#industry

Yes! I mean No! The correct answer is maybe. It all depends on if you care about money at all, the love of which is the root of all evil. If you’re not worried about your income stream or getting the absolute best deal on a new bike, now is as good a time to buy as any and better than most since it’s springtime, and all the pretty new horses are out!

It’s been a stellar year for new motorcycles; our frequent flier miles are piling up like crazy as we span the globe to bring you the thrill of victory (Indian now) and the agony of defeat, from the 2019 bumper crop of everything from Nikens to Svartpilens. There’s more to it than new bikes, though. So, let’s take a look at what’s got us excited as we approach the mid-point of 2019.

If there’s ever anyone who is trying to increase the amount of motorcycle riders by establishing a consensus of ideas and opinions about how to improve the experience, we’d like to support them. And so it is with Give A Shift, the rider’s association brought together by our friend Robert Pandya that intends to elevate the status of motorcycling through constructive criticism from diverse and informed perspectives.

Give A Shift is the punny name given to an initiative intended to forward the cause of motorcycling in the U.S. market, which is showing signs of shrinkage due to a variety of reasons: demographic, cultural, and systemic.

When John speaks, I listen…

Plenty of weird stuff happened in 2017, but no weirder than usual so I really can’t complain. We’ll miss Nicky Hayden, who I remember reading about in Roadracing World when he was 13 years old (how old does that make me?), and has now departed this mortal coil way too early. I won’t miss, they tell me, the corporate tax rate of 35%, which is going down to 20% and will supposedly juice the economy like crazy and lead to a new bull market in motorcycles like the one in the ’Aughts. That’ll make everybody around here happy. All the kids are getting rich on Bitcoin, too, and home equity is on the rise again. We’ve already got granite countertops and big knockers; what does that leave? Motorcycles, that’s what. Basically we’re all set to get on up out this biatch and do some serious WINNING! Here are my predictions for 2018!

And now for my next complaint. The topic keeps coming up: Why aren’t more people buying motorcycles? When applied to Millennials, we conjectured a few Whatevers ago – after minutes of careful thought and some research including opening our eyeballs – that they’re not buying more motorcycles because they have no money. I’ll add to that today: In addition to not having any money, riders are also not buying more motorcycles because they simply have no damn time to ride them.

“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

In the wake of autumn’s big motorcycle shows, we’ve got a clearer insight into what lies ahead in the moto world going into 2016. Using this year’s show season as the measuring stick, we think it’s safe to say that excitement has returned full-force to the motorcycle industry.