They went bankrupt because their bike really wasn't very good. They marketed it toward an audience that actually cares about vehicle weight, and it weighs in on the heavy end: 225kg, that's nearly 500 pounds empty. Add rider, gear, accessories... and you're easily at a 600+ pound bike. For a "serious offroad" bike like they were hawking it as, that's just too heavy. Bike weight needs to be down around 300 pounds.
Add to that the fact that it was damned expensive for what it was. 14k euros; that's $17k for a bike that just wouldn't stack up. You can get a DRZ 400 and an extended tank, plus racks, baggage, and a whole lotta gas for $17k. Too bad, of course; a diesel bike would be nice. But it needs to be marketed FIRST to the touring and cruiser markets, who are much more accustomed to heavy bikes and who tend to care less about raw performance and more about driveable power and how it feels. Touring riders tend to care about range, too, where the diesel would really shine. Once the foot was in the door and improvements in power density and weight were made, THEN branch out into the sport tourers and dual sport bikes. -Kurt On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Dave duChene <[email protected]> wrote: > The website says they went backrupt, too bad looks like a good bike. > I drive a diesel car, would like to try a bike. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en.
