more fat birds to choose from.

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bikenav
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more fat birds to choose from.

Post by bikenav »

https://www.1000ps.at/modellnews-300870 ... -5-und-9-5
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daveuprite
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by daveuprite »

Oh that's the new MV 'Lucky Explorer' isn't it. Lots of discussion about it on MV Agusta.net, mostly disapproving. Apart from sheer profiteering, because everyone seems to want a fat bird these days, I'm not sure why MV is attempting to go down this road. The company is small, the bikes are mostly hand-made, expensive, rare and exclusive - and sporty - sometimes very sporty. So this new thing is a total outlier.

Will ADV riders really want an exotic expensive piece of italian art that they daren't scratch and probably don't trust to have a very good parts supply or long-distance reliability (whether that's true or not) ?? I doubt it somehow. It is even less likely to see any mud than the other big off-road lookalikes - none of which are really suited to the conditions they lead their buyers to aspire to.

Which leaves it as a posing tool. Well MV already makes lots of those. An F4, F3 or a Brutale will always be cool looking and go like stink. Why search for customers in the far less cool world of ADV, with a bike that everyone will know you are afraid to use in the dirt?

Can't fathom it myself.
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mark vb
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by mark vb »

daveuprite wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:01 pm Why search for customers in the far less cool world of ADV, with a bike that everyone will know you are afraid to use in the dirt?
Can't fathom it myself.
Not sure I agree with that. In the old days, yes - sports/race track-style bikes were cool, and big trailies, as 'adventure' bikes were then known, were somewhat eccentric oddballs - in the UK, at least. I believe that big, heavy adv bikes (which are really lardy tourers dressed up with a passing nod to off-roadness) are now the new cool as many ageing sportsbike owners find sportsbikes too focussed and uncomfortable. I believe the vast majority of 'adv' bikes owners will not take a new bike off road, at least nothing more than a gravel track or very mild trail, both of which are hardly more taxing than a rural B-road. Just as most sports bike owners didn't enrol to proddie race, or even do more focussed track days, for fear of binning their new, expensive toy. With older, well-used bikes I think the general rule begins to change as dropping them is not a big deal, either financially or psychologically.
Nothing wrong with any of that, if one perceives a big adv bike as being cool and wants to pose on it, good luck to one.... but it won't impress me 😁
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by daveuprite »

Lots to discuss here...

Yes, I can really see your point Mark. In fact the more I think about it the more I agree.

But perhaps the main reason that you no longer regard sports biking as cool is really more about popularity, rather than 'cool'. In the UK, and some other countries, the biking demographic is now much older than it used to be, more conservative, more 'practical', more able to afford a bike as a leisure toy than a form of transport or expression, and maybe less style-conscious. The shift to ADV (as you say, soft, comfy, squashy-looking tourers) is a logical consequence - they suit our aching bodies.

The low uptake of motorcycling by young people, and the huge costs imposed upon them, has supressed sports-bikes and the aspirational side of bikes as a young person's display of style-conscious rebellion and emulation of WSB/MotoGP heroes. The barriers to entry are enormous now, so that's largely gone. But the cool hasn't.

As a long-term sports biker, privateer racer and track-day-er, I'm interested in the comparison with sport bike buyers who never go to the track. It's valid I think. Thousands did take their sports bike to the track, and thousands didn't. The track was the best place to learn the limits of a bike, in a very safe environment compared to the hazards of riding fast on the road. But many perceived it otherwise. Is that equivalent to ADV buyers never taking their Africa Twin / GS1200 on to the dirt? Not sure, maybe....
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by OnHellas »

What matters in the cool stakes is not what an ageing sports bike fan may want or whether this middle aged moaner wants ride modes, TFT screens and connectivity or not…….it’s what the masses want to buy.

Over the last 25 years the masses have spoilt the Dual Sport/Adventure bike market by making it mainstream, just like sports bikes used to be.

Now two extra horsepower and a potentially quicker lap time around Brands Hatch is way less cool than an extra couple of KG’s and a connected SatNav.

Don’t believe me…..look at the sales charts.

However, a 916 is still waaaayyyy better looking than any GS could ever be.
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by Cornishman »

I think I’d be more tempted by this.
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daveuprite
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by daveuprite »

OnHellas wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:45 pm What matters in the cool stakes is not what an ageing sports bike fan may want or whether this middle aged moaner wants ride modes, TFT screens and connectivity or not…….it’s what the masses want to buy.

Over the last 25 years the masses have spoilt the Dual Sport/Adventure bike market by making it mainstream, just like sports bikes used to be.

Now two extra horsepower and a potentially quicker lap time around Brands Hatch is way less cool than an extra couple of KG’s and a connected SatNav.

Don’t believe me…..look at the sales charts.

However, a 916 is still waaaayyyy better looking than any GS could ever be.
Your post has confused / conflated coolness and popularity - not the same thing at all. But then in your last line you totally accept that they are entirely different.... :lol:
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by Scott_rider »

In my part of the world (the north west bit of the south east) it’s virtually impossible to ride at the speeds we used to due to the sheer volume of traffic that seems to get heavier every year. I reckon that has contributed to a lot of riders switching from sports bikes, me included.
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by OnHellas »

daveuprite wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:57 pm
OnHellas wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:45 pm What matters in the cool stakes is not what an ageing sports bike fan may want or whether this middle aged moaner wants ride modes, TFT screens and connectivity or not…….it’s what the masses want to buy.

Over the last 25 years the masses have spoilt the Dual Sport/Adventure bike market by making it mainstream, just like sports bikes used to be.

Now two extra horsepower and a potentially quicker lap time around Brands Hatch is way less cool than an extra couple of KG’s and a connected SatNav.

Don’t believe me…..look at the sales charts.

However, a 916 is still waaaayyyy better looking than any GS could ever be.
Your post has confused / conflated coolness and popularity - not the same thing at all. But then in your last line you totally accept that they are entirely different.... :lol:
I don’t think I have. A roughty toughty GS with aluminium panniers….add TKC80s, some stickers and dirt……take it to the ABR festival…..cool.

Just because you don’t think so doesn’t make it not so. Coolness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
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mark vb
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Re: more fat birds to choose from.

Post by mark vb »

OnHellas wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:45 pm However, a 916 is still waaaayyyy better looking than any GS could ever be.
I agree with regard to modern GS's, they are all truly fugly bugly. But an original G/S 80 I would say is way better looking than a 916.... for me, anyway!
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