Sunday, July 13, 2008

Long live the two-stroke Part Deux: FUD in the marketplace

Two-stroke technology is not banned. Never was. Yet this myth continues to run rampant over the internet. Two-stroke technology is changing, getting cleaner, but this is a story about how purposeful misdirection and a campaign of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt created a myth, killed development of a promising technology for over a decade, and changed the face of a sport.

Let's assume that a large, multi-national corporation (for simplicity we'll use a fictitious entity called Company H) manufactures everything from inexpensive lawn mowers and power generators to motorcycles and $40,000 SUVs. Every item in their massive product line is powered by a four-stroke motor. Every item, that is, except a small group of dirt bikes. The company has enormous investments and intellectual property in the development, marketing, and sales of four-stroke-driven products.

Company H is aware that certain proprietary methods, techniques, or technologies for lowering two-stroke emissions are either available or under development, some by their primary competitors. But Company H doesn't own any of the intellectual property (patents) associated with this improvement. Further, two-stroke engines do not fit the company's financial model — costing extra for development (since they can't leverage their vast institutional knowledge of four-strokes) — while generating lower margins in sales and service parts.

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Davey Coombs takes on the future of outdoor MX

This just in: RacerX Illustrated founder, 2nd-generation motocross promoter, track owner, prolific media entrepreneur, and all-round good guy Davey Coombs just announced in Racerhead #28 that he is stepping down from the day-to-day operations of his RacerX empire to focus on the future of outdoor MX and the pro motocross Nationals. In less than a year we've gone from feeling the AMA genuinely wanted to kill the outdoor series to having someone like Davey step up to drive the sport forward. No one has a better grasp of the sport's past and future than DC. We could not be in better hands.

Coombs has already talked about things like raising the minimum age for Pro licenses, the problems with

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Harley to acquire MV Agusta Group

Back in early June I posted this note on the talks between H-D and MV Agusta. According to this AMA press release the two groups have signed a definitive agreement worth approximately $109 million US. The agreement gives H-D 100% of MV Agusta.

This is not Harley's first foray into Italian motorcycles. Most of us remember when Harley sold...

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

FIM to put 2-strokes on even footing in 2010

According to this Dec 21, 2007 press release (pdf) from the Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme, the Permanent Bureau has decreed the following:

Motocross Classes: as of 2010, single cylinder engines will be used in MX1 and MX2 and multicylinder in MX3, whether 2 or 4-stroke (open concept). The cubic capacity will be 250cc in MX2, and up to 650cc in MX3. Discussions are currently being held about the cubic capacity in MX1. A decision should be taken in the next three months. Concerning the MX2 class, a maximum age limit of 23 years will be introduced. Moreover, a World Champion will be allowed to defend his title only one time (in the following year).

The FIM Junior World Championship will have an additional class as of 1.1.2010: 65cc. All the classes (65cc, 85cc, 125cc) will be exclusively 2-stroke.

I think this is a move that's long overdue. I'd prefer that there not be a specific technology...

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AMA approves sale to Daytona Motorsports Group

Here's the press release from the AMA regarding final approval of the Pro Racing/DMG deal. I'm sure the road race community is up in arms over this, and I feel for them. The changes underway there have created a lot of friction with the riders, factories, and race track owners. There's a lot of bluster going on now between all sides. As Dave Despain said in his Wind Tunnel editorial a couple of Sundays ago, a lot of this is posturing for negotiation, so let's get to negotiating guys and get it worked out.

But the NPG have been busting their butts in a way that has not been seen since...

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Long live the two-stroke

Michael Scott's "In The Paddock" column in the new Cycle News, (pg 60, July 2, 2008) is all about the two-stroke motorcycle engine, its past, present, and future. Some interesting stuff there. Mostly Scott talks about road racing and the death of the 250 GP class, which DORNA has killed effective 2010. But he also interviews Jan Witteveen, legendary Aprilia two-stroke engine designer and gets his views on the state of the two-stroke, plus discusses possible changes at the FIM to bring the two-stroke back to MX.

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Having failed with Ducati, HD now tries to buy MV Agusta

According to this Forbes.com report, Harley-Davidson is in an advanced stage of talks to buy part or all of Italian motorcycle company MV Agusta. Why would HD buy an Italian sportbike company when they already have Buell?

Because big companies have to grow sales - year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter - always growing. When sales slow (as they have in the motorcycle market for the past year or so) there are only two things you can do:

• Invest in developing new products or new markets for your existing products (both of which take time)
• Buy customers (and sales) via acquisition

When it comes to buying motorcycle companies, Italy is about the only place you can go. H-D flirted with buying Ducati last year but was rebuffed. We'll see if this turns out differently.