i say chaps! hold up do!
now listen in! wot wot!
how many bikes have been sold in recent seasons in the states? how well did the dixie sales team do? surely they were offered to 'put up or shut up'? snd they left the building....
thing is, i think sales have been heavily down everywhere! dan amkes a living from selling stuff after the bike has been bought and that's pretty much new or even used! if other dealers had a blinding postage and packing system they would see this as real competition when they are holding inventory that stands them at the bank....
so i think that now that husaberg have proved over the last three years to be reliable they are now ready to take husaberg to a new level. UP!!!!!!
what i'm disappointed in is the fact that they probably haven't dropped half the dealers in the states or in the UK, they may have dropped themslelves. fritz has said how he moved heaven and earth to remain a dealer. that's a real yanky attitude and blinding. over here! sheesh: not werf it mate, no profit in it, not worth trying!
fact is some of these shops really aren't prepared to go to the next level for husaberg but would far rather get another dealership in. dan does bits for loads of makes. clearly he's cute enough to realise that as one make ebbs the other flows.
but of all the obscure makes he covers, has he latched onto the fact that one of those makes has the clout to leave the ebear pit and make it, to make him a good iving? can he trust husaberg after all the ****-ups we've had? it takes a lot of guts to reduce yourself in some areas to give husaberg a go.
if i was ktm i'd be saying: 'ok, who wants to grow with us. we made a brill job of orange, we'll do a brill job with husaberg. we just need you to throw your hat in the ring and trust us'.
naturally, we're all cynics and think that we're up today and could be down again tomorrow.
but wait, again you aren't seeing things clearly you loot are you! ktm took over what i can only describe as a bike that was finished. i don't know whether they sold out because they wanted to due to lack of investment money or because they were actually down the pan. i can't remember a true history lesson on here before and as usual we need lineaweaver to tell us.
but everything on my bike has had to be beefed up and replaced in the 5 years since it was made. i mean that's bad.
there is only one thing worse: AND THAT IS IF KTM HAD DODNE NOTHING AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!
infact ktm took production south, within a year the bike had kokusan ignition as the SEM was neolithic, they had keihin as the dell orto was anthropode, they made the engine the "popular" size of 450, they sorted the handling, dropped the swedish connection and yug colours, and did their best with an old engine. it's been uncompetitive in MX for 4/5+ seasons and the SM game has moved on. there is absolutely nnnnnoooo chance of a husaberg at the front when the real money hits the floor. look at ducati at the beginning, in there in the F750 championships till the japs got going, in the F1 with hailwood till the japs got going, in with the F2 and the same etc.
now over these last few years, development of this LDC engine has been taking place, handling is described as awesome, they have great product, they now want to sell them.
so we come to the juncture of why the sort out? well if you promise to be a solus dealer, to have stocking plan, are you really goingto b dropped by husaberg/ktm? i don't think so!
i think husaberg have said: "step up to the plate and grow with us!". usre we like to be small and unique but that's us. ktm want to grow and do well. that's life! we're part of a gropup of people that liked something about our bikes thatw as unique but quite frankly already doesn't exist?
i mean FFS, right! what is special about our bike now? nothing? we don't have 8 bolts holding the bars on
we don't have disgusting colour schemes that only we were proud of
and everythin else that made us unique was bad news! they wouldn't start, they broke down!
look: "flight of the phoenix time!" we got out of the desert and so we don't need each other anymore! and what's the saddest thing? reminiscing!!!!!
so come on, ask those dealers were they prepared to "go and grow!" and the answer is possibly - NO. in which case you take TM, sherco and ATK, they will find someone who wants jam tomorrow.
BTW, how did i 'twig' this? bikebarnbeckman's post was a real eyeopener to me. lesson understood. i'd have thought you americans would have understood the business ethic better than me.
regards
Taffy
PS. this isn't a go at dan coz i wnat him to continue but i think i might have opened a new thought process for some. i also think i played it two ways here and did the 'devil's advocate' thing.
regards
Taffy
