Having just been to Motorcycle Live in the UK (UK's biggest bike show) with a huge Honda stand, the VFR800 looked a little unloved, placed amongst the 'Adventure' themed area alongside all the high bar, off road bikes it really looked out of place. There was just one example in red with set of panniers that looked as though they had been kicked by shoes for a week.
Why not put it next to Fireblade, CBR600 etc? It is a sports bike, not an off-roader!
Honda, you are not really trying very hard to sell this bike.
Compared to say the Yamaha stand, Honda looked, dare I say it, boring? out of touch? There were even two cars on the stand, in a motorcycle show?
One good thing was the kiddies adventure park, Where they could ride kids bikes in a jungle, looked fun
Is that where Honda are heading? small bikes and trying to get into the adventure scene? I bet BMW are worried!
Honda has so much history, where are all the retro / yard built bikes? or is the 8th Gen VFR considered a retro? Now there's a thought for the marketing guys! A 1990's retro, we are ahead of our time.
Were the other bike shows around the world the same?
Let's look at this objectively. Unless you're a seasoned rider with taste and experience, our bike isn't going to tick off the adrenaline junky boxes that most of the marketing focus of the big makers are going after. I don't particularly care how the bike is selling, or how it's marketed, because I don't need to feel validated in my choices every time I see an ad in some bike rag. I'm grateful enough that it's available.
Those choices are validated after every sixth hour in the saddle, or when I twist the throttle in a slot canyon, or when I've been doing the Pace plus ten for an hour in the twisties without once touching the brakes, or when I'm outriding squids on their liter bikes with their attendant fear based survival reactions, or when I step off the bike after eight hours and can still walk like a human being.
With our bike, either you get it, or more likely, you don't. I'm comfortable with that.
Honda, you are not really trying very hard to sell this bike.
I've been thinking the same thing for some time. Two years ago this month I attended the M/C show in my area (in the US). There was a lot of buzz about the new VFR - no one had seen one in the flesh yet and I thought I'd get an early look at the show. When I arrived at the Honda display, they didn't even have one (or a 7th gen, either)! One of the rep's asked if he could help me, and I said "where's your new VFR?" He said "we don't have it here - we think there are a few in the country, but we don't know when we'll get one." My reply to him was "then how do you expect to sell them if people can't even see it?" The rep just shrugged his shoulders as if to say "so, whatcha' gonna do??" :wacko: I left with the same feeling - that they're not even trying.
Fast forward to this year. Honda did not even have a booth at the show!!! (Nor did Yamaha). Honda has apparently been showing up in larger markets though. I get a weird vibe out of Honda - at least Honda N.A. Maybe sales are so low in the US that they don't want to put any capital toward marketing, or they figure the bikes will just sell themselves - or what, I'm not sure. Honda needs to figure out how to recapture their magic.
Having just been to Motorcycle Live in the UK (UK's biggest bike show) with a huge Honda stand, the VFR800 looked a little unloved, placed amongst the 'Adventure' themed area alongside all the high bar, off road bikes it really looked out of place. There was just one example in red with set of panniers that looked as though they had been kicked by shoes for a week.
Why not put it next to Fireblade, CBR600 etc? It is a sports bike, not an off-roader!
Honda, you are not really trying very hard to sell this bike.
Compared to say the Yamaha stand, Honda looked, dare I say it, boring? out of touch? There were even two cars on the stand, in a motorcycle show?
One good thing was the kiddies adventure park, Where they could ride kids bikes in a jungle, looked fun
Is that where Honda are heading? small bikes and trying to get into the adventure scene? I bet BMW are worried!
Honda has so much history, where are all the retro / yard built bikes? or is the 8th Gen VFR considered a retro? Now there's a thought for the marketing guys! A 1990's retro, we are ahead of our time.
Were the other bike shows around the world the same?
Did you notice the vfr had a tinted touring screen fitted.
Having just been to Motorcycle Live in the UK (UK's biggest bike show) with a huge Honda stand, the VFR800 looked a little unloved, placed amongst the 'Adventure' themed area alongside all the high bar, off road bikes it really looked out of place. There was just one example in red with set of panniers that looked as though they had been kicked by shoes for a week.
Why not put it next to Fireblade, CBR600 etc? It is a sports bike, not an off-roader!
Honda, you are not really trying very hard to sell this bike.
Compared to say the Yamaha stand, Honda looked, dare I say it, boring? out of touch? There were even two cars on the stand, in a motorcycle show?
One good thing was the kiddies adventure park, Where they could ride kids bikes in a jungle, looked fun
Is that where Honda are heading? small bikes and trying to get into the adventure scene? I bet BMW are worried!
Honda has so much history, where are all the retro / yard built bikes? or is the 8th Gen VFR considered a retro? Now there's a thought for the marketing guys! A 1990's retro, we are ahead of our time.
Were the other bike shows around the world the same?
Did you notice the vfr had a tinted touring screen fitted.
Didn't know Honda made one?
I've read mention of one listed in a Honda accessories touring pack but never actually seen a picture of one.
The Honda stand at the NEC is getting to look out of place, certainly not a lot of effort put into keeping on improving each year, the John McGuiness Senior TT bike was stood in a corner with a half arsed attempt at an information board, the writing of which is so pale its unreadable in the photo i took
Also given that he was there on the Sunday I went he wasn't on the Honda stand, the TT stand had him signing autographs, why didn't Honda bother? They could have printed up some really cool T shirts for him to sign to celebrate his 23rd TT win, lost opportunity there
As Shinigani said above, the VFR is not ever going to be a 'hot bike' to own, it's to practical to be considered a sports bike and from what I've learned from the various VFR forums is that we all had a lot of other bikes first, many still have, but it's not a bike with WOW value to anyone under 35 or 40
Honda are definitely lacking proactive response to the aggressive Kawasaki and Yamaha sales marketing, which they'll regret when they do bring out a new sports bike, if it came out 1st January 2016 it would have to be something else to be on a level with the BMWS1000RR and the Aprilia Touno of 2015
It reminds me of the attitude of the British bikes of the 1960's, "here we are, come and look and marvel"
My 12 year old grandson said he thought the show was dull this year, also too noisy, as a veteran of 4 shows there he's definitely got a point Oh I think the screen was given to them by Skidmarx,
End of thread · 10 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 25 Jan 2016
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