It has nothing to do with money. Here is the deal--there are probably a dozen new ATV companies every year bringing in ATVs from China and all over the world. They all claim to be legitimate ATV manufacturers. By the following year their doors are closed and they don't exist.

Therefore, there has to be some yardstick to establish who is a major OEM. If the company holds annual media events we attend where they introduce new ATVs and if they ship ATVs to us for review, then they are designated a major OEM. If they do business with us that is another yardstick that indicates they are a serious company. If they publish their annual numbers of units sold that is another indicator we may use.

With none of the above, they're designated an "other ATV" until something changes.

 

Trx440,

Sorry...I missed your question. Honestly, I have no idea what to do with the cannondale category. I would never delete it, but its possible we'll either leave it there for a while or perhaps merge it with another category. It will depend on how much interest is maintained in the category.

I think we probably should consider removing the tribute to the troops category. Its been pretty quiet.

 

unlike C-dale, G-G has been building engines & motorcycles for 25+ years, so they know what they are doing... they're just new to quads... in the american market they are growing, more dealers are starting to pop up, & more people are taking notice... and unlike the plethora of companies in the orient, they are not changing names overnight. (not to mention, we like this product a whole lot more than the oodles of kiddy quads)

who'd build a machine like this & not be serious about it? as stated above, they are making good with thier customers... i know it, I have one... & that is one thing that will help them stick around in the long haul. c-dale was serious- they just weren't able to get out of the red fast enough in a market that is very sceptical & full of rumors.

-just my opinion

thanks for clarifying it dbeck

 

Glad to hear that. We need more quad companies.

 

Dbeck have you called GASGAS or due they have to come to you first? You might want to talk to Mickey Dunlap and see if he thinks GASGAS is a serious ATV manufacturer.

 

I've talked to GAS GAS at Indy. They'll come to us when they have a media event.

 

I think GasGas is more concerned with building the best race ready quad right now and not creating hype before it is time. Their philosophy is to let the machine speak for it self. They aren't aggressive marketers and have tons of money to do so. When the new shipment of Wild 300s and Wild450s get here everyone will take notice. Because they will have the kinks worked out before they mass market them.

Yamaha on the other hand decides to take the exact opposite approach. They have built all this hype and now you hear of quite a few problems they are having with them. Frames, flywheels, and a few others have happenned more than a few times. I am not bashing them either. They are the fastest stock quad out right now besides the Wild Quads. But I guess they can afford to take that approach. They had rather get your money up front and then have to cover any problems that come up. GasGas can't afford to do that, fortunately, which will be better in the long run for the consumer.

They don't spend lots of money on mags and reviews and advertising. They have not given any magazines a quad to review. The ones that have been reviewed so far have come from local dealers because the mags have asked for them.

I dont think I would take the attitude towards them they are not a serious ATV Manufacturer when they have been in business over 25 years and are big as KTM in europe. They are just now coming to the US and you can bet they are going to make the big four get more creative to be competitive with GasGas.

Look at the Cdale moto. It was $12,000 right out of the box. It has nothing different than the Wild Quads really. The motors in the GasGAs are much better and will not have the problems I dont think because they did not try to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch. These motors have been proven. And they had some kinks come up in their preproduction quads but they have them worked out now .

So you may not want to count them out because they dont advertise. They spend their mooney much more wisely right now for a smaller company.

Their Quads will do their own advertising soon. Dont worry.

 

I agree that GasGas is not going to put money into the advertising side. Why would they? If you can get top pro riders like Chad Duvall to race the quad more people will buy the machine if it is winning on the track in the pro class or pro productive class than if it is winning bogus reviews done by mags like Dirtwheels who tend to lend towards who spends the most in the advertising dollar. I've been hold GasGas is going to be selling around 5000 atv units a model year (that would be for the 04 models which will include 240, 300, and 450) in the US.
That was a number that a new dealer gave me at the race last weekend.

As for what I think of the quad it is hands down the closest to race ready out of the box and I should know I own a pre-production model and an 02 Cannondale speed. I along with everyone that have rode both of my quads picks the GG over the Speed every time.

Mine has had some minor problems, which GG has helped fix and are still asking for my imput as the race season goes on.

As a statement to the quad's engine realiablity I have to ask this how many 2-strokes you know of can get 16 races and countless hours of trail riding without any engine work? And if you know how bad the first 9 GNCC races have been then you know how amazing that is was for it to still be running. I slapped a new set of rings in it and plan on finishing the season without touching the engine again.

If you don't take GG serious I look at it as your lost and my gain. GG is here to stay. You have to start somewhere, look at KTM in the dirtbikes they started out small and now they can't build enough machines for the demand.

 

Why don't you create a poll and find out how many Gas Gas owners are on the forum? You guys may be asking for your own forum when we may only be looking at 10 people on the forums who own one. But....perhaps there are 5000 on the forums who own one. If you guys are able to show enough serious interest in a dedicated forum I'll add one. Don't ask "how many people want to see a GAS GAS forum" though. What I want to know is how many members have a Gas GAS ATV because they are the ones who will be making the postings.

These are your forums and we listen to what you want. I just need enough justification to dedicate the space.

 

Have you thought about this angle? If you had a GasGas forum space then the word would get around on other forums that for info and questions on the gasgas you can come here. That gives you even more traffic and you would be the "pioneer" for the GG info talk.

Running a small company my self, have learned that if you do something for an up and coming company who is making a good product and you some how facilitate their success, at no real expense to yourself, it comes back tenfold.

To not take them seriously, when Mickey Dunlap has chosen the Wild quad for Chad Duvall to race when he did not get it for free says something about what he thinks the possibilities are.

If you put the category up I will even link to it from my site if you will add a link to my site somewhere on here. I can promise I can send you some traffic to get people asking questions. I will also direct all the Wild owners I have contact me over here to talk about them.

It may start off slow but it will grow pretty fast I think. Especially when the new 04s get here. I know I have had 5 people reserve a Wild450 through me for when they get here. Once there aremore ofthem here and morepeopleriding them and seehow good they really are, word will get around. Especially since they are the only thing that is faster than the YFZ stock plus come with all the goodies already.


It is good you are considering this and hope you will see the value in being the first forum to have a GasGas section. It may start slow but will grow as word gets around.