Hi!
INTRO
Looking for some input – some marketing information in essence – the central question being: What would you want?
The major issue here is to the v-twin cachet versus single ie whether the benefits implied by the first option may or may not outweigh those of the second.
Design balances road cruising with off-road capability – in neither case intended as a specialist or high performance powerplant – and with a high focus on reliability, ease of maintenance, and light-weight.
TWO OPTIONS
I'm developing a particular engine for motorcycle application. The designs themselves being advanced enough that I need to focus increasingly on the potential marketing – especially as this begins to impact on design.
There are two avenues down which to continue development:
The first being based on a single cylinder 400cc engine and an 800cc v-twin product line
- the production benefit here is in utilising many of the same components in each unit – at the most basic, the 800 could use exactly the same components as the 400, with one extra cylinder. This simplifies maintenance of the range, reducing production complexity, and cost to customers of around 20%.
The second option is based on a 400cc v-twin and 800cc v-twin
- the two engines would be unlikely to share more than a bare minimum of components – with costs increased accordingly, as well as increasing the lead time to market – essentially, I'd be developing two different engines, as opposed to the one (with options) in the first case.
QUESTIONS
My main questions are these:
Whether you chose a 400 or 800 model, how strongly would the v-twin aspect of it's design feature in your decision?
Would the single cylinder aspect of the 400 put you off – as opposed to a 2+ cylinder 400?
Finally, I'd be very interested in your thoughts on the subject – as they may not fall into those two questions.
FORMAT FOR CLARITY
If you please, format your answers:
Q1 “your answer”
Q2 “your answer”
Followed by anything else you'd like to mention.
At the end, thanks for reading!
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