05-14-2015, 10:14 AM
(05-13-2015, 07:56 PM)Cormanus_imp Wrote: Is it just bad marketing or a lack of it? Is it that it appeals only to those of us who lived through the the earlier iteration? I'm not sure it's the latter; there are plenty of members here who are young enough not to remember it. I'm also not sure it's the former, but I've no evidence. My suspicion—sad though it is—is that the bike just doesn't really hit the retro sweet spot that lights people's fires. They mainly want the twin look alikes that preceded the Honda 4.
Can't figure it myself. For me it conjures memories of people who got no real joy from riding but pretended they did. What they really wanted was to sit in a puddle of oil on the garage floor pulling their bike apart so they could put it back together.
Anyway, I'm happy. I've got the modern variant of a bike I always wanted and I think it's wonderful.
Bad marketing; actually NO marketing. I didn't know the CB11 existed until I tripped over it on a dealer's floor.
You know...THINK of the advertising that was done back forty years ago. You know..."You meet the nicest people on a Honda" ..."SOMEDAY...you'll own a Yamaha." Stuff that made motorcycles mainstream and launched a whole new market - bikes as, not so much transportation tools but recreational rides.
The makers of standard bikes, and big highway scooters, too...need to get back to that. Instead of this brand confusion...Yamaha with its "Star" line, and it's crotch-rocket line, and it's Yamaha dual-sport line...get an identity; don't try to borrow that of other cruisers; and then RUN with it!
I would say the CB1100 would have been a roaring success if some promotion had been put into it.