i was wondering that myself...if atk bought highland...they would just be another import? Would they move production to utah? or assembly
yes all this brings up so many questions...
Indy Dealer Show
-
JeffQuadShop
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:41 pm
QUOTE (jesshamner @ Feb 12 2008, 10:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Looks like I'm only going to be there Saturday. I hope I have time to see most of the booths and see everybody that's going.
Keep your pants on kiddies!
How did you know my pants were off? I am just interested because it seems not much info has been given out and the fact ATK isn't talking about it anywhere just kind of strikes me as odd if you were moving forward figured it would be a big deal. If anybody knows any factual info not rumor post it, I don't think posting news on riders is gonna sink a deal so whats going on?-
cannondale27
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:41 pm
-
MX Quad Dad
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:41 pm
The one downside I can see about advertising too early is if you aren't 100% ready with the product and you start advertising it and you have any problem (no matter how small) meeting the production date, the customer always thinks the worst and may hesitate even more before buying. If I remember correct there was very little time between the anouncement of the 450R and the availabilty. I have heard people say Cannondale had to postpone delivery of their first bike and rumors hurt sales.
The news from ATK is still up in the air from what I can tell. They bought Highland Motors (or all rights to it), they bought Dinli's intellectual rights to the Cannondale designs, they bought the very small remnants of VOR (I think), they also bought what was left of Maico (the big 2-stroke bike). I believe there maybe more acqusitions (sp) in the future. Truth be told, I don't have a clue what they will be making but they did scoop up some very interesting items and the rumor mill is still turning. They have started work on a UTV (it is Chinese assembled but uses a Japanese motor). The motor is out of a GM/Suzuki joint venture from a car, remember the old Suzuki Sprint and Geo line? The motor is a sleeved down version of the 3 cylinder car motor with 850cc. It can be made to go back to 1300cc and there are turbo kits available on the aftermarket. Can anyone say hauling a$$? The China aspect has me worried, but you can demand the quality you want and they can always move production. Motor wise they are solid.
To tell you the truth, it looks very promising. It appears that a lot of money is being put into the ATK brand and they want to make some American branded powersports. I do not know what the future holds for the former Cannondale designs, my guess is to use the motor in another chassis. No matter how much we love the old girl, it is simply too expensive to manufacture that frame design. The original frames retailed for close to $3000 (funny how today you can't get $300 for them). For about 1/2 that amount I can have a Roll or Laeger designed chassis made (wholesale). At the same time I could work on the problems we really hated (side cover access, etc) and use common patterns on everything else. Examples would be bolt patterns, ball joint tapers, the entire rear assembly, etc. The original ATK did this to make their technology cheaper with a XR600 motor. For about $2k, they made the critical components and you used your XR600 for all the donor parts (including the motor). It was the best XR600 out there. I would love to see them come up with a chassis kit that used the Dale motor and maybe a 400EX donor bike for the patterns. What do you think?
To tell you the truth, it looks very promising. It appears that a lot of money is being put into the ATK brand and they want to make some American branded powersports. I do not know what the future holds for the former Cannondale designs, my guess is to use the motor in another chassis. No matter how much we love the old girl, it is simply too expensive to manufacture that frame design. The original frames retailed for close to $3000 (funny how today you can't get $300 for them). For about 1/2 that amount I can have a Roll or Laeger designed chassis made (wholesale). At the same time I could work on the problems we really hated (side cover access, etc) and use common patterns on everything else. Examples would be bolt patterns, ball joint tapers, the entire rear assembly, etc. The original ATK did this to make their technology cheaper with a XR600 motor. For about $2k, they made the critical components and you used your XR600 for all the donor parts (including the motor). It was the best XR600 out there. I would love to see them come up with a chassis kit that used the Dale motor and maybe a 400EX donor bike for the patterns. What do you think?
-
JeffQuadShop
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:41 pm
-
jesshamner
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:41 pm