International Dealer News IDN 143 June/July 2018 | Page 10

news ROOM
Galfer riders have early
BRIEFS season successes
NEWS
Retired former World MX
champion Eric Geboers, 55, is
reported to have died in a May 6
boating accident near his home
in Belgium - he drowned while
trying to save his dog. His body
was recovered the following day.
Geboers won five MX world
titles, including back-to-back 125
cc titles for Suzuki in 1982/3 and
was the first rider to win in 125,
250 and 500 cc classes. His
brother Sylvain Geboers was
long-time manager of the official
Suzuki WMX team until 2015.
ODI Grips of Riverside, CA, has
announced a new product
distribution agreement with Technical
Touch BvbA (Belgium) to serve as the
exclusive ODI Powersports
distribution warehouse for Belgium,
the Netherlands and Luxemburg and
as an ODI European fulfilment center
for the ODI range for all its European
distributors and resellers, and to
implement new B2B & B2C E-
Commerce platforms to support these
trans-European sales to premium
dealers throughout the EU.
BDN reports that Norton has
started taking orders in India for
its Commando 961. It will be the
first Norton product to enter the
market there since the
manufacturer entered into a
joint venture last year with the
Kinetic Group, a project
development and business
advisory firm based in New York.
The machines will be distributed
by Kinetic Group-owned
Motoroyale, which already
retails MV.
The German government has
extended its “Moped at 15” trial
project in five East German federal
states by an additional two years (to
2010) as it researches the impacts of
reducing the age limit for such
licenses from 16 to 15 years of age.
The trial has been running since
2013.
Although the number of overall
road deaths in Germany fell in
2017 (-0.9 percent, 3,206),
motorcyclist deaths rose by +8.6
percent over 2016 (689).
Spanish brake component specialist
Galfer reports a good start to the year
in terms of race success for teams and
riders using their high performance
G1310 sintered competition
compound pads, metallic brake lines
and lightweight Disc Wave rotors.
In Moto3 Gresini Racing, Jorge Martín
and Fabio Di Giannantonio won at
Qatar and Las Americas, with Martín
the current overall leader at the time
of writing.
Leopard Racing with Enea Bastianini
and Lorenzo Dalla Porta have scored
two podiums, having won the M3
World Championship in 2017, with
Joan Mir winning 10 of 19 races;
Estrella Galicia with Aron Canet (and
Alonso Lopez) have had two podiums
this 2018 season. Aron won three
races last year, and Team Reale-Avintia
with Livio Loi are also racing with
Galfer.
All of them are using Racing Galfer
Disc Wave discs (DF100CW1 - front x2,
DF101CW1 - rear x1), Galfer sintered
brake G1310 pads and Galfer metallic
brake lines. In 2016 Galfer were
homologated by HRC for spare parts
on Moto3 bikes.
In WSBK (Supersport 600 class), Evan
Bros Team with Randy Krummenacher
won at Thailand and has had two other
podiums already this 2018 season
(Randy was second in the overall
classification at the time of writing) -
he is using Galfer’s DF475CW1 (front
x2) and DF496W (rear x1) Disc Wave
rotors on his Yamaha YZF-R6.
Profile Racing’s Luke Stapleford (and
Stefan Hill) have posted four Top Ten
finishes with Galfer so far this season
(DF906CW1, front x2 and DF907W,
rear x1 on his Triumph Daytona 675).
In the Supersport 300 class ParkinGO
Team with Mika Perez and Filippo
Rovelli have scored a podium already
in 2018 with Galfer Disc Wave rotors
on their Ninja 400s, and the DS Junior
Team with Ana Carrasco and Dorren
Loureiro have had four Top Ten finishes
this 2018 season. They are using
Galfer Disc Wave rotors, G1310
sintered brake pads and Galfer
metallic brake lines on their Ninja
400s.
www.galfermoto.com
Randy Krummenacher
Jorge Martin
at Qatar
Brake manufacturer Brembo saw
revenues grow by +8.1 percent in
2017 to € 2,463.6m, with EBITDA up
by +8.2% and net profit by +9.5%. Kawasaki sales up
B&B reports that the German
Institute for Service Quality has
examined 1,145 brands and
companies from 53 industries
for consumer satisfaction levels,
and Harley-Davidson was the
winner in the Mobility category
– ahead of the likes of BMW and
Yamaha. Kawasaki posted results for
2017/18 fourth quarter and
full financial year ended 31
March 2018, with total net
sales up at 1,574,242 m yen
and corporate profits up at
28,915 m yen.
Total sales in its Motorcycle
and Engine division were up at
10
INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - JUNE/JULY 2018
332,328 m yen, with net sales
reported at +6 percent at
331,659 m yen (Kawasaki’s
Motorcycle and Engine unit
accounts for some 21 percent
of overall corporate net sales).
Total divisional unit sales were
560,000 units – 152,000 in
developed markets, 342,000
units in emerging markets.
The company says that the
“moderate growth of
motorcycle markets in
developed countries
continues” and that the
decline in demand for
motorcycles in emerging
markets is “bottoming out”.