V-Twin Expo- A child of its times
The news that Easyriders Events has cancelled its 2018 V-Twin Expo at Cincinnati may have come as no surprise to many, but everyone should regret its passing, and above all understand that it is market conditions, change and consolidation that has brought us to this place. The show was first staged in 2000. It was born as a reaction to the relocation of the allindustry Dealer Expo to Indianapolis, and that show’ s refusal to recognize the specialty needs of the then fast-growing V-twin parts and accessory and custom bike building sectors. V-Twin Expo was a“ child of its times” and has now fallen victim to the radically different times in which we now find ourselves. Fast forward 17 years from that bright, shiny new start that( in Expo terms) Easyriders gave us, and my word, what changed times these now indeed are! I have always guesstimated that the market hit“ peak-V-twin”, certainly in aftermarket terms, in the spring of 2006, by which time there had already been mutterings about the market not sustaining into the final months of the year prior. The impacts of hurricane Katrina and Detroit’ s liberal splashing of so-called employee discount levels over everyone, and anyone who visited car showrooms, were cited as issues, but the orthodoxy then was“ hey, it’ ll be okay”. They were seen as being just short-term, specific and isolated factors, and that normal service would be resumed the following year. In fact, 2006 was the first year that those who were listening, those who were paying attention, were starting to hear rumblings about credit apps failing and mortgage defaults steepling. I remember staying in the U. S. after the V-Twin Expo in advance of‘ Indy’ two weeks later( an‘ Indy’ which more resembled an Asian ATV swap meet than a professional powersports expo), and being in a Harley dealership in California and seeing a slew of sharply reduced stickers – a shock after the years of wait lists and gouging. If memory serves right, it was in 2007 that we saw the highest number of booths at V- Twin Expo. As the shockwaves caused by the EPA’ s plans to tighten on-highway emissions standards and the cycle of ever deepening financial issues took a hold of consumer confidence and spending, by the time of the“ Lehman Apocalypse” of October 2008, layoffs and closures were already commonplace, and the parts and accessory industry atrophy, that we are still enduring to this day, had set in. The V-twin industry and its specialty Expo had a long way to fall, and barring a couple of false dawns, it has dropped like a stone ever since. In recent years the number of visitors and exhibitors at V-Twin Expo had continued to decline in line with the market’ s diminishing sales opportunities and when, three years ago, Harley’ s own recovery stalled and went into reverse, the writing was on the wall. In tandem with the channel consolidation triggered by acquisitions in a declining market, the impact of e-commerce and the changing of the demographics that had underpinned the phenomenal growth in the V-twin industry since the early 1990s, it was, regrettably, only a matter of time before Easyriders had to face the altered realities in which we are all trading. There has been plenty of conjecturing as to why it has come to this. Personally, I don’ t think the launch of AIMExpo has had much effect on the V-Twin Expo, largely because of the timing and because, until this year, it was being staged just about as far away
‘ the market math is horrible’
from the V-twin industry’ s midwestern heartland as it is possible to get. However, there is no question that the emergence of the current pattern of expo style distributor, dealer and vendor events in February has had a massive impact, along with the wider consolidation issues and the collapse in available budgets as a result of declining sales. of the numbers that I have been hearing about just how dramatic the decline Some in industry revenues really is are heart-stopping. Both in aftermarket parts and
accessory terms but also, now too, in new motorcycle registration terms. The V-Twin Expo announcement was made before the latest round of quarterlies from Harley and Polaris. What is interesting is that both manufacturers are currently able to lay claim to a growing market share, albeit in a declining market overall. The irony( and danger) of that is that the overall industry sales picture is so bad that even in making and selling fewer custom-style streetbikes this year than last, the combined share of the overall market seen by the V-twin market is actually growing, but with fewer bikes. That is horrible math. That said, right now, it does rather beg the question about the long-term viability of any powersports trade expo( ATV, UTV and SxS market performance aside) that is not prioritizing outreach to the old and( especially)“ New Gen” custom culture. Relatively speaking, the“ custom” market could be transitioning, as we‘ speak’, from traditionally having been worth around a third to a half of the available motorcycle market footprint in North America to being in the region of a half to two thirds of that( currently much smaller) available opportunity. I always maintained that if we didn’ t have the V-Twin Expo, then sure as heck it wouldn’ t be long before someone, somewhere, would try to reinvent it. With tweaks, yes, and yes, with its agenda firmly based on the multi-platform, multi price-point market that is replacing dependency on the pure V-twin market of the boomers. Down the years the opportunity that the V-Twin Expo provided has been a mainstay of my business opportunities, and I for one will miss it – not least because I still do firmly believe that there is a need for there to be speciality events as well as wider, multidiscipline shows. As I have been saying for years, dealers need to tend their own gardens as well as look over the fence to see what others are doing! On behalf of all those who, like me, have valued the business opportunity that the V- Twin Expo has represented down the years, I’ d like to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Jim and Meredith Betlach and their team for all their dedication and hard work, and to Easyriders owner Joe Teresi for what he has done for countless businesses these past 17 years. I’ m sure I am not alone in sharing the regret that they no doubt feel keenly that it should end in cancellation rather than the sunlit uplands of a vibrant future, but they can be mighty proud of the legacy the show leaves and the contribution they made to the lives of so many of us.
Robin Bradley Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world. com