Bangkok Motor Show 2012

[TylerBKK]

The Bangkok Motor show starts towards the end of next week. Often there are some announcements in the newspapers a week prior to the show about new models to be announced/released at the show.

I've been keeping an eye out for announcements from Honda and Kawasaki on new motorcycles, but so far I haven't seen anything yet.

Has anyone heard anything yet about new bikes for Thailand to be announced at the motor show?

[TylerBKK]

By the way, the dates this year are:

VIP Day - March 26, 2012

Press Day - March 27, 2012

Public Days: March 28 - 08 April, 2012

Location: Challenger 1-3, Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani

I read somewhere that they offer a free shuttle bus out there from one of the MRT stations, but I'm not sure which station.

[BigBikeBKK]

Always a fun event! See you there!

[karlos]

Kawasaki have already released all their new / revised models (er6, ninja 650, zzr1400, KSR etc) Same with Honda (click 125 pcx 150 etc)

The only new bike i haven't yet seen in released in Thailand is the Yamaha Nouvo, which should be blessed with injection, but it's a small bike and it's nothing to get worked up about.

I'll be attending and would like to know what day you intend to go Tony as i'll tag alone with you if that's ok? I'll bring my camera to capture all the bikes and pretty girls too

Edited March 24, 2012 by karlos

[Big Guns]

The new Thai Ducati Diavel could be there @ 799,000 THB

[TylerBKK]

I was hoping for a possible surprise announcement on a locally made Honda CBR600RR, a Kawasaki ZX6R or similar. Sounds like my hopes will be dashed.

I am also wondering if Yamaha would ever produce a form of the R1 for the local market or if Suzuki might do something with a locally made Jixxer. I guess time will tell.

[TylerBKK]

What surprises me though is that Honda, the biggest seller of bikes in Thailand, doesn't put out a locally made big bike to compete with Kawasaki in the 600cc bike class.

Seeing how well the ER6 sells and the good demand they have had for the CBR250, you would think they would want a piece of the locally made big bike market. Almost seems surprising for Honda not to even try to compete.

At the very least Honda could do something with an imported CBR600RR like what Ducati IS DOING with the monster by bringing it in parts an assembling here to beat the import duty and offer a competitive price.

[BigBikeBKK]

What surprises me though is that Honda, the biggest seller of bikes in Thailand, doesn't put out a locally made big bike to compete with Kawasaki in the 600cc bike class.

Seeing how well the ER6 sells and the good demand they have had for the CBR250, you would think they would want a piece of the locally made big bike market. Almost seems surprising for Honda not to even try to compete.

At the very least Honda could do something with an imported CBR600RR like what Ducati IS DOING with the monster by bringing it in parts an assembling here to beat the import duty and offer a competitive price.

The Thai big bike market is TINY. Kawasaki was manufacturing bikes here for export long before they started selling them domestically.

[karlos]

I was hoping for a possible surprise announcement on a locally made Honda CBR600RR, a Kawasaki ZX6R or similar. Sounds like my hopes will be dashed.

I am also wondering if Yamaha would ever produce a form of the R1 for the local market or if Suzuki might do something with a locally made Jixxer. I guess time will tell.

Being that the CBR600RR is already in production in Japan along with the ZX6R there's very little chance of them being produced in Thailand and thus we'll have to pay an import premium to own one.

I had my hopes set far too highly last year when i heard word that the CBR600F might be made here in Thailand but that too is already in production outside of Thailand, so we'll also have to pay a premium for that one too

All the negativity set aside, i'm sure Honda will join Ducati and Kawasaki's market sometime soon, i'm guessing there CBR250 will be their test bed and if things go well maybe... just maybe we'll get something a little more interesting from Honda. The only problem being is the better Kawasaki Ninja 250 has given the CBR250 some stiff competition, maybe Mr Honda will look at his 250 sales in Thailand and decide not to produce something bigger......

