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Old 28th June 2004, 17:04   #1
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Todays papers had a huge ad proclaiming a refreshed Yamaha motorcycle co. to begin July 7th 2004.

Well, that got me excited. I'm sure the ad was meant for the soon to be released Fazer 125 (tested in this months ACI) but maybe there's an deeper meaning to their ad. Atleast for all us bikers out there, i hope there is.

While Indians can now buy the very best supercars here, legally, when it comes to bikes, we get the short end of the stick.

I know that motorcycling in India is more about economy than power, and also that 98% of the 100cc brigade would have probably bought a car is they could afford too. But that still leaves a 2% group of bikers who ride for the joy of riding a bike. And 2% of the 4 million plus motorcycle market is a hefty set of riders alright!

Times have changed...loans are cheap and easy to come by. If a manufacturer had the foresight to launch a 400cc 4 cyl. naked bike here for say - 2.5 to 2.75 lakhs, with the fully faired sports version at 3 lakhs, there would be a sizable number of riders ready to part with that downpayment & EMI.

Sure these bikes will never form the bulk of any manufacturers sales, but does it really need to? I would tell manufacturers to import this type of bike soley as an advertising stratergy dammit!

Look at Yamaha, till today, they are still considered the sportiest of all the others in India even though their current line-up of bikes is the most broing of them all. All this goodwill is leftover from the days of the RD350 and then the RX100, both enthusiast's bikes to the core.

Yamaha knows that this goodwil will not last forever, and they have invested seriously in racing and motocross to build a name. One gets the feeling that they are also begining to build up their street bke presence. I can't think of a better company or one that would benefit more by introducing a real sports bike to India. The image of this bike would translate to increased sales of their bread & butter models. There is no doubt on this.

So, when will we see the first real 4 cylinder bike in India, and which manufacturer would go down in the history books as the one to provide it...thats something that remains to be seen.

I know what i'd be telling the boss if I was on their marketing staff.

Rtech
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Old 28th June 2004, 17:26   #2
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more info here New Image Yamaha India
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Old 28th June 2004, 18:54   #3
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Jaggu,

This is the problem with Yamaha India. Just visiting that link you provided left me in disgust. The flash intro looks like its been done up by a 8th Standard kid as part of his first semester class project.

Rtech, as you have already mentioned - Even if a bigger bike does not really bring in the numbers, it will serve as a massive image boosting exercise. Yamaha Indias downturn started immediately after the RX100 was discontinued. They came out with a million different variations of the RXG135 but nothing quite clicked the way our beloved RX100 did.

Right now, if any manufacturer...new or old...wants to bounce back, he has to take a different marketing route. No one can beat Hero Honda at their single-engine-since-a-decade CD100 variants which are clocking sales like crazy. Ditto for Bajaj with their successful yet fun to ride Pulsar and some other economisers.

Yamaha must include bigger bikes, will surely add some spice to their brand image and in turn, help them sell some more economisers. I hope to see some 400cc motorcycle grace our roads....Secretly I wish there was a way to have the RD350 back. Make mine with disc brakes.

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Old 28th June 2004, 19:07   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]Right now, if any manufacturer...new or old...wants to bounce back, he has to take a different marketing route.
Exactly, and here you have to hand it to those Kinetic guys. Small they may be, but they are forward looking enough to be the first (of the newer generation) to introduce us to high(er) capacity bikes, first with the 250 Vtwin Aquilia, and now with the soon to be released Comet 250.

I'm waiting for the Comet as I will definatley be buying one. I've given up hope on any other manufacturer bringing in something larger anytime soon, and the imports are still just too expensive.

