Honda Project

Here’s the Critique from our meeting earlier today.

Cheers to the guys that came down.

I hate that this is how I sound. But here is my presentation video from the meeting we had earlier this evening.

Apologies for the volume. I didn’t talk loud enough obviously.

Critique up next…

fortheloveofcopic:

This is for the guys doing the Honda 125 project, maybe of some use to you guys:

Motorbike concepts from various sources,

Oliver: would you mind re-blogging so everyone can see this?

I swear I accidentally stumbled upon the All Blacks typography style in making this.

SIMPLE: Both in how it works and the overall appearance. If you think what kind of design people are into now, it is simple, classy design. Think Apple design and thinking. Not complicated, attractive design that is easy to use.

APPROACHABLE: Ease of use and not intimidating in appearance. Something young people will be keen to get on and use without a fear of crashing or falling off.

SAFE: Links to being approachable, but also important in parents being okay with their children riding a bike. More people will ride bikes if they feel safer on them.

A few minor words to go with these three:

MARKETING: There needs to be advertising campaigns, websites, and so on getting word around. This just doesn’t exist currently and it would definitely help sell these bikes.

NEW/DIFFERENT: New ideas will sell a bike. The bike needs to be different to what currently exists on the market.

This is my Dad on his Yamaha YL1 in the late 60s.

My Dad and his Kawasaki. My sister is on the back. This would have been when I was around 2 or 3 years old.

Tonight I had a talk to my dad about his motorcycles that he had back in the day, and he made a few interesting points:

One was that when he was growing up, kids went from a bicycle to a motorbike to a car. Everyone did. It was the normal process as people grew up. Perhaps things need to go back to that way of life in order to get small bikes selling again.

He also said that his 100cc 1968 Yamaha YL1 could easily keep up with a 300cc bike from the same era. It shows that a light bike with a smaller engine is a capable bike. There’s not necessarily any need to upgrade.

The photo is a Yamaha YL1 like my Dad’s. When he had this bike, everyone else in his College had 50cc bikes and were extremely envious. In 1968, it costed him around $100 extra to get a 100cc bike over a 50cc bike. Dad says it was the most perfectly balanced bike he ever had due to its 2 cylinder engine.

He is going to send me pictures of his other bikes soon.