790's can be bought for as low as 3500 on a 19 plate. For balance I paid £6850 for mine as a pre registered bike in January 2020. Think they were around £8000 list at the time. The early releases had their little issues, leaks from radiator hoses, oil weeping from the rocker covers and from the final drive shaft seal. Then the big issue of the camshafts started to become apparent on some bikes but not every 790 sold. Rule of thumb is if the bikes are over 10,000miles and shows no sign of wear them you have a good cylinder head. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a second hand 790 should the mileage be above that threshold and the cams were original. I kept mine until it had 11000 on the clock and chopped in against a Ducati Scrambler. Dobles took a bath on it giving me 4600 and selling it eventually at about 4000. I do miss the 790 on some rides as it is possibly the best bike I have ever owned.
I don’t disagree at all, but it will be even better value for money in a couple of months time when dealers start to heavily discount bikes like they always do at year end. And, therein lies one of their problems, shite pricing strategies that just piss off owners.
Its hard to discount £5k bikes by much. Its the bigger bikes where they lose loads of cash. Never understood why they build them. There is too much competition in that market.
I think someone needs to explain to them how worldwide sales work… https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1...low-hanging-fruit-bajaj-prepares-ktm-overhaul “The previous management has already reduced headcount from 6,000 to 4,000, which is still considered too high,” Bajaj added. “Interestingly, of these 4,000, only about 1,000 are blue-collar; 3,000 are white-collar, which is perplexing because the blue-collar employees make the motorcycles.
And "... after almost an 18-year association in which we have been a minority partner, we would become a 76% shareholder in KTM AG, and from being an observer, we would take charge.” Sounds good to me!
Perhaps you have a point. But its worth noting that in 2007 Bajaj bought 15% of KTM. Through this they gained engineering and design knowledge which they could add to their own. They massively expanded their operations and made a great deal of money which funded further development & investments. Whilst KTM also went on to expand their business, it seems with 20-20 hindsight they were making some huge mistakes too. Bajaj first increased their holding to 48% in 2015/6. KTM then seriously lost the plot & now Bajaj own 78%. No doubt they bought control at a good price but who knows how much debt they have had to also assume... Though its not bad for a relatively small investor 18 years ago? I expect Bajaj will make a sucess of KTM. It might mean KTM will be different, with a changed product range, but I don't see them failing anytime soon.