Rt
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Old 28th June 2004, 19:36   #5
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i thought yamaha was already taking orders for 2 models of 1litre plus bikes.
Do u think they are intd in image or jus revenues?
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Old 28th June 2004, 20:36   #6
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Yamaha were plagued with bad marketing for the last couple of years and added to that, whenever they had something good happening with them, used to land up with some labour as in production problems and the competition used to make major mileage with this.
Basically the yam designs in the 4 stroke were good, but product placing and packaging were never on the spot. I guess they have learned some stuff and trying to improve and this add campaign seem to be the first step.
Again the internal problem between escorts and yamaha also contributed to the confusion.
wrt indian market its very difficult for bigger bikes to make sense, its driven by numbers and these numbers are not in favour of big bikes. so the best option will be a cbu rourte with limited numbers, where by real enthusiast can get there hands on some mean machines.
Hopefully the new budget will open up avenues for the manufacturers to bring in these machines in a more afforadable manner for the customers.
RXG's were nothing but trying to keep the 2 stroke fire alive by playing around with cc, only respectable mod was the RXZ, truly mazing but then again they couldnt convince the customers with some marketing startegy.
Hopefully this time we get some good models, and yes the company starts contributing to racing directly instead of relaying on external teams and sponsoring them, the major victory and image building for TVS was contributed by there R&D, directed towards competion. Nothing compared to a foriegn team but you should see these guys and the professionalism in the way they participate and oraganise for small events.
Bajaj is another example of a R&D team contributing to brand building.
Hopefully yam will learn a thing or two from them and invest on a team instead of down right handing of outdated models from other markets.
Indian customer had matured a lot in that sense to understand what a good product is.
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Old 28th June 2004, 23:27   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] (GTO @ June 28 2004,17:24)].................................................. ............... I hope to see some 400cc motorcycle grace our roads....Secretly I wish there was a way to have the RD350 back. Make mine with disc brakes.

GTO
hey dont i remeber you tellin me that u arent that much of a bike guy?
now what happened suddenly?!?!
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Old 29th June 2004, 00:42   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]

hey dont i remeber you tellin me that u arent that much of a bike guy?
now what happened suddenly?!?!
I aint much of a bike guy, but I am a power freak. And it took all of one ride alone on an RD to convince me. The sound and the power are unmatched

GTO
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Old 26th July 2004, 01:06   #9
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GTO, I'd love the RD back too. Though an irrate lady in an Indica caused me to crash mine the nite before I was to drag my RD at the Speedrun 2004 in Mumbai. Hard luck, the bike was in no shape to race the next day, and I had torn the ligments of my left knee, not to mention got my helmet cracked and my nose was running with a strange red fluid! And no, it wasnt engine oil! Sad, very sad! And all this when I was minding my own bloody business in the slow lane doing 50kmph (yes 50 kmph!)....
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Old 26th July 2004, 01:40   #10
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Hey kyle,

Sorry to hear about this unfortunate accident. Hope you and the bike are back in shape now!

So......you have an RD now? Would love to check it out at the next Team-BHP meet.

Welcome aboard

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Old 26th July 2004, 20:54   #11
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Hey GTO. Yeah bud, have the RD. Wouldnt let it go for the world. U guys meet regularly? I'd love to meet u guys. I have a 1962 JAWA 250cc Model 353, a 1950 BSA 250cc C11G plunger and my 1980 Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc Standard in addition to the RD. And yeah, they all have their names, more on that later!
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Old 19th September 2008, 11:47   #12
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Four years since this post appeared nothing much has happened.an you believe it! And this are supposed to change fast in business.

They have launched R1 & MT01, but I dont know how much of an impact its made.

Maybe the launch of R15 & FZ16 will slowly help Yamaha to build an image of an performance bikes manufacturer.
 
Old 19th September 2008, 18:39   #13
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>> If a manufacturer had the foresight to launch a 400cc 4 cyl. naked bike here for say - 2.5 to 2.75 lakhs, with the fully faired sports version at 3 lakhs, there would be a sizable number of riders ready to part with that downpayment & EMI.

IIRC there's some technicality in the rules that doesn't allow the void between 250 and 800 to be filled up that easily. which is why you have yamaha launching sub 150s on the one hand and R1s and MT01s on the other. same goes for the other guys who are set to sell imports on indian shores. i think we don't give the companies enough credit when we assume they are stoopid by not launching 400s. we know and they know that 400s are more practical than 1000s. but not much us or them can do
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Old 19th September 2008, 18:47   #14
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More than the contents of this thread, I'm only getting memories of the thread-starter. Rtech!
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Old 20th September 2008, 00:16   #15
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what happened to him joel. the way you said that, i hope he's ok.
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