12-18-2014, 11:03 AM
(12-18-2014, 07:33 AM)The ferret_imp Wrote:(12-18-2014, 06:13 AM)Cormanus_imp Wrote:(12-18-2014, 04:10 AM)ClassicVW_imp Wrote: When I was at the M/C show on Sunday there was a crowd around the CB1100 and a salesman telling everyone about the bike. I had to wait quite a few minutes for an opening to ask him if he heard anything about 2015.
The bike still draws a crowd, so it seems to me it still has potential buyers.
Yet, [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4574]posts in this thread tell us there's still new 2013 stock sitting around in dealerships.
It's hard for me to understand, but this bike does not seem to be a big seller.
Yet, [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4574]posts in this thread tell us there's still new 2013 stock sitting around in dealerships.
It's hard for me to understand, but this bike does not seem to be a big seller.
I guess it depends on your definition of big. It would never sell in numbers like a modern bike. But it has apparently sold enough units for Honda to keep it around for 5 model years and make some significant upgrades to it just last year. We have members from at least 21 countries so globally it must be doing alright. Has to have sold better than the VFR 1200, Rune, DN-01 and probably the NM4. Honda has had 1 year models, 2 year models, 3 and 4 year models that must have sold worse than the CB which has lasted 5 model years. Maybe it has exceeded Honda's expectations. Maybe Honda thought they could sell 2000 of them and they sold 10,000 of them. Since manufacturers won't tell us how many of individual units are sold, or what projected sales per model is, we can only speculate and then be surprised when a model is either continued or discontinued.
Whenever this topic comes up, I can't help pointing out the last generation CB750 (also a retro niche bike). It sold in very low numbers, relative to other models, but Honda kept cranking them out for 12 years. They even discontinued the model after 3 years, then brought it back a year later for another 9 years (even longer in the Euro/Japan market).
From an outsider's view, I always wondered why Honda would keep making a model that only sold a few units per year at each dealer. They obviously had a reason (that I don't know) that made it economically feasible to keep making them. There are a lot of similarities in markets and demographics to the CB1100.