Comments on: Episode 01 : GENESIS – Motorcycle Product Planning

By: Don't See a Motorcycle You Like? Build One Yourself! - Canada Moto Guide

Don't See a Motorcycle You Like? Build One Yourself! - Canada Moto Guide — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 13:05:28 +0000

[…] passion people have for motorcycles in a way that big commercial factory efforts cannot. Unlike the committee contrived products presented to the buying public by multinational OEMs, the pure garage build reminds us how […]

By: Episode 03 - Principal Layout - Canada Moto Guide

Episode 03 - Principal Layout - Canada Moto Guide — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:25:06 +0000

[…] there are three critical units that must work together as a coherent team for a project to succeed: product planning, design and engineering. If the planning unit chooses to make the wrong kind of bike for the wrong […]

By: Episode 02 : Drawn and Quartered - Canada Moto Guide

Episode 02 : Drawn and Quartered - Canada Moto Guide — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 14:30:04 +0000

[…] in the world. In part 2 we take the design brief, the bare outline of a new motorcycle idea fleshed out by marketing and product planning, and attempt to give the bike form. Enter the […]

By: Len Bertrand

Len Bertrand — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 02:42:16 +0000

Interesting part 1 offers insight to the basics of who motorcycles get from concept to market

By: Jimo368

Jimo368 — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 15:31:37 +0000

Some day you will be able to design your own bike on the manufacturers website from a long list of design options, then they will just print one out and ship it to you.

By: rui

rui — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 20:00:55 +0000

In reply to Johnson.

Johnson, I’d say the dealers are a biased audience, and as we know all too well here in Ontario can barely run their own shops successfully. Then again, I’ve seen so many focus groups with unclear objectives, flawed methodologies and unskilled moderators that I’ve lost count. In all – Michael was spot on when saying it’s a crapshoot when developing motorcycles.

By: Johnson

Johnson — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 15:52:48 +0000

Great article. Maybe I missed it or it will come up later. Why would manufacturers spend so much time and effort on focus groups when they already have a dealer network? Wouldn’t the dealers have a front line knowledge of what their clients want? Or is the relationship between dealers and manufacturers not very good? Or perhaps focus groups is just a marketing ploy all on its own.

By: relic

relic — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 00:14:53 +0000

All great empires are destroyed from within. The big four foundered in a perfect storm. By 1980, the baby boomers were more concerned with mortgages and golf clubs than greasy motorbikes. Interest rates went up to end 1970s inflation leading to a recession.(no one knew what the word meant back then) HD grew rapidly, but this meant going from 20 pct to 30 pct (pure guessing). Also, I suspect that H and Y fully expected HD to follow triumph into history. They were gearing up production to take over HD s former customers.