Kawasaki Z900RS

[Guth_imp]

Ulve,

I find a lot of flaws in your logic based upon my experience in banking, finance and retail in regards to this new 900 you presume Honda is/will one day bring to market when all the CB1100’s are sold.
The money Honda spent developing and manufacturing those bikes has been spent and accounted for.
It is illogical that Honda is forgoing the sales/profits (expected over the next decade by millennials, your words) to languish while the current models wait to be sold, while a bike “bike that will sell itself “ sits on the drawing board.
Each day a current CB1100 remains unsold, Honda is losing interest on the manufacturing cost of a bike sitting in a warehouse. It would be much better financial sense to sell those bikes, and use that money to help fund production and advertising cost of a “bike that will sell itself”.
For example, show up at any car or cycle dealer after lunch time on the last business day of the month and you can negotiate a better deal, because another month of floor plan charges start the next day and the dealer wants as many sales for the current month as possible.

Smarter people than both of us have kept Honda in business for a looong time!

What I was suggesting was that Honda will not bring any NEW 2018 or later CB1100 motorcycles into the United States. Of course it will continue to sell existing units until the supply is exhausted, and most likely the CB1100 will continue to be sold in other world markets for some years to come.

Perhaps many these days do not recall the huge glut of "non-current" Japanese motorcycles dumped on the market in the late 1980's at prices which would be absolutely unbelievable today. Thousands of unsold bikes from Honda, Yamaha, et. al. were available up to four YEARS after manufacture for about HALF the retail price.

For example (I was a salesman at the time, so I know of these things), I sold at least two brand-new CBX touring bikes, with the full fairing and saddlebags, for $2,400 each. There were dozens of these bikes shipped to our dealer and we sold them like hotcakes. And the beauty was, we received FULL COMMISSION on each sale, and did not have to discount the bike at all off the already incredibly low price. I made between $200-$400 per sale, enough to buy myself a brand-new VFR700F in 1986, the white one.

I also bought a non-current for myself, a 1982 Yamaha XT550, brand-new, for $1300, the same year.

So the manufacturers tend to overproduce, sometimes drastically, and drastic measures have to be taken to absorb the overproduction. That means lower prices and cutting production and sometimes discontinuing models in certain markets.

Obviously there is some issue with the CB1100 for 2018 in the USA as no MY2018 bike has been announced.

In the meanwhile, I leave this great image I just found (yes, Guth I thought of you!), in [url=https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/1970s-motorcycles-hondas-six-cylinder-cbx#page-13]an article by Mitch Boehm, and a lovely quote by a true motorcycle journalist, Cook Neilson:



Cycle’s Cook Neilson summed it up pretty well: “The CBX,” he wrote, “rubs hard against the acceptable limits of mechanical intricacy and weight, and anyone with a pragmatic view would take issue with both the bike’s complexity and its total performance concept. But the Six was not built for pragmatists. It was built for romantics, for people with soft spots in their hearts for mechanical maximum expressions, for people whose specific reasons for motorcycling match the CBX’s specific reasons for being built. The CBX is an immensely flattering bike with perfect elegance and total class, and history will rank it with those rare and precious motorcycles which will never, ever be forgotten.”

One might even predict that about the CB1100.

What I was suggesting was that Honda will not bring any NEW 2018 or later CB1100 motorcycles into the United States. Of course it will continue to sell existing units until the supply is exhausted, and most likely the CB1100 will continue to be sold in other world markets for some years to come.

Perhaps many these days do not recall the huge glut of "non-current" Japanese motorcycles dumped on the market in the late 1980's at prices which would be absolutely unbelievable today. Thousands of unsold bikes from Honda, Yamaha, et. al. were available up to four YEARS after manufacture for about HALF the retail price.

For example (I was a salesman at the time, so I know of these things), I sold at least two brand-new CBX touring bikes, with the full fairing and saddlebags, for $2,400 each. There were dozens of these bikes shipped to our dealer and we sold them like hotcakes. And the beauty was, we received FULL COMMISSION on each sale, and did not have to discount the bike at all off the already incredibly low price. I made between $200-$400 per sale, enough to buy myself a brand-new VFR700F in 1986, the white one.

I also bought a non-current for myself, a 1982 Yamaha XT550, brand-new, for $1300, the same year.

So the manufacturers tend to overproduce, sometimes drastically, and drastic measures have to be taken to absorb the overproduction. That means lower prices and cutting production and sometimes discontinuing models in certain markets.

