Subject: RE: show in Cleveland
Author: John Engelhard
Date: Jan 26, 2002, 8:35 PM
Post ID: 1709494212
I get the impression that Guzzi management looks at their production
capacity first and plans their advertising around it. I don't think that
anyone in that company, no matter who has "owned" it, has ever looked
into the market potential for their product first and than planned their
production and advertising to meet the demand. That's NOT A BAD THING.
If they tried the marketing first approach they'd make bikes with an
ever broadening appeal to a larger and larger market, untell you'd have
a hard time picking out a Guzzi from a Yamaha or Honda. What makes
Guzzis so special is that they are FIRST A GUZZI and second ADAPTED TO
CURRENT MARKET TRENDS. The core of the bike stayes the same. If brake
technology improves they add disk brakes. In fact I believe Guzzi was
the first to offer (on a production bike): chrome bores, electric start
without a kick back-up, integrated brakes, automatic transmission and
automatic fuel petcocks. They did all this without abandining the basic
architecture of the drivetrain. More importantly they did all this on
their own, not coping someone else. Remember the Honda 500, a longitutal
V twin with shaft drive and WATER COOLING? They didn't seem to
understand that a big reason for mounting the engine that way is for
even cooling, it works great on an AIR COOLED engine, it's TOTALLY
ERREVALENT on a water cooled one. Honda made that bike as a 500 for
maybe four years, turbo charged it for one year and bumped it up to a
650 for a year or two before they dropped it all together. They should
be made to have a recycle deposit on their products like pop cans.
I was able to go out riding today because here in Detroit it was about
55 degrees out. I think my bike was a little mad at me for wakeing her
up. She leaked gas out of various joints in the fuel system, made me
bump start her after refusing to start with the battery, demanded that I
go straight to the gas station and fill her up and than promptly
loosened one of her exhaust nuts when she knew I left the spanner wrench
at home. I didn't give up though and after she realized what was going
on we had a great ride through town. I left her out so we can go riding
again tomorrow.
I'll also get some pictures of my windshield tomorrow, by the time I
figured out the digital camera needed new batteries, the sun had gone
down.
Karl Kologiski wrote:
| My dad went to the big Cycle World Manufacture show in Atlanta this weekend. He said Guzzi was no where to be seen. (big surprise). I would have thought that since MGNA are only about 6 hours from Atlanta, they would have been there. Aprilia had a nice display. He said the biggest display was BMW. Maybe when Guzzi moves in with Aprilia they will change their policy about showing their bikes to the public. I do not know how many times people ask me when did Guzzi go out of business ? Karl and Jane Kologiski MGNOC Central Florida Reps Bird at The Wheel, Motorcycle Arts St. Petersburg Florida Visit our Website athttp://home1.gte.net/janemac/bird.html |
John Engelhard
St. Clair Shores, Michigan
1969 Ambasador V750A