dealers over stocked and under capitalized
equaled . history .
winning races . paddock .
Making Milwaukee Great Again - Drag Specialties dropped anchor for the first time at the newly remodeled Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee ( September 7-8 ) for its
2024 NVP Product Expo … lots of space , lots of people , lots of bikes . See pages 21-26 ...
' FLYING FLEA '
Happy Anniversary " Trough of Despond "
This month marks an important anniversary for the global motorcycle industry . We are now ten years on from the lower point in the post-Lehman-apocalypse Great Recession motorcycle industry business cycle in September and October 2014 . That was the point when , having hit rock bottom and been bouncing along the rocky bottom of a broad U-curve , the market in Europe started to see the first green shoots of recovery . Founded in 1844 by German immigrant Henry Lehman , Lehman Brothers was a Wall Street stalwart . A storied , revered and hugely respected investment bank , stockbroker , insurer and financial services conglomerate . The fourth largest investment bank in the USA was also a mortgage underwriting powerhouse . Therein lay the toxin surging through its veins . When the sub-prime home loan industry in the USA , and the chicken-into-steak derivatives trading smoke and mirrors on which it was based , brought global financial markets crashing down in 2008 , it set in motion a cascade of system failure that still shapes the business expectations of the world in which we live and trade today . Lehman saw its stock lose some 97 % of its value on Friday , September 12 , 2008 , as it became clear that it , and the Wall Street partners it traded with , could no longer cover their debt obligations - the dreaded ' Margin Call '. The result was a bankruptcy filing on Monday , September 15 , 2008 , and who can forget the sight of overpaid millionaire traders ( some of them not old enough to shave yet ) walking out of their Wall Street offices clutching their leaving boxes . The financial shocks reverberated around the financial capitals of the world , instantly , and for years . Among others , those impacts can be seen today , not least in the shape of Basel I , II and III and other ' too little , too late ' New Gen banking regulations that are supposed to protect liquidity . The Lehman collapse wasn ' t the only ' trigger ' that brought the global financial system down like a deck of cards , and it wasn ' t the only financial institution to go down the drain . It wasn ' t even the first in that ' Great Unwind ', nor was it the last . But the resulting ' Great Recession ' ( as it quickly became known ) was deep and intense - often referenced as the most severe recession since the Great Depression that followed the 1929 Wall Street collapse . However , in the United States at least , it didn ' t really last all that long , certainly not relative to that depth and intensity in Europe . By 2010 , the good ship USA had somewhat righted itself , with shares and much else recovering much of the lost ground by 2012 . The process in America was far from pain-free , but in Europe it was especially acute - brutal . Even the financial morphine of ' Quantative Easing ' took years to restore growth , jobs and the flow of capital . Even now , in Europe and the USA , governments and their Central Banks are struggling to cope with the level of debt that ' QE ' created . Especially once interest rates rose way beyond the ' notional ' levels at which they were set to ensure that the debt could be serviced . Europe was slower into the impacts than the USA , and was also slower to recover from the much deeper turmoil it unleashed there . It destroyed lives . It destroyed business . It destroyed entire industries . Those markets ( like ours ) that are dependent on Discretionary Leisure Dollar spending were bang in the crosshairs .
