[GraVitY]

What if manufacturers designed a bike we build from scratch? Granted that the bike wouldn't come with a warranty but we could get a great bike for 1/2 the price at least. Hey Mr. MV Agusta or Mr. Ducati dude, send me a complete bike in pieces, please. It might take a year to put it together but it would be so cheap wouldn't it, not only that but I think it would be quite fun to do.

Why can't companies actually do this?

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[andyauger]

It would cost more

The labor costs involved in assembling a bike and the costs of shipping it all in one piece are lower than the costs of assembling and shipping a mass of parts to dealers. Then imagine the headaches when folks couldn't assemble the thing and complained about missing parts, parts shipped with bad threads, parts that don't fit, etc. ad nauseum.

Just from the little I know of such things all the bits and pieces shipped for individual assembly would probably cost the buyer twice what the assembled bike would, assuming the profit for the vendor and manufacturer remains the same.

 

[GraVitY]

Damn it Andy, now you have to go and ruin my dream. :lol:

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[Guest]

Some of the Harley-clone catalog bikes are almost that way. Of course, they are of a very simple design even compared to an SV. No $$$ saved there though...

It would almost be doable if it were actually designed for user assembly, something like the 51% kit planes (end user must assemble at least 51% to qualify as a homebuilt). I couldn't imagine using that manufacturing model in the States, but it could make sense if applied to something like a basic transpo bike for third-world countries.