Obviously there is some issue with the CB1100 for 2018 in the USA as no MY2018 bike has been announced.

In the meanwhile, I leave this great image I just found (yes, Guth I thought of you!), in [url=https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/1970s-motorcycles-hondas-six-cylinder-cbx#page-13]an article by Mitch Boehm, and a lovely quote by a true motorcycle journalist, Cook Neilson:



Cycle’s Cook Neilson summed it up pretty well: “The CBX,” he wrote, “rubs hard against the acceptable limits of mechanical intricacy and weight, and anyone with a pragmatic view would take issue with both the bike’s complexity and its total performance concept. But the Six was not built for pragmatists. It was built for romantics, for people with soft spots in their hearts for mechanical maximum expressions, for people whose specific reasons for motorcycling match the CBX’s specific reasons for being built. The CBX is an immensely flattering bike with perfect elegance and total class, and history will rank it with those rare and precious motorcycles which will never, ever be forgotten.”

One might even predict that about the CB1100.

Ulve,
In your original post in paragraph 5 you state Honda will allow the current supply of 1100 s to dry up before introducing a new model.
In your response to my post you state


What I was suggesting was that Honda will not bring any NEW 2018 or later CB1100 motorcycles into the United States.

If you disagree with me I can take it, but stand by what you post and don’t spin it.

For everyone's benefit, if I have in some way been vague, here's what I speculate:

Honda has been making the CB1100 for about ten years and has sold many worldwide. Not many in the USA, though. During that time Honda have developed plans for a new "heritage sport" motorcycle, using everything they've learned in manufacturing the CB1100. This is with respect to both technology, marketing, owner satisfaction, and service/maintenance issues.

I personally speculate, and nothing more, that Honda have developed a new heritage sport motorcycle, of about 900cc, and about 500 lbs, making about 90-95 HP at the crankshaft. I personally think it'll look a lot like the 1983 CB900F. I think it'll have many electronic rider aids and the latest ECU/engine management systems. It'll have lighter weight and a sportier handling stance.

I think this motorcycle will be made public in 2-3 years but perhaps sooner. It may be released in other countries before the USA, as was the current CB1100.

It will not be brought into the United States until all current inventory of the US-spec CB1100 motorcycles have been sold. That would include any remaining 2014 and 2017 models.

That's it. Just my take.

For everyone's benefit, if I have in some way been vague, here's what I speculate:

Honda has been making the CB1100 for about ten years and has sold many worldwide. Not many in the USA, though. During that time Honda have developed plans for a new "heritage sport" motorcycle, using everything they've learned in manufacturing the CB1100. This is with respect to both technology, marketing, owner satisfaction, and service/maintenance issues.

I personally speculate, and nothing more, that Honda have developed a new heritage sport motorcycle, of about 900cc, and about 500 lbs, making about 90-95 HP at the crankshaft. I personally think it'll look a lot like the 1983 CB900F. I think it'll have many electronic rider aids and the latest ECU/engine management systems. It'll have lighter weight and a sportier handling stance.

I think this motorcycle will be made public in 2-3 years but perhaps sooner. It may be released in other countries before the USA, as was the current CB1100.

It will not be brought into the United States until all current inventory of the US-spec CB1100 motorcycles have been sold. That would include any remaining 2014 and 2017 models.

That's it. Just my take.
Ulve
I m now confused
Part of your original quote states:

That adds up to Honda deciding to allow the current supply to dry up altogether before introducing a new retro model, rather than have even more unsold CB1100s in the warehouses and on showroom floors. This would eliminate Honda competing with a non-current product for sales of this new machine I'm predicting. It's going to be so attractive, with such excellent features and qualities, it will sell itself. A similar bike would draw attention away from it.

Also, unsold CB1100s on the dealer's floor might cause a potential buyer of this "CB900F" to wonder what was wrong with the CB1100 that it didnd't sell (nothing, of course, but that's how people are).

The person attracted to this new CB900F is going to be someone who was not interested in the CB1100 to begin with. We baby boomers are growing older and are not a very important part of the buying bloc moving forward.


Mscb writes
You state 900 buyers were not interested in 1100 to begin with above.
How does a 1100 sitting on the floor or in the warehouse affect 900 sales?
You state the 900 will be lighter, sportier, and more electronics, it will sell itself.
That’s it. Just my take.

I believe that was the mission, lol.