New Moto Guzzi Door Mats Available Now
Back in 2005 I bought a new Ural Patrol. I think back then they were about $10,500 so not to bad for a 2 wheel drive side car rig. Two things that I remember about it. First and very surprisingly, it had the nicest green paint job of any bike I've ever owned. The paint was as smooth as glass without a single panel having any orange peel. Can't say the same about any BMW I've ever owned. Second thing about the Ural was the amount of maintenance/repairs it needed. For every hour I spent riding it, I needed to work on it for an hour, and I'm not exaggerating. After about 2 years I sold it after riding it for 6,000 miles. It was a interesting bike to own and got plenty of looks when I was out riding it, but I don't think I would own another one, especially not for what they are asking for a new one now, $20,000+.
Yeah, I'm not convinced the Ural is worth the money in 2005 or 2023 dollars. If I was commissioning another rig I'd be going back to Claude Stanley with an Adv Bike and about an 2" thick pile of $100's.
I don’t know what the perceived benefits are one way or another, but I just could not get used to telling someone I ride a Urinal.
In my opinion Ural is still a very good value in today's sidecar market. A good way to save 25% or more on a late model Ural is to buy from someone who scared themselves witless and sells it off with only a couple hundred miles. It is not uncommon to find used Ural rigs sold by first time sidecar owners that are not mentally or physically prepared for the steep learning curve with a pitiful few miles. I think most of us wondered what kind of death trap we got ourselves into during the first few miles. Luckily it gets better quickly if you give it a chance.
When I picked up my rig Clause said you'll go through a very fast spell of love at 1st ride quickly followed by what did I get myself into. He said you'll have to push through what did I get myself into and if you do will be rewarded with now, I get it. It took several hundred miles and then it just clicked.
Nothing gets made in china without full transparency. If Piaggio or GM or anyone else gets parts made in china in their own facility or by another party, all related information including blueprints, technology, method must be disclosed to the local authorities as part of the permitting process by government. There are no secrets held back, no proprietary rights, nothing. If they want to know what you’re doing, you cannot refuse to fulfill their requests completely and operate in their territory.Then, if the local authorities choose to do so, they can allow another entity to make the exact same parts or machines use the same technology- whether or not they allow the original party to remain in operation.If Piaggio is having any parts manufactured in China for that market, assembly elsewhere, whatever- China doesn’t have to steal or reverse engineer it. They already have all they need to know to make it.
I wondered if when a company contracts a Chinese vendor to produce a part, if the contracting company lost all exclusive rights to that part. IE: If a Chinese company makes swingarms for a KTM 690 Duke, does that company automatically have the right to make as many of those swingarms as they want for whatever purpose they want?If Moto Guzzi contracts a vendor to build 3,000 engines a year, but the contracted vendor has the capacity to build 10,000 of those engines a year, well, in order to pay for the tooling as quickly as possible, they will build as many as they think they can sell to anyone who wants to buy, not just Moto Guzzi.Sound economics.
I do have one question.Why is the spelling of the word “Chinese” in the title, deliberately mishandled ?I’m not immune to such shenanigans myself, but I wondered at the motive.
I'd put money this bike is never sold in the US, probably not outside of Asia. So doesn't matter to me in the least.-AJ
A retired engineer friend who was a student of mine explained the process to me. He said when they wanted to either build a facility or contract items to be manufactured in China, which they did numerous times over multiple years, they had to provide all information about all processes, products and designs at the request of the permitting govt office. He told me he personally witnessed a new facility being purpose-built to produce items for non-china markets, with an identical facility built via the state on adjacent property at the same time by the same contractors. If you run afoul with govt officials for whatever reason, they could shut you down and move all the trained workers & production next door and field offer to fill the same contracts that you no longer could using same exact workers, materials, products, schedule and possibly at a lower cost. Working like that led him to take a layoff for early retirement in his field and change his life direction.The thing about licensing- They could license their product to be built and sold in China. Or, the govt officials may simply allow those same items to be produced and marketed without them… make your choice. If any claims are litigated in china, guess who’s gonna win? So it’s hardly a win-win situation or a good economic model for anyone else. .Many (most?) people don’t think it’s a big deal until their original, copyrighted invention or product is copied and all the time, effort & $$ it took to make it happen goes down the drain. It’s only a victimless crime scenario until it happens to you.
Just so you know the tubeless rims on the 2021-on V85TT are also manufactured in China by a Chinese company. Not sure about the 2020 tube type but I’d guess they are too.My comment on the Chinese V85TT copy as a whole is that if creating the original isn’t valuable because direct copies come along, and if nobody is penalized and the copies sell, then nobody will create anything of value. My own POV as a buyer is that I’d be embarrassed to ride a direct copy of any motorcycle, or to show the world that I’m willing to reward plagiarism with my money.
It's pronounced ooraall Huzo.
