Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/146689
~ EVENT Cologne '92 ~ Motorcycle makers' survival skills Cj') Cj') ~ "' -.:::j-1 ~ Q.) ~ S Q.) ;> o Z By Bruce Scholten and Ulrich Zillmann Photos by Ulrich Zillman~ lJI,o YOKO Y . ...----~---~--~~-~~ "" 1 I 1 - - : . . . . . - - - - - - - - - -. .."...,I!IJl!Ill"'---..., otorcyclists expect the unexpected; so must the people who .make motorcycles. Any journey .risks a little rain. The problem for former east-bloc motorcycle makers like MZ, CZ, Jawa and Dnepr is that lately it's been raining cats and dogs. As their pack of scooters, dirt bikes and street machines wends its parlous way to the free market, more nearmisses and a crash or two seem likely.. One stop on the way has been IFMA. (International Bicycle and Motorcycle Show) Cologne 1992. The biannual show, with a record 1900 exhibitors from 42 countries, hosted almost a quarter-millio~ visitors. For west European makers, the omens were auspicious, e.g. Germany where 1991 two-wheel production was DM 2.85 billion, up 30% from 1989. Market share of over- 750cc bikes has risen from 19% to 35% in Germany in the last 10 years, a continental trend. Baby boomers may be aging, but higher incomes make up for faded youth,· and could be fueling a Motorcycle Renaissance in Europe. While the Japanese Big 4 retained 80% world share of over-80cc motorcycles in the last decade, BMW doubled its own cut to 3.8% and increased profits on its upscale, big-bore bikes even more. Doffing its helmet at safety and traffic concerns, BMW unveiled its M (Above) MZ, once a firm with 3000 employees but now only 160, has high hopes for the MZ 500 Silverstar. (Right) The Dnepr sidecar is manufactured in the Ukraine. 20 futuristic seat-belt equipped Cl twowheeler at Cologne - but the firm will surely earn more Deutsche' Marks selling its bigger "brick-engined" KIIOO RS. Meanwhile, Triumph revealed facelifts to its 3-cylinder bikes, a market success since Cologne '90. And KTM showed a prototype 992cc V-twin that looks a better candidate for the real world than the prototype 1600cc PGO V-twin from Taiwan. Most exuberant of all might be Ducati. The Italian company with the deep-pockets Cagiva connection wants to build the world's best road bikes. Chief engineer M~ssimo Bordi announced (Motor Cycle News: October 7): "This is the third s~ep in Ducati history. We are going for top quality, top looks, and want to be top for details and graphics." Ducati's beautiful new 550cc single reflected his words in $23,000 worth of bright red paint. After their pre-World War II origins, communism and now privatization, firms like MZ, CZ, Jawa and Dnepr are on the third stage of their own historical road. As the world recession lingers, companies like BMW (which sell to those who still have good jobs) s~ffer less than small-bore, smallprofit makers of the old east-bloc. How much longer the latter can keep the rubber side down on the road is a good question. . It was not always so. In the 1960s some Japanese makers employed industrial espionage to ferret secrets from MZ; a leader in two-stroke technology and disc brakes. Jaroslav· Falta rode CZs to the 250cc MX World Championship in the 1970s. But times change - especially in this era of CAD-CAM design. Recently a magazine pictured a dirt bike derived from CZ's world-beater with the caption: "Why communism fell." How the mighty are fallen! Until the early 1970s many western analysts agreed with East-bloc propagandists that manufacturing in their "command economies" could keep pace with.the West. Until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, even the CIA believed East Germany's huge chemical industry, other communist showpieces e.g. Leica and Praktika cameras, Zeiss lenses, Wartburg, Lada and Skoda autos as well as MZ and CZ motorcycles were viable in the world market. But communism fell less like a gentle shower than a ton of bricks. It was soon apparent that East Germany's glorious chemical industry and much else - was a disaster. Motorcycle exports from East German makers plunged from 75,000 in 1990, to 48,000 in 1992 - and fell to about 40,000 this year. Firms like MZ, who lost their traditional markets in the Soviet Union, are most vulnerable. At Cologne, we asked MZ "fep Chris. tian Steiner about developments sirice we met him at IFMA '90: "That is a tough question. In brief, MZ had to leave the Treuhand (the agency privatizing old East German firms), get privatized and establish ourselves on