[TylerBKK]

I saw a breakdown of the figures once of all the bikes on the road by brand and model from the department of land transport. I remember the CBR250R being much higher than the Ninja 250R at around 5,000+ units at the time. I realize probably not enough to get Honda excited, but they are exporting them from here as well so that makes sense.

I guess no matter what, it doesn't make sense to build big bikes here unless you are going to export on them as well. But if both Ducati and Kawasaki have a 3-4 month waiting list for their big bikes built in Thailand it does say something about big bike demand.

At the very least if they aren't going to build them here it would be nice to see the govt drop the import duties on them like they did on cars recently and/or for Honda to start assembling a big bike here so they could avoid some of the import taxes and come close at least to competing against prices for locally produced big bikes. Maybe Honda is still 3-5 years away from that though.

[wana]

I was hoping for a possible surprise announcement on a locally made Honda CBR600RR, a Kawasaki ZX6R or similar. Sounds like my hopes will be dashed.

I am also wondering if Yamaha would ever produce a form of the R1 for the local market or if Suzuki might do something with a locally made Jixxer. I guess time will tell.

The only problem being is the better Kawasaki Ninja 250 has given the CBR250 some stiff competition, maybe Mr Honda will look at his 250 sales in Thailand and decide not to produce something bigger......

i dont think the ninja 250 is much better than a cbr 250

theyre both slow but the cbr has more torque and is more comfortable and the instrument panel looks more modern

if they were the same price ,like they should be and are in other countries the ninja may edge it on performance but

id give comfort and day to day usabilty to the cbr

i think honda sold more cbr250s last year than all the other manufacturers combined making bikes of 250cc or larger

there was a thread about it somewhere

also ,something like 400/1 is the ratio of scooters to real motorcycles so the thai market is not worth making any new models

specificaly for here unless they can sell them elsewhere as well

[TylerBKK]

An interesting article on the subject of big bike sales in Thailand from The Nation last month:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Big-bike-market-set-to-change-gear-30175431.html

[TylerBKK]

@karlos - I copy and pasted this info from another post here on TV. Doesn't seem like the 250 Ninja caused much competition last year for the CBR250R:

"If you look at the bike sales (registration?) figures released by the Thailand Dept of Land Transport for last year, you will see that bikes in the 150cc and over category account for only 0.5% of all the 2,001,044 bikes registered. That is, a total of 11,010 bikes over 150cc were registered (they don't break down the figures anymore for over 150cc). Considering that the CBR250 accounted for 5,426 of that 11,010 and then you can see it is a very, very small market. So basically about 400 scooters are sold for every 'big bike'. i don't know the mark up of a big bike but it certainly is not gonna make up for the profit gained from selling 400 scooters. Or the aggravation. And we wonder why they don't listen to farang banging on about big bikes!!

CBR150 9,327

CBR250 5,426

Kawasaki 3,548 over 150cc

Yamaha 130 over 150cc

Ducati 270

Harley 235

BMW 186

Suzuki 13 over 150cc

Triumph 112

Of the just over 2 million bikes registered in Thailand in 2011 around 1.3 million were Hondas in the 101-125cc division."

[TylerBKK]

I copied that post from here and the data was posted by thaichiplanet:

Wana is that also the post you were referring to perhaps?

[kawapower]

I was hoping for a possible surprise announcement on a locally made Honda CBR600RR, a Kawasaki ZX6R or similar. Sounds like my hopes will be dashed.

I am also wondering if Yamaha would ever produce a form of the R1 for the local market or if Suzuki might do something with a locally made Jixxer. I guess time will tell.

