Let me know if I'm waaay off on any of this.

[barkeater]

Well, unless anyone else has an argument against Jeffs idea, I'll lay down the hatchet and let the grindstone come to a halt on this for a while.

I do think this is something potential new Gas Gas owners want to know more about. For a new guy looking at a bike, the XC, EC, DE (since the graphics say EC) and MC thing can be very confusing. As a new buyer, if you get confused by what model you're looking at buying - what about when something breaks? Most new dealers don't even have a clue about the differences. I think that thought process might have a direct effect on used bike sales and the poor resale on Gassers. If more people knew the history like some of us do, they might be more willing to pick up a used DE or XC or whatever.

[jeffd]

Hi Todd,
Please don't take offense...

I totally agree with you that it is important to document and help others understand both the U.S. bike differences and the history behind it, etc... I am just not so sure all of it belongs on wikipedia - which is a very public and global resource. I was in engineering, marketing and am now a consultant (electronic design). My background in marketing keeps me thinking about initial impressions, and feature/benefit, etc - I would think it would be better to put the high level history/features/benefits of gasgas products on wikipedia (in a way I wished gasgas would). Then lead them to the gasgas corporate site and this site for more detail if they are interested.

Along those lines, gasgas does a very poor job of putting together a marketing "message" and differentiating their product. The press releases and product introductions are so poorly written (in spanglish) that they can barely be understood. The biggest marketing asset they have is guys like you that love the product and try to get the word out...

One thing that this situation illustrates to me is that it is important for us to get the gasgas wiki up and running. I think you can see that it is very beneficial for motivated guys like yourself to be able to write down the important stuff. And I don't believe it belongs at the top of a forum somewhere as a "sticky" - it ends up getting buried...

You and others can look at what matt has done thus far with the gasgas wiki page - it can be found here...

www.gasgasrider.org/wiki

You can see that you can add your knowledge everywhere and anywhere using this medium - it is exactly the same software that is used for wikipedia.

The difference between what we have now, with static articles on the main website that never get updated, is that the articles can be updated and embellished by others. In addition, the crossover parts list and the aftermarket parts listing could also become more "live" - the aftermarket parts listing could become listed as a "wiki hard parts catalog"....

And if anyone wants to thank me for loading up the wiki software - don't... Instead - thank Matt - he pushed me to do it when I really didn't want to. At the time, I was pretty burned out from getting the rest of the site together.

Oh, and one more thing, I registered the domain names gasgaswiki.com and gasgaswiki.org and will make these directly link to Matt's gasgas wiki page...

One more benefit to adding the material to the local gasgas wiki is that I can add banner advertising to the wiki pages - this doesn't benefit me at all, I lose money on this deal. What it does do is allow us to provide visibility for the gasgas dealers & distributors. It helps to illustrate the strength of the dealer network and availability of aftermarket parts with the vendor ads.

jeff
aka webmaster
gasgas riders club

[jeffd]

Hi Todd,

I just took another look at the wikipedia page and it looks *so* much better now.

Again, I hope you don't take offense to my comments in my posts above...

jeff

[TooFastTim]

Originally Posted by barkeater

I'll lay down the hatchet and let the grindstone come to a halt on this for a while.

Not to mix my metaphors but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

[barkeater]

No offense taken. If if didn't want input, I would have just put it on the wiki page.

Yes, I agree. That was my initial thought. Wiki for dripping wet new guys, GG spain or GG USA site for those more serious, and this page for the sad, pathetic lot like ourselves.

I'm not worried about the marketing in the US, Dale has done a great job marketing the uber-niche trials product here and I'm sure between him and GoFasters, we should see things change in the US. Steve at GoFasters has a little madison avenue in him.

BTW, I believe TFTim was helping with the GG wikipedia page as well.

[barkeater]

Originally Posted by jeffd

this doesn't benefit me at all, I lose money on this deal.

Over at the Unofficial Husaberg Enthusiast site they have a paypal account set up so the members can make free will donations to help offset the expenses of the site for the webmaster.

[kim]

The paypal account sound like a good idea. A donation of 10 bucks from a number of members would see that the webmaster does not loose any money directly.
Also possible a donation register of sorts, not sure about this but it would keep things quite transparent.

This board takes the mystery out of owning a small brand bike and gets you up and running real fast.

Kim

[roostafish]

I'd like to see the history from the beginning, not just the U.S. side of it.

I don't know where I got this information, but I heard the very first GG enduro bikes i the early 1990's were rebadged Husqvarnas. Man, I'd sure like to get my hands on one of those. Then one with the TM engine, and of course the first true GG. While I'm dreaming, I want Paul Edmonson's first GG.

[TooFastTim]

[barkeater]

Originally Posted by roostafish

I'd like to see the history from the beginning, not just the U.S. side of it.

In the US, Dale Malasek or Jim Snell on the trials side would be the guys for that.

http://www.gasgasmuseum.com/

http://www.gasgas.com/history.shtml