Yamaha's Gts1ooo: Brilliant But Unsold
YAMAHA'S GTS1OOO: BRILLIANT BUT UNSOLD
ROUNDUP
Luis AVILLEZ DEBASTO IS a yacht designer out of Miami, and he's also a motorcycle enthusiast. He took a look at Yamaha's GTS 1000, and immediately had a better idea. The illustration shown here is the result. It might be the sort of thing the GTS needs to alter its course. At present, its acceptance by the buying public, as reflected by its sales numbers, has been cool. Can part of the reason for that be the bike's humpy, lumpy looks?
DeBasto thinks so. Yamaha has sold fewer than 500 GTS 1000s in the U.S. in the 1993 model year. Company officials refuse to divulge exact numbers, but admit that sales are “not exactly what we’d hoped for. We never had grandiose expectations for the GTS in its first year,” said one official. He added, “Besides, the bike works really well, and it showcases what Yamaha engineers can do. From a public relations standpoint, it’s helped us a lot.”
Still, in spite of its excellence, the GTS has been poorly received not only in the U.S., but elsewhere, with about 1500 machines sold world-
wide. Worldwide sales are slow for some of the same reasons it has not done well here. Those include its complexity, its heavy look and feel, its price (the ’94 bike lists for $14,999) and its styling.
DeBasto’s design can’t affect the bike’s weight or price, but it does give it a very different look.
“I wanted a design that expresses the speed and power of this motorcycle,” deBasto said. “In its stock form, the GTS looks like an add-on machine.
I tried to make a unitized piece of it,” he added.
DeBasto has made no attempt to contact Yamaha about his design, he says. Yamaha, for its part, is maintaining the bike in its 1994 lineup with just minimal changes to suspension tuning, and with different colors and graphics.
Yamaha officials admit that the bike’s lack of acceptance could affect corporate adventurousness when it comes to future projects. Said one official, “Because we design motorcycles globally, and because the GTS hasn’t been a success, this experience could affect the way we deal with future far-reaching designs.” Translation: Don’t bet on Yamaha taking another giant techno-step anytime in the near future. -Jon F. Thompson
