BMW and KTM have factory teams. Not sure about the Japanese. More then 90% of the bikes is KTM and this is in Austria so it’s pretty much a KTM-event.

Yes good riders are important.
Juha was number three after the prolog, which Simo Kirssi (HP2) won again, but Juha did a great job in the Hare Scramble (#3)


Is the market in US bigger then the market in Europe?
One theory could be that right now it’s a lot of testing going on and with a small organization (in fact it is) it is easier to do it close to Germany.


I’m not sure if that’s right. People have talked about this for long time, even before the F800 was launched. As far as I know nobody makes “adventure” bikes in the range 700-1000ccm anymore. BMW had the 850GS but it was no success, maybe because it basically was an 1100.
The 1200GS have sold more then 100.000 bikes in short time and I don’t think BMW can handle a model that will sell a million :-) If it comes I think it will be "softer" then the 1200.

Actually Patrick, it's your fellow countrymen from Moto-X, raids etc. who go and enter the Erzberg - which is more an extreme Enduro event than a raid or hill climb. David Knight has won it because KTM Enduro iron rules supreme. Forget Jap hardware.

If you're interested, start reading at The Enduro at Erzberg
and then go on to read motorradmagazin - Erzbergrodeo.at which does have a link to some English text if your German's not up to scratch.

Checked some videos an found that five bikes made it faster then 12 mins and four off them was BMW... I wouldn't call that bad.
But you can't compare Pike's peak with Erzberg :-)

& from Triumph..........
 

Seems Triumph are close to launching their 1500cc, twin cyl cruiser for the US market:-

MCN Exclusive spy shots of Triumph's new 1500cc cruiser

This publication is usually close when putting about Triumph rumours; they seem to specialise in picking up on new bikes that are being tested as they leave the factory.


& an update on the Stelvio from Moto Guzzi:-
MCN Moto Guzzi Stelvio 1200 spotted testing
which is going to beat the BMW 1200GS.

KTM 690 Enduro nearly here.....
 

The 690 Baja bikes, which you can check out on this vid - YouTube - 2007 Baja 500 - 7x Team KTM 690 Baja
seem to have spawned the new 690 Enduro, pics here -
MOTORRAD online - LC4-Nachfolger kommt 2008
They look pretty identical and it mentions an underseat tank, which on the Baja version holds 20litres. Looks like a cracking bike to me........

Only Boxer cup ended up being a reality.
I agree.

If you count the MINI's and ATV's, KTM are doing well, out selling BMW overall. But Japanese companies still out sell KTM.

Any time you want to compare world titles world wide in all classes, between KTM and the Japs over the last 30 years....well, go ahead on :thumbup1: Prepare to eat crow. :Beach:

Mollydog,

Don't know about the Beemer racing effort but the Mercs "advanced engines" are designed and built in the UK (OK, England):-
Mercedes-Ilmor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As are most, if not all, Indy cars (+ a load of F1 car teams are based in the UK - no signs of Ferrari opening a workshop here as yet :nono: )

Not strictly relevant to bikes, but it is handy to know a bit about where the engine development is taking place!

A friend of mine works for Ohlins ... guess who their number one world wide customer is? NASCAR

I'm not aware of why the UK cannot produce a car that is badged as being from here but it is probably all to do with short term business attitudes to manufacturing blah blah.
Anyway, you are right, we don't have a mass produced British-badged car in production.
But, we do manuf cars with Honda, Toyota and Nissan badges to name one or two (or even three); in recent years there have also been dozens and more of specialist niche manufacturers of sports cars alongside the very traditional car maker Morgan (which still puts them together by hand on a wooden frame for the chassis - ashwood from memory). The Morgan Motor Company One or two of these specialists have gone to the wall in fairly recent times or sold out to buyers from abroad, but, so long as we hang on in there with Triumph I won't grieve too much! It is Triumph that is the big success story for bikes here IMO; sadly I have not owned one for quite some years but I could be tempted, depending on the title of this thread!

What about Land Rover?

Thought about them for about a second and then decided that they are not cars - but if you want, then OK.
Can't remember who owns them at present - BMW?

Jaguar are up for sale if anyone wants that badge - Ford are ditching them.

(Or is it Ford who own L/R??!).

Thing is that what is left of the UK badges are owned elsewhere - doesn't really matter I guess.
On a news item the other day, it was cheaper to bring a product from China to the UK then it was to distribute the same item within the UK to the final customer - that is comparing shipping around the world Vs sending it a few hundred miles further (so much for global warming, blah blah - with economics like that, nothing much will change).

:offtopic: :offtopic: :offtopic: but so what!!

Yes, owned by Ford but both LR and Jaguar are for sale and this will probably happen this year. Don't be surprised when LR will be bought by Indians, Chinese or Russians (as it seems others are not that interested).

Stelvio x 2
 

A bit more about the Moto G Stelvio which, according to this write-up, will be available next month, and have a choice of 850 or 1200 cc engines, but it will be pretty well road oriented - more like the current Triumph Tiger than the BMW GS for example (a matter of degree then):-

Moto Guzzi Stelvio Preview