Geoff Wright - Honda CBR125 Project: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNctph6kJmk

-Reviewer points out that there is a rear foot rests and seat but wouldnt recommend taking any passengers
-believes its aimed at people who have never ridden a bike before/beginnners.
-He only rode a bike for the first time two days before he bought the cbr125
-Doesnt think it has the best acceleration but thinks thats fine because its a commuter bike

Motard Observation

Ninja motard, this totally changes the look and make up of the traditional ninja,turning it into something which looks alot more aggressive. If the 125 engine was in this type of body there might be a bit of a gap, but that could be used for storage or just negative space.

If the seat on this triumph was slightly extended there would be room for a passenger, other than theat the bike could have a covered seat which you take off when you are licensed to take passengers or just when you desire.

Gorgeous design, still has one seat but might be easily extended, the motard offers upright riding position with the function of the normal commuter. clean simple design.

This has more influence from the motor cross world than the commuter

rumoured to the the best looking bike in the 125 range, the duke offers two seats young styling, the more upright position suits the commuter rider..

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Parking Observation research

Parking zone #1 - Here we found 4 bikes, 3 of which had storage boxes on the back. This tells us our users dont wont to be carrying around their helmet all day. the helmet can also fit gloves and other random items inside it when stored in the storage box

Parking zone #2 - Although doing this research on a saturday meant a depleated population of bikers, we feel that the bikers that were in the parks at the time were a good representation of the target market because weekday commuters would be out of the 16-22 age bracket. University bike parking may be a better representation during the week days

Parking zone #3 - Two very different bikes, close to cuba street but no body using the space.

Parking zone #4 - This was the most populated park, it is 20 meters away from the best gym in wellington and is surrounded by bars and resturants

Parking zone #5 (rebeleous parking) - here the riders have not been able to find a park nearby so they have parked in a smart little spot in the carpark of Harvey Normans. do bikers just do what they want. do they feel separate from the normal car commuters, are they more free from the infrastructure systems

Observation research - sissy bars and storage

Possible Persona 2

Name: Stacey Thomas

Height: 165 cm

Weight: 55 kg

Interests: Writing, Cuisine, Fashion and Film

Stacey is a second year university at Massey University. She is looking to major in journalism and is currently a part of the writing team for the universities weekly newspaper ‘The Chron.’ She has found this writing experience very valuable in her pursuit to one day report for a national firm.

Stacey usually writes about the local food outlets around the city and because of this she has to do a lot of commuting. She started off riding a scooter and found that it was sufficient in catering to her basic needs of getting to a destination relatively quickly and easily. But as her writing assignments took her further away from university and the city; having to travel on the motorway at times, she needed something a little more powerful.

Stacey currently rides the Honda CBR125R and finds it very convenient to travel to the outskirts of the city centre and beyond. The extra power and acceleration she has in comparison to her scooter, has meant she feels more confident and safer when having to travel in dense traffic or on the motorway. The relatively light weight of the bike (128kg) has also meant that she doesn’t feel too intimidated by it, she still feels in control. Her investigative commuting has led her to stumble upon some very interesting dining destinations and thus has added fresh inspiration into her article writing. This has transferred into Stacey’s other work also and she has utilised her travels to spark creativity.

Stacey checks her tyre pressure regularly when she has to fill up but her motorbike knowledge doesn’t extend much further than that, she is simply not interested in how it works but only in actually using it. If she has any problems with the bike, which she has not experienced thus far with the CBR125R, she calls her uncle to come have a look at it. Uncle Stan is a mechanic, who works for City Auto Repairs and is very fluent in the running of a motorbike. He is always happy to help out Stacey with any problems she has and takes pride in seeing his niece riding a bike.

Stacey is looking to further her career in journalism and realises that travel will be large apart of this. For now her CBR125R is effective in doing what she wants in terms of commuting, which mean she will probably use this for the remainder of her time at university. After this she will likely move onto a car as her main source of transportation, the main advantages of being able to commute with other people in her field and travelling intercity effortlessly.

Here is the 3/4 view on of the Naza scooter talked about below

Racing style mixed with commuter specs, comfortibility and low cost.

Observation of market

These top two photos are of a new scooter/small engine bike hybrid, it mixes the style and feature of a normal 250 or 400cc bike with the engine capabilities,posture and size/weight of a scooter.

The photo which is bottom right is an example of a top of the range 125cc bike, built to race, this would rarely be seen on the road but in the 125 category on the track.

Possible Persona

Name: Craig (semi- professional)

Age: 22

Height: 180 cm

Weight: 85 kg

Occupation: Internship / Mechanics hand / basic shop duties

Interests: Short road trips, Watching the World Biking Series, bike spoting

Relationship status: Has a girl friend who live across town, has been in the relationship for 2 years

Craig, up until he got his current position at the local bike garage, didn’t really know what he was going to do with his life, his dad had own a bike but craig had always just settle with driving a car because his mum said it was safer. Craig tried at uni but it wasn’t his thing, he couldn’t find anything he was interested in.

A year ago craig’s mate got a 85cc bike and gave craig a ride on in. He felt free and had never experience anything like it, he also had a wee bit of knowledge of bike from what his dad had told him years ago, which made it all the more interesting. Buying a bike was on his mind. he bought an old dirt bike from a mate who had used it but it had stopped working. He finally found a book which he was into reading, the manual for the dirt bike. Within 3 months he had stripped it, repaired it and flicked it on for a nice profit. This started his passion.

6 months ago craig started down at the local motorbike garage, as a mechanics hand and doing random jobs round the shop. He learns something every day and can’t wait to get into some of the more technical work around the shop. A month ago the shop gave him a great deal on a beginners bike, because of his hard work round the shop. He hadn’t really had too much experience riding bikes, so they sat him on the new Honda CBR125.

He has found that he can do most of the work on it because of his experience in the shop and because it is quiet a simple engine and make-up. Although he is nervous to mess round with the carb to much on this new bike, changing worn sprockets, chains, oil, brake fluids and tires is no hassle for him. The manual shows him how to most stuff, his work mates aid him with the rest.

In the future craig wants to move further up the ladder in his garage. This means he might have to go to the Cities Polytech and study for a year in motorcycle mechanics. He wants to do this to be happy with his career and so that eventually Craig and his girlfriend can move into their own apartment/flat. Craig’s passion for motorbikes will never fade now, he wants to move up the range of the CBR’s, because he is getting a lot of experience with motorbikes, pushing his 125 to the limit and learning for long time riders he will probably make a big motor size jump to his next bike, possibly a 450cc or round cc rating.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Trade me price Analysis

The Honda CBR range

Fireblade

1000rr

600

250

150

What i gathered from the last research post is, the redesign needs to either follow the trends of the rest of the CBR range or be the pioneers of the new revolution in the CBR range, you can guess what route im going to take.

CBR 125 official specifications

After reviewing the official specifications i have more of an understanding of what the bike is trying to offer the market, also heres a quote from the honda motorbike page about the CBR125 ," The CBR125 is a nimble, lightweight commuter. It is easy to steer ,easy to handle and looks really cool. A perfect introduction to the CBR excitement".

At the end of this quote is the idea that the target market is going to just keep CBR's but higher in cc rating because the 125 was so exciting and similar to the other cbr's

-Research other cbr's

CBR 125 full size white board drawing

To get a hold of how the bike is in full size, a Over head projector was used to project the bike onto the white board, it was then drawn. This gives me a better idea about the bike as a whole and its visual effect at full size.