The headline read, “A Motorcycle for Moguls: 200 Horses, $120.000.” 

A July 2008 article in The New York Times recently asked the question, “What makes a motorcycle – not some rare collectible, but a new limited production model – worth $120,000?” (N. Mayersohn, New York Times, 7-27-2008).

It seems the answer may lay in the scarcity that the company producing the bike will make (100), in the beauty of the design, and that it generates 200-horsepower with a top end speed of 195 miles per hour.  The name you ask of this highly priced machine?  It’s the MV Agusta F4CC from Varese, Italy.  Harley Davidson announced that it is buying the company in July for $109,000. If you care to see one, Bruce Wayne rides the Augusta in “The Dark Knight.”

What is really interesting in this article was the claim that motorcycle makers are moving in the direction of making more costly high end machines.  Examples they listed were Ducati offering the Desmodedici RR for $72,500 and another model costing slightly less at $39,995.

From Harley Davidson’s perspective, they feel that these expensive bikes will complement their line of Buell Sport Bikes and their access to European markets where sales are doubling as they have fallen in the U.S. for 2007.  However, HD feels that the drop in sales in America is only temporary as the demand for scooters has greatly increased.

Yet, the question still remains; what makes one want to own a machine that costs a small fortune, but still has only two tires and one engine?  As the chief executive of JeanRichard Watches North America put it, “The owner’s have a passionate relationship with the product – emotion beyond the mechanicals.”

You know…the same reason we bestow names to our bikes, dress them up in expensive chrome and custom paint, listen to that endearing sound as we rumble through thoroughfares, and speak to them as if they were our secret lover.

Pat Gwozdz
President
Spokes-Women MC