Issue #239 Transforming a Niche | Riding, One, Ideal, Cruiser, His

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Issue #239 Transforming a Niche

Written by John Molony
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Not so long ago there were just two types of radio stations, country or western. That’s simplifying things, but today rap, alternative rock, classic rock, dance, ‘70s and ‘80s stations, among others, fill the airways. Whatever your musical tastes, there is a niche station to serve up your favourites. Surveying the motorcycles at one of Canada’s industry sanctioned motorcycle shows this winter it was apparent the motorcycle market is very niche oriented. Gone are the days when your choices were cruiser, standard or offroad. If one manufacturer finds success within a very specifi c niche, the following season several others will have joined the fray. Case in point being the supermotard bikes. Several years ago there where none from the major manufactures while now there are a handful. I was speaking with a client and after clearing away the business end of the things we talked about the heart of our business, riding motorcycles. He was excited by the arrival of the BMW F800GS. He had admired the R1200GS from afar but didn’t feel that he needed that much motorcycle for the riding he was going to be doing. It would be great for riding across the African desert but the big bike was more than he required while at the same time the crop of available 650 dualsports didn’t give him the power he was after. Ultimately, the new GS fi lled his niche. Living on Vancouver Island as I do opens up hundreds of miles of logging roads for which the GS would be ideal. But what of the roads between the logging roads? They call for something different. The F800GS would do the job but it wouldn’t be ideal. So what? Sportbike, sport tourer, adventure, power cruiser, supermotard? The list is long and it involves a little compromise. Riding up to Tofi no one afternoon I slowly began to reel in a rider on a big touring cruiser. He was dragging his heel, diving into the corners, hauling a passenger and possibly listening to some country and western, but I was concentrating on the road to be sure of the latter. Obviously his big touring V-Twin was fi lling his sportbike, touring and cruiser niches. It was a compromise but one that worked well for him. The ideal bike on that tight twisty road might have been a supermotard but arrive at a point where the road opens up and the shortfalls of a supermotard would become overly apparent. Alternatively, riding across the Mojave desert on backroad was, for me, never more enjoyable than on a Victory Vegas—the big mill clicking over, complemented by a comfortable riding position. It couldn’t have been any better, but at the same time the front suspension wasn’t ideal in the tight and twisty bits. Niches make for motorcycles that do some things extremely well. The flip side is that they force compromises in other areas. Where does that leave us? Do you buy more than one bike or choose the one that most satisfi es your particular riding style and live with the less than ideal bits? There was a gentleman years ago who presented us with his concept for a motorcycle that could transform itself, with the fl ip of a switch, on the fl y mind you, from a sportbike to a cruiser to a dualsport. I saw that movie this summer. There were cars, tanks, planes, helicopters and 18-wheelers that transformed into robots. But even Hollywood did not choose to make a motorcycle transform into something it wasn’t. As it was, a regular, non-robotic Ducati eventually help saved the day. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.