motocross) fans are obviously not invited to answer this! For the rest of us I think the answer is pretty conclusive – we'll take the 2010 model please Bob.
I love the older bikes to look at. Air-cooled engines still look the absolute business and twin-shocks still look trick hanging proudly out there in the breeze. But, I think 2010 shared it...
One final point. PLEASE can the MX boffins get a move-on and deliver electric start? Not for me – for their GP riders! Once again last Sunday us telly watchers were treated to the embarrassing spectacle of a Grand Prix rider kicking his insides out trying to re-start his stalled bike. When we are so close to showing GPMX off to the general public in a positive light, all this George Formby style frantic kicking really should be a thing... well, for George Formby – who's day was some 60-years ago.
Come on factories – "New for 2010... electric start.”