atomant

GG's 'technology' on electric bikes is nothing special. It's certainly not ground breaking. I get Sherco's offer. They know the market and could see a synergy and they probably thought they were doing all right with their bid. But this bid was insane! Where are they possibly going to get that investment back ? Like I said, I will wait for someone from their company to put forward their vision on what they are going to do with GG to make that investment pay..

This is just mental ! What the hell do they see in it to pay that much money?. I reckon Sherco were pushing it at 2.66 million ! Hopefully at some point, someone will explain the vision and it will all makes sense ! .

€9.7 Million WTF ! are they insane?? I even thought the Sherco bid was even a bit steep but at least they know what they are doing ! Why would Torrot want a non-electric motorbike company?

That's what they said when Lewis Hamilton went to the totally new Mercedes F1 team - 2 World Championships later and probably a third on the way ..

That was a great report - Got a bit worried when they started with the ramblers stuff but they balanced it well and ended on a high

Vertigo have maintained all along that their business model is to offer a machine with a high spec but with other extras that will come as a result of being 'part of the Vertigo family' . I do not know what they are as yet but it is priced to reflect that. As a completely new bike, it needs time to build loyalty to the brand so lets see how it goes

Absolutely ! -- I am still struggling with the idea that 8000 trials bikes are sold worldwide per year though! I would have put it nearer to 3 - 4000 as a guess ?

Thanks for that 8000 bikes a year puts the trials market at around £45 Million! and with clothes etc , That must up it to £50 Million+ ! Who said there wasn't any money in trials ?

2500 bikes and this is just a quarter of the market ? So obviously, someone puts the market at 10,000 bikes per annum ! I certainly don't feel it is anywhere like that high. Where is the data to support that please?

My only interest in the bike is that Ross Danby will be riding one so of course I want to see him and the bike do well in that respect, but I am not at this moment in time a shareholder in the company so I do not currently have any financial interest as such if that what you were referring to. I am not sure why you say it is a copy of a gasser as it looks nothing like one, although if it was, it wouldn't be a bad place to start! but what I do know is it has gasser like power which a lot of punters will be familiar with when they try one so I hope it does well

Yes you did say it was impressive My point above was if Raga said the bike was amazing then dropped off the leader board into oblivion, we would say that the bike is crap and he is just saying that ( as you said) but the results weren't that at all, so if he said it's good then delivers the goods as he did, we are more likely to believe he is speaking the truth. I understand that pre-sales of the bike have been impressive so that would suggest that punters must have been impressed with what they have seen thus far..

Alonso says his McLaren Honda is rubbish along with Jenson Button saying the same and you can't argue with that looking at the cars performance, but the difference here is Raga has had little time on the bike and it's been business as usual in relation to his riding performance. If the bike was actually rubbish, he wouldn't of been able to perform at that level so quickly would he? He makes reference to 3 key things in the interview. The power, the suspension and the clutch control. All of which he says it just about spot on. As I have mentioned before, Ross Danby has been over to Spain and ridden one and reported back that the bike had plenty of power and it's power delivery was very much like a gasser, hence the reason I said any gasser riders now looking for another bike, should try one of these before they make their decision.

Yes! Because as I mentioned earlier, if the top trials rider in the world can command that much money, then it would be worth investing in an upcoming youth rider if they showed enough promise to get to WTC champion. Bou isn't going to be around for ever is he ?

The reason I raised this thread was firstly to get a view on what people think about how much the top guys earn because everyone I have spoken to say there is no money in trials ( and that simply isn't the case in some aspects) and secondly, if you take someone like Wiggy who has won both youth and junior world titles, the next step to win the WTC title has proven to be a massive step. This is the case with every UK rider including Dibs. So if you imagine how much time & money has been invested in these riders from themselves, their parents and their sponsors to get that far, then how do we get them that extra step to get to the top where the big money is to get some of that money back? For instance, if there was a company formed called wiggy ltd of which it could attract investors with a return on future income, if lets say world number 1 earnt a salary of 1 million Euros, then that would be quite a good potential investment should he get there. This is not my idea but I know in motorsport this has been done before. The money would be used for 100% rider development. Now it's probably too late for these batch of riders, but riders like Iwan Roberts who is young enough to displace Bou at some point could be in the frame for something like this. He already has a fundraiser page on facebook but here we are talking investment for a return ! something much more worth considering maybe? Just a thought

Depends on how he negotiated his deal and if Honda wanted to ensure his services without question, then they would pay it. As I said, it's what they get in return which is an almost guaranteed world title for their brand. The money is pocket change to them. It also protects anyone else with big money coming in that would think about taking him away. I would say he is almost certainly earning 500K+ just from wages alone.. (also I am talking euros not sterling)

I have absolutely no idea but I think it is possible

Of course you can guess like I can but what makes you so sure? Bou guarantees them World Championships and if you think about it, they cant buy that easily, unless they have Bou of course! It doesn't matter how 'small' trials is, the sport has a world championship and they can have a world champion and with their available funds, they can pay him large sums to guarantee no one else could afford to entice him away. In fact, he could even be paid double that ! it's nothing to them but the marketing value is priceless so If he was paid 1 million it would still be good value. You can't think about it in the way you and I see the sport of trials, this is much bigger than that for a company like Honda. IMHO

I would think that Bou must be the highest paid trials rider of all time so 500k+ is totally realistic and it wouldn't surprise me if Fujigas was second with something very substantial too. All funded by the wealth of Honda of course.. Other riders like Raga and Cabestany on something like 100 - 200 k year. Edit : I just looked up Honda's financials and they turned over £64.9 Billion - 2014 !

You really think Bou would get just 100k for winning world championships for Honda?

What I have asked for is what do you THINK their salaries are? I'm just looking for a guesstimate. Just for fun . Nothing serious

Thanks for all the philosophy but can you answer this with just a straight answer somewhere in your post please How much do you think Bou, Raga, Cabestany, Fujigas get as a salary ? ( excluding bonuses and other things like sponsors etc)

Jeez it's got some zip ! Just watched that in slo-mo and the suspension looks good too !

Ok so put some numbers to it , what would you say Bou, Cabestany and Raga would be paid annually ?

So what do you think someone like Bou or Cabestany would be paid ?