I hope they ain’t going down the same route as Harley when one person wrecked the brand and put it into free-fall
This potentially looks like one persons view of how the future should look by killing off big chunks of MG 100 years of a marque DNA and links to ordinary riders
Yes they need to look to the future but it’s a future that perhaps too closely resembles the image that was portrayed by Harley when evolution not revolution was all that was needed and we now know how that ended for HD 
Nothing wrong with the smell of 100 years of bikes, oil, old leather and some dust and dirt thrown in with the history vs some extreme ultra modern imagery and strategy that disconnects the brand to its owner community.
Porsche have also got brand evolution wrong by spinning the wrong image and investment of the future 
1 Like
Just because Harley messed it up, doesn’t mean it can’t be done right.
Look on the bright side, at least they’re keeping manufacturing in Italy and not moving it to the far east like Triumph. I had a Thai built Triumph and it was well made but just soulless.
Automation and test labs suggest new model development for the future so hopefully something exciting. Maybe a new V50 for the huge small bike market or a LeMans inspired sports bike based on the V100 engine.
I think the mistake Harley and Jaguar made was ignoring the fact that their customers were getting older and literally dying out and then panicking and making products no one wants. MG aren’t there yet, the V7 appeals to younger buyers as well but I think V100 and Stelvio buyers are probably much older, partly due to price.
3 Likes
IMHO
I think the risk is having a marketing Department and particularly a DIrector of Marketing… because to keep their jobs they need to sell AN IDEA to the board. Then they are senior enough to move on twice whilst THE IDEA cost money which incurs debt and meanwhile totally buggers up sales and production.
I mean anyone running a business has to be aware of marketing but save us all from a marketting professional!
YMMV
It’s always a challenge to evolve big brands and if they are listening to established, older, younger and soon to be riders they will get it right.
However, to simply create a vision and strategy then try to impose/reflect that back to your customer base is a hugely risky strategy as we can all see within the motoring industry.
When you buy a bike, most are also emotionally buying into a brand and a culture/DNA no matter what you pay for that new bike.
HD tried to re-market itself as a top end brand for those with lots of money and a lifestyle that was too far away from its grass roots. Its EV strategy is an example of total ignorance of its target market.
The market is awash with many new bikes with technical advances but there is a reason why HD, Jaguar and Porsche sales have gone sour……they have lost/ignored the ownership experience, carved out over many years and no amount of new tech or modals will ever make it easy to regain that.
Hopefully the leaders of MG have been watching how easy and quickly owners can lose faith in any vision of the future that does not align with current and future ownership demands.
I have had many HD’s but until they get themselves sorted out I’ll give MG a go for a while and may buy a brand new MG later this year.
They definitely need to get ahead of their older customers moving on and appeal to younger customers with much smaller budgets. That doesn’t have to mean building Yamahe MT07 clones (great bike but leave it to the Japanese), it could mean simple low cost but characterful bikes with several models sharing a chassis and other parts to keep costs down but with classic styling and minimal tech but higher quality than Royal Enfield.
3 Likes
100% agree. HD went the wrong way in terms of entry pricing for the brand.
I could see the simple, cost effective 500cc market being a key target for entry into the MG experience. Not only would such bikes attract younger riders it would also appeal to older riders with good disposable income who don’t want big tech and big HP bikes and who many just want to shoot the breeze on any given Sunday
2 Likes
Reading this thread with interest as a still newbie to the Guzzi family. There is a seeming trend I see reading “New member” posts here of people from different age groups but broadly the mature end all saying similar things.
“First Guzzi having always wanted or lusted after one?” There is a ‘back to roots’ meme we are witnessing these days. The hyper performance days are over and I willingly admit to having fallen victim to that for many years.
Recently reading reviews on offerings from the likes of KTM and Ducati I see increasingly expensive and questionably worthwhile technowizardry which, to me at least, appear to be progressively separating the rider from the basic elements of connection to the machine and the road itself? Providing ‘easy answers’ alternatives to actually learning basic skills?
Affordability and running costs are spiralling away from actual users. I’d argue we are returning to the roots of motorcycle popularity as the working man’s (or ladies) access to affordable transport allied with freedom. Real world usability that can be maintained by your average rider who takes the trouble to learn basic mechanics. Performance parameters that reflect real world usability. Despite welcome advances by MG updating to water cooling and proven electronic stability in engine management without sacrificing a feeling of the soul of the machine.
