Motorcycle Show Opening With Low-Riding Optimism
Motorcycle sales are booming, but the outlook at the International Motorcycle Show that opens this evening at the Long Beach Convention Center--the nation’s biggest consumer exposition of its type--is tinged with caution.
True, motorcycle sales in the United States have risen a healthy 18.3% so far in 1998, marking the seventh straight year of sales growth, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, a trade group.
“The motorcycle has become sort of the last great, individual horse ride,” said motorcycle analyst, Don Brown, who has been tracking the ups and downs of the industry since the 1950s. “Everyone wants to be a cowboy, and the closest they get to it these days is on a motorcycle.”
Nonetheless, a couple of the upward-pointing stats are worrisome, if not ominous.
The average age of a motorcyclist in the U.S. has risen to 38 1/2, according to the association. By comparison, in 1970, the average age hovered around 20.
Second, the price of new motorcycles has continued to rise.
On display at the Long Beach Convention Center, where the motorcycle show is expected to draw more than 35,000 people during the weekend, are a couple of extreme examples.
A new luxury tourer from BMW comes standard with an eight-speaker sound system (the passenger gets separate controls).
Options include a CD changer and a navigation system that uses the satellite global position system GPS.
The average price for a new motorcycle is about $8,000, said Brown, while in 1973 it was $1,100.
“There is no doubt that it’s the baby boomers, many of whom learned to love motorcycles in the 1960s, who are still driving the market today,” Brown said.
“They have the disposable income to buy the kind of motorcycles--the big cruisers and touring bikes--someone of middle-age might favor.”
But what happens to the industry when the baby boomers hang up their riding boots? Will young Americans still want to be cowboys?
“It’s the big unresolved question,” said Bob Moffit, vice president of marketing for Kawasaki’s U.S. branch.
“A lot of it has to do with what happens in the off-road part of the industry,” he said.
Off-road bikes, ranging from racing motocross motorcycles to four-wheel all-terrain vehicles, were a traditional entry point to the motorcycle world for young people in the 1970s.
That part of the industry suffered a major decline in the 1980s after several well-publicized accidents caused major injuries to youngsters.
As a result, the industry might have skipped a generation. Off-road sales, especially of ATVs, are again rising, but it’s too early to tell whether the children of the digital age will take to motorcycles.
