I think if a guy is determined enough and willing to jump through hoops and dispense enough cash you could probably get any vehicle you want shipped over here. I'm talking about why we can't just buy the damn thing here to begin with and be done with it. With cars, I can see that it may be difficult for manufacturers to meet some of our strict safety and emission standards with certain vehicles (although I think it probably has a lot to do with lobbyists from Detroit but that's another thread). With a motorcycle, there is no safety discrepancy to consider. The only real issue for them would be emissions. A lot of the US spec bikes that we have bought for years have simply been leaned and detuned to make them legal for sale in the USA. Then of course, we buy the bikes and make them right again. So why can't we just play the same game with their entire model line. They could just send the dealers the bikes they think we want, and a catalog.
Twenty or so years ago when I worked at a Honda shop, our Honda rep gave us a book that showed all of the bikes that Honda offered in Japan and abroad. It was unbelievable. I bet there were 150 different scooters, 150 different street bikes, and 50 different dirt and dual sport bikes. We're talking NSRs in 50,80,125,250,400,and 500CC versions and then different variants of each size. I've never seen such a display of cool bikes and scooters. Our choice of a small bore sport bike that we had sitting on the showroom floor was a VTR250. Jesus L. Christ, a #$%*ing VTR250. Honda must hate us.
