Archive for April, 2005
Chinese MotoGP circuit
28 April 2005The website for the new Shanghai race track has a lot of photos of the facilities and a track layout. Wow! The place looks amazing, not to mention two straights where the bikes should top 200mph, the kind of straights where you look for another upshift or an extra 1000 rpms. How do you set [...]
Chinese Rolls Royce?
27 April 2005Think I’m kidding? Check this out. And I bet it costs a lot less.
Suppose they start building Harley knock offs.
Also, read this.
I’m old enough to remember when the Honda 600 came over to the U.S. There were a lot of jokes about it, too small, low power, lousy quality, etc. A few years later, the [...]
Why high gas prices don’t matter
27 April 2005Peter Huber does a nice job of explaining why higher gas prices are such a small part of the cost of each mile we drive. $3.00 gasoline? No big deal.
Motorcycles in a flat world
27 April 2005There is an excellent article in the May issue of Wired magazine, not yet online, “Why the World is Flat.” It’s an interview with Tom Friedman. It’s full of background information that is directly related to yesterday’s posts about China. If you’re the least bit interested in the coming changes, you should check it out. [...]
Chinese MotoGP
27 April 2005Speaking of China, the MotoGP is there this weekend for the first time at a brand new circuit. Descriptions of the course say it is one of the best. It’s always interesting to see how the riders perform at a brand new course since no one will have the edge in familiarity with the circuit. [...]
Chinese motorcycles - continued
26 April 2005Here are a few more things to consider about Chinese motorcycle exports:
China now makes half of all motorcycles produced worldwide. In export markets, Chinese motorcycle manufacturers have been rapidly gaining share, especially in emerging markets in Southeast Asia and Africa.
And further:
Chinese companies have also grabbed market share from their Japanese competitors. For example, in Vietnam, [...]
Motorcycles from China
26 April 2005Chinese motorcycles are coming, whether or not anyone is ready for them. Those soft sales figures many manufacturers have been reporting may be a sign of things to come if the Chinese have their way. China offers an enormous market for anything you might be selling but tariffs on imported goods make selling into that [...]
Is there a Suzuki pattern here?
25 April 2005If you are following the World Superbike championship, you might notice a strange similarity to the AMA Superbikes. Troy Corser is dominating and he is riding a GSX-R1000. Corser won this weekend’s doubleheader much like Mladin over here. It’s not all bike by any means, talent and skill are paramount, but if your talent and [...]
