Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126017
WRITIN AROUND "How's business?" "Don't ask!" "That good,huh?" Motorcycling has a problem. Ever since the Energy Crisis, the cost of making motorcycles has gone up, while the retail prices of new bikes from Japan have remained at the pre-crisis level, or in many cases gone down. This would be fine if more people were getting into the motorcycle market in these times of high fuel prices and real -or-contrived energy shortages. But dealers tell me they can 't remember the last time they taught a new buyer how to ride . The funnel which used to bring new riders into the market has narrowed to a tunnel. As it is now, dealers are di scounting pri ces on the bi g models that ar e popular with experienced riders, just to make a sale, because their competit or s are doing the sam e. But people are buying few of the smaller bikes that dealers still can make a profit from . This situation can not co n tinue long without forcing de alers o ut of b usiness. What can be done? The answer seems easy : do what was done before. Advertise in the mass market media. • Gorge the-motorcycle market withnew consumers. Dealers are better equipped to .h an dle new business than they ever were. But they believe that it is the manufacturer/distributor's job to drum up that market. Dealers claim they are strapped for profits these days and cannot a ffo rd big sales promotions while discounting prevails. Manufacturers in J apan are indecis ive. The economy car market in the U.S. is huge and growing. Should J apan , In c. deploy its manufacturing res ources in little cars while the market is hot? Or should J apan back off from Detroit's turf and resume concentrating on the biggest potential motorcycle market that ever existed? Un til th at policy is decided in Gardena and Tokyo, the American motorcycle industry is without a leader. The market here will be nearly co n fin ed to upgrading the ten million or so experienced riders. One de aler will somehow discount more than the rest and get all of the business. Sales promotion will have to come from some other source within the industry. One ongoing promotion is the AMA's national and local racing program. Motorcycle sports are on the increase, and help enlarge the market by some five percent a ye ar . But dealerships do not thrive on racing business alone. New street riders are being c reate d , slowly, by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation 's beginner rider tra ining programs in a few high sch ools. Motorcycles still get some mass media publicity in soft drink co m mercials o n T V an d through Evel Knievels p erformances, but who is inviting milli on s of Americans to join th e ni cest people? Kawa saki embark ed o n th e last big TV c o nqu est of consu mers, and j umped to second pla ce in sales . Perhaps this tim e the hard-pressed dealers will have to devise their own national camp aign to bring new custo me rs int o the ir stores. One proje ct co uld be a national " Mo to rcycle to work" week, co o rd in ated by all o f the many dealer associanons across America. Anything that might open up the funnel should be tried. Less than five percent of 220 million Americans are bikers today. Surely there are another ten million of our citizens who are mentally, physicall y and financiall y cap able of enjoying their own motorcycle. Let us win them to o ur cau se. If Japan, In c. can 't help us gro w in motorcycling, then we must help ourselves. Afte rth o~g!l ts Reading the above essay, as anyone can plainly see , I was sorely in need of a ride. Friends Loyal and Roger my insurance man and I motored down to Lower California (What a misnomer in many ways!) There I was, squinting into the sunrise on the start of the Baja One-Thousand, snapping reflexes a t 1/ 500th of a sec., partying down with the high-rollers at Hussong's Cantina, established in 1892 or 3 depending on if you believe the T-shirts or the napkins. Loyal closed the place, as he always does, spending every day of young ba chelorhood as if it were his last. We each cranked home by a different route , I dawdled enjoying life , got c aught in the rain , stopped and bought a daily paper to check the new bike price discounts. GL1000 up to nearly 25. Z-900's up a point. Hmmm. Somebody's loosening the tourniquet on the dealers; it would appear. And even with 30 rainy freeway miles to ride before I'd be snug at home, it is a beau tiful day, Then, on the tube the night before, my child informs me, Charlie Brown actually won something fine for once, and it was a motorcycle race. Is this so me miracle the AMA has caused to pass? Did Honda sponsor this? Or is whatever watches over motorcycling throwing us Peanuts because we are good guys? Whatever. This is curiously coincident with what I was getting at in the column above. "Coincidence," Stafford Harriman said, " is nature caught in the act of rhyming." Sometimes you gotta forget the bad news and take a ride, to get the good news. A dealer may survive, thanks to manna from media and the merciful intervention of the factories' credit men, and we may get a million new bikers by Christmas out of all this yet. Hint to dealers: Check with the copyright holder before you launch "Peanuts" promotions. Creator Chas. Schultz deserves his royalty. Charles Clayton Z "' C( r III .J "' :x: :> LC( ~ u ~----------------------------------------- I ~1~' q1"'~ t\) ~ Q C _Ai""fill" CJ' SERVICE IS OUR BUSINESS ..... BUZZ B. DISTRIBUTING 2040 So. Grand AveJ Santa Ana CA 92705 I 1 I (714)979-5675 CHAIN LUBE FORK FLUID . CLUTCH ~ LUBE . - ASSEMBLY . ~ LUBE 23