International Dealer News IDN 116 Dec 2013/Jan 2014 | Page 15

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< resigned, but now strangely at peace with the

HS MBS ‘Skid-less’: Based in Korea, HS Co., Ltd. Has been researching and developing their
Motorcycle Brake System (MBS) since 1993. They released their patented HS MBS two years ago
and it is said to offer ‘skid-less’ stable brake performance in an improved and more compact
product format than previous models. Installed between the master cylinder and the front wheel
cylinder, it is said to prevent the wheels from locking-up, even if riders apply the front brake too
heavily. The company says that preventing wheel lock-up means their system has no need for
electronic unlocking devices such as a speed sensor; www.hsmbs.com

Valter Moto Components:
Established as a subsidiary of
the Valter Motor Group in
1998, Valter Esposito
continues to add top quality
precision manufactured
component designs for most
popular makes and models.
Esposito’s speciality is high
strength, light weight durable
materials, with products such
as rearsets, frame sliders, race
and street hardware kits,
licence plate supports, muffler
brackets, footpegs, levers and
handlebars;
www.valtermoto.com

Bitubo: In addition to going into the mono and twin shock market for cruisers, naked and custom
style street bikes, Gianni Mardollo continues to update and add to his range of suspension and
handling solutions for street and race applications on the track, on the road and on the dirt;
www.bitubo.com

much reduced level of business available to them in
Italy. Many I spoke with confessed that the process of
getting to that point had been tough, involving the
shedding of personnel and overheads, and of seeing
many good customers reduce their orders or disappear
altogether.
In a market where the sales statistics have been just
so bad for so long, there is no surprise there, but many
of those vendors are reporting that even if profits from
their much lower sales are also much reduced, they
are at least now making money from the vastly
reduced market.
A few months ago I wrote in quite pessimistic terms
about the apparent lack of innovation and new
product development taking place in the market in
Europe.
It has always been a truism that the twin pillars of
recessionary survival are R&D and marketing spend.
Well, it looks like that the industry has got at least
half of the equation right in that, actually, as will be
seen in this and subsequent editions of International
Dealer News, there is after all quite a lot of new
product activity taking place – especially in terms of
hard parts and accessories, and especially in terms of
apparel safety features.
Unfortunately for people in a position such as I (and
the likes of EICMA and INTERMOT) who are
dependent on marketing budgets, it would appear
that the second pillar is still stunted. It would appear
that the primary problem has been that having spent
such budget as they have on getting new products
ready, nobody has had any money left with which to
tell anybody about them yet – ourselves included!
The E-bike market appears to be headed towards
second stage maturity (it isn’t quite there yet, but there
are signs of product improvement), and critical service
item areas such as batteries and their diagnostics, filter
technology, oils and brake products are showing signs
of life – 'new-tech' is improving product performance
and productionisation improvements are delivering
better products at market-friendly prices.
The exhaust industry still remains in chronic oversupply, but the ‘Cinderella’ of aftermarket parts and
accessories, the all important and often overlooked
suspension market, appears to be innovating and
progressing as never before, as established players
and new entrants alike find ever more reliable ways of
delivering real world handling improvements that
riders can live with, without requiring degrees in
mechanical engineering.
If expo square meterage really is a measure of how
well a market sector is (or is not) performing, then the
helmet and apparel industry must be the ultimate
yardstick.
Until a few years ago it looked as though the size
and number of helmet and accessory vendor booths
at EICMA and INTERMOT could, on their own, fill two
complete halls, however, now both the number of
booths being bought by such exhibitors, and the total
square meterage they are investing in is, with a few
exceptions, massively reduced on the real estate and
architecture of the past.
Writing this article three weeks after a show like
EICMA has advantages as well as disadvantages. The
advantages all revolve around remaining impressions
being the lasting and hopefully more accurate
impressions about the experience.
In that respect the overriding and lasting impression
that I take into 2014 from the 71st edition of EICMA
is that regardless of what is happening to the new
motorcycle registration figures in Italy, and

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INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - DEC/JAN 2013

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