Hi Carl, and all...
I'm well and just winding down a sales season that was up %170 from the previous one. Wow, the two-wheelers flew out the doors. I can tell you that tons of new commuting riders are entering the market here in the US. Scooters and Adventure/Dual Motorcycles are the two groups in big growth. I'm in Wisconsin and even our cold climate state buy 5,000+ scooter each year. Sadly the first snow of winter has just fallen this week, so the riding season ends til spring.
Riders came out in great numbers this year looking for multi-purpose high milage small bikes and found very few options. And while most first time riders will seek the automatic tranny of a scooter, many midwesterners have dirt bike expirience. Supermoto bikes are selling well and enduros are being pushed into service as commuters. Most enduros would still need upgraded cargo space, lowered comfy seat, urban wheels, and such to be a better commuter.
I don't know the exact spirit that brought about this prototype and discussion so I hope none of my suggestions are counter purpose. You seem to be looking to improve the looks AND utility of a light bike. Useful. appealing, simple yet tough. I'm puting a commuter spin on it 'cuz thats where I see a need and an opportunity. There are so many uses and users that it hard to make a Dual Sport that satisfies all. I have wondered when someone would explore using the enduro frame with friendly ergonomics and utility styling.
Scrambler pipes are just a styling cue that I like. Street bikes with raised pegs, higher bars, and strait side pipe gave better ground clearance and could handle trail riding are called scramblers. The early Seventies Honda CB350 and 450 Supersports were converted to CL350/450 Scramblers. Look up a 1972 Honda CL450 and that is the shielded pipe I refer to.
What we have here is a lowered dirt bike for dirt and street...rather than a raised street bike for street and trail. Which, brings us back to the issue of swappable wheels to get better handling where the user wants it. If you could offer this bike with two sets of wheels for 3G or less...WINNER. Then you have to actually support it with not only parts...but upgrades as well.
IMO the rear styling on this prototype does a fair job of matching the tank shape from the side profile...but has too strong a profile from the rear view. I would like to see this design liability turned into utility. Consider this, the diamond shaped flaring rear body work could be a flat mounting bracket from just above the rear peg mounting bolts all the way up to the tailight. This would give a boxier looking tail, but multiple bolt-on accessory space rather than breaky style parts. Offer multiple rear racks, panniers, boxes, passenger bars, frame sliders, hardpoints, and even a stylish breaky parts to bolt onto the rear frame. Totally customizable feature instead of like it or leave it body part. What do think of that Idea?
I like this bike, so don't take it the wrong way when I say that I'd like to see it slammed to the ground a few times. Where does the damage show up? Does that wider tank get dented quickly? Does the rear bodywork get torn up? Could bumpers/sliders be added to improve damage resistance? Does the pipe get smashed? Take a look at the armor plates that go on snowmobiles and jetskis as bumbers in high wear areas and imagine some on a motorcycle.
How would it look in flat rat paint I wonder??? A mini-street fighter??? the Dual-Standard???
In an entirely different direction, Carl have you ever seen the Italjet "Amarcord" prototype from a few year ago. Get the chinese cracking on a simple auto-motorcycle. Look here:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_7gYNb3GSh4M/...h/amarcord.jpg
Later, Peej
