2004 Bike sales in oz....

[aardvark]

I'm with Yankee... I couldn't give a rats clacker what people buy. The more they buy other brands, the less dickheads ride Kawasaki's.

[Dazza]

This is a copy of a post I put up about this subject a while back. I have just changed a few things since then.
P.S. How LAZY is this. I go and cut n paste my reply from a previous post

I think its several things. Most have been mentioned already.

The fact that Kawi has had some limited success locally on the racetrack over the years, means squat. It needs to be performed Internationally. Kawi have been absent for a very long time on the world scene. There is a saying, Whats wins on Sunday, sells on Monday. I quite frankly, Kawi don't win.

Have a look in the Yellow pages, how many Kawi Stores do you see compared to Yamaha, Suzuki or Honda, that alone does heaps in the psyche of peoples minds. How about the ACUTE LACK of advertising. When was the last time you saw an ad on the tellie for a Kawi Sports Bike. Honda and Yamaha and to a lesser extent Suzuki don't hold back here.

There’s an old saying in retailing "Stack it high and let it fly". The others have heaps of shops backed up with cross media advertising. Couple this with international success from the other brands and people want to buy a winner, not the bike coming in last or at the back of the field. They think, thats a crap bike IMHO.

The sad fact IMHO NOTHING will ever change unless Kawi go toe to toe with its competitors and even then it will be a very long haul to catch up with them. Potentially the company has its focus set on other bigger profit making departments within KHI, one such dept. Ship Building. It will not happen overnight, but it can happen. Stiff Cheddar if the 10R is voted as the best bike, its still perceived to be a an inferior bike to the other manufactures options like the Blade and R1, IMHO

Cheers

[Ratmick]

My thoughts on this, such as they are, are thus...and this is all IMHO, so don't bite me.

All the other three Japanese manufacturers CHANGE the majority of their bikes from year to year. Until comparatively recently Kawasaki seemed to be more intent on smaller incremental changes to their range, and in some cases, no changes at all apart from colour. Take the ZZR range, and the GPX250R as an example. The other manufacturers push ahead with new designs, cutting weight and pushing the design envelope and changing people's perceptions...take a look what Honda have done with the FireBlade, and Suzuki with the GSX-R range, Yamaha with the R1/R6, in the last ten or so years. Over a period of four/five years Kawasaki ends up with a solid decent-performing well-handling albeit often heavier bike without the cutting-edge looks and hence slightly less street cred.

The other three often push their designs down to the lower end of the market, a lot of people seem to formulate their riding choices on what they learned to ride on...You learn on a GPX/ZZR, you may end up with another Kawasaki as you'll know they are a reliable and competitively-priced bike. If you're 18 and you learn on an Aprilia, or an Across, or a baby CBR, you will probably end up elsewhere as they shit over the baby GPX (for example) in both looks and performance. It would have helped if the big K took more notice of the newer riders, and didn't leave them with bike choices based on a late-80s design (the GPX) or early 90s (the baby ZZR). It doesn't really matter that these bikes are sedate predictable handling, reliable, light-weight, run on the smell of a oily rag, and a great learning machine...they have a low bling-factor. Hence you see the majority of young male riders on grey import garishly-coloured CBRs, and Honda has another convert to the cause. If the big K made more of an effort getting the ZX-2 into the country ten years ago the results may have been slightly different.

Being out of the major bike events and having less than overwhelming interest in promoting themselves didn't really help either. The sales of any sporting equipment manufacturer, be it mountain bike/motor bike/soccer boot/tennis racket/lawn bowls or even 1/10th scale remote-control car racing, ALL increase when the gear is used by WINNERS....something the big K has been slightly lacking in recently.

Also IMHO, here are some home truths...some of the upper-edge of the naked range is heavy, fugly, pricy and outdated and needs rejigging/removing. It's one thing looking retro, it's another thing being retro because you can't be bothered. The new Z range is tops. The ZX range of bikes is cutting edge (now). The ZZR range needs updating, but without alienating every the entire short-biker community or the small/medium sports-tourer fraternity in the process (the big K needs loyalty, it won't get it if you f*ck people around). The GPX250R needs retiring and replacing with the ZX2R. The Vulcan range are too fat and underpowered. The lurid green, with or without stripes is not a good look, except on a sportsbike, where it looks spot-on. It IS identifiably Kawasaki, but most of the range is recognisable without it, and there are far more attractive colours.

The future? It's a long road back. The way I see it (again, IMHO) is that the ZX and naked Z series will be the mainstay of Kawasaki sales. The ZX-10R has to start winning for this to happen, and last years Moto GP results, although they weren't that impressive on paper, were pretty shit-hot when you consider it was their first year back. I can see some of the bike ranges either disappearing (goodbye ZZR, hello ZX-R J-Series rebadged) or models morphing in from Suzuki in Kawasaki clothing. Given motorbikes must be an incredibly small proportion of KHI's profit, seeing they seem to specialise in really HEAVY machinery, mostly trains and ships, I am surprised they have persevered this long with motorbikes.

Whether this continues remains to be the case remains to be seen, although my magic 8-Ball says 'Indications are Good'. I hope so, the bikes are worth it, I just wish Kawasaki would make more of an effort in R&D to make it so.