The only problem being is the better Kawasaki Ninja 250 has given the CBR250 some stiff competition, maybe Mr Honda will look at his 250 sales in Thailand and decide not to produce something bigger......

i dont think the ninja 250 is much better than a cbr 250

theyre both slow but the cbr has more torque and is more comfortable and the instrument panel looks more modern

if they were the same price ,like they should be and are in other countries the ninja may edge it on performance but

id give comfort and day to day usabilty to the cbr

i think honda sold more cbr250s last year than all the other manufacturers combined making bikes of 250cc or larger

there was a thread about it somewhere

also ,something like 400/1 is the ratio of scooters to real motorcycles so the thai market is not worth making any new models

specificaly for here unless they can sell them elsewhere as well

My mate has the Kawa 250R it is super quick, it's a great bike!!

[karlos]

@karlos - I copy and pasted this info from another post here on TV. Doesn't seem like the 250 Ninja caused much competition last year for the CBR250R:

"If you look at the bike sales (registration?) figures released by the Thailand Dept of Land Transport for last year, you will see that bikes in the 150cc and over category account for only 0.5% of all the 2,001,044 bikes registered. That is, a total of 11,010 bikes over 150cc were registered (they don't break down the figures anymore for over 150cc). Considering that the CBR250 accounted for 5,426 of that 11,010 and then you can see it is a very, very small market. So basically about 400 scooters are sold for every 'big bike'. i don't know the mark up of a big bike but it certainly is not gonna make up for the profit gained from selling 400 scooters. Or the aggravation. And we wonder why they don't listen to farang banging on about big bikes!!

CBR150 9,327

CBR250 5,426

Kawasaki 3,548 over 150cc

Yamaha 130 over 150cc

Ducati 270

Harley 235

BMW 186

Suzuki 13 over 150cc

Triumph 112

Of the just over 2 million bikes registered in Thailand in 2011 around 1.3 million were Hondas in the 101-125cc division."

Interesting read, i know i shouldn't make assumptions and perhaps i'm a little bias due to owning a big Kwaker but i thought the figures between 150cc+ bikes (Honda and kawasaki) would have been the other way around. Honda has the CBR250 and a few CBR1000RR sold i guess.... Kawasaki has the Dtracker250, ninja 250, ER6, Ninja 650, versys, Vulcan and perhaps 5-10 ZX10R's were sold last year

i'm not one to argue with hard facts but in my area of Bangkok i see alot more Ninja 250's than CBR250's, which lead me to assume that Kawasaki (along with all it's models) had the greater Big Bike share

I guess i didn't factor in that all the issan farmers riding around on their CBR250.

Karl

[SumetCycle]

We will be taking a bunch of customers up to the show from our shop on Sat. the 31st. If you've got a Honda and would like to join us send me a PM. Free T-shirt, petrol (100 baht), lunch, admission, and VIP parking will be provided. We will meet at the shop at 1 o'clock and head up to the show at about 2 o'clock. So far we have over 60 bikes going. We hope to see you all there. Thanks.

Brian

[wana]

@karlos - I copy and pasted this info from another post here on TV. Doesn't seem like the 250 Ninja caused much competition last year for the CBR250R:

"If you look at the bike sales (registration?) figures released by the Thailand Dept of Land Transport for last year, you will see that bikes in the 150cc and over category account for only 0.5% of all the 2,001,044 bikes registered. That is, a total of 11,010 bikes over 150cc were registered (they don't break down the figures anymore for over 150cc). Considering that the CBR250 accounted for 5,426 of that 11,010 and then you can see it is a very, very small market. So basically about 400 scooters are sold for every 'big bike'. i don't know the mark up of a big bike but it certainly is not gonna make up for the profit gained from selling 400 scooters. Or the aggravation. And we wonder why they don't listen to farang banging on about big bikes!!

CBR150 9,327

CBR250 5,426

Kawasaki 3,548 over 150cc

Yamaha 130 over 150cc

Ducati 270

Harley 235

BMW 186

Suzuki 13 over 150cc

Triumph 112

Of the just over 2 million bikes registered in Thailand in 2011 around 1.3 million were Hondas in the 101-125cc division."

