Would you buy a $10,000 WRR?

SheWolf wrote:

I do have a rifle I could take a shot with....things are gonna stick out with it still being cold tho...

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Be good...

Gotta love a nice Husky butterknife bolt gun. No matter the caliber.

dc4stroke wrote:

Gotta love a nice Husky butterknife bolt gun. No matter the caliber.

Didn't come with it. I like the nice tight Mannlicher-Steyr type bolt on all my big game rifles because it hugs the stock so well and doesn't catch pack straps and whatnot. Plus looks so damned sexy.

Anyways, I have some (limited) gunsmithing fabrication skills, so I did some cutting, welding, and shaping. I couldn't get it absolutely Mannlicher-Steyr due to the geometry and what was already cut into the stock, but close enough. I felt pretty good doing this because Martin Hagn lives about five minutes from my rez. If I'd screwed it up, Martin would have bailed me out.

And I like that caliber just fine. Especially around here. That big 250 gr bullet is some comforting hunting along the grizz trails through the alders. Just have to be hanging on when you touch it off, because that cartridge in a sub 7 lb rifle comes back with some authority.

SheWolf wrote:

I do have a rifle I could take a shot with....things are gonna stick out with it still being cold tho...

Isn't that the left-right feature that you line up in-between the "V" ?

Either way, sights or not, I just aim for center mass somewhere and hope I hit the target.

If it was a 225 lb 450 that was competitive in the dirt, I would do it. The 250 engine doesn't make enough power to charge $10K even with a top notch frame, brakes and suspenders.

Cool stuff. My uncle used to give us spent/used LAW (?) toobs to play with as kids.

As for the bikes, going to work but i will Post a must see movie by Bruce Brown before he made On Any Sunday with J N Roberts winning a Hare Scramble against, Triumphs and BSA's on a Husky in 1967.

For the movie google "Hare and Hound Classic Bruce Brown", then 30 years later JN Roberts is riding the Baja 1000 with his son in "Dust to Glory" which is the best down on Baja I think. Great Heli shots of the race.

Does it shoot around skirts?

zone47 wrote:

If it was a 225 lb 450 that was competitive in the dirt, I would do it. The 250 engine doesn't make enough power to charge $10K even with a top notch frame, brakes and suspenders.

Exactly. You'll find more people that will argue the WR is already on the verge of costing too much for a dual sport bike than you will find people willing to shell out that kind of money, even if it had KTM or Husaberg written on the side. A lot of people wouldn't even shell out like that even if it was a 450.

There is probably a market for a WR450R version of the WR250R. It won't weigh only 225 lbs. It won't be any more competitive within its displacement class than the WR250R is. It won't have a KTM or YZ chassis or suspension. And it will cost a lot more (can they even source the basics of an existing engine like they did with the WR250R?).

There's a fair number of people who complain the WR250R should have been a 450, and that's what they want. Yamaha isn't exactly unaware of that.

But the WR250R community is not going to automatically move to adopt a WR450R. Lots of people are going to conclude that is unnecessary power and more weight than they need for the type of riding they do. Not to mention the bigger price tag that will come with it. So they will continue buying WR250Rs or move to something like a KLR. So they'll pick up some who wouldn't buy the WR250R because it didn't meet their mandatory displacement requirements, some WR250R owners will move to the WR450R - putting their used bikes on the market for other purchasers to buy instead of new bikes - and they'll lose other new purchasers to the KLX. And then they'll have a WR250R, already a bit of a niche market, competing within the same company with a WR450R for that niche market.

Unless they decide they can build a WR450R that can go head to head with KTM, Husky, and Husaberg's similar street legal offerings as far as power, chassis, handling, weight, etc go, and do it with a price tag that will allow them to take enough of their market share to turn a profit.

Yamaha is aware of that, far more in depth than I am. And my guess is the marketing guys have taken a long look at all these scenarios, including the introduction of a WR450R. So far, by their actions, it appears they don't think they will turn a profit if they improve the WR250R in some manner and then charge significantly more for it, and a WR450R competing with their existing WR250R is not going to result in sales that make both bikes profitable.

I already have a 10k WRX

little squirt wrote:

I already have a 10k WRX

Yeah but it's cool.

Jäger wrote:

Is Yamaha missing a viable market here?

I just had to pick "yes" to be a contrarian.

One of two "yea" votes.

trav72 wrote:

little squirt wrote:

I already have a 10k WRX

Yeah but it's cool.

THANKS!!

trav72 wrote:

Funny story about the Berg 570 - I was riding in a dual sport ride last October. It was an 80 mile day of tight ST that was basically an enduro without the time checks. I had stopped momentarily to contemplate my line up a pretty good size sand hill. Plus, I needed a short break. I heard a bike approaching and as I looked back I see a guy on a FE 570 with a girl on the back. He motored right up that hill passing every bike along the way. I was absolutely amazed that a guy riding 2 up on Berg had made me and everyone else look like complete amateurs. Not that we aren't but you get the idea. Later, I came to find out it was Mike Lafferty (AMA National Enduro Champion) riding on his sponsored Husaberg with his girlfriend on the back our for a 'leisurely' ride. I didn't feel so bad then.

The EXACT same thing happened to me that day! he was kicking some ass on that thing, passenger and all.

First the joke about the rifle and skirts did not come out right. Jihadi tactic is the human shield and I meant around those skirts. Very ill conceived post. Apologies

BUT I go pick up my Husaberg 570 today! Keeping the WRR too though!