American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 208 November 2016 | Page 12

NEWS

AIMExpo bids farewell to Orlando

BRIEFS
In the eight months to August 2016
Harley-Davidson had sold 2,565
motorcycles in Switzerland, leaving
it in third place in market share
terms behind Yamaha and BMW,
but ahead of Honda, Kawasaki,
KTM, Triumph, Ducat i and Suzuki.
The #001 Limited Edition Jack
Daniel’s Indian Chief Vintage
Motorcycle, #001 of #150 Chief
Vintage and Springfield
variants built, has been
auctioned for $150,000 at
Barrett-Jackson, Las Vegas. All
funds from the auction benefit
U.S. military personnel and
their families through
Operation Ride Home. List
price for the specials was
$29,999 each.
Polaris has announced acquisition
of Transamerican Auto Parts (TAP), a
“vertically integrated, multi-channel
market leader in off-road Jeep and
truck aftermarket accessories with
sales of approximately $740 million
and significant growth potential.”
Polaris will pay an “aggregate
consideration” of $665 million implying a multiple of
approximately 9.0 times EBITDA.
TAP sells and installs an extensive
line of accessories for Jeep and
truck enthusiasts.
BMW USA says it “remains on
course for growth” and that
“we will continue to grow
sustainably and profitably and
want to increase motorcycle
sales to 200,000 units
worldwide by 2020”. The
company says that the
American market is an
important element in achieving
this goal, that they plan to
increase from 150 to 200
dealers, and expect to double
market share to 10%. The
company reported record
worldwide sales of 116,044
units to September 30th. It
launched its new K 1600
Bagger at INTERMOT, and
anticipates its R nineT aircooled flat-twin Boxer engine
R nineT ‘Heritage’ range
growing to six models for the
US market.

12

s this edition of AMD
Magazine went to press, we
were still waiting to hear
from the organizer (Motorcycle
Industry Council/MIC) just how well
the show had done, but early
reports suggested that attendance
on the trade/dealer and the public
days was up on last year.
Being staged the weekend after
INTERMOT in Germany, this was the 4th
annual AIMExpo, and the last that will
take place at its 2013 launch venue - the
Orange County Convention Center,
Orlando, Florida, before the event
moves to the Midwest for 2017.
It would appear that the Midwest is the
spiritual home of the motorcycle industry,
in trade expo terms at least – drawn to it
like a moth to a naked light bulb.
With the very high number of franchise
dealerships and independent retail
stores within a 500 mile radius of
somewhere like Columbus, Ohio (the
new host city), it is no wonder that the
MIC has decided to bow to the
seemingly inevitable and “go to the
people” rather than hoping that the
people would find the show, wherever
it was staged.
The formula will remain the same for
2017 – with the first two days (Thursday
21st and Friday 22nd September)
reserved for dealer, builder and industry
attendance; with the doors being
opened to the public as well at the
weekend (September 23rd and 24th).
What the MIC must hope will change is
the endless speculation about whether
the event is in the right part of the United
States, and how likely it is to pull an
audience that is sufficient to deliver the
kind of return on investment that the
hard-pressed exhibitor community
needs.
If the mother lode doesn’t yield
sufficient attendance for the show to
liquidate the industry’s investment, then
it would be hard to figure out where
could.
No doubt the debate about timing will
rage until the end of time itself – with
many still wedded to the firm view that
such shows need to be in the spring.
But that is to miss an important point. It
isn’t timing as such that makes AIMExpo
vulnerable to this speculation – it isn’t
the calendar that is on trial. It is the
overall concept itself – that of bringing
a European style mixed aftermarket and
OE, trade and consumer style event,
which depends on fall timing for MY
debuts, to a continental sized national
market such as the United States – it is

A

AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - NOVEMBER 2016

According to vendor feedback it looks like the 4th annual AIMExpo (the last
to be staged at Orlando, Florida) saw increased dealer and public attendance
numbers despite the concerns caused by Hurricane Matthew a week earlier

that which remains under scrutiny.
That is the main square that AIMExpo
still needs to circle. However, with the
backing of the market’s trade
association (as is the case with the
European Expo models AIMExpo seeks
to replicate) and the experience that
former Cycle World publisher and MIC
Chairman Larry Little is able to leverage
(in his role as MIC Events Vice President),
then, again, if AIMExpo can’t pull it off,
then the motorcycle industry would be
justified in concluding that it was never
meant to be!
Indeed, the results now (finally) being
achieved at INTERMOT in Europe in
terms of custom and mainstream living
in happier harmony than was ever going
to be the case at Indy, the portents are
favorable, and much of the hard work
has already been done – securing the
backing of most of the major OEMs
gives AIMExpo a solid foundation.
The ’Custom Culture’ show-withinshow concept that Bob Kay is
developing for AIMExpo is a mirror of
what has been achieved at Cologne
with ‘INTERMOT Customized’.
At Cologne the anchor is the AMD World
Championship of Custom Bike Building,
and with the Championship of the
Americas as a World Championship
affiliate, it is very likely that AIMExpo in
September will benefit in V-twin industry
exhibitor, builder and attendance terms,
not only from being “back in the
womb”, but also from the plowed
ground that Easyrider Magazine has
created in the Midwest in February each
year - at Columbus, with its own custom
show, and, of course, down the road at
Cincinnati with the V-Twin Expo.
It remains to be seen if the custom
market can sustain two competing expo
concepts (most in the exhibitor
community think not), and with Tucker
Rocky/Biker’s Choice (Texas) and Parts
Unlimited/Drag Specialties (Indy) both
announcing dealer events for February
2017, there is clearly trouble ahead in
show terms in the next few months.

RETRO MODIFIED winner Jordan Dickinson,
Union Speed Cycle, MN

STREET CUSTOM winner Adam Karns,
Karns Kustoms, MD

PERFORMANCE CUSTOM winner Jesse Spade,
Jesse Spade Designs, GA

As regular readers will know, I have
been a firm advocate of both the
apparently competing, rival expo
formulas … I think it is important that
“the tribe” has its opportunities to
“commune unto itself”, but important
too that custom shops are able to be
exposed to best practice and retail
opportunities from elsewhere on the
powersports industry radar.
If the ‘INTERMOT Customized’ showwithin-show concept can be
convincingly replicated at AIMExpo in
the Midwest, then maybe, at last, the
hatchet that split the industry between
Indianapolis and Cincinnati in 1997 can
finally be buried.
www.aimexpousa.com
www.AMDchampionship.com