American Motorcyclist December 2017

Putting The Boom Back In The Zoom

A Rider’s Innovation Wish List For The Motorcycle Industry

Here’s the upfront: I’m not an industry insider or speak for any company or the AMA, but I do exceptionally enjoy my wickedly fast Hayabusa. So imagine how my unbridled enthusiasm for motorcycling hits the brakes when I read click-bait headlines that declare the industry dead. Yep, 6 feet under. Never coming back. Dirt-nap, baby.

Take a deep breath.

Now, exhale. The industry is not only not dead, it’s pretty healthy and could be poised for another boom.

If you’ve read the same headlines, right now you’re probably thinking I’m taking the happy pills we see on sunny pharma commercials. Nope. My only two drugs are dry Belvedere martinis and riding my two-wheeled rocket (never together).

I make the counterintuitive statement about the positive health of the industry because it’s true. Look at the facts.

Let’s start with Harley-Davidson.

The sensationalist headlines scream out that they are declining, but they still have over 50 percent of the U.S. market and sold 260,289 bikes worldwide last year. That’s a lot of iron—and growth.

And sportbikes and café racers? Their market shares are about the same over the past few years—and some, like Ducati and Triumph, are racing ahead.

I believe the industry is fine, but just not booming right now like it has before.

So why no boom in the zoom?

While the industry has had some mind-boggling advances with electric motorcycles, 300-plus horsepower supercharged sportbikes, and even meeting E4 emissions requirements without losing performance, there is still plenty of room for more consumer-driven innovation across the board.

Let’s take three areas in need of some love: Media, Money, and Product.

Media: Quick, what is the last campaign you remember from, oh, let’s just say any motorcycle company? Got a tag line in your head?

The answer is probably, “no.” In my humble view, the last great motorcycle campaign was “Let the Good Times Roll” from Kawasaki—launched in 1973!

Kawasaki and others need something new. Something breakthrough. Something that gets the 20- and 30-somethings saying “now that’s cool!” The promise of exhilaration and being smoking hot has never left motorcycles. Motorcycle companies just need to dig deep, come up with truly innovative campaigns, and then advertise the hell out of them.

Money: I bet you think I’m going to say, “lower the price of bikes.” Wrong! The price of bikes is fine. Really. If a millennial can pony up a grand for an iPhone X, then motorcycles are priced right.

The biggest problem isn’t the price of the bike—it’s insurance. And sportbikes in particular are getting full-frontal crushed over this! It’s obscene that monthly insurance is often more than the finance payment. The Big Players need to identify ways to help riders (buyers) lower insurance costs.

Manufacturers don’t set insurance rates. But they can add technology that helps control insurance costs, as Honda did when it decided to include ABS on all its streetbikes. We are seeing increased use of traction control, but certainly more can be done on the technology side to improve safety.

Product: If you fall in love, there’s almost nothing you won’t do for your objet d’amour. So, how do you get people to fall even more in love…so that they are salivating at the sales desk with money in hand? Well, here are a few thought-starters:

Video. Riders will take a gorgeously designed bike and bolt a honkin’ GoPro on it? So, how about working with a camera manufacturer to create a truly image-stabilized camera that fits production mounts on the bike?

Display. How about a full-color OLED display window as part of the instrument cluster? It’s shocking that only a few bikes have color displays in this day and age. If thermostats and microwaves have programmable color touchscreens, why are bikes left behind?

Security. And how about redesigning how locks and security work on a bike? More than 45,500 bikes are stolen each year. This also should push insurance rates down.

These are not difficult innovations, but they do require work to try something new, to pony up the dollars to get it done, and then to tell people about it in a Godzilla-big creative way.

It’s time. People see my supersonic rocket and confess to me that they really, really want to buy a motorcycle and ride. The demand is there—it just needs a little more high-octane innovation to fire it up.

Aerin Shaw is an AMA member and marketing professional from Cincinnati, who is addicted to her Suzuki GSXR 1300R.