Will Gasgas make a bigger impact in the US market?

[kendunn]

Firffighter,
You bring up some good points. One thing that this brought to mind is your mention of John Penton. In no way does our group have the vision that Mr. Penton had. His understanding of the future of the off road business was absolutely amazing and his influence is still being felt today. However, we do have one advantage over him and that is experience. Mr. Penton was breaking new ground. We are not. We're simply using the orange bike play book. They threw it in the trash for some reason. We got it out, dusted it off and re-implemented it. Chuck, Ted, Bob, Rod and I have a combined 65 years in this industry. Chuck and I have 19 years combined at KTM alone. KTM has also lost some very key people that we plan to hire when the time is right to help us grow. Honestly, I don't have an original idea in my head. I really don't need to. There are enough examples of how to do this thing right and wrong in this industry.
One other thing that adds to the ability for GG to grow in the US is the change in leadership at the factory. I think Ramon Puentes is really going to step up the quality in the bikes and bring in new technology to keep the momentum going.
It seems our timing is perfect out of dumb, blind luck!
Clay

Anyone that can talk Mr. Whitaker into even trying a 2T is one heck of a salesman in my book.

 

[Clay]

Anyone that can talk Mr. Whitaker into even trying a 2T is one heck of a salesman in my book.

Ken,
That made me really LOL!
For those of you unfamiliar with Harvey Whitaker....he is Mister 4T! I think he was racing XR600s before Scott Summers. I loaned him a demo 300 2T and he seems to like it.
Clay

 

[kendunn]

Ken,
That made me really LOL!
For those of you unfamiliar with Harvey Whitaker....he is Mister 4T! I think he was racing XR600s before Scott Summers. I loaned him a demo 300 2T and he seems to like it.
Clay

Ever since you took over the distribution I have been kidding him about it, tried to get him to even try mine. I think building the new house took the wind out of his sails and he was about ready to hang up racing. Marty called me on his way back from checking it out and then I called Harvey and before he even said hello he started on Marty talking more than an old woman.

 

[garacerx]

I also ended up an a GasGas on a whim... after riding off road for close to 40
years, and owning many bikes of all colors, I saw an 03 EC250 on EBAY. It was TITLED w / all the lighting intact ! This, plus the quality components I saw made me take a chance.
Like many others, to my suprise this became my favorite woods bike of all time. The point being, to ride one is key to understanding its advantages in the woods. Maybe demo rides at larger series (VCHSS or SORCS) may be the best way to sway riders of other brands to GG?

 

[Clay]

Ever since you took over the distribution I have been kidding him about it, tried to get him to even try mine. I think building the new house took the wind out of his sails and he was about ready to hang up racing. Marty called me on his way back from checking it out and then I called Harvey and before he even said hello he started on Marty talking more than an old woman.

LOL! Those two are like two old women anyway!

 

[Clay]

I also ended up an a GasGas on a whim... after riding off road for close to 40
years, and owning many bikes of all colors, I saw an 03 EC250 on EBAY. It was TITLED w / all the lighting intact ! This, plus the quality components I saw made me take a chance.
Like many others, to my suprise this became my favorite woods bike of all time. The point being, to ride one is key to understanding its advantages in the woods. Maybe demo rides at larger series (VCHSS or SORCS) may be the best way to sway riders of other brands to GG?

Garacerx,
You are absolutely correct that demos rides will sell Gas Gas motorcycles. There are two small problems.....there are only two of us in the sales department and we both like to race! We occassionally squeeze in some demo rides betweeen races. Transporting the demo bikes is another issue, too. My trailer holds 4 bikes and I have two guys who go to races with me and my son. I need to talk my brother into a semi, huh?
Clay

 

[dcg141]

I've been riding and racing KTM and Pentons since the 70's and I've been a dealer for KTM for a decade. I've seen the good the bad and the stupid with offroad bikes for a long time now. KTM's success is like most success stories a combination of smart thinking, excellent timing and some pure dumb luck. Like Rod pointed out the Japanese being asleep at the wheel certainly helped but KTM was well into its turnaround with product when that opprotunity presented itself. What really helped KTM get there was when Electrolux decided they wanted out of the motorcycle business and sold Husqvarna to the Italians. Remember Husqvarna? They were a player in offroad in the 70's and early 80's. In 84 Husqvarna won every major offroad title in the US. They have not won one since. 85 was the year they were sold to Cagiva. Alot of the people that worked for Husqvarna in the US ended up working for KTM..some still do. But the late 80's were a dark time for KTM also. The family that owned them just about made them a footnote much like what happened to Maico. Harley nearly bought them but the group that did ending up owning them unlike Cagiva were smart and aggressive. Product began to improve and it got better every year. So you have a comapany with improving product and finances and thier european competition is damaged and suddenly the Japanese start to make some critical errors in the marketplace. The perfect storm that has to happen for a company to really grow is in place. Japans latest dumb mistake was getting out of the 2 stroke business. For years most riders took 2 stroke Japanese motocross bikes and converted them to very good offroad bikes and thats where most of thier dirtbike sales were. They are still wondering what happened. Now KTM has done some dumb s*%t themselves but alot of that came from the enevitable hubris of success. The car was galactically stupid and so poorly timed it damn near brought down the house. But they also continue to hit some home runs with product and that is paying off. Clay I was wrong about the 350's. They are moving now and I will most likely sell out of SXF's and I should have ordered more XCF's. So KTM is still making some smart moves and selling bikes in a down market. GasGas is having sucess and can continue to have success with the one thing that drives this market and always has....product. Innovative and smart product is the key. With the Big 4 still seemingly unable to find thier way out of the wilderness the place for real competition for KTM is there. Will it be a revitalized Husqvarna with BMW money or a small but nimble company like GasGas? Remember..and Clay knows this as much as anyone,the sleeping giant could return. Look at Kawasaki's brilliant answer to the BMW 1000. And they put that bike togther in less than 9 months.