I rode machines capable theoretically of 180mph speeds for decades where, in reality, on the ‘best’ motorcycling roads anywhere the real fun is to be had without exceeding maybe 80mph?
Middle weights are where everyone is managing to sell most of their stables after all. Enfields capturing the biggest volume sales in the UK in recent times. Manageable, reliable, comfortable and way less costly to run. Less overwhelming weights and ride heights that you can actually hope to pick up if they, and you, fall over.
My new to me Mandello is still a heavy beast but I totally get the appeal of the V7’s. Yes, evolution over revolution that retains form and function in a sweet spot that MG has held on to and hopefully committed to for the future. Might I dream that Piaggio values what MG brings and supplies equally with the likes of Aprilia? Ultimately what sells and brings greater returns?
I just value a machine I can actually understand, fix myself and feel connected to the road by over a hyper tech alternative that is as much use as a self driving car.
3 Likes
I definitely agree about excessive tech on modern bikes. Im looking at replacing my Yamaha Tracer 9GT later this year and a V100 is top of the list at the moment but looking at the MG website and the difference between base model and the S model and its mostly tech that I have no interest in. Some of that tech is on my Yamaha and I never use any of it, I can’t remember ehen i last changed rider mode or traction settings or used cruise control. If I get a V100 (I probably will) then it’ll definitely be a base model with optional heated grips and a center stand.
2 Likes
There is no doubt the new RE, CF Moto, Benelli incarnations and the likes caught the established manufacturers sleeping.
I believe the market is crying out for a great low tech but quality/pleasing to the eye and reliable 500cc bike from HD or MG that’s priced at under 6k OTR.
Sure they may not make as much profit per unit but they will be re-securing brand loyalty and causing significant issues for those manufacturers listed above in terms of market share.
I am pretty sure that many over 50’s also, would gravitate to having a lighter, 3-year warranted and basic/easy to live with HD or MG if such an entry level bike existed at that price that looked the part 
I’ll never understand the need for the level of useless tech on bikes such as the BMW GS1300 given its already poor reliability record and customer disappointment levels…..99% of owners won’t ever take these things off road so what’s the point if you can’t exploit what you forked out so much money for?
Every now and then a good cost effective bike comes along with a wow factor that people really want to own far more than anything else….if I was MG thats the pond I’d be fishing in right now.
1 Like
Forget the MG grips and get your own Oxfords. Cheaper and work better and dead simple to fit? The centre stand a definite advantage. Just my two cents and totally agree with your comments on useless tech. Dave
2 Likes
Yes - need a centre stand when doing the valve clearances 
1 Like
Maybe I am just showing my age but I look at many of newish naked offerings from Japan and I swear I have never seen any uglier assed bikes with their transformer looks?
All other considerations aside I look at the sheer svelte heart stirring lines of the Mandello and get all fuzzy! LOL
Complete aside to this.. given we are in the age of electronic displays.. I can live with it.. but I’d love to see one reconfigurable to show pretend analogue style speedos and revcounter? Maybe ridiculous but why not? The capacity is there? Just pixels after all. 
I don’t think MG could challenge Royal Enfield or CF Moto etc for market share. They just wouldn’t have the manufacturing capacity to make that many bikes and with the RE Interceptor starting from £7,000 i don’t think MG could realistically undercut that by a grand. Italian wages are higher than Indian and a V twin is more expensive to manufacture than a parallel twin.
2 Likes
I get that absolutely. The inevitable consequence of capitalism and cheap labour. A system that eats itself. Per site rules I will not go there and get into politics. Simply hope that enough people are prepared to back a product that they value enough to support.
2 Likes
But that doesn’t mean adding those things are a problem- as you say you can just merrily ignore them all.
I’m not young but am fairly new to motorcycling and having had a car with electronically adjustable damping and (radar) cruise control (and having had plenty without) I can honestly say those bits of tech bought enjoyment back to driving for me and I do appreciate manufacturers providing some bikes with those options.
Coming into biking recently the thing that struck me was just how little development there seems to have been until recently. The car world and even the pedal bike world has never stopped and it’s great - it gives everyone choice.
