Motorcycle industry running out of gas?

Coyote Chris

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I don't think the industry will role over dead real quick but I do think there is a lot of room to improve.
I believe most all big business, (including bikes) are pretty short term looking and are not concerned with long term stability.
Of course it is a good thing I am not in charge. If I was we would already be doomed.

Brad
 
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Over the last decade, the motorcycle industry have continued building the high dollar (Profit!). mammoth 800lb plus behemoths that nobody ever wanted..They totally shut their eyes to mid and small size bikes that have been the mainstay especially in the Americas and Asia..we have been crying out for an updated modern NT or any type of mid size bike that fills the bill with weather protection tubeless tires and shaft drive ..It just does not exist....Triumph and Royal Enfield are the exception I understand they are enjoying record sales..I think they may be listening to the masses...The others?? I can't feel sorry for them..they just got too greedy...
 

DirtFlier

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[...Triumph and Royal Enfield are the exception I understand they are enjoying record sales..I think they may be listening to the masses...The others?...]

Triumph has had its ups & downs and Royal Enfield sells so few bikes in the US that they could improve sales by 50% and they'd still be a tiny blip compared to the other makers. At least here, the challenge with motorcycle sales is that Boomers are aging out of being riders everyday and younger people don't seem to be interested. Neither of my sons are riders although they had plenty of opportunities while growing up.

This situation is reversed in many other countries with lots of young people who ride and also spurred on by fuel costs that are 3x-5x higher than here. Motorcycles have always been almost purely recreational here while in many other countries it's their main transportation.
 

Phil Tarman

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The current issue of Motorcycle Consumer News suggests that one issue is the cost of maintenance. Their example is buying a bike for a few thousand dollars and then having to spend $700 for periodic maintenance that happens so often that it's easy to match the cost of the bike in maintenance costs in fairly short order. They think the hourly shop rate is pushing $130/hr and will be goin higher quickly because nobody's learning to do motorcycle maintenance and trained techs are running shorter and shorter.

Somewhere i read that autonomous vehicles may make motorcycle riding safer rather than more dangerous, but I can't remember where that was (old age is no longer sneaking up on me).
 
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Over the last decade, the motorcycle industry have continued building the high dollar (Profit!). mammoth 800lb plus behemoths that nobody ever wanted..They totally shut their eyes to mid and small size bikes that have been the mainstay especially in the Americas and Asia..we have been crying out for an updated modern NT or any type of mid size bike that fills the bill with weather protection tubeless tires and shaft drive ..It just does not exist....Triumph and Royal Enfield are the exception I understand they are enjoying record sales..I think they may be listening to the masses...The others?? I can't feel sorry for them..they just got too greedy...
I have made these same comments in another thread previously. I too believe that the manufacturers are not reading the market correctly. After the holiday break I am going to look at a new Suzuki Burgman as an addition to the stable. It has nearly everything that the NT has plus more comfort and weather protection. The only downside for me is the smaller fuel tank. It is a bit heavier but with a lower centre of gravity with nearly as much power and torque as the NT. It will be a bit slower but that is OK by me.

Macka
 

DirtFlier

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Macka - the Burgman is a good choice and I have several close friends who have them as their only bike. The preference around here is for the 400 model over the much heavier 650 but your wide open spaces may make a difference.

The motorcycle market and also demographics and economy is different for each country so it's difficult to assess the health of the motorcycle industry by what we see in our immediate surrounds. At least in America, people in their 20s-30s no longer have the disposable income we had in the 60s and 70s and that is a major factor.
 
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Macka - the Burgman is a good choice and I have several close friends who have them as their only bike. The preference around here is for the 400 model over the much heavier 650 but your wide open spaces may make a difference.

The motorcycle market and also demographics and economy is different for each country so it's difficult to assess the health of the motorcycle industry by what we see in our immediate surrounds. At least in America, people in their 20s-30s no longer have the disposable income we had in the 60s and 70s and that is a major factor.
I haven't ridden a 400 so I can't compare them but I have ridden a 650 quite a bit in Japan and I liked it a lot except for the very heavy steering at crawling speeds. I did get used to it though. I really like the choice of auto or manual modes. A 400 may not have enough in reserve when laden with the camping gear.
One thing that puts me off a scooter is the fact that they are very rare here. I only know one guy who rides one. It is an older TMax, a 400 I think. I have followed him several times and he is VERY quick in the twisty stuff. I struggle to keep up with him on the NT. I am not sure what my riding friends would say if I turned up on a scooter, even a MAXI. They may shun me forever!

I browse the Burgman USA site nearly every day. There is an Aussie Scooter site but it is rarely active.
Macka
 
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Maybe this was covered....one big problem that the motorcycle industry will need to sort out is excess capacity.....the auto industry was forced to address this (not completely) a few years ago...resulting in the demise of Pontiac, Oldsmobile, mercury and probably others...there are so many bike manufacturers making bikes that are very similar....I'm thinking ST1300 and FJR's, too many Harley clones to list and so on....then as one of the articles pointed out, the lack of entry level riders being attracted....I think that in the end, the industry will survive, but we will end up with far fewer choices from far fewer manufacturers.
Just my 2 cents....
 
