New American sport bike company

[DarthRider]

Check these guys out:
http://www.fischer1.com/
I don't know anything about them except what is on the website and a trade journal I read today said they are also developing a supercharged version of their 650 V-twin.
Velly eenteresting...
http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61124176-L.gif
Watch the quickie vid...cool sound!

Dave

[DarthRider]

A bit more about the Fischer...
It was first shown as a concept bike 2 years ago at the Indy Dealer Expo (the one I missed!) and is due for first deliveries in May.
The assembly plant is in Pocomoke City, MD.
The 650 water cooled V-twin is made by Korea's Hyosung Motors (keep an eye on Korean bikes!) and the aluminum frame & swingarm was developed in-house with the aid of Gemini Technology Systems using M-GP chassis geometry.
The bike was designed by French designer Glen Kerr.
A supercharged version would offer liter bike performance with mid-class size & weight.

Dave

[fnfalman]

I went to their website and I couldn't see where it said that the engine is supercharged. The engine is a variant of the Suzuki SV650 engine and the performance figures from the Fischer site is about what an SV650 would do.

This is a sweet engine but I don't know what this bike is going to race again? SV650?

[DarthRider]

A supercharger was mentioned in a M/C industry rag as a good possibility after the normally aspirated model launches.
That, the top-shelf components, racing "heritage" of the design engineers, and the overall look just sounds like a performance bike.
SV650-like motor...hopped up...M-GP spec chassis...Ohlins...a blower!
And "American Made", just as a novelty.
I dunno...I'd like to see it.

Dave

[Dallara]

Yup...

"American Made"...

Suspension components from Sweden from a company owned by a Japanese motorcycle manufacturer... Guess nobody here in America can design and manufacture suspension components any more.

Engine from Korean but a design by another Japanese motorcycle manufacturer... Pretty obvious there's nobody in the USA worth a damn to design and/or manufacture engines, either.

And all designed and styled by a Brit who first worked for a Brit car company, then a German one, followed by work for Japanese motorcycle manufacturers- and he now lives in France... Well, that caps it. An "American Made" motorcycle that has to be designed by a Brit who thinks France is a better country to live in than his native England or the United States!

Saying the Fischer is "American Made" is like calling a McDonald's Quarter-Pounder with cheese "Health Food".

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)

[DarthRider]

Well excuse me...gee, I never would have thought of all that.

[supermotoC]

Hell (I can say hell on this board), he can't even spell Fisher right!!!

Fischer = French/German


On another note - why doesn't Buell (H-D) do this: build a 650/700 V-twin, tons-o-torque, put it in a frame that can become a dual sport/street fighter/cafe racer with (quality!!) trim/wheels/suspension/plastic pieces, and sell it for $7-8K? It's not like they cannot afford it. Is it the HD mentality of big/dumb/heavy/bad brakes/cruiser-only?

[Dallara]

Tongue in cheek, Dave... Tongue in cheek.

I was trying for a bit of humor in my last post in this thread. Guess it didn't translate so well. Sorry.

As much as the post was meant mostly in jest, it does point to what I perceive as a terrible and growing problem in this country. We are becoming more and more a *service economy* here - i.e. we are moving further and further away from being a true *producer* of goods. The industrial might that allowed this country to produce huge amounts of at least technically equal (though often surperior) equipment during World War II, and produce in numbers that no one else on Earth could match... Is all but gone here. Certainly there are still equivalent, or even superior, minds here in certain niche markets, like military aircraft and aerospace, submarines, and circuitry design, etc., but it would have been hard to argue that at the time of WWII the USA produced quality steel, other quality metal alloys, the best cars in the world, etc., and could do so with more volume. That's no longer the case... Many other companies have superior casting, composite, and structual materials technology... Better and more modern facilities for producing backbone materials for information technology... And arguably better engineerig minds for design and production than those here involved in industries more mundane than aerospace or the very cutting edge of computer tech.

When was the last time any American company won a Formula One race? When was the last time an American machine won a premier world motorcycling championship? Who designs and produces the best appliances, machine tools, power tools, watches, sound systems, televisions, radios, cameras, electric shavers, tires, shocks, and on and on, ad infinitum?

Gee, we still make the best radar detectors. Wow! But they are produced primarily with offshore componentry. Hell, the USA can't even build a truly equivalent safety helmet any longer... At least not one that is sold outside of professional auto racing thanks to our *service economy* lawyers and insurance companies.

Our developing *service economy* has only produced attorneys, accountants, insurance companies (the "Invisible Bankers"), politicians, and bureaucrats that have almost systematically destroyed our industrial production base. We have gone from the most industrially independent and powerful production economy in the entire world to one of many third-tier industrial producers almost entirely dependent on offshore suppliers to even produce the products we still do make.

The Fischer "American Made" motorcycle is simply a tiny thumbnail example of that downfall. It saddens me that the only motorcycle product even remotely close to being "American Made" is Harley-Davidson with its antiquated technology... And even Harley's are composed of Showa suspension components, ND electrics, Keihin carbs or FI systems, offshore brand tires, and various other bits sourced offshore. Basically the chassis, engine itself, and bodywork are produced here, but that's it.

That's a sad indictment indeed of what was once the country with the greatest industrial might the world had ever seen.

Okay, off my soapbox now... Back to your regualrly scheduled programming. :037:

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)

[DarthRider]

Allan -
Yeah, I know what you mean...all that.
But to be fair, it wasn't Fischer Motors claiming to be an "American motorcycle builder", that was just a little quip from me. I only wish they truly were...but *if* they were, would anyone really want to ride on it?
Hell, even Japanese motorcycles aren't Japanese any more...subbing lots of stuff out to China & Taiwan and God knows where else, building MANY bikes in the US, etc.
I don't really care where it all comes from but it is sad to watch the decline of America as a leader in so many things, and the decline seems to be rapidly accelerating.
And believe me, being in the motorcycle aftermarket I know where most of it comes from but am sometimes surprised by a new "Made in XXXX" label.
My favorite saying about the aftermarket business (that I coined):
"Never underestimate the ingenuity of a 9 year old Chinese convict."

Dave