Marketing Research

[cyclegod]

A, Near enough is good enough
B, Yes
C, YES! poor bastards like to race too (I don't want my shocks to be more $$$ than my bike)
D, No, if I wanted to ride a modern track I would buy a modern bike
E, I'm kinda fond of these ones below...


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[YSS]

Walter give a pair of shocks to Graeme VMXMAN he runs this wonderful site he can run them on his project SUZUKI TM125 then he will tell everyone how good they are. Then you will sell more and the Legend of the YSS shocks will be born.I think you have a good product I saw them at CD4 I will be buying a pair when the wife stops checking the bank account.

Yes , good Idea , He does so much for this sport. We could make a complet package together with the new PD Fork valves. We actually have uploaded this product now for everyone to have a peak. www.yss-suspension.com  .

[yzhilly]

G'day Walter i am doing some market research of my own and i want to upgrade my suspension on my YZ400E. I need new fork springs and would like to upgrade the valves, my forks are in reasonable condition and have been resealed and the rear is too soft also, I would like to O/haul and maybe replace the spring. How Long,How Much and do you have a transport / Courier service that i could trust with these items ? I am located in Melbourne thanks

[YSS]

Sent you PM regards Walter

[Yamaboy]

A: No unless you can duplicate them to every last bit for the restorers. Otherwise not important.
B: Adjustability is the most important item on a race shock.
C: To most racers it's an issue. Keep them under $500 and you are in the park.
D:Not sure what you mean by that question Walter.
E: I like the look of the shocks as they are now. I've got them on my bikes and thet look the part. I hate those blue spring Works shocks. They ruin the look on any bike.

Freakshow is way out of it with his assumption that shocks should cost $150. Big companies like Boge,Koni and the like make their car shocks by the millions in third world countries like Mexico and China where the workers get very low wages. For a limited market like vintage motocross you don't have sales generation that lowers the manufacturing overheads. I'm a small manufacturer myself and I can't compete with the big guys so I offer my (non motorcycling) products to a more specific, specialised market for a higher price, but with the same profit margin as the big guys who manufacture in China or India. Walter is in the same boat I'd imagine even though he manufactures in Thailand. I have YSS shocks and can confirm that they are quality items and are superb in their quality of manufacture and to compare them with mass produced cars shocks is ludicrous.

[oldmotoxer]

Walter in the latest VMX mag on page 70 under "Parts & Products" there are a set of your latest and greatest offering in shocks. Shock being the key word aspecially when I seen the cost. Don't get me wrong I'm sure there excellent shocks with all the latest bells and whistles. But fair dinkum mate, a set of shocks costing approximately a third of the totally restoration cost of an average VMX bike to showroom floor condition, and I'm speaking from recent experience. I have to go with Freakshow on this one, you guys need to get this into perspective. As for the other factors you are asking about, go with the comments left by these guys, after all there grass roots level and thats where your best R&D comes from, thanks.

[Lozza]

I think those shocks are never aimed at anyone restoring a vmx bike.They are race shocks to go on race bikes for blokes that want to win national championships.To do that you'll need a set of decent shocks not $150 crappers.

[Rosco400]

A. No
B. Adjustment means everything
C. Up to $500 seems OK for decent shock
D. Yeah, why not,
E. Polished finish is great, spring color option would be nice

Gotta say that i bought a set of earlier YSS shocks and got spring ratings all wrong from the charts initially for the AW400 Maico as the 76 model sits more vertical compared to 77 more leaned forward. Hence the springs were not right for my slim 95kgs and on third ride out and three months after purchase, I blew seals out of the body, collapsing bushes and pretty much trashing a $800 set of shocks, needless to say i was pretty peeved off about YSS shocks and felt like they were crap and took them back to my supplier just thinking ive done my cash. Now heres the good  bit, Walter and my supplier who i ordered my shocks from got on the phone, realised wrong spring rating for lean forward shocks, we sent the shocks back to Walter who fully rebuilt the shocks, replaced all the bushings with the Maico offsets to help avoid chain rub and replaced Springs with correct rated ones. No fuss from Walter and his crew in setting this matter right and Ive gotta say these shocks have gotta be the best investment Ive made to date for the Maico. YSS seems to take an interest in our sport although it is only a very small part of the market for YSS, they are actively present in our forum and now anyone who asks me about YSS (which i should add also look pretty schmuck on the Maico with there nice red springs) to do themselves a favor and invest in a set because i now believe they are very good value for money, we got to sort it out directly with the boss and they got it right at no cost to me which i didnt think was possible nowadays. Wonder if the any one of the other Shock manufacturers would have taken this interest in one middle aged vmx hack, i highly doubt it .

Oh yeah Walter, thanks for supplying us a product which allows our input.

[paul]

i to would like to thank walter for his  help i bought  a set of yss  shocks from  him and he was very helpfull and they look pretty cool to 

[DJRacing]

Now if us YZ riders can just have a monoshock that would be cool and since it just the 1 old shock would it be half the price?

[YSS]

Thanks again everyone , just trying to answer a few questons collectively.
Number one priority , if there is a problem , let us know first and we will fix it for you and also set proceedings for changes in place. If you are happy tell others.If we dont know , how can we improve things?
Its not always easy to create the optimal shock out of the box for bikes of this age , different weights, modiefied frames and swingarms ,different applications  (grastracks , modern MX tracks , short circuit).
But as we go on we will master this and get better and better. ( it took other companies years to get as far as we have in only 4 years.) Les Richters from Mainly Maico ,Alan Prince from Link and Greg Fairthorne from ASR Suspension will be doing a suspension school run by me in our factory in Bangkok shortly . That will help them also to identyfie orders better and lay hands on , if need to be.
Regarding the $150.00 shocks , yes , yes we have them . We make them for OEM  Honda , Tiger , Triumph
and a few small manufacturers. But I dont think that is going in the right direction . You get what you pay for. If you are genuinly hard up or have a good  promo story we always have some demo shocks or a special to help out.
Regarding the Mono shocks , yes we do make them too . But that is not so easy as the twins.
If we already produce the shock its OK , but if I have to make a one of , the cost can be as high as $1700.00 for a super modern high-low speed  shock.(it cost the same to build a shock for a R1 Race bike as for a old YZ ).But we can do it.If we make ,lets say 10 of the same unit , the cost drops straightaway.
The other option is , we reuse what you have ( spring , shockbody , reservoir etc) then the cost is only a fraction.Thats something we can only do in Adelaide when time permits. After all the running of   R+D  and distribution of new products has priority.
Again thanks everyone for your help. Its just great that so many VMX ers help to shape our(and your ) product.
Regards YSS R+D

[brent j]

Walter,

Have you ever considered running suspension schools or seminars?
I for one would be happy to fly down to attend something like this.

Cheers

Brent

[paul]

they had shocker school at cd4   

[Shaun G]

they had shocker school at cd4   

Oh I didn't think it was that bad. 

[brent j]

Unfortunaltely I missed CD4, I was looking forward to the shock school amoung other things.