Poor practice

Some folks like to use wire and other things slipped under the throttle plate, to help with bench-syncing their carburetors. On CV carbs this is not good practice. See the result?

The vanilla challange

The four major Japanese powersports manufacturers are in a tough position. Their business models don't allow them to compete with the niche brands in terms of excitement and enthusiasm, and compared with such emotionally charged brands as Ducati, Moto Guzzi and Harley-Davisons, and such perceived premium brands such as BMW, they're seen as plain, vanilla, ho-hum. Additionally, with nearly identical marketing structures, the Big Four are that much more likely to be mistaken for one another. A row of vanilla manufacturers varying only by packaging color, in other words. How can they overcome that? Given their way of doing business, will they ever?

Sport bikes in paradise

Quick, what's 10 percent of 3 percent?! Did you know that over-achieving sport bikes such as Kawasaki's ZX-10R aren't even in their manufacturer's top ten of sales? That's right. Only 3 percent of the public is interested in motorcycles, and only 10 percent of those folks gravitate toward sport bikes. So what's that, 0.3 percent? Why then do Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki make technological flagships such as these? Because they can, and because it advertises something about their companies.