Has Baghira gone the way of the Skorpion

[BG]

I Just came across the official Mz site in Germany. They only show the New 1000 and the 125cc bikes. No Baghira listed.
BG

[125SMash]

fact: baghira line used yamahas 660c engines

speculation:
since yamaha came out with their own line of supermoto bikes for the euro in 2003(very poorly executed in my opinion), thus they withdrew their engine from MZ use, to prevent additional competition

hope: perhaps mz will develop a line of their own 660c and the baghira will be revived again?

[Markus]

This is - naturally - all subject to heavy speculation...

MZ always made very poor PR work (to my knowledge, there's only one guy doing both customer service and PR), so taking the 660s from the site does not have to mean anything. Maybe the PR guy doesn't even know about the web site changes...

However, smash is probably right about the competition issue. Another important issue is emisson. The old 660 engine won't be able to meet upcoming emission standards without heavy modifications. If Yamaha refuses to sell the new engine to MZ (which they probably will do - as they already did with the WR engine), MZ needs a new engine for Baghira & Co.

Where from? Suzuki? Wow, should not be too difficult to build a bike around the TL V-engine that weighs less than the KTM LC8 monster. Would be nice, wouldn't it ?

Develop a new engine on their own? Very expensive, so they need lots of money. If the 1000 is a success, they might have enough money, but on the other hand, they might decide to drop the big-one-cylinder line in favour of the 1000...

I am not too optimisitic about a Baghira successor.

Cheers
Markus

[Markus]

BTW: if you select the german flag on the intro page (http://www.muz.de), you still get all kinds of 660s: Skorpion, Mastiff, Baghira...