Ducati offers to buy Aprilia

>All Indian has is a marketing

>name



A hugely valuable one.



>untill someone with balls comes in

>and sets it up as a unique brand

>again



Exactly.



Ducati has the resources, and they have engineers who know something about V-twins. And for the cretins to whom such a thing would be important, it wouldn't be Ducati owning Indian, it would be Texas Pacific Group.

What Indian needs to be is the same as Triumph. A line of modern unique bikes and a line of updated "classic" bikes. If all they're going to do is build fat fendered Harley clones they can be ressurected till the cows come home and they'll go tits everytime.

What alot of people don't realize is that Harley probably wouldn't be building retro style bikes if Indian had of stayed in buisness. Competition between Harley, Indian and later Triumph and BSA is what drove innovation for all of them.

While HD copied the Brits. and went to OHV with the Knucklehead and Panhead engines, then unit engines and swingarm frames with the K model and Sportsters, Indian cranked out the same sprung axle sidevalves and slowly went under.

While new HD's are technicaly superior, visually most of their styling is the same as it was when Indian went tits up.

While this little rant has nothing to do with Ducati or Aprilia, everytime ressurecting old brands comes up Indian gets dragged out of the closet. They went under because they failed to keep up with the times.

They went under because they were charging an extra $10K for rebadged Harleys. If you wanted an "Indian" all you had to do was buy a Harley (much cheaper, relatively speaking) and bolt on the different fenders and replace the tank decals.



Then Indian built their own in house engine that was worse than the Excelsior-Henderson's. The final nail in the coffin.



The ironic thing is that Indian might have done better if they'd gone completely retro and built a hand shift bike with a flathead engine again. That might have really attracted the Rubs. It couldn't have been worse than their in house OHV POS. And it would have been carrying out this retro insanity to it's (il)logical conclusion.



I guess the next step would be offering automatic exhaust valves and total loss oiling. Oh wait, they already have total loss oiling....

I don't know - that's a pretty big umbrella, if Ducati does that, they'll start to look like GM.



If anything they'll keep a couple of Aprilia models that are successful in their own right and don't compete with something in their current Ducati line up and sell off the rest of the company assets (hello scooters up to 500 cc and RS Replica).



Guzzi is another story, that can be added without competing with the main line of Ducati.



It's really not that the deal sucks, it's that the Aprilia models we've come to appreciate will likely go bye bye. That's the shame - that Aprilia the company was failing.

>Simply, Aprilia was and is a

>scooter builder.

Then the Mille, Falco and Futura are the motherf**ingest ass-kicking scooters ever made.

BTW, same applies to Honda and Yamaha.

>The motors in the street bikes are

>supplied by Rotax.

Who also supply some motors for BMW and KTM, I believe. And manufacturers also get brakes from Brembo, shocks from Ohlins, carbs from Mikuni, etc. Nothing wrong with outsourcing. Oftentimes more efficient.

>The MotoGP effort is a failure.

So is Suzuki's and Kawasaki's. Big deal.

>Ducati will not ax any sportbike

>that Aprilia produces. What they

>will do is modify the existing

>motor and build it in Ducati's

>house.

Now YOUR [sic] the one who's HIGH. Do you honestly believe that Ducati would produce and sell both the 999 and the Mille? Both the 900SS and the Falco? Both the ST4 and the Futura? Why? What's the point of spending money (labor, materials, marketing, tooling maintenance, mutiple assembly lines, etc etc) to produce a direct competitor to your own product line?

>Duc wanted Guzzi, anyway

Which makes sense. Better-differentiated product line and customer base.

>so why not throw in Laverda and

>(lead brand) Aprilia.

That's like wanting to buy my neighbor's garage for $20,000, getting rebuffed, then deciding to buy the whole property for $200,000 just to get that garage. Might make sense, might not, but that's an awfully big "throw-in."

>Anyone that thinks this is bad is

>simply not a good businessman.

I didn't say it was a bad business decision. They would eliminate a competitor. I said it was bad for motorcycling, because those great Aprilia bikes will be no more.

>Aprilia will live right along side

>with Ducati.

Not with motorcycles.

>Guzzi will get better quality

>control

Nowhere to go but up, but Ducati ain't stellar in this department.

>and Laverda will start shipping

>bad ass litre class twins again.

Laverda was renowned for their Triples. A Twin would alienate the faithful and would compete with existing Ducs, so it won't happen.

>It all looks good to me

Not me.