You lost me at reasonable prices. The MSRP on that new Busa ain't reasonable by any stretch of the imagination.
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Hayabusa. 20 and out.
- Thread starter Gary
- Start date
You lost me at reasonable prices. The MSRP on that new Busa ain't reasonable by any stretch of the imagination.
Priller
Well-known member
Yeesh, I already type way too much in my posts. This would be a full-on novel...
I should preface by making extremely clear that my opinion that they aren't class leading does not mean that I'm saying they are bad bikes, nor am I casting aspersions on anyone who owns one. There's lots that goes into choosing what bike to buy, and every bike fits someone best. I owned a 2007 ZX-10R for almost a decade and loved it deeply. It worked for me and what I wanted, I dug the style, and once I did the suspension, it did everything I wanted. But it also wasn't the best litre bike at any point in its lifespan by any measure. It didn't win races, it didn't win shootout tests, it didn't win on the dyno, nothing. But it won my heart...
ADV bikes? Big, probably GS based on sales, possibly new MSV4, KTM in running. Definitely not V-Strom 1000. Little, likely T7 for off-road, Triumph 850 maybe? V-Strom 650 offers excellent value.
Sport? GSXR is behind RSV4, Panigale V4, S1000RR, CBRRR. Even price wise, as RSV4 can be had with similar dealer discounts.
Cruiser? No idea, not my thing. Just know nobody gets excited about a Suzuki, Indian seems to be hot now, Harley still in demand despite dwindling sales.
Starter? GSX250R behind R3, Ninja 400, even KTM390 if you don't think too hard about reliability.
Naked? GSXS or Katana not in running for big. Tuono, Super Duke, everyone else better. SV is interesting for small as v option against parallel hegemony in middleweight class, but it's long in the tooth and not the bike it used to be.
Touring? They don't make one. This is actually where I think they missed the boat on the new Busa, but I understand that would alienate the core Hayabusa buyer. Take some elements of what Kawi did with the Concours 14, but keep the long and low drag bike aesthetic. Offer hard bags as an option, possibly a range of peg heights and bar heights, even adjustable bars. I know it would mess with the aerodynamics that seems to be the main raison d'etre for the bike, but who is actually approaching top speed on one regularly anyway? You could make the bags look extra streamlined, I guess.
Dirt? No frickin' idea.
I'd be very curious if they do sell more than others these days. They used to, for sure, but my impression is their sales of large displacement bikes are way down, along with the other Japanese brands. This then leads to less push to update, which leads to stale models, which leads to less sales. I say that only anecdotally, and have no sales figures. I'd love to be wrong.
Do you have any data that shows them outselling the competition? I ask with genuine curiosity, as I'd love to know, and finding actual model sales numbers is not easy.
Priller
Well-known member
The first two gens are rad, bad motorcycles. Even this one is awesome in a lot of ways, and I really like the redesign. Much more, actually, than the Gixxer they used as inspiration. The old Busy can be used as a fatboy sport bike (a heavily modded one was holding its own in the fast group when I was at Shannonville last), an insanely fast tourer (KML tows a trailer behind his), a 9 second bike ATV the strip with minimal work, etc. It's a genuinely great motorcycle.
If this new bike existed just as a model update with a low cost considering all the tooling savings, I'd say fair enough. But they've added electronic complexity (which you say you don't want elsewhere) in exchange for a huge price bump. That increase changes the conversation for me...
And they're trying to hoover a $500 deposit from potential customers, for delivery "later".
I would have sent them 5 hun if the msrp was......let's say <$17K.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Finding model year sales is not easy. A buddy of mine is an insurance pricing guru, he uses the for sale counts off kijiji to determine relative popularity for late models.
Priller
Well-known member
Scarcity creates demand. Suzuki has been very aggressive in marketing this one...
Despite his love of American muscle, Biden isn't strictly a Harley guy. While getting a haircut in Cincinnati, Ohio at a 2018 fundraising event, photographers captured him sitting on his barber's Suzuki Hayabusa with a huge grin on his face.
Link:
www.rideapart.com
Link:
President-Elect Joe Biden Is A Biker
Though President-Elect Joe Biden has more pressing matters on his hands than motorcycles, it's clear that his love of fast vehicles extends to two wheels.
www.rideapart.com
Ive ridden the Busa for over a decade now and maybe Im the only one looking forward too this iteration. Yes, the price is pretty steep - but thats thanks for all the ECU's gadgets that I personally won't ever use. I think it looks beautiful - slimmed down to look more like a sport bike rather than the cruiser. The weight of the Busa had never bothered me, and anyone thats ridden it knows once you get going the weight disperses pretty quick, and thats assuming you're not taking this thing to a track day. And if it's slightly less powerful, thats fine as well, when was the last time you had your bike up over 300KM/H on the regular?
Yea I don't remember the last time I saw a ZX1400 to be honest. Hell, I don't even see the 'busa very much out on the open stretches either - you see them more at the local boring Tim Horton meetups than anything which is such a waste. And when the hell are you bringing that Ducati up north here to visit!
I often used to see a beautiful black 14 when I was commuting on the 407. I think it was someone on here commuting east from Miss or Brampton. I moved from that place more than a decade ago. I don't remember seeing once since.
The ZX-14 was a better bike when you could get it in colours other than green.
Hey! Kawasaki! Can you please stop that stupid ****
Hey! Kawasaki! Can you please stop that stupid ****
It’s a nice upgrade but not $6 grand worth of electronics.
JFD
Well-known member
...and i'm willing to bet the redflagdeals lot are many of those purchases, and will try to resell at a huge premium due to inavailability.
such a ****** phenomenon these days.
Priller
Well-known member
But the green ones are faster!
Mine was the 2008 'special edition' in Metallic Persimmon Red (had to Google that). Was basically metallic semi-flat black and a sort of candy apple red. The rainbow metallic flame stickers got peeled off fast, and a KR Tuned slip-on set got installed to be rid of the oil drums they repurposed as exhausts. No green in sight...
I made up for it by replacing the 14 with a ZX-10R with the bodywork in all green, top to bottom. Ninjas should be green, but Kawasaki has bastardised the name over the years to include a lot of non-sportbikes (including the ZX-14)...
It never occurred to me that you could just peel those flames off lol
Priller
Well-known member
To be fair, I didn't do it, it came that way from the previous owner, but I was grateful for his efforts. Especially considering he only put about 1,000 km on the bike...
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