The Powersports Industry & M/C Roadracing

New bike sales haven't been released yet, but quarter 1 replacement tire sales are up 4% vs. PY, so a bit of good news.

 

I’m sure new unit sales are down a bit. And it’s very regional as far as how hard the shops have been hit. In my area they are mostly doing quite well thankfully.

 

We are seeing unit sales up in certain areas and service down , then we are seeing sales down and service up, it is very regional, also I have heard that oil sales are way up as well, so this would lead me to believe usage is up, so if tire sales are up 4% and oil sales are up that meas people are out riding. my monthly numbers will be released in a couple of days. I know early March was up and late March was down and the start of April was off...

 

I read Kawasaki is doing buy from home/ delivery to you house. If they are delivering units from the local dealership this could be good all around.

Wish I had a pot to piss in right now.

 

I think this industry has been really helped by the fact that the majority of shops were allowed to stay open. With so few places to spend money the last month its really helped the shops for sure. Bicycle shops have been killing it in my area too. Last year we had a ton of rain and major flooding so we really needed a good spring.

 

Actually happy to read this. Prior to buying my forklift company, I was in escrow on a motorcycle shop, bikes have always been my first love, like probably almost anyone in the motorcycle business. Anyway that deal didn't happen, looking back after 2008, I think I'm glad I fell into the forklift industry instead. Although it definitely has not been a walk in the park and this current covid-19 crap is killing us.

 

Here's what Harley put out in their recent PR.

"U.S. retail sales were up a strong 6.6 percent until the pandemic took hold in the U.S. in mid-March. For the full quarter, U.S. retail sales finished down 15.5 percent compared to prior year and U.S. 601+cc market share was down 2.2 percentage points, to 48.9 percent. International retail sales were down 20.7 percent compared to 2019 and Europe 601+cc market share was 7.6 percent in the first quarter."

 

I did my part, getting a set of tires for the Super Tenere in April and needing an oil/filter change in both the Super Tenere and GROM, though both of the latter were done here at the house.

 

First quarter overall bike sales are down 4%, but the off road segment sales are up almost 19%.

 

1978 -present day I have has 58 bikes . The bike industry is not struggling its location of the dealerships ! Parts and partially service . I personally know of 1 Honda dealer selling 1 bike every 4 minutes at its peak over the course of a year . $58,000,000 in sales parts service for that year ...

 

Jeff,
Can you clarify this a little
I am guessing you meant it like this
Motorcycle Sales Down 4%
ATV, UTV Sales up 19%

 

We're talking m/c only.
The segments are
Scooter
On hwy
Dual
Off hwy, aka off road.
So no atvs in this mix

 

Ah OK so ON Road was down 4% and off road bikes up 19%, that makes sense for what we are seeing

 

This just in from Tucker

Below is the text of an email sent from Tucker Powersports President Marc McAllister to dealers and suppliers dated May 15, 2020.
To our trusted partners,
I want to tell you about some changes we are making at Tucker Powersports designed to strengthen our company and make us a better partner for you and your business.
Two weeks ago, we announced that we were closing our offices in California and Arizona and moving the product development and purchasing for our Apparel Group and Dragonfire Racing into our Texas office.

Today, we announced an organizational change which realigns our product management staff and also eliminates two senior level positions, the COO position, which had been held by Danny Anderson, and the CCO position, held by Greg Blackwell. We wish Danny, Greg and the small number of other Tucker employees who will not be returning from furlough the best and we thank them for their contributions to our company.

I've asked all of our team members to focus on being the company that adds value to our customers. We want to make our dealers better because they have chosen to purchase from Tucker. This is a complicated task, but my simplified recipe for doing it is:

We must assemble and deliver the best collection of high-demand products in the industry. We must be operationally great in all aspects of our business. Our plan is to have employees return to work by mid-June, but obviously this is dependent on the country's success in battling the virus and relaxing stay-at-home orders. We've already seen some positive signs reflected in recent order volume and optimism from our dealers.

I hope you will see us getting better and stronger with the changes we have made. We will continue to provide great sales programs, great marketing for our products and consistent and efficient purchasing and payment to our suppliers. Thanks for being a critical part of our organization. We are #unitedbypowersports.

Sincerely,
Marc

 

Yeah I had just gotten that too. Man this is just terrible timing for those guys to have all the Covid crap happening when they were already having a rough spring. Its not good for anyone in the industry to have them going down like this. I'd bet the owners are just looking to off load all the brands at this point and cut their losses but who knows. They have just had a ton of bad luck in regards to timing of major deals and market shifts.

 

I just hope NYS lets PU open the NY warehouse back up today. Taking over a week to get stuff now that I used to have overnight !

 

I hear you there! It's really messing up our other warehouses having to carry their load as well.

 

Well they aren't out yet, and when I worked there they were having a rough go. And in 2000 they had their computer melt down that messed up everything. Anyone remember Motorcycle Stuff? Or MTA? So maybe with where the industry is today things would be OK with only two big distributors and the small regional ones? Only time will tell I guess

 

Yeah I didn't mean to say they are going out of business for sure or anything like that. They are still a huge distributor with strong brands. And I've been around for almost 20 years in the industry so I've seen all of that go down and don't wish it on them even being a big competitor of mine.