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One other thought....my son is giving up riding because while sitting in traffic is his car he was rear ended by a distracted (cell phone) driver...nearly totaled his car, then just a few weeks after getting it back from the body shop it almost happened again.....he had enough space between him and the next car to move...leaving the 2nd distracted driver sideways in the road where he had just been..

Then, I had a co-worker who had ridden for many years call it quits.....same concern we all have...he just got fed up with distracted drivers and decided the fun was no longer worth the risk....

There needs to be a concerted effort against distracted drivers....on the same scale as that made against drunk drivers.....unfortunately, law enforcement has been poor at best, plus, how many of us have seen police officers driving in a marked cruiser while talking on a cell phone....it's a very sad situation.
 

junglejim

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There needs to be a concerted effort against distracted drivers....on the same scale as that made against drunk drivers.....
This "distracted driver" discussion comes up in a lot of different threads. That speaks to its importance. But I'm affraid it will remain out of control. The politicians pass laws more to remain somewhat popular than to control distracted driving. And I fear that laws are very loosly inforced because our society in general doesn't want the laws to be inforced. People WANT to drive how they want to drive.

And we could do better at preventing drunk dirving too if we were more serious about it. I think WI leads the nation in drunk driving per capita. What an honor.
 
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Somewhere i read that autonomous vehicles may make motorcycle riding safer rather than more dangerous, but I can't remember where that was (old age is no longer sneaking up on me).
Phil that was in MCN also, Dave Hilgendorf, page 3. I just read it but I'm lucky I remembered where.

I don't think having the phones & electronics is bad or distracting by itself, it is an attitude in peoples heads that make them pay more attention to a phone call than driving. Police officers have always had multiple distractions in their vehicles, radio traffic, etc but they still pay attention to the priority-driving.

Brad
 

mikesim

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One other thought....my son is giving up riding because while sitting in traffic is his car he was rear ended by a distracted (cell phone) driver...nearly totaled his car, then just a few weeks after getting it back from the body shop it almost happened again.....he had enough space between him and the next car to move...leaving the 2nd distracted driver sideways in the road where he had just been..

Then, I had a co-worker who had ridden for many years call it quits.....same concern we all have...he just got fed up with distracted drivers and decided the fun was no longer worth the risk....

There needs to be a concerted effort against distracted drivers....on the same scale as that made against drunk drivers.....unfortunately, law enforcement has been poor at best, plus, how many of us have seen police officers driving in a marked cruiser while talking on a cell phone....it's a very sad situation.
FYI, there is a very good reason that you see police officers talking on their cell phones while in a marked cruiser. Many, many criminals have police scanners and monitor law enforcement channels while they are actively pursuing their criminal activity. When LEO's are staking out a location or discussing possible scenarios with individuals, they use their cell phones as a secure way of communicating with each other. Things are seldom as they initially appear.

Mike
 
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Coyote Chris

Coyote Chris

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FYI, there is a very good reason that you see police officers talking on their cell phones while in a marked cruiser. Many, many criminals have police scanners and monitor law enforcement channels while they are actively pursuing their criminal activity. When LEO's are staking out a location or discussing possible scenarios with individuals, they use their cell phones as a secure way of communicating with each other. Things are seldom as they initially appear.

Mike
This is true although as police com continues to evolve, it gets harder to listen to.... and in most states, first responders are allowed to talk on phones, although I wish they would use bluetooth. But SSSS makes valid points.
Tailgating with or without distracted driving is a terrible truth, especially in urban situations. I avoided an accident in my car a week ago in heavy 35 mph traffic. I have a technique I use and this time it worked. Some idiot was tailgating me
and I noticed he/she was doing so.... so I carefully kept them in my sites. Then I saw the brakelights go on ahead and things suddenly went to a crawl ahead of me.....I had left at least 2 seconds ahead of me so I knew I would have no trouble stopping, but I was worried about the thing behind me.
I then dynamited the brakes and right away let up and continued to stop to avoid the person ahead. The person behind WAS paying attention and dynamited THEIR brakes, and as I let up I could see that they would just miss my rear and stop in time. Unfortunatly for the tailgater, there was someone tailgating them and they bumped into the first tailgater. While in this case two tailgaters got bad carma, if it had been a nice sunny day and the bikes were out, the two tailgaters could have hurt someone.
I dont blame people for quitting because society refuses to deal with the violaters. I choose to ride less around town and more in the country in low traffic situations if possible where I can leave lots of room ahead of me and have an "out".
Driving on slick roads in the winter when everyone is in a hurry and distracted if for the birds.
 

DirtFlier

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It appears we've hi-jacked the "Motorcycle Industry Running out of Gas" topic into one about distracted driving, which should really have it's own topic before 2017 ends. OK, I'll start one now and call it "Car Driving Craziness." :shrug2:
 
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FYI, there is a very good reason that you see police officers talking on their cell phones while in a marked cruiser. Many, many criminals have police scanners and monitor law enforcement channels while they are actively pursuing their criminal activity. When LEO's are staking out a location or discussing possible scenarios with individuals, they use their cell phones as a secure way of communicating with each other. Things are seldom as they initially appear.
I don't recall ever using a marked patrol car for any type of "stake out". Our vice guys had radios with encryption technology and that was 20+ years ago....of course, nothing is absolute, once in a while I would expect that the need to use a cell by a uniformed officer would arise....but it seems all too common from what I've seen. If nothing else, it's poor public relations.
 
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