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Old 10-15-2009, 12:51 PM   #24
OTB
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: CrabTown USA
Moto: 00 Bimota DB4
Posts: 823
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I got a feeling this is just the beginning; look for slashed Fim and Ama factory teams shortly. These are expenses few can continue to have in the face of plummeting sales and profits.

If you want to see what happens in worldwide economic downturn, look back to the late 70's and early 80's which heralded the demise of the British motorcycle industry and the pullback of the Europeans; Ducati stopped importing to the US, Laverda staggered on for a couple of years and many marques disappeared altogether.

Buell is just a first-rounder, Mv may find a daddy warbucks, but my bet is that Moto Guzzi will go, at least from the US; Benelli will likely get shucked off by it's Indonesian benefactor and won't likely find a buyer;look for CanAm (the folks that brought us the Spyder) to go away.....
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