Aprillia in rough waters

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Im hoping the 899 panigale helps turn it around for Ducati. They have no intro bikes and the Monster makes up nearly 60% of their global sales. I wish they had sold the 350SS/400SS in North American market and feel they should reintroduce smaller bikes minus the Super Sport moniker. I wish I could afford an 848 Corse SE and hope to have an 848 Evo as my last bike many years from now, love the specs of the new 899 panigale but 848 was so much prettier! :(
 
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Roomie said:
I think to some the whole I can have a jap ss for way less money with very similar performance discourages purchasing. Perhaps aprillia could try to make a reasonably priced sport bike and also have their flagship model. :dontknow:
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Don't think trying to compete with the Japanese is going to get them far. They need to embrace and market their "specialness", there are plenty of people out there with enough disposable income for toys, they simply need to market their product better to them. If they can create a buyer mindset that they are buying into something more than just a bike, lets call it a lifestyle, the actual bike doesn't matter nearly as much

Just look at BMW, Ducati, and of course the king of them all, Harley. When people buy one of their bikes, they're not getting just a bike, they're getting the image and lifestyle that goes with them. That's how you sell bikes.
 
Sonny Barger was very critical of Italian motorcycle companies in his book. Said that many have Italian management but North African workers who don't speak the language so you get all sorts of screw ups (according to him.) To paraphrase, said that they are beautiful bikes but too many problems and hard to get parts for or technicians because of this.

He bashed Harley throughout which was a big surprise so it is not as if he was only critical of the Italians. Harley got the lion's share of the bashing.
 
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At the time frame Sonny Barger wrote his books Harley had just ended an era of owning thier first go around of an Italian company. They partnered up with Aremacchi to produce a range of enduro, scrambler and small CC road bikes. The result was awful, Then they bought another Italian company just for the liquid cooling engineering on V twins, and sold it at a huge loss back to the original owner group.

His assessement of the Italian industry was pretty slanted, and with his background I wasn't shocked at his view. I will give him that he does write interesting stuff.

For anyone thats been long term involved with Italian manufacturing, be it cars or bikes, you get "use" to the idea that an oddball component may be 3 months away. Over the years we have had a Benelli, Italjet, several Aermacchi , Laverda (not the cool one, the tractor version) and a Morini . They were all a variety of interesting engineering, and questionable reliability.
 
cool said:
Anyone here see Aprilia RS 125 for sale in GTA or Ontario? I'm looking for one. Its popular in Asia but not in Canada :(
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Only used as they were only imported for 2009. I looked at 2, bought 1, and saw 3 more for sale all on Kijiji this season. I can forward you the info of a guy I almost bought one off of but found a cheaper one in the end. It's mint. Think he wants $5k for it or maybe $5.5k. PM me if you want his info. He will not drop below this price at all, btw.

You can also buy one brand new in BC for around $4k and have it shipped here and register it with the NVIS documents but I was too worried I'd run into problems. The guy that runs Corso Meccanica in Toronto told me I should have no trouble registering it and if I do to contact him and he'd help me out. You'd need to buy the street kit from AF1 Racing in the US which is a $1200 kit.

Good luck.

Edit: Last time I looked there was a dealership in Ottawa that has still has a brand new 2009 that never sold but they want over $9k for it and then another $2k for the street kit to make it street legal. I was able to find them on Kijiji as well, last time. Not sure if they still have it.
 
unL33T said:
Only used as they were only imported for 2009. I looked at 2, bought 1, and saw 3 more for sale all on Kijiji this season. I can forward you the info of a guy I almost bought one off of but found a cheaper one in the end. It's mint. Think he wants $5k for it or maybe $5.5k. PM me if you want his info.
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How much is insurance on the Aprilia RS 125?
 
Sunspark said:
Why so much for a 125? Is this like $3250 for a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes?
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Edit, misread this post: these are GP replicas, not econo bikes like the Honda CBR 125R. They have more power than a Ninja 250R, are lighter, and have much nicer components. They are supposed to be 2 stroke track bikes. It's kind of like asking why does a BMW 320i cost $35k and a Cruze costs $16k...
XenoVibe said:
How much is insurance on the Aprilia RS 125?
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About $60/month for me. About half the price of my 650R.
 
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Yeah, well... there's no Suzuki or Kawasaki dealer in Kingston, either. Technically no Yamaha dealer, either... but it's a 15 minute drive.
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