Despite the fact that America is a huge market for motorcycles, there are relatively few American brands in most segments of the industry. Sure, Harley-Davidson and the many custom-bike companies are big both here in the States and abroad, but there is a distinct lack of American brands available to sportbike and dirtbike enthusiasts, and the choices that are available are often not competitive with machines from other countries. ATK has long been offering an American option to dirtbike riders, but has rarely fielded a truly comparable product, or comparable prices, to the dirtbike market mostly owned by the Japanese and KTM. A few years back, ATK purchased the tooling for Cannondale's misguided 450cc 4-stroke dirtbike, and it has been improving on that design since then. This year at the Dealer Expo in Indianapolis, it was showing off some new machinery using engines designed by Highland, a Swedish manufacturer of complete bikes and engines. Highland specializes in making light, compact and powerful engines and ATK is planning on making these engines available to American consumers for the first time, wrapped in sportbike, dirtbike and supermoto style frames. This sounds like a huge undertaking, but we'd love to see ATK pull it off.
[Source: Cycle World]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
latebraker @ Mar 6th 2008 8:08PM
Good news for patriotic bike enthusiasts who desire something other than HD.
Another promising US effort in the works:
http://www.motoczysz.com/
Mars @ Mar 6th 2008 10:37PM
HD is the classic that never be surpassed, but we shall not always keep our eyes on them, we shall see the new comers, fist choice will be China
http://www.madeinchina.com/
Made in China has been a prevailing phenomnon, the motocycles manufactory there has some very good articles, the quality is also no problem.
http://www.madeinchina.com/2692136/P5038042/motor-DB200.shtml
ehisforadam @ Mar 7th 2008 8:52AM
Well, Harley fits right into that, because a lot of their parts are already made in China.
Greg @ Mar 7th 2008 11:10AM
I'm not sure if I can agree with your statement that "quality is no problem". A couple of motorcycle magazines have done tests on Hyosungs and found them particularly deficient in that category. The US market is different from the Chinese market, and consumers here value quality more highly than cost.
Hyosung is the largest Chinese motorcycle company in the US, and their bikes have fit and quality issues. Additionally, at least now, their designs are intended to copy the look of popular Japanese bikes. They need to create a new look before they'll ever catch on in the mainstream. I know it will be a long time before I would consider actually buying a Hyosung, or one of those Dongbens.
Not to say that I wouldn't enjoy a cheap 200cc single cylinder race replica, because I would, but there are a lot of necessary improvements that the Chinese manufacturers need to make before I'd consider buying one.
Das Boese @ Mar 7th 2008 12:58PM
Greg.
Hyosung is KOREAN. Not Chinese.
There have been some quality issues with the 650s, that's true, but anything I read about was rather minor and certainly wouldn't stop me from buying one, especially considering the small price. The 125cc bikes are already very popular among beginners.
That naked GT 650 is one sexy beast. That's not to say I wouldn't also try the 250... I like small, efficient bikes, it's sad that that class tends to get overlooked.
pmiddle5 @ Mar 7th 2008 1:37AM
How much though?....Seems nice
Das Boese @ Mar 7th 2008 5:06AM
Interesting.
An american motorcycle manufacturer that -isn't- obsessed with big twins and chrome, am I dreaming?
I must be.
Those bikes blow anything made by Harley-Davidson out of the water in terms of innovative design. Look at these guys, Willie G., this is how it's done.
If they can score some motorsport victories to get the word out and have competitive prices, I see no reason why they shouldn't be very successfull, especially with light, nimble sub-liter bikes starting to become more fashionable again.
I certainly wish them well.
TORR @ Mar 8th 2008 11:39AM
HD does not build bikes to be innovative. They build bikes that appeal to the masses based on nostalgia. That is why they are the leaders in the cruiser market and why all the Japanese cruiser bikes copy them looks wise. They dont necessarily need to change what they are offering due to demand still. There are people who want something different looks wise, but not enough to change HD's whole lineup.
easyrider425 @ Mar 7th 2008 8:30AM
ATK already has a 450cc supermoto. But this is far more interesting looks like a street tracker. Apparently it has 85hp about the same as Harley's new Euro-only XR1200, only this looks like a much smaller package.
Me Too @ Mar 7th 2008 12:22PM
Nice, a $100 Chinese-made pocket bike that was involved in a crash in which it lost all the plastic body parts.
Wait, that's a brand-new bike? Damn, it's ugly.