 

[chris stewart]

I am new to the site, and thought I would Drop my thoughts in this post. After owning a 97 and 98 250's,in 98 and 00, Both bikes which came from a top GNCC 250A rider, and then switching to Jap bikes to ride ametuer motocross, and local offroad events. I am glad to say I am back on a 05' De250,After taking a few years away from riding. The bike originally came from sms in texas in 05' and was parked for 5 years in storage. The bike is practically brand new and will work for Local ( ohio and western pa) offroad races, and some Gncc events (250B) until funds allow for a new machine. I Have always loved the way these bikes handle.The Local following for gas gas machines has always been pretty high in my area, But in the last 3-5 years Husqvarna and Ktm have taken over some of the Former GasGas riders, some who have put in impressive results in the GNCC series in years past.I think local dealers have a lot to do with that. I think the future will be great for sales of gas gas enduro bikes as long as the bikes have a good core group of racers and riders who believe in the brand and are willing to allow others to test ride and see the results of what a properly tuned machine and rider can do. I think people naturally like to do what others are doing and if not many people are riding the bikes, they will likely buy what a friend is riding, or what brand a mainstream pro rider is on.

 

[Elvis74]

I don't know how the US market is going, but I see what they do here in Germany.
About 10 years ago, GG was a very exotic brand and nobody knows something about the bike. It was very hard to get spareparts and even tougher to get tuning part.
Now GG is in Germany no exotic brand any more and you have a lot of well trained dealers and you can also buy the spareparts withou problems and you get tuning parts.
I think when the brand is accepted in the US, it will be similar or the same like here in Germany.
For sure you have much more KTM's on a race weekend than GG but KTM is twise as old as GG and they do a very aggressive commercial.

One thing is for ssure, GG and KTM keep the 2 stroke running!!!

 

[Elvis74]

I forgott something:

look how they improved thier range.
a couple of years ago they had only the 125, 200, 250 and 300 Enduro.
Now you can buy oll the sizes in standard, SixDays and Racing version!
Beside KTM is GG the brand with the bigges product range for Offroad bikes.

 

[firffighter]

dcg141,

Thanks for the great insight into KTM's history and growth. I grew up close to a small Husky dealer and watched as they went from booming, to almost none existent. It was great when you had guys like Hines and Lojak dominating on those great enduro bikes and then poof, gone.

Then that same shop grabbed KTM and struggled for many years as they were exotic, had plenty of finicky problems parts took weeks, if not months to get. During that time (late 80's - 90's) there were so many great Japanese enduro bikes to choose from (IT's, KDX, RMX, WR, XR, etc). Seemed like all Japan, no Euro during that time.

But, like you mentioned, the stars aligned and KTM started to make in-roads with better product, ease of parts (maybe Al Gore's inventioned helped here) and low and behold we are now in a forest of Orange.

In comparison, Gasgas already has a great product with great reliability, amazing performance and parts for almost anything are easy now. The word is certainly spreading and I would venture to say that KTM's changes to their bikes for 2011 (6-speed gearbox, more linear power delivery, etc.), may have even been a direct response to Gasgas and others who have refined their bikes to fit the needs of their intended target.

I agree that refining what you do well is certainly a great road to go down, but I cant help but wonder how difficult it must be to hold back those R&D dudes who want to create new and excititng flux capicitors!

Another intersting observation is Husky/BMW who seems to be a bit all over the map with their line-up and now pushing this 449 spaceship. They seem to have put time into their new 150 smoker, but haven't updated their 250 or 300 in a long time. It will be intersting to watch the direction they go with BMW's money and influence.

Good time for all of us though as we get many great choices in the market place from Europe.

You would think Japan would want in on it, but they seem content to shove overweight, maintainance heavy, costly to own pigs in our direction.

 

[tm_enduro]

GasGas has always made great enduro bikes. Since the 1994 125 I raced up to the current. GasGas nailed it in 1996(or7) when they made their first 250. The have been amazing ever since. They have struggled with many importers and "perceived value". Perceived value is what has made KTM grow. They made a good product, consistently and they provided parts, and thus held their value, thus their preceived value skyrocketed. Can GasGas do this? Of course! One only need to look at the sheer number of GasGas ec300s sold in France to realize that this bike is for real and truly is the enduro standard. GasGas can compete with the 4Ts in USA racing, if they have a rider on par with the competition. WEC is not that far removed from USA racing, the fastest guy still wins. For us mortals, we can buy the same GasGas that the heros ride.