Interesting read, i know i shouldn't make assumptions and perhaps i'm a little bias due to owning a big Kwaker but i thought the figures between 150cc+ bikes (Honda and kawasaki) would have been the other way around. Honda has the CBR250 and a few CBR1000RR sold i guess.... Kawasaki has the Dtracker250, ninja 250, ER6, Ninja 650, versys, Vulcan and perhaps 5-10 ZX10R's were sold last year

i'm not one to argue with hard facts but in my area of Bangkok i see alot more Ninja 250's than CBR250's, which lead me to assume that Kawasaki (along with all it's models) had the greater Big Bike share

I guess i didn't factor in that all the issan farmers riding around on their CBR250.

Karl

the ninja has been on sale for years and hasnt changed much ,the cbr 250 is only out 11 months and some of those months were flooded so production halted

for awhile

i think they have kicked ass with that cbr 250 sales

the kawasaki is over priced for a 250 in a 3rd world country like thailand

the 650 is relatively good value ,but then ,its only the richest small % of thais that can spend that kind of money on a bike

[TylerBKK]

All I agree with. But is Thailand really a 3rd world country? Maybe it was 50 years ago.

[wana]

All I agree with. But is Thailand really a 3rd world country? Maybe it was 50 years ago.

i still think it is a developing nation in many ways ,for sure most of the population are not financially loaded

for most thai people a PCX is out of their budget

never mind a new ninja 650 !

we have to remember the average farang gets at east 4 x times wages than a thai and even then when a thai

buys a new honda wave ,he often has to pay if off over 3 years

[TylerBKK]

Your right about all that. I was just making the distinction between "3rd world" and "developing country". By definition the meanings are actually very different. People often use them loosely and interchangeably without realizing there is a distinct difference. That's probably what you were doing as well. No problem. Just pointing that out. Cheers.

[monty1412]

were there any new models or suroise announcements coming out of the show ??

[pauljones]

The new Thai Ducati Diavel could be there @ 799,000 THB

Is it true they are building this in Thailand now?

[TylerBKK]

The new Thai Ducati Diavel could be there @ 799,000 THB

Is it true they are building this in Thailand now?

Ducati doesn't manufacture any bikes in Thailand as far as I know. They are though assembling the Monster here now and selling it for 400,000 Baht. But still all made in Italy.

[pauljones]

I was just told the Diavel is indeed being built here now along side the 795 Monster line.

Rumor is the Hyper may be next to roll out of the factory.

I predict many Monster owners will move up to the Diavel so there should be some awesome deals on almost new, 795 Monsters soon.

[marstons]

By the way, the dates this year are:

VIP Day - March 26, 2012

Press Day - March 27, 2012

Public Days: March 28 - 08 April, 2012

Location: Challenger 1-3, Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani

I read somewhere that they offer a free shuttle bus out there from one of the MRT stations, but I'm not sure which station.

Bit late but Mo Chit

http://www.impact.co.th/en/easy_access.php

[TylerBKK]

Late, but good find though. Seems this is where the shuttle buses are parked waiting:

http://www.impact.co.th/en/media_photo_gallery_popup.php?topicid=83&no=2

[karlos]

Can i pay at the door if i were to go tomorrow Morning?

Or do i have to purchase a ticket from somewhere?

Karl

[bbradsby]

... The only problem being is the better Kawasaki Ninja 250 has given the CBR250 some stiff competition, maybe Mr Honda will look at his 250 sales in Thailand and decide not to produce something bigger......

Just an FYI, and I'm not impressed with either bike myself, but the Moto Press are on record as disagreeing with you in your assessment.

[karlos]

... The only problem being is the better Kawasaki Ninja 250 has given the CBR250 some stiff competition, maybe Mr Honda will look at his 250 sales in Thailand and decide not to produce something bigger......

Just an FYI, and I'm not impressed with either bike myself, but the Moto Press are on record as disagreeing with you in your assessment.

Each to their own, there are plenty of people and magazines out there that like both bikes