\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/span> | 09\/22\/2021\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n PILLAR<\/p>\n By Ray Conway<\/strong><\/p>\n So Triumph will enter the dirt bike segment. The company’s latest press release says it will one day manufacture a full range of MX and Enduro motorcycles. That’s a big leap! When the mighty Honda finally got into the dirt bike business in late 1972, it even started with just one model, the CR250M Elsinore.<\/p>\n (Read the press release Triumph Motorcycles enters the motocross and enduro segment<\/a><\/em> Here)<\/strong><\/p>\n After the Triumph announcement, the motorcycle social media pages were teeming with opinions: who would make them, where would they be made, or even whether Triumph would actually ship motorcycles at all.<\/p>\n I immediately looked at this announcement from a different angle. Exactly what would they choose to build and where would these motorcycles be built, or by whom only financial decisions would be made.<\/p>\n With enduro motorcycles there are more categories and racing options than with MX motorcycles, there are four-stroke, two-stroke and a wide range of displacement. With MX racing bikes, the rules start to push design options into specific boxes – 450cc, 250cc four-stroke with some room for two-stroke.<\/p>\n A quick look into the history of the MX bike reveals some interesting development cycles. I say all MX bikes were new year over year from 1965 to 1975. Jeff Smith was the last MX World Champion on a four-stroke motorcycle, a BSA, in 1964, and then all were two-stroke after that. And all manufacturers tried to find their way back then – one or two cylinders, one or two exhaust pipes, uppipe, downpipe, membrane, solid-state ignition, CDI, two shock absorbers, one shock absorber, etc. After 1975, all manufacturers started with long spring travel, uppipes, plastic tanks going to the same place, pointless ignitions, and so on. The next stages pretty much went on en masse: single-shock rear suspension, water cooling, disc brakes and inverted forks. Today we went back to four-stroke engines but added fuel injection.<\/p>\n We currently have nine 450cc MX motorcycle manufacturers: Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas, Beta and TM. What is the current state of the art? It’s pretty much 450 cc four-stroke engines with overhead valves, link-type rear suspensions, inverted forks, and two frame-mounted radiators. And eight of the bikes available have an electric starter.<\/p>\n So what are the differences? The Japanese brands have aluminum frames and coil spring forks. Kawasaki pretty much has the traditional layout of the components. Honda tries to package all parts better. Yamaha has the inverted cylinder head, of course, and Suzuki isn’t currently throwing a lot of research and development on their MX bikes. If so, keep quiet about it.<\/p>\n The Austrians are steel frames and air forks. KTM is the standard carrier in every model cycle, while Husqvarna is marketed as an upscale model with more standard equipment and GasGas is the basic model with all the basic elements at an attractive price.<\/p>\n The other two, Beta and TM, come with Beta, which offers a steel frame with a suspension fork, and TM, which is a European brand with an aluminum frame.<\/p>\n Where is triumph? Does the MX market need or can it support a tenth brand? And which path does Triumph choose? Aluminum frames, steel frames, air forks, suspension forks? If Triumph is to stay on the cutting edge of technology, it has to build a bike that is better than the best models right now in order to get customers to switch to them.<\/p>\n However, there is a third avenue littered with famous names that have designed entirely new MX motorcycles. However, history does not support this path to success. Since you can add parts to an MX bike or delete parts from an Enduro bike to build MX and Enduro motorcycles, I’ll mix these names together.<\/p>\n Right from the start, you’ve got the Yankee 500 Twin, Rokon 340MX, Harley MX 250, Cooper \/ Islo, and I think you can throw in the Husqvarna automatic. More recently, there have been VOR, Alta, Cannondale, ATK and, although they never took cover, the Buell Phoenix, which fits my point of view here. Many of these names came out and raced, and most of these names have been in business for more than a few years, but ultimately the rapid pace of off-road \/ MX motorcycle development requires a tremendous amount of time, manpower and money.<\/p>\n As a person who was on dirt bikes before Helsing\u00f8r and has been in the motorcycle industry for 45 years, I am delighted to see all of this. It should be pretty entertaining.<\/p>\n Ray Conway started off-road motorcycling in the southern California desert when he was 10 years old. From 1976 to 1986 he then worked for local motorcycle dealers. In 1986 he worked for American Honda for the next 28 years until he retired in 2015. Conway continues his work in the motorcycle industry, executing specialty projects and advising many of today’s leading companies in the industry. -Editor.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\nCycle messages<\/em> editorial staff<\/span><\/h2>\n
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