[photomike666]

I think it has a lot to do with design fashion, some technical additions and public awareness.

Design Fashion
Under seat exhaust is the fashion at the moment, and Honda & Yamaha have been the followers of the Ducati style (not that the Japs follow Italian style). You should see the 636 overtake the GSXR600 in sales for 2005, as the Spew will be the only one without under seat exhaust.

Next year should see the ZX10 with this fashion and it will pull back some sales.

Tech wise, ZX10 and Spew have mild steel down/leader pipes, while the under seat systems are titanium from engine port to tail exit. This may or may not be a major advantage, but it sure sells bikes.

Now go look through the phone book. See how many large adds there are for dedicated Honda, Spew and Yam. Kwak are often in with other manufactures and not often that large. Someone looking for a show room to buy a new bike sees the large adds as relevant to size of company placing the add and goes with a dedicated dealer. Honda does this most and therefore has a large share of sales.

As for how extreme the ZX10r is to ride, I haven't found out yet. But I'll try and test rude all the big 4 top bikes and make an informed choice.

[kypez]

couple of points mentioned...

the honda fireblade and 600 seem more aggressive than the 10R and 6R, ie seat position is more leaning forward, busting your balls, so i dont think they are any nicer to ride in the city than our product.

I think kawasaki have done a good job with marketing the 10R too. Many times when I'm carrying my helmet around (at uni, shopping centres, clubs) people stop me and ask me what I ride. I just say ZX 10R and you should see their jaws drop and drool pour out!

I cant remember a single person not recognise the 10R. I Think the problem might be that its just perceived as this SUPER MACHINE and people might actually be afraid of it. Also one thing it misses, is the Style of the R1. Without bias, I think the R1 is simply awesome looking and the 10R just doesnt inspire the same reaction from the front, though I like the look from behind better on the 10R.

Also, with the exhausts running under the seat, the R1 has a terrible heat disapation problem. Unless you are wearing leathers, your legs quite literally get burnt!!! I took one for a test ride and actually had my legs turn quite red! Lots of new R1 owners also say they wish they had checked this out in better detail. Also the GSXR has that very ugly exhaust so thats gotta throw people off.

Lets see how the new 636 does. If its looks people want, they sure will get it with the 05 model.

[Ratmick]

couple of points mentioned...
the honda fireblade and 600 seem more aggressive than the 10R and 6R, ie seat position is more leaning forward, busting your balls!!

Yes I agree, Kawasaki make bikes which are more practical than your average race replica. However, imho, at the end of the day young males of a certain age and disposition do not worry the bike isn't comfy until they get old and saggy like myself

Most young bucks would want a bike that goes like the clappers, brightly coloured so everyone will notice them, and street cred. Yeah, they might have burnt legs, sore wrists, back and neck, but MAAAAAATE, the bike goes like stink and their mates think it's shit-hot. And they look like Valentino/Doohan/Biaggi, at least in their head anyway.

And because it's so uncomfortable for a pillion, they get to leave the girlfriend behind and piss off with their mates for the day.

[MadKaw]

Yeh I like riding a kawi cause were underdogs..
Always have been, from my first KX80 that still had twin shocks when all the others had single shock suspension. Then similar things with numerous other models up to my GPX 750 that came out just as Suzuki released the race rep gsxr750, that made the gpx look like a tourer. Same thing with the zx9, when it came out it looked like it would be the bike to beat, then came the R1 a month later folowed by all the others...
I love being on the underdog bike, theres nothing better than carving up R1's, Blades and gixxer 1000's on my "lowly" zx9r... It gives me a lot of satisfaction I wouldn't get otherwise.
There is no expectiations of my bike other than being seen as an easy target (wrong !).... ppl feel lousy when a big fat underpowered sports tourer is carving them up... eh Phil..

Never owned any other brand, never had too..
KX80
KX80
KX125
KDX250
GPZ500
GPX750
ZX7R
ZX6R
ZX9R
and we had a gpx250 in there too....

[Phil]

There is no expectiations of my bike other than being seen as an easy target (wrong !).... ppl feel lousy when a big fat underpowered sports tourer is carving them up... eh Phil..

yep

[sp500]

[quote="photomike666"]
Tech wise, ZX10 and Spew have mild steel down/leader pipes, while the under seat systems are titanium from engine port to tail exit. This may or may not be a major advantage, but it sure sells bikes.

quote]

The 10 has a titanium exhaust from head to toe, except the pipe sleeve which is alloy.

[photomike666]

Tech wise, ZX10 and Spew have mild steel down/leader pipes, while the under seat systems are titanium from engine port to tail exit. This may or may not be a major advantage, but it sure sells bikes.

quote]

The 10 has a titanium exhaust from head to toe, except the pipe sleeve which is alloy.

I stand corrected

[greenmeanie]

I think the new 05 gixxer thou is full titanium exhaust. Big K is the smallest jap make so probably always gonna have less sales does that mean it produces lesser quality bikes...........hell no.

[Yankee]

what MadKaw said..... being on the "lesser" bike and eating up these numb-nuts, poser, wannabe dipshits on their "latest greatest" techno-savvy bikes. and really, "lesser" is not at all what we are on.... just percieved by Joe Public.... which again, i think is great! keep the DH's on the other brands I say!!