Racing Into New Territory – Question Of The Day
Should these brands just stay in their lane?
Imagine just five years ago, if I showed you a picture of a red Grand Prix motorcycle and a red motocross bike, and told you one was a Ducati and the other was a GasGas, you probably wouldn’t even bat an eye. But if I told you the MotoGP bike was the GasGas, and the Ducati was the dirt bike, you probably would have thought I was nuts.
In 2024, not so much. GasGas made its debut on the MotoGP grid last year (though let’s not kid ourselves, it’s a KTM), and Ducati is entering its Desmo450 MX prototype in the Italian Motocross championship, with the production model expected to launch in the second half of 2025.
And let’s not forget Triumph, which is also getting into the motocross game with the new TF 250-X in the 2024 FIM Motocross World Championship and AMA SX and MX.
Triumph and Ducati have new off-road models they want to push, so racing makes sense in that regard. But it's still a big risk venturing into an entirely new segment like this. Meanwhile, GasGas only has a handful of street-legal motorcycles, with none of them being a sportbike. Entering MotoGP helps raise the brand's profile, but until there's a similar-looking product to sell, what's the point?
So, for our Question of the Day, we ask: are you excited about these brands venturing into non-traditional competition? Or do you think they’d be better off sticking with what they’re already good at?
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Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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If they want to blow their budget, why not. Remember Cannondale and their incredible new motorcycle? Me neither.
The more thee merrier. It is their decision, good luck.