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Merritt Island, FL
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EastFlorida
7/25/2017 8:20am
7/25/2017 8:20am
Edited Date/Time
7/28/2017 3:24am
This could end up being a good situation with respect to choices...
I'm not familiar with the performance of the KTM vs the Alta...
http://racerxonline.com/2017/07/25/ktm-introduces-electric-model-to-nor…
I'm not familiar with the performance of the KTM vs the Alta...
http://racerxonline.com/2017/07/25/ktm-introduces-electric-model-to-nor…
So far in the car industry people will point to Tesla as success against the big companies but for sure that is an unusual financial backing by the owner, businesses and government combination.
If KTM does not buy Alta, they better double-down and invest in some serious engineering to produce a bike that can compete with the Alta because right now that thing they have isn't even remotely close.
The Shop
Comparing the Alta to the KTM is like comparing a CRF230F to a CRF250R.
KTM dealers sold these last year with a discount of 50-60% i think, just because no one bought one, and it was still around 4-5000$, just for a trail bike
Pit Row
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/brd-motorcycles#
The big boys are not nimble enough to take this kind of risk. They do not have the deep coffers to spin up a massive R&D, design and manufacturing effort and focus on releasing an entirely and fundamentally different product. They also risk cannibalizing their traditional bike sales in certain markets like the United States and would need more than a few years to plan for and adjust things to gracefully make a transition like that. Frankly I don't think that they took this seriously enough or didn't anticipated the pace that somebody like Alta would introduce something like this.
Alta is an acquisition target or will stand-alone and continue to innovate and release new products/offerings through continued capital investment or, like Tesla, will go public to raise funds. Their battery pack (which is proprietary IP) and motor combo alone has applications that extend beyond motorcycles. They still have quite a number of bike models they could release within the next year or so. They also were partners in a military contract to build a special hybrid military bike called "Silent Hawk"
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/05/look-militarys-new-stealth…
Alta will become more than just another motorcycle company. They already are not just another motorcycle company. Pretty cool to see a little disruption in what has been a pretty stagnant and tumultuous market for a very long time.
Be interesting to see how Zero's battery development progresses to see if they can stay a viable maker......
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/stuntwoman-sues-for-injuries-suffered-…
That definitely doesn't bode well for Zero and Feld has a role in that as well. Yikes.
I haven't heard much about Zero's off-road efforts, but I did get to test ride a Zero off-road bike at Southwick about 8-10 years ago. That bike was cool to try, but was little more than a motorized mountain bike, and they wouldn't let us take the bike anywhere else than the start straight, because the track was too rough.
It was a cool experience to ride it, but no way would I consider jumping one...
The Inland Empire isn't going to be a strong market for a $15k motorcycle right now. As someone mentioned earlier, the price will need to come down before it's approachable to the average buyer.
Post a reply to: KTM's response to Alta?