with stats like that,then no wonder why they dont bother..i guess as a european with all these bikes available im looking at this with rose tinted glasses
But if there is such a great demand for them, aside from this thread, why aren't they currently being offered? The Big 4 do in depth marketing studies and that market isn't in the US. In Europe, yes, they've been "adventure", Paris-Dakar nuts for 30 years. Not so much in the US; its all cruiser, all day, all the time. Heck HD has something like 50% of the US market, that sums it up right there.
with stats like that,then no wonder why they dont bother..i guess as a european with all these bikes available im looking at this with rose tinted glasses
So I was off a little, for 2008 HD had 35% of the total US street bike market. Too early for '09 numbers but the various large MFGs had similar percentages in slips of sales ~ 30 to 40%, so I'd guess they have a similar market share for '09, albeit much smaller.
2008 total street bikes – 611,133
Motorcycle Sales Statistics - webBikeWorld
2008 HD total sales – 218,939
Harley-Davidson motorcycle sales, shipments and revenues - a knol by Bobbie7
35% of total US Street bike sales
Look at the Japanese MFGs, they have more cruisers than sport/standard bikes so that shows they know what sells in the US.
Don't get me wrong, I like pretty much every catagory of motorcycles; dirt bikes, touring bikes, adventure bikes, even scooters...well except cruisers, hate 'em. All I'm saying there is very little demand for adventure bikes especially in this craptacular economy and Yamaha will not bring an "old" bike back to the US, the land of the newest, latest and greatest.
How can there be ‘very little demand for adventure bikes’, when there aren’t that many in the US to begin with?? I never said the market for the Strom/TDM was as large as the cruiser or sport bike category. I’m simply saying that more and more manufacturers bring these types of bike to the US, and they sell well. Ducati has the Multistrada, Triumph the Tiger, Suzuki the V-Strom, and Kawasaki the Versys. Benelli has the Tre-K with a 1300cc motor, and they recently announced that they will be making an 899cc version for 2010 sale in the US as well. I think it would be more accurate so say that in the current economy, companies are hesitant to introduce new bikes that are in a small niche than standard cruiser/sport bike sales.
And I’m not sure I’d call the TDM ‘old’. Keep in mind it was only sold here for 2 years. That was 20 years ago. In addition, the TDM has undergone 2 major redesigns since then.