I'm the CEO of Krämer Motorcycles USA - Ask Me Anything

We've done fly and ride programs prior and they don't add a significant amount of effort to an existing program. The biggest difficulty I've found is getting paid to rebuild or start over if/when someone writes off a bike.

 

Ahh, yes, the old 'you own a business so you obviously have tons of disposable cash and times are tough so don't charge us as much' view. Nevermind that the business owner supports his family and the families of his employees in this way. Good lord

 

What you're suggesting isn't as feasible as you make it sound. PG&A for Krämer is roughly 5% of revenue. For a brand like Harley-Davidson, it's around 10%. You can't breakeven on 95% of your sales (or worse, take a loss) with the expectation that the other 5% of your sales will sustain your business operations. That math just doesn't math.

 

Every penny of every tarriff is going to the consumer, always has and always will.

 

Why would anyone buy a bike with a tariff when they know full well that the tariff might be "paused" any day now?

 

Perhaps because they are jonesing to race it and can't bring themselves to wait, for whatever reason they cite?

 

Kind of what I'm thinking. This bunch is always on here chatting about when the next great deal or closeout is coming so they can scoop up a cheaper new bike. If it weren't such a touchy topic, we'd be 100 pages deep already on a thread speculating about what tariffs were going to go away and when.

Perhaps an ignorant question, but one I have nonetheless: If kramer imports a motorcycle while there is a (just a random number here) 50% tariff on their bikes, but then sells the bike after the tariff is decreased to 25%, what is the tariff paid on that bike? Does Kramer pay that to import it, or is it only paid when it is sold to a consumer?

 

Krämer USA pays the tariff on the bike/product when it lands on US soil, and we pay whatever the tariff amount is that day. We cannot take possession of the shipment from US Customs until that tariff is paid.

 

So if the tariff is, say 25%, when a shipment arrives at the port, but then next week the tariff is "paused", Kramer is screwed out of the 25% paid, unless they can pass it on to the customer, who is probably aware that tariffs are currently paused (or reduced)?

 

How is this any different than fuel prices jumping $.30 overnight based on speculation?

Oh, I know, the media sensationalizes this based on not liking the guy imposing the tariffs trying to claw back some equality.

 

Right? When the cost of doing business goes up, so follows the price of goods. Cue up the minimum wage debate

 

Pretty much.

 

This thread title didn't age well LoL

 

At 31 pages, what other discussion are you comparing this one to, @notbostrom ?

We are still discussing Kramers here currently. Along with their availability and projected cost.

Most of the politics has been relevant to how governmental issues might affect the cost of a motorcycle currently being raced in a MA spec. series. I only recall a couple of irrelevant posts off-topic here.

 

Probably the fact that Jenson will no longer be the CEO of Kramer Motorcycles USA. Although I think we're still entitled to ask him anything even after he loses that title.

 

The return of "Bomber Bikes"...?

 

This, it's still a great thread with a solid dude. The title just didn't age well.


Fwiw Mr Jensen is the opposite of most corporate executives who would milk a sinking ship for every penny on the way down. His departure shows these guys are serious about sticking around.

 

I haven't been following this thread, so apologies if it's already been covered...what is/was the target grid size for the class. I was surprised at how small it was for RA, and thought that it might be related to the engine issue/logistics related to that.

 

this is the real problem with the execution of the tariffs. Business, 'the market' whatever you want to call it will figure it out. Its similar to physics, perturb a system and it moves around until it finds a new balance. Now that balance maybe zero EU motorcycle sales due to large tariffs, but "the system" will equalize at some point. But what really causes major headaches is when you keep pushing and pulling the system and it cant equalize.

For those of us working for companies importing stuff, its a nightmare. Hey mr customer, yes I can sell you some stuff in 2 months. Price? well we will see when it gets here because we arent really sure what its going to cost.

and yes the seller can reduce costs and offer other ways to minimize the tariffs, but why do that if the tariff will change 8 times this year.

As a real effect of the rubber band nature of these tariffs, I have something like 10-12 shipments, some to my warehouse some directly to customers, delayed by 2-4+ weeks. Because when the Chinese tariffs were going to be 150%, they quit shipping stuff. So many of the sailings we had booked containers on, got cancelled. Something like 30-40% of Asians sailings were cancelled in the last 1-2 months. Nearly every sailing from Asia goes thru China to get 'filled up', so no China...way less sailing needed.

So even though the large Chinese tariffs didnt happen, or only for a week or so, it caused a big issue for a lot of people. The back and forth on tariffs drive me nuts. I still dont know what my costs will be on stuff arriving after the Japanese 'deadline' happens next month. FKN mess

 

https://www.rideapart.com/news/761467/kramer-motorcycles-ceo-jensen-beeler-ktm-bankruptcy/ Getting quoted up in here