September is the month for motorcycle manufacturers to announce their new models for the upcoming year. After looking at my favorite manufacturers (Honda and Triumph), here are my thoughts on this year and predictions for 2007.
Honda has brought the 599 (aka Hornet, aka CB600) back to the US after a 1-year hiatus. A top-seller in Europe, it’s well-reviewed, especially for city riding. But the American market loves big-displacement bikes that go long distances on highways, and this is medium-sized and unfaired, making for windy highway rides. That, plus a price-tag well above the competition (notably the Suzuki SV-650) led to poor sales for 2004, and no US release for 2005. I was hoping for a switch to fuel-injection and maybe a cut in the price, but instead it’s $300 more and some suspension adjustments. My prediction: poor sales and the continuation of Honda’s search for something to replace the Nighthawk 750, its previous mid-size standard. I don’t think they’ll find something that can really be loved in the US the way that Europe likes the Hornet: it’s a great, medium-sized bike, and the US doesn’t seem to like anything moderate. I’ve seen people mocked on message-boards for starting with a 500cc bike, which in Europe is considered full-size. Kawasaki is nodding to that fact by releasing one of the only all-new bikes of the year, the incredibly-cool ER-6N, only in Europe.
Meanwhile, Triumph has brought out a couple variations on its current themes, most notably the Scrambler, an offroad-style version of the classic Bonneville. That got me thinking: I saw a lot of dirt-bikes and dual-sports in Barcelona, and they’d be perfect for a lot of city streets in the US as well: they give you an upright position so you can see around you, and they’re great for potholes and sidewalks. Plus, it seems like dirtbikes are becoming cool again, and Supermoto Racing (dirt-track in some sections, paved in others, slightly modified dirt-bikes) is increasingly popular, with segments on the X-Games and sponsorship from Red Bull. My prediction is that we’ll see some interesting dual-sport bikes coming from the major vendors in 2007.
If not, that’s an opening for KTM, which has long been focused on off-road bikes but has built an impressive dual-sport portfolio as well. The new, more street-oriented 990 Super Duke suggests to me that they are perfectly aware of the trend, too. It seems perfect for the US market, too: where else could you sell a dirtbike with a 1-liter engine?
Secretly Ironic 