Where will you be in 100 years time? It is certainly an interesting question, especially when you consider what we have seen in the past century of time.
Before the internet, before cellphones, before computers or televisions…before even sliced bread…there was Suzuki. That is right, this stalwart of the motorcycle industry just clocked its 100th birthday.
In an attempt to bury the news in the Friday rush for the weekend, we now get a surprise announcement from Harley-Davidson saying that the Bar & Shield brand has parted ways with President and CEO Matt Levatich.
Harley-Davidson maintains that the move was “mutual” in its published statement about the news, but any broken hearted teenager can tell you that is never mutual, and in the business world this is especially the case when the news is dropped at the end of the weekly news cycle, and no permanent replacement is announced.
Ever since it was quietly made known that Ari Henning and Zack Courts, along with Spenser Robert, would be leaving the MotorTrend family, and their two-season-old show Throttle Out, we have been wondering where the trio would land…and now we know.
Announcing that they have joined the content and media team at Comoto (which was recently in the news for its acquisition of J&P Cycles), the move sees Courts, Henning, and Robert staying in Los Angeles and starting Comoto’s first West Coast office.
It has been a curious thing to see the European press beginning to make hay of the news that MV Agusta has filed trademark renewals for the Elefant name.
Some publications have even gone on to suggest that the move could see the Varesini factory come to blows with its rival in Bologna: Ducati Motor Holdings.
These reports, while interesting to anyone who studies the flow of information in modern journalism, are a bit ridiculous in their reality…for several reasons.
The Borg collective that is Comoto Holdings continues to assimilate large brands into its collective of retail enterprises for the motorcycle industry. No, not familiar with the name Comoto?
Surely though you have heard of – if not shopped at – the companies that Comoto controls, as it is the holding company for RevZilla and Cycle Gear, and it is also now the new business entity that owns J&P Cycles.
Motorcycle magazine titles continue to close, as the market consolidates and print titles struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing media landscape.
The latter was the bigger issue for Motorcycle Consumer News, which closed its doors officially at the start of this month.
Motorcycle Consumer News was in business for 50 years in the motorcycle industry, and distinguished itself as being 100% subscriber supported and advertisement-free.
Pierer Mobility is once again spilling the beans on its holdings, releasing the 2019 sales results from the KTM and Husqvarna motorcycle brands.
To that end, the combined effort sees another sales record for the group, with 280,099 motorcycles sold last year. This marks a 7% gain over 2018.
This makes 2019 the ninth year in a row that the KTM Group of motorcycle brands has seen positive sales growth, which is not a claim that too many brands can lay their hands on.
Bad news for fans of historic British motorcycle brands, as we get word from across the pond that Norton Motorcycles has gone into administration – a British form of bankruptcy.
The yearly results for Harley-Davidson are out, and once again they paint a dark figure for the iconic American motorcycle brand, as its total worldwide sales collapsed like a dying star, with a decline of 4.3% to bring the company to a total of 218,273 units sold worldwide.
Things were worse in the domestic market, with Harley-Davidson’s sales in the USA showing a 5.2% drop (125,960 units) from 2018’s figures.
This leaves the Bar & Shield brand’s international sales down an even 3% (92,313 units) – for those doing the math.
Good news from the Bavarians, as BMW Motorrad reports that 2019 was the company’s best sales year…ever (again).
According to the German company’s tallies, BMW Motorrad sold 175,162 motorcycles and scooters last year, a bump of 5.8% over the figures from 2018 (165,566 units).
As expected, Germany remains the primary market for BMW Motorrad, with 26,292 units sold last year (up 10.4% from 2018). Crunching the math further, Germany accounts for roughly 15% of BMW’s two-wheeled sales.
The rest of Europe was strong for BMW Motorrad as well, with the European market up 7% overall for BMW – France (17,300 units), Italy (15,580 units), Spain (12,607 units) and the Great Britain/Ireland (9,611 units).
In what has to be one of the most protracted business arrangements in motorcycle industry history, Triumph and Bajaj have finally officially announced the signing of their non-equity partnership to make motorcycles together.
The plan is exactly that, a long-term plan to jointly create mid-sized (200cc to 750cc) motorcycles for the Triumph and Bajaj brands, using the strengths of both companies.
While both parties will be bringing resources and expertise to the table, Triumph and Bajaj will extract very different things from their new relationship.