More Bikes , More Craftsmanship , More People , More Fun , More Opportunity for More Sales
With the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building being staged at the Cologne Exhibition Center in Germany ( Koelnmesse ) at the start of October , the focus here at AMD- Land has , inevitably , been on the final preparations and details to make the experience a memorable one for our competitors . Doing so was one of the many “ hallmarks of difference ” that we sought to build into the ‘ AMD ’ from the start , over a decade ago , as an antidote to the scant regard in which most custom bike competition organizers appeared to hold their competitor community . With the World Championship it has always been the opposite . The competitors who invest so heavily in being a part of the World Championship are the heroes of process as far as we are concerned , and we always do as much as we can to ensure that their investment in being with us for a week and , in some cases , in travelling many thousands of miles , not just internationally but between continents often , is something that they feel “ warm and fuzzy ” about making . It is a matter of great pride , therefore , that this year we will see the reigning World Champion - Suicide Customs - traveling all the way from Japan again to defend the title , and that we are seeing so many , and so many old friends , returning to enjoy everything that the ‘ AMD ’ and the Hall 10 INTERMOT Customized show-within-show concept has to offer . In addition to near record numbers of bikes competing this year ( certainly the highest number since 2004 ), and a record number of exhibitors buying a record square footage at INTERMOT ‘ Customized ’, we will almost certainly see a record visitor attendance too this year as the public days are extended from four to five to incorporate the German National Holiday on 3rd October . As it is , the attendance previously seen at INTERMOT Customized already makes it the best attended indoor expo style custom show the world has ever seen , with some 150,000 high mileage riders enjoying the custom bikes and meeting the exhibitors . As this edition of AMD Magazine went to press , it looked like we will be hosting around 95 bikes , being entered by around 65 builders from something like 30 different countries , which of itself is a record as far as we can tell . The synergy between the bikes and a classic custom expo formula has always been a compelling one , and has always been something of a holy grail for the custom motorcycle industry . The organizers of INTERMOT ( Koelnmesse ) do a great job of packing as many features as possible into all aspects , including Hall 10 , and the ‘ AMD ’ may be the headline news for custom enthusiasts , but it is far from the only good reason to visit INTERMOT Customized . However , the overriding mission that we have always had with the World Championship has been to be able to create a forum , a nexus , where the greatest possible number of vendors ( motorcycle manufacturers , parts and accessory manufacturers and distributors ), dealers ( authorized and independent custom shops ), builders and , most importantly , potential customers , are able to see the custom riding options in an environment that does it justice , both in visual and attendance terms , and that is what INTERMOT Customized now represents .
‘ critical mass design and engineering showcase ’
It is a design and engineering showcase for the creativity , innovation and craftsmanship that our industry has always offered . Qualities that for too long have been perceived to be on the fringes of the wider motorcycling and PTW ( Powered- Two-Wheeler ) market , something that has been niche rather than mainstream . Well , as we head towards the third decade of the 21st century with millions of potential new consumers emerging as savvy consumers who value quality and experience , the opportunity that a project such as the ‘ AMD ’ and INTERMOT Customized represents , is a concept whose time has clearly come . It is a project that has the market ’ s ‘ Zeitgeist ’ firmly in its cross hairs . At last it is a project that offers the custom motorcycle industry , and those who would like to engage with it , exactly the kind of platform that has always been needed - a convincing and genuinely global international headquarters event . One for a market that , within a decade of now , will see some 50 percent of all new Harley and Indian motorcycle sales happening outside the USA , and a market where traditional custom brands such as Harley and Indian will only be a part of the story . A market where , sadly , Boomers like me are ( one way or another ) no longer fuelling the market ’ s spend . Instead , the money in the market will be spent by generations of consumers for whom the world without the internet , social media and digital wallet will be as alien as peak Detroit was to the horse and buggy drivers of the nineteenth century . Most of the generation reading this are witness to societal and commercial changes the like of which have not been seen in their lifetimes before . Sure , there has always been change , there always needs to be , but what we are part way through now is seismic . The old orthodoxies are no longer valid . The status quo of what and how the custom motorcycle industry has gone about its selling is a footnote in the ever-evolving story . The new ways of being reached and sold to that characterize the emerging consumer base may look and feel entirely different , but the differences are superficial - the fundamentals remain as valid as they ever have been . People still want to be enthused and motivated by great ideas and opportunities , and in our own humble little backwater of the bigger picture that is global capitalism , we are seeing those fundamentals re-establish themselves . Those fundamentals may look , taste and smell different , but in our case , they are still motorcycles . People will still want to personalize them , enjoy them and spend money on doing so . By the time you are reading this , more people will have been doing so by crowding through the aisles of the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building and INTERMOT Customized at Cologne , Germany , than has ever been the case at any indoor custom motorcycle expo anywhere before !
Robin Bradley Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world . com
4 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - OCTOBER 2018 www . AMDchampionship . com