The Dirt Bike Show is always interesting, mainly because it attracts a genuinely young audience, instead of the usual motley collection of overweight, middle-aged blokes, who make up 80% of the road bike market these days.
Really young customers were out in force at Stoneleigh 2008. In fact if the council truant officers were to visit the DBS, then they would find about 150 absent pupils on Thursday and Fiday…with all the young hoodlums busy trying to nick stuff and damage new bikes and quads by clambering all over them.
New bikes were thin on the ground however, as the industry seems determined to ride out the recession by painting last year’s models in new colours, chopping prices to the bone and chucking in some free kit. BFD.
Kawasaki had a new KLX250 dual purpose machine at the show, which was basically OK looking, lightweight and fun, but priced a bit high at £3699. Considering a Versys 650 can be had for £4000, it seemed a bit steep to me. Nice kawasaki showgirl though…
Honda had a cheap trailie for any budding enduro stars, a CRF230 for £2500. OK, so it’s basically a Chinese made, Honda-under-licence, but you still get the warranty and parts back up from the big H, which most chinese internet operations lack.
Suzuki had painted their DR250 and 450 models in new colours and er…that’s it. But their PR people told me that the Suzis were cheap to compete due to their reliable and basic designs…OK, I can handle that approach.
Meanwhile KTM had their beautifully made off-roaders lined up, plus the 690 SM with its wacky exhaust. Yep, the KTMs cost more, but you know what..I’ll take a KTM 300 any day over a plodding, built-to-a-budget Japanese thumper any day of the week. Quality counts, at least for some of us old gits with some cash left to spend…
One more trend I noted was that the MX/enduro clothing brands are all piling into leisure wear for 2009. There were more luxury travel holdalls, laptop holders, girlie handbags and fleecy hippie tops than you could shake an old Acerbis brushguard at…the lines between functional comp clothing and pub-based fashion parade, are getting fuzzier every day..
NOTE; Ta for the comments, it is true that recently Kawasaki have employed the most surly and unhelpful PR girls. The ones at the Paris Show in 2007 were appallingly sullen and pretended not to understand basic English.
c ya
insier
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were you looking at the same Kawasaki girl as me, I thought she was dog rough, and definitely only smiled or spoke to you if you were the media, snotty little mare !
With you on that one I emailed kawasaki she was so unpleasant but no reply total waste of money for them
Are we talking about the one with the silly little voice ? Weird choice I agree
I got i n touch with Kawasaki she was so rude to my lads but she was still at the NEC Bike Show.
I have the similar ad experience. Kawasaki should do something about all this bad customer service.
Yeah Kawasaki should be serious about this all what happening and what the people saying. As producing good thing is not enough but satisfying people is must.