I really like Yamaha, but once and awhile I sit back and wonder what the heck might be going on in the long term. Last week I spoke to an old friend that was a Yamaha Corprate executive. He still has his pulse on the industry and knows many "in the know people in the motorcycle world". He and I had a great conversation. And during the conversation it was mentioned about all the bikes that have been discontinued, and several others just dyeing a slow death on the vine. The Tenere 1200 was brought up and we both chuckled. But he then rattled off several other bikes that made me think that this is nothing new. A few things that caught my attention is that he "speculated" that the T700 will go down the same path as the ST12. New colors, never change again. Another thing that surprised me and I needed to go back and do a bit of homework, was the absolute end to their INTIRE cruiser line. They worked for years on the V-Star and the STAR line and they pulled the plug sometime back in 2017 or so. WHY? Why carve out that entire segment and chop it off at the knees.... Have you gone to their web site lately? Look around, not that much selection really, compared to the rest of the industry.
Anyhow, it just looks from the outside that Yamaha is doing the opposite of every other manufacture in the world. Let's build a bike and sit on it for 15 years, then kill it. The other manufactures are updating, changing, tweaking, and introducing new updated models (some more than others)
It just feels strange that a MAJOR industry player is taking this stance in the industry. It looks as if they are putting all the money and resources into Sport bikes, and Motocross bikes. They deliver a brand new, almost completely updated bike every 2-3 years. And each year they both get little engineering changes other than the changing of the paint color. They know how to do it but it seems they don't care like the other manufactures.
Me personally, It doesn't affect me how they run their business. I just sit back and watch from afar. It just seems odd. From what I see, what I know, what they are offering, Yamaha will NOT be in consideration for my next bike purchase..... Why would I spend that much money on my grandpa's old recliner ?
