What Did We Do To Tick'em Off

I'm struggling to find many in your list that would sell - basically mid capacity low HP bikes, mostly naked - which just don't sell in the US.



The VFR 800 is called an Interceptor / Interceptor ABS on the Honda US website. Same specs, same styling - looks like the same bike to me.



The ER5 and GS500 are very basic low cost low maintenance commuter bikes that happen to be learner legal in most of the EU - no one in the US would buy one - their ****'s would fall of if they bought a little 500cc girls bike with only 35Hp "Geez ! You think I'm a girl ? I'm gunna learn me on how to ride on one them sexy R1's" .



Bandit 600 suffered really poor sales figures - everyone walked straight past it to the 1200



Transalp 750 - was on the market for years I'm fairly sure but didn't sell. Hell the dual purpose bikes generally sell poorly comparatively speaking, and which ones in this category sell ? The GS in a manly litre plus capacity, then a dwindling trickle of others around the 1 litre mark (DL1000, Tiger955 etc) - in teensy numbers compared to cruisers and Supersports



Surprised the GXS1400 isn't available there though - that's a "made for america" bike if I've ever seen one - stonking torque and very quick in a straight line ( bit wallowy through the corners, but you'll leave your cruisers for dead so don't worry about it



It's the same reason that if you compare the list of cruisers available in the US with what's available elsewhere - you guys get a long list we don't see (had to wait 3 years for the warrior to get here - first cruiser I seriously wanted to buy - damn disappointed when I finally got to ride one - who was the bright spark who made the frame 3 feet wide where your legs go to the ground ? How you can build a bike a foot off the ground then make it so you need to be 6' plus to flat foot it ?



JL

(Aussie who's lived in the US and Europe)

Re: Economics for dummies Take 10

Heh, heh. You are a robot, ya know.

Perhaps you can tell me HOW he did it? Explain to me how the President "created" this great economic expansion, oh great Economics guru.

Forget it, I already know the answer to that one. That's why there are three different posts here. You obviously have no idea what you're taking about and are running around the Web trying to find all of your little factoids. If you were such an authority, you wouldn't need to.

I especially love "more to come." That's great. I can't imagine how anyone could be so oblivious to start another argument without actually having an argument. You then have to interrupt yourself midstream and find more support for your "rationale." It's classic.

Classic lunacy.

The budget was balanced because the Republicans threatened to shut down the government.

If Clinton was successful in passing Hillary's national health care plan, it would have been much harder to balance the budget.

NAFTA. You should be against this, but, curiously, you never seem to mention it.

The Internet Explosion/Implosion. Almost everyone lost their asses on this, jobs were created and then destroyed. Investors stopped investing in tech afterwards. It had a negative effect almost everywhere in the economy.

You go ahead and keep believing this fantasy that the government will fix everything for you.

Re: Kawasaki Zxr 250 4 Cyl. 16 Valve

I owned a 1989 model ZXR 250 in Japan for two years. They sell for the same money as 400 or higher engine sizes over there. They were popular due to licensing laws and insurance costs, some of which have changed since 1998 when I came back. The 600 cc models are gaining popularity there now, as are larger motor models exported outside Japan and then brought back in and sold as export versions of Japanese bikes. The Japan market models are usually detuned a bit with different valve timing and horsepower output lowered a bit.

ZXR 250's are fast, light and fun. Mine had a red line of 19,000 rpm... It was a waste to go much beyond 16,000 though since it tailed off after 16,500. The parts were so light and the valve timing on that model so aggressive that it revved very quickly/freely and was a scream to drive. 250 cc, 45 hp, 345 pounds weight or so. It was my all time favorite bike and I have old/new Brit and Japanese stuff of various engine sizes...

It would go 135 with the race speedometer kit. With the normal speedometer it was speed limited to 112 mph, (180 kph) like all Japan home market models so for street use.

Re: Economics for dummies Take 10

Yeah. But, you're stupid! And a right wing gun toting wacko!

And you watch Bill O'Reilly! (Though it was fun to watch Bill destroy that left wing loony from the NYT last weekend).

Kook's a Republican, but hates every Republican you can name except McInsane.

And Bush is stupid too. Though his SAT score was 1206 (1280 by today's dumbed down standards... dumbed down by the liberals who run the schools, but we don't want to discuss what the liberals have done to our educational system... 10 million children on ritalin and counting).

I wonder what Kook's SAT scores are? Or Kerry's? Or Algore's? Or Al Sharpton's? Or Michael Moore's?

I could be wrong though. I've been out of touch for a while. You see, Nixon ordered me to attack Cambodia......