RIP Frontiers

Erstwhile Ducati, Yamaha and Suzuki dealer of Wimbledon. I bought my
Duke from them in 1997.

The latest dealer casualty.

There'll be more.

 

message

He's like a bad Hammer film folks

'Hog

 

The Older Gentleman says...

<Strikes them off the list of dealers I was about to visit tomorrow>

Shame

 

Funnily enough it's where I also got my first Duke from in 1997!

 

So you are TOG AICMF Ducatis


--
John

SV650
Black it is
and naked

 

Any clothing bargains? I need some new leathers.

 

Is this a symptom of the the UKs poor economy or that people aren't
buying big bikes anymore ?

 

TOG has a thing about Ducati and it's poor UK sales ;-)

 

"A thing"? Well, according to his column in Bike, Yamaha sold more
R1s in the UK than *all* the Ducati models put together. Sounds like
a pretty reasonable "thing" to me.

 

Yes, a thing. I didn't define what the thing might be

The fact he may be right (as usual) is irrelevant!

 

People aren't buying bikes, period.

 

I don't understand this. Is it really the case that there are fewer
bikes on the road per-capita than there where, say, ten, fifteen, or
even twenty years ago? And if so, is there a widely acknowledged reason
for it?

Obviously totally unscientific, but there seems to be more bikes and
scooters on the roads round here (SW London-ish) than I can ever
remember, but maybe that's a local blip caused by people trying to beat
the congestion charge or something? Or maybe I just notice them more
'cos I ride one myself now...

 

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:30:53 +0100,

I can't tell if that's glee that your earlier predictions seem to be
being bourne out by current events, or sorrow. Or both.

 

Lemmiwinks, The Gerbil King scribbled on the back of a napkin:

You'll probably find that most people don't quite change bikes as often
as they used to and hang onto the ones they've got a bit longer.

 

People aren't buying *new* bikes.

Sales of new bikes have been incredibly high over the last few years,
so the second-hand market is massively oversupplied. As a result,
there's plenty of used kit to go around, so nobody needs to splash
out on new models.

Or something like that, anyway.

 

Not really, no. The actual "parc" of bikes on the road has risen over
the last few years to (IIRC) about 1.1 million, including mopeds. Five
or six years ago it was about 900,000. A couple of decades ago it was
750,000. Again, this is AFAIK. Google may help.

No single reason, no. Bike sales are, and always have been, cyclical,
like so much in the bike biz. But people are hanging onto their bikes
longer. Also, bikes are better built, so last longer (in the way that
cars do compared with old 1970s and 1980s rustbuckets).

Right now, there are more things for people to spend their money on.
Like holidays. Computers. Cars.

Also, the (Jap) manufacturers are trying to halt the trend of declining
sales by shortening model lives and bringing out new models faster and
faster, to appeal to the consumers. Whereas the time between major model
revisions was four, and then three years, it's now down to two.

Look at the CBR600. Launched 1987. Major revision 1991. Then major
revision 1994. Then completely revised in 1996. And again in 1998...

Do you see what I'm getting at?

The punters *are not that stupid*. This happened 20-odd years ago. All
it does is to devalue existing models and there comes a point where the
consumer thinks: "**** it. I bought this eight grand bike two years ago
and it's now only worth four grand because the new model is out. Well,
mine's still a barrelful of laughs, so I might as well hang onto it for
a while longer...."

There's also a delayed action effect in used values. Motorcycle
residuals get devalued hard and fast, and so people don't buy new bikes.
Three or four years down the line, guess what happens? Because there
were fewer bikes sold in yeah X, in year X+4 there are simply fewer used
bikes available.

If, as happens, demand picks up again, then people want used bikes as
well, and the laws of supply and demand kick in. Used bike values
*increase*.

Like I said, it's cyclical.

My own personal feeling: the crash is starting now, right *now*. Honda,
Yamaha and Suzuki are going to catch a hell of a cold. Kawasaki might,
just *might* ride it. They did last time.

BMW and Triumph will be fine. Their marketing is almost beyond reproach,
in this respect.

Harley is immune.

Ducati is heading for catastrophe, at least in the UK. They have not
been able to replace the 916/996 series. The new 999 etc just doesn't
have the same appeal. Like Porsche's 911, they created an icon, and now
find they can't better it.

They have no cheap entry-level sports bikes. Oh, sure, there's the ST3
and the 800SS, but these are museum pieces, really, nowadays. There's no
modern equivalent of my 750SS - a cheap basic Ducati that gets you on
the ladder. What they *desperately* need is a no-frills version of the
watercooled lumps, installed in a cheap no-frills sports chassis and
priced around £6500-7000.

I don't see how Ducati can maintain a dealer network in the UK, based on
the number of bikes they're selling. I really don't.

 

Well, see other posting. I'm left utterly cold by what's happening in
the Jap market. It was coming, it was easy to spot, and somehow it was
ignored.

As regards Ducati, I am sad, because I am attached to possibly the
greatest current motorcycle brand.

 

The Older Gentleman says...

Bye bye Ron Parkinsons
Bye bye Frontiers
Bye bye ......

 

Frontiers stopped selling Dukes years ago. But who is (or was) Ron
Parkinson?

 

The Older Gentleman says...

Ducati, Aprilia and Suzuki dealer at Marks Tey near Colchester, Essex.