When getting into motorcycles I watched plenty of YouTube videos, as one does, and whenever a reviewer mentions an IMU, cruise control etc most commenters would be up in arms at these additions/advances/options - yet the same people would be telling us how motorcycling is dying and dealerships are shutting down. Felt obvious to ‘an outsider’ that that was down to lack of choice and progress and willingness to change.
I love the simple V twin and basic mechanics of my Guzzi V7. I would have loved to get the IMU and cruise control of the new one (no way of knowing it was coming). But… I also love choice and feel to survive that is what manufacturers need to offer. And I think they have worked that out now.
I didn’t say things like rider modes are bad, I just said I don’t want to pay for gadgets I won’t use. What im saying is its good to have those things as an option so people who don’t want them don’t pay for them. With the V100, its a £3k saving to not have a load of gadgets I wouldn’t use.
Bikes have become horrendously expensive so giving the option of a stripped back base model opens it up to more people.
I find cruise control really useful for long trips and also for keeping to the speed limit.
compared to when I don’t use it, it also saves a lot of fuel 
1 Like
A pal of mine has a GS1300 - it’s forever flashing error codes regarding the electrics and he has vowed never to buy another after its warranty runs out. Like many of us he was lured by the marketing of this bike which he now describes as a constant worry when on long runs with it. The last issue in Nov was the bike conking out if left on idle for too long.
The simple and basic fun of riding is quickly being replaced by high cost and unreliability of bikes after the warranty period that are stuffed with gizmos that frankly are laughable( exc ABS, TPMS and TC).
As riders we develop skills over many years such as looking out for fuel spills on wet roads and developing that 6th sense in terms of throttle control, trail braking and general road craft. Too many riders won’t ever develop those skills if they think their bike can do so much more than they need to learn to stay upright.
It’s an arms race for tech marketing among manufacturers and I too have had bikes with tech that I never used🤦♀️
I noticed the V9 has a lean angle gauge via the MG GM. Suffice to say that any competent rider knows the lean angle of their bike and their competence to explore it. It’s a horrendous idea IMO as it takes no account of road conditions so could easily lead the inexperienced into a false sense of security if they glance at it going round a wet bend and s&&t themselves
Moreover if it set too high and a warning comes on mid corner it may stop a rider laying it down more with more angle to spare thus forcing them across the road into oncoming traffic vs just hanging in there, trusting the bike and yourself to make that corner.
1 Like
While not disagreeing with you MotoBrownie on some points, to each their own, a motorcycle is not a car and never should try to be imho. Two completely different worlds both emotionally and practically.
For the last two decades I have watched a serious epidemic of “dumbing down” inflicted on every part of life. Idiot lights and so called ‘driver aids’ purported to making driving and road use safer. I challenge that fiercely. I happily applaud abs, tpms, huge improvements in tyre tech to name a few. Blind spot warnings, automated braking, lane keeping tech (Scary!) and others either give a false sense of security or try to replace required vigilance on the part of the operator in my view. Being in charge of a motorcycle requires constant uninterrupted concentration and attention to feedback of all our senses. Situational awareness that day to day car driving simply does not require to the same degree. For anyone disagreeing with me there I challenge you to deny the utterly appaling standard of capability and attention I see every single time I take to the road whether on two wheels or four or more.
There are many reasons for that. Sometimes age, sometimes simple cognitive decline, sometimes simple lack of understanding basic mechanics and physics, sometimes distraction.. cell phones, other passengers, kids, dogs et. etc. Feel free to add your own.
I happily admit there are bikers on the roads, a minority I believe, who are just idiots early in the learning curve, and generally Darwin takes care of them! The rest of us ride on the assumption that everyone else out there is trying to kill us! There is no tech wizardry that compares or ever will do with a functioning brain. History to date with self driving vehicles has amply demonstrated the disasters that can occur with them.
I want my old fashioned clutch, brakes that do what I tell them to, the freedom to change direction without a lane keeper fighting me.
I am in no way anti progress but judicious about tech that I trust. (Yet to find a sat nav that doesn’t screw up.) Let me be a Luddite if you like but I am not afraid of ‘being lost’. In the UK? Please! You just don’t know exactly where you are. There is a difference. That’s what I have a brain for.. working it out. (Now to get flamed!)
1 Like