dealers over stocked and under capitalized
In terms of new motorcycle registrations , the market in Europe basically halved and very nearly halved again in the course of six years . The decline didn ' t even start to stabilize until January 2014 , and it wasn ' t until Q3 that year that we saw those ubiquitous first green shoots of recovery . That was the motorcycle industry ' s " Trough of Despond " year . So , here we are , exactly a decade later , and how did that early indicator play out ? Did the green shoots grow ? Well yes , they did . Relative to the six years that had gone before , the six years to March 2020 saw a spectacular recovery . We gradually saw a return to market growth through the period from 2014 to late 2019 . It wasn ' t all smooth riding . The growth stalled a couple of times , but overall , and with no little thanks to the efforts of the national trade associations , the team at ACEM in Brussels and the major European OEMs , the motorcycle industry managed to pull it back - halfway back at any rate . In that time , Europe ' s dealers had too much inventory but were chronically short of inventory capital . They are again now . It all sounds rather familiar . Banks weren ' t lending and manufacturers were very slow , careful and deliberate about how they built back , what kind of machines they built back with , and how they support their dealers ( if at all ). By the end of 2019 , we had started to see regular new highs , new records in post-Lehman Apocalypse timescale terms , and back to the early noughties and late 1990s in some cases . Then the blind panic of Covid . Followed by a Covid bounce that was especially kind to our industry - irrationally so maybe , but hey , we were happy to take it . Since then though , more panic . Supply chain issues and costs . Freight issues and costs . The little matter of Russia ' s ongoing invasion of Ukraine . Then arising energy crisis , inflation , interest rate rises and collapse in growth that it triggered . Plus , all the other uncertainties that are still writing our script - not least the present global OE sales trend data . Compared to the rock bottom that sales hit in 2014 , a decade later and motorcycle registrations have recovered . But as someone said to me a while ago , don ' t be fooled . Compared to where we were 20 years ago , now all we have is half a ' Great Recession '. It ' s true . The industry has still not recovered the ground from the runaway train days of 20 to 30 years ago . It never will . Whether it ' s over inventory , unrealistic demands about the space in which the brand is represented , interest rates , new model retail prices , property taxes , business insurance rates , labor issues or the still widespread decline in consumer confidence , are we sure this isn ' t just a re-make of a movie we ' ve seen before ?
Robin Bradley
Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world . com
UNIQUELY POWERFUL
NOW IN OUR 33rd !
YEAR
AWARD WINNING VOICE OF THE GLOBAL V-TWIN CUSTOM PARTS , PERFORMANCE AND ACCESSORY INDUSTRY
Indian Motorcycle Celebrates the End of an Era of FTR 750 Flat Track Racing Dominance
As new AFT rules come into force for 2025 , calling for production-only engines , it is the end of the road for Indian Motorcycle ' s all-conquering race-only FTR750 engine . Following the final round of the 2024 season ( Lake Ozark Raceway , Missouri , on September 14 - which Mees won on the FTR750 ), new AFT rules for 2025 and beyond render the FTR750 ineligible . Long live the King ! Indian Motorcycle ' s multichampionship-winning race bike leaves behind an unprecedented legacy , having secured seven SuperTwins titles and more than 100 race wins in 138 races - a remarkable achievement that is unlikely ever to be
Indian Motorcycle introduced the FTR750 as a flat track race machine designed to propel the brand back into professional racing in 2016 - following a 60-year hiatus . Now competing just its eighth season of competition , the
FTR750 has established itself as the most dominant race bike in the sport ' s
" Since 1901 , racing has been core to the Indian Motorcycle brand DNA ," said Gary Gray , Vice President Racing and Service for Indian Motorcycle .
75 % win ratio in 138 races
" From our founders , Hendee and Hedstrom , competing in endurance races in the early 1900s , to the dominant Wrecking Crew of the late 1940s , Indian Motorcycle has been
" The FTR750 was the vehicle that reestablished Indian Motorcycle Racing and returned the brand to a place of competitive dominance ." Since its debut , the FTR750 revived the storied tradition of the original Indian Wrecking Crew and revolutionized the landscape of flat track racing in doing so . It quickly earned a reputation as the most dominant machine the AFT
The FTR750 has a 75 % -win ratio , winning 104 of the 138 races . It has secured 292 total podiums at 132 races , earning a 96 % -podium ratio . The FTR750 has a perfect championship record , winning all premier class titles since 2017 . " I ' ve been fortunate enough to be on this journey with Indian Motorcycle since day one ," said reigning AFT SuperTwins Champion Jared Mees . " Racing the FTR750 has been an incredible experience , as I ' ve never experienced a bike like this in all my years competing . We ' ve had immense success over the past eight years , and it ' s been a true honor to be a part of
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OCT 2024
SHOWZONE 8-9
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Can-Am electrics
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