American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 242 September 2019 | Page 28

NEWS
BRIEFS
New motorcycle registrations in
Poland were +39.23 percent at
13,869 units for the first seven
months of 2019 - the best since
2016. When used motorcycles
from elsewhere in Europe that
are receiving their first
registration in Poland are
factored in, the total number of
new and used motorcycles sold
were running at +12.56 percent
for the YTD (60,182 units - the
best since before 2010). Poland
is Europe's 6th largest market in
total new and used PTW terms.
The Austrian motorcycle market was -
12.64% for Q2 at 6,424 units,
leaving it at -0.49% for the year to
June 2019 (9,910 units). In its home
market KTM is motorcycle market
share leader, having sold 2,434 units
in Q2 for 24.56 percent market
share. BMW is second (1,366 units
sold, 13.78 percent share), Honda
third (10.68 percent share), followed
by Yamaha (10.52 percent),
Kawasaki (7.02 percent) and Harley-
Davidson 6th with a 6.17% share.
RumbleOn, the online buy and
sell platform for pre-owned
powersports vehicles, posted
record revenue of $270.2
million dollars for Q2 2019 with
unit sales of 13,928 vehicles.
CEO Marshall Chesrown: "Our
success in powersports has
given us a playbook that we are
deploying across the
automotive business rapidly,
and we are in the early days of
establishing ourselves as a
leader. We believe there is an
immense opportunity for us to
continue to gain market share
in powersports."
Harley brakes vendor
Brembo (Italy) has
revealed first half year
revenues of € 1,323.8m, -0.7% on a
consolidated like-for-like basis, with
EBITDA up by 4.1% at
€ 270.6m. (20.4% margin). Brembo
decided to discontinue industrial
operations at its Buenos Aires plant,
with Brembo Argentina S.A. placed in
liquidation. Global sales declined by -
7.6% in Japan, -4.6% in Italy and by
-13.6% in Germany; China was flat
at -0.5%. Sales grew by +18.2% in
India, +5.3% in France and by
+1.0% in the UK. North American
sales (USA, Mexico and Canada) rose
by +6.7%.
28
'Da Hooligan' - a 'Zod-Bob'
As multi-European Top Fuel
Champions, Zodiac International has
long been noted for its in-house dyno
tuned and engineered performance
project bikes, and seen here is 'Da
Hooligan', the latest chapter in a
Zodiac specials story that started at
least 25 years ago.
This 2018 107ci/1750 cc M-8 Fat Bob
is the latest stocker to get the Zodiac
treatment with all parts used available
from their "Bikers Book" catalog. As is
usual with Zodiac, the emphasis has
been on relatively straight forward and
inexpensive modifications for a 'real
world' performance project that they
can put within the reach of all their
dealers' customers, built by Zodiac
CEO Vincent Pels and his team at their
in-house Dynojet dynamometer and
CNC-equipped race workshop.
On the basis that if you are going to
improve the performance, then
addressing the shortcomings of the
stock chassis' mannerisms is always
the place to start for Vincent. His three
priorities were first and foremost
handling the upgraded power, then
inexpensive engine tuning that strikes
the right balance between gain and
budget, and then the looks - the
package you wrap it all up in.
The handling has been beefed up with
Italian made Bitubo components - a
fully adjustable Bitubo cartridge kit for
the H-D fork tubes at the front and
preload and rebound-adjustable
Bitubo shocks at the rear.
First up was an S&S air cleaner,
Andrews M462 camshaft and a Two
Brothers Racing 2:1 exhaust, fuel and
injection tuned using the advanced
and proven Czech made Diag-4-Bike
system. On 'Da Hooligan' the results of
these simple steps have been an
increase in the stock 75 bhp and 110
ft.lb torque at 3,000 rpm to 109 bhp
(a thumping 45% increase) and 127
ft.lb torque (172 Nm).
Having been among motorcycles with
the Zodiac drag racing team all his life,
Vincent did the mapping himself. In
Text and pictures by Onno "Berserk" Wieringa /Madness Photography
tuning the Fat Bob he explained that
"we have not focussed on top end
horsepower. It always sounds great,
those big numbers, but what a rider
ultimately wants is an engine with lots
of torque at lower rpms, a strong bike
that reacts well on the throttle in all
rpm ranges."
In terms of accessories, Zodiac raided
the warehouse for a Burly Brand
fairing that had exactly the right width
for the fat front fork. Zodiac has
developed a kit that consist of a 5 3/4
headlight housing mounting kit for the
headlight and the Burly fairing with a
plug & play Zodiac wiring kit. "For the
headlight we opted for a Vision-X LED
with halo ring and, together with
Smoke Them Miles
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - SEPTEMBER 2019
adjustable RST levers, Zodiac 'Argile'
grips and a set of (Italian made) Otto
di Cuore minimalistic indicators, so the
Bob got completely different looks."
At the rear the original large bracket
with license plate holder and all the
stock lighting was removed. The
Zodiac Revox rear light turned out to
fit perfectly under the rear fender and
a set of Otto di Cuore indicators sit very
discretely on fender struts. Zodiac has
also developed a custom side mount
for the license plate, including the
required lighting, and a set of PM
'Formula' series (cam, transmission
and derby) covers gives the engine a
custom touch.
www.zodiac.nl
Custom builder Thor Drake
of See See Motorcycle
Coffee Co fame (Portland,
OR.) has apparently had a
dream - to cook while out
on the open road. So he decided to bring
together two heritage brands - Indian
Motorcycle and Traeger Wood-Fired Grills -
custom building a one-of-a-kind Indian
Springfield Darkhorse with an Ironwood 885
wood pellet grill attached as its sidecar. "This
Springfield Darkhorse features a fully functional
Traeger ironwood grill, allowing the rider to
experience the thrill of riding while cooking a
delicious wood fired meal. Leave those greasy
spoon diners in the rear-view mirror and chow
down on juicy brisket, smoky ribs and killer
pulled pork wherever your travels take you."
www.AMDchampionship.com