THE BRADLEY REPORT
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THE BRADLEY REPORT
NEWS
BRIEFS
Bell Helmets has changed ownership, again. This time round to Vista Outdoors Inc., an American Private Equity investor owned by an even bigger fish called Revelyst. Vista has been split in two and has flipped a portfolio of powersports brands that also includes Giro, Bushnell, Camelbak, Fox Racing, QuietKat and others to another PE investor, called Strategic Value Partners. The remaining parts of the business have been packaged into a newly named entity called Kinetic Group, which has sold off the Group ' s ammunition division to the Prague based ' Czechoslovak Group '( CSG- formerly The Excalibur Group), whose 100 plus portfolio of investments features adjacent businesses that appear to be a more compatible home for an ammo manufacturer.
Honda is to add further to its already dominant motorcycle manufacturing estate with a new production facility in Turkey. Honda Turkiye A. S.( HTR) will establish in a new factory in Aliaga, Izmir, aimed at supporting growth in the local motorcycle market and boosting global sales. The Turkish market saw a new PTW unit sales record set in 2024, reaching 162,000 motorcycles. Production is scheduled to begin in mid-2026. Initially, the plant will operate with an annual capacity of 100,000 motorcycles, with plans to increase production capacity to 200,000 units in the future. The total investment amount for the facility and equipment is approximately € 17.3m. The plant is expected to create employment opportunities for around 300 people.
Polo Motorrad in Germany has placed its future in the hands of DWFB, a German advertising agency with the brief to execute a comprehensive re-brand, repositioning itself as a " modern, digital and strong omnichannel provider ". Polo operates 89 of its own stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Group revenue is put at some $ 300m and, since 2023, Polo has been in the hands of Los Angeles headquartered Ares Private Equity as majority owner / B & B.
The post-racing brainchild of former British motocross professional and star of the 1960s Scramblers racing scene in Britain Dave Bickers( 1938-2014) would have been proud. The parts, accessory and Maxxis tyre distributor founded in 1975 that still bears his name celebrated its 50th anniversary in April this year. Moving forward the Felixstowe, England based company is now known as Bickers Powersports; www. bickers-online. co. uk
BMW F 450 GS production model leaked in design
registrations By Ben Purvis
When BMW showed its F 450 GS parallel twin adventure bike concept last year there was never much doubt that a production version would follow- and that machine has now appeared ahead of its official unveiling in design registration images. It ' s an important machine for BMW, plugging the gap between the singlecylinder G 310 GS and the F800GS and slotting directly into a red-hot market segment for machines in the 300-500 cc bracket. Customers who want the BMW brand and the GS style but don ' t feel the need for the big R 1300 GS or even the smaller F 900 GS or F 800 GS might well be tempted by this 450 cc model, which also hits the spot for A2 licence holders thanks to a 48 hp output. The original 2024 concept hasn ' t made the transition to production spec without changes. This showroom
It ' s beyond doubt now that after decades of stumbles the idea automatic transmissions for motorcycles is finally becoming mainstream- with multiple manufacturers offering a growing number of automated boxes on an ever-wider array of models. Yamaha ' s Tracer 7 will be the next to join their trend with a semi-auto version joining the range in 2026. The bike ' s development isn ' t a huge surprise. After all, Yamaha already offers its ' Y- AMT '- which stands for Yamaha Automated Manual Transmission- on several bikes including the MT-07 that the Tracer 7 is based on. In fact, it ' s surprising that the Tracer 7, which was updated for 2025, didn ' t receive the Y-AMT option at the same time as the MT-07, since its sportstouring style seems well suited to a semi-auto and the larger, threecylinder Tracer 9 can already be bought with the Y-AMT box. The new Tracer 7 Y-AMT ' s existence as part of the 2026 range hasn ' t been officially announced at the time of writing, but the semi-auto model has appeared in official European typeapproval listings, showing four versions of the upcoming model- aligning with the Tracer 7 and Tracer 7
version adopts a more road-oriented style, retaining the same 19-inch front and 17-inch rear wheel sizes of the concept, but swapping the show bike ' s wire wheels for cast alloys. As with other GS models, there ' s scope for a future ' Adventure ' version that comes closer to the look of the original concept. The engine is the same as the show bike ' s, an all-new 450 cc parallel twin which is due to make 48 hp to meet A2 class rules, and the chassis and suspension also appear to be unchanged, with upside-down forks, a radial four-pot front brake caliper and a tubular steel frame. BMW claimed a weight of 175 kg for the concept version, and there ' s little reason to believe the production model will be substantially heavier.
GT models in both full-power( 54 kW / 72 hp) and A2-compliant( 35 kW / 47 hp) forms. Yamaha ' s Y-AMT works very much like a conventional manual transmission but adds a pair of electromechanical actuators and a control unit. One actuator deals with the operation of the clutch, the other is attached to the gearshift itself, and the control unit synchronises their movements. The simplicity of Yamaha ' s system, and its bolt-on nature that doesn ' t require invasive changes to the transmission or the bike ' s electronics,( thanks to a standalone control unit and external clutch and shift actuators), means it ' s
Although both the initial concept and the design images seen here have a conventional clutch and gear shift, it is likely that the F450 will be the second platform in BMW ' s range to get the Automated Shift Assistant semiauto transmission option.
2026 Tracer 7 semi-auto option
By Ben Purvis relatively straightforward for the company to adopt Y-AMT on almost any bike in its range. That ' s contrary to some rival setups, like BMW ' s ASA( Automated Shift Assistant), which mounts its actuators inside the transmission, making it more compact but calling for substantial changes to the internal components. Honda ' s DCT, meanwhile, might have pioneered the success of semi-autos, but it ' s a much more complex, expensive and heavy dual-clutch design- with the advantage of genuinely seamless gearshifts, but a big penalty in price and complexity.
24 INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS- SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2025 www. idnmag. com