so thin these days, and price competition is fiercer now, that by the end of the season there has been current year inventory that has been discounted at the end of the model year cycle. " This has been primarily due to the change in timing.
' this massive ship was steered in the wrong direction for five years '
Changing the long established MYannouncement cycle has been counterproductive. " Over the past four years, we haven ' t seen the new models until spring- and even then, we didn ' t actually get them until summer, or even late summer. By which time nobody ' s buying new motorcycles anymore. In my opinion, that is also a major reason for the decline in sales. " These days we have basically had to pre-order, specifying which colors and models we wanted, without even having seen the motorcycles. On top of that, there ' s a wider range of colors to choose from, so it ' s impossible to really predict what customers will want in the future. I ' m glad that Harley has said it will go back to the old, tried-and-true system in the future." In custom trend terms, the Thunderbike workshops
' wars and political developments in the U. S.'
are an excellent bellwether of customer preferences, demand and taste. The Thunderbike team often see trends starting to emerge before many of us have seen them on the roads, in the media and at the shows. " It ' s difficult to discuss trends at times of declining sales- other than that being the trend. We are still building all kinds of custom bikes. We specialize in ' Bagger Performance ' customs- especially on the Lowrider ST, Road Glides and now the Street Glide ST. We are mostly using Thunderbike performance parts in our own, popular and proven ' classic ' styles- such as the Dragstyle based on the ' Breakout ' or ' Chicano ' themes- they are still going strong. " We ' ve built quite a number of ' Chicanos ' lately. It ' s a great style, and I think it ' s here to stay. They are relatively easy to customize yet still have a cool look- and they ride really great. The customer gets an extreme custom bike that also performs well." Speaking about production parts and inventory
Thunderbike ' s " Kick Off " event always attracts thousands of visitors and is a preview of things to come.
Andreas says that " we always allow market conditions to dictate how we operate. Responding to market demand is an important way to plan the operation. " If we notice that a product is selling better, then we react immediately and increase production batches. Compared to the famous brand names in the market we are still a small manufacturer. We do not outsource any manufacturing to the Far East- we manufacture everything in-house. That gives us the advantage of being highly flexible. " We don ' t have to purchase large quantities of components or materials in advance but can produce small batch sizes and immediately adjust production planning to meet demand. We try to control our supply chain and not be controlled by it. " It may seem like a cost disadvantage not to manufacture in the Far East, but we can deliver immediately and maintain complete control over quality. And, to address this vexing issue- it ' s obvious that parts manufactured in the Far East can be copied and then re-enter the German / International market via Alibaba and similar platforms. They are sold for ' peanuts ' and they lack the quality assurance and service we can provide. Sadly, it is a familiar story. Asked where his primary markets are and how he reaches his customers Andreas says that " we do a lot of B2B business with Harley dealers- they are our biggest market. We have some distributors internationally, for example in Japan. They do a great job, and we ' ve been working with for a long time. We have customers all over the world who request and sell our products, mostly the exclusive parts that are only available from Thunderbike. For example, single-sided swingarms, pneumatic Springer forks, designer wheel sets, that kind of thing. " Here in Europe the only distributor we work with is Custom Chrome Europe- we are not listed in any
other distribution channel. " Wholesaling is a complex issue, because when a wholesaler provides services, they naturally need to make money from those added value services. And the retailers who buy from them need to make a profit as well. Consequently, the retail price goes up.
' a lot of B2B business with Harley dealers '
We will stay true to our approach- working with only one wholesaler that handles fast selling, high volume parts and covers all the necessary aspects of international business and promotion for us." It is no secret, relatively speaking, that while manufacturing in Germany is generally a high-quality landscape, it also entails high costs for labor, energy, materials, and regulatory compliance. On top of that, there are now supply chain uncertainties caused by uncontrollable, volatile fluctuations in prices, tariffs,