Quote Originally Posted by mercator1 View Post
BMW just set another monthly sales record, and they are pouring money into R&D to try and meet the desires of their fastest growing market - the U.S. In person, that new Scrambler, based on the R9T, is one very cool looking bike, too.
I have to agree, BMW (and others) are building some exciting bikes these days, so they must spending much more on R&D than Honda. I remember the days, starting with the original CB750, when Honda completely dominated the motorcycle world. Every year or so they introduced a machine that sent everyone else back to the drawing board. The GL1000, the CBX, the 650 Turbo, the Interceptor, the NR bikes with oval pistons, not to mention the GL1500, were on the front cover of every motorcycle magazine. Today Honda is more focused elsewhere, giving motorcycles little more attention than their lawnmowers.

To their credit, Honda, with many of their recent products, is trying to create new markets for motorcycles. We're an aging group. I read a few years ago that the average age of Sturgis attendees was 58! Those are terrible demographics unless you're selling trikes!

One thing Honda still has going for it is reliability. I own a BMW, know friends with BMWs, and they are far from trouble free. The stories are backed up with numbers, too. A few years ago someone posted a clip on motorcycle reliability. I think it was from Consumer Reports, showing how many bikes needed repairs. Honda, along with Yamaha and Suzuki, were at the top with 11-12%. Victory wasn't bad at 17%. Harley was 26%, and Triumph was 29%. Can-Am was the worst at 42%, but BMW wasn't much better with 40%.