Blogs : Neobike
Neobike was inspired from the start by the dream of electric motorcycles. An obscure subject today, and even more so back then.
But progress continues. Yesterday, the "World's First Zero Carbon, Clean Emission Grand Prix" was run on the Isle of Man.
With electric bikes making in the vicinity of 80HP, it makes sense that one racer quoted by the LA Times described the ride as "more peaceful. You can concentrate more because your eyes aren't bleeding."
If a bastion of internal combustion history like the Isle of Man TT is welcoming the age of the electric motorcycle, the rest of the industry will surely do so too.
So, is this "endearing collectible" not explicitly Harley-branded
because that would have cost too much money in licensing, or because
HD has actually started to become aware of their brand dilution
problems? In any case, when the cruiser boom ends, stuff like this will be featured prominently in the Monday-morning "what went wrong" analyses. (The guy's clearly a poser, anyway. Real tough bears ride
hardtails.)
Five years after the first re-launch of Indian Motorcycle, and over
100 years since the original company was born, the Indian brand has been
sold again, this time to a group of British investors. The most
relevant item on the purchasing firm's resume seems to be that they've
been running a revived boat manufacturing company, Chris-Craft, for
the past three years. This is much more relevant than it might first
seem: the original Chris-Craft had great glory days, including landing
on the beach at Normandy on D-Day (World War II, young people), then
slowly faded. Now it's sold as "The Authentic American Boating
Experience" and a 30-year blank stretch in the timeline is just sort
of ignored. Indian might be a harder sell -- its heyday was really
before WWII and production was over by 1953 -- but it doesn't
seem impossible. Brand recognition for Indian is still very strong. The biggest problem is this: any new Indian is going to be, well, a
fake. If I bought the rights to the name "Led Zeppelin" for a
bajillion dollars and put a new band together with me and my friends
Pete and Chris and Lou and we called ourselves Led Zeppelin, we would
be quite within our legal rights, and we might even do a passable
cover of "Ramble On," but we would not be the greatest rock band of
all time. We would be known as "Fake Led Zeppelin." Likewise any new
Indian motorcycle. It could be a very good bike; it could be a
fantastic bike; but it won't have any meaningful tie to the real,
original Indian. Or will it? I've got an idea. Are you
listening, Stephen Julius, Anglo-Italian financier and founding
Partner of Stellican Limited, London, England? Have you ever
been to Springfield, Massachusetts, Mr. Julius? You know, the city
where Indian was born? The first American city to host a Rolls Royce
factory? The site of America's first federal armory and the home of
Smith & Wesson? The home of Merriam-Webster and the birthplace of
basketball? Because if you had, you would know that despite all that
grand old stuff, Springfield has seen better days. Commonwealth
magazine ran a cover story last year entitled "Springfield: Has it Hit
Bottom?" I'm not kidding. That's what people in Springfield get to
aspire to. Hitting bottom, so that they can start to go up. So
Springfield (birthplace of Indian Motorcycle, remember) needs
help. And Stellican Limited -- wise custodian of the Indian Motorcycle
brand -- needs help. You see where I'm going with this. Build the
damn things in Springfield. Call up Mayor Charles V. Ryan and tell
him you want to schedule a press conference to announce that you are
going to purchase and rehabilitate one of Springfield's many striking
old abandoned industrial buildings, or maybe build a grand new factory
right there in the city -- the point being that you are going to build
Indian Motorcycles right there in Springfield. People will
freak out, and I mean that in a good way. You will be a hero. Skilled
workers will get good jobs. Harley will get a kick in the
shins. Grumpy old "real" Indian Motorcycle nuts will admit that it's
cool. And I promise I will not call your company the Fake Indian
Motorcycle Company. Unless you don't come to Springfield.
Harley-Davidson is reportedly close to closing a deal for motorcycle distribution in China. Apparently the process has been held up by some regulatory problems along the way, which HD has lobbied strongly against on the basis of "free trade." Those who remember their recent history may find this mildly amusing. In the mid-'80s, when HD was on the skids, they successfully lobbied for a new tariff on large-displacement motorcycles imported into the US. (The size limit was 750cc, which is why we have those oddball 700cc Japanese motorcycles in the 1984 to 1987 model years.)
In the upper right corner of the cover of the July issue of Motorcyclist there's a teaser for the "Best 650 You've Never Heard of." But if you're a [Neobike] reader, you've probably heard of it -- it's the Hyosung Comet 650. Alan Cathcart has two nice pieces on the subject: a riding impression of the Comet 650 (in Australia, which has been importing a lot of Hyosung bikes), and a company profile of Hyosung itself. He likes the bike (though he dings it for inadequate brakes and poor rear suspension), and he compares the arrival of this Korean manufacturer on the international motorcycle scene to the appearance way back when of a tiny, inconsequential Japanese company called... Honda.
In a press release issued today, Aprilia announced that they have a new 30-million-Euro credit line. Not the end of the story, surely: "Aprilia will continue to proactively discuss business investment opportunities with financial and/or industrial investors..."
Italian news service AGI reports that "production is blocked" at the Aprilia plant near Venice which employs 650 workers. Looks dark. Also see reports from MCN, AMAsuperbike.com, and RoadRacing World. Meanwhile Motorcycle Daily speculates on the chances of an automobile manufacturer purchasing Aprilia.
According to this article from Forbes.com, Piaggio (maker of the Vespa scooter) has restructured a joint venture with China's largest non-governmental motorcycle manufacturer, Zongshen Group, and says it plans within three years to be making 300,000 scooters a year there.
At a time when major vehicle makers like General Motors are looking at China plants to lower costs, Piaggio realizes "the significance of the China threat," says Marco Mussita, an executive at Italy-based Banca Intesa. "So for them, it's important to partner."
A brief story from Pravda (which we take to be true, despite other stories in the sidebar about alien visitors and the like) says: "The first assembly plant for Japanese scooters and motorcycles in Russia opened in Kaliningrad yesterday. Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda scooters and motorcycles will now be assembled at the Kaliningrad plant." Manufacturing capacity of the factory is projected to be 20,000 units per year. This is going to hurt Ural sales for sure!
The May 2004 issue of Cycle World, in a small sidebar on the Fischer MRX we posted about in February, has this interesting bit: "Hyosung is also working on a 1000cc V-Twin for use in later models." If produced, that would be the largest-displacement motor (to our knowledge) currently manufactured outside of Japan, Europe and the US. It seems likely that Hyosung would also develop their own bikes around such a powerplant.
It looks like Indian motorcycle manufacturer Kinetic Engineering may soon begin manufacturing motorcycles for Hyosung, a Korean manufacturer we have been following with interest here on [Neobike]. Hyosung in turn has a relationship with Suzuki, as the SV650-like form of their Comet 600 attests. In Asia's motorcycle industry, national pride does not seem to be preventing shared progress. How soon until non-Japanese motorcycles are imported in large numbers to Europe and the United States? Five years? Ten?
India's "Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources" along with researchers at Benaras Hindu University have been testing a method for storing hydrogen fuel at room temperature, and have a fleet of 10 small motorcycles running on this technology. Though the newspaper article isn't clear, this sounds like a hydrogen-burning system (a la the Aqwon).
A nice fluffy story about the motorcycle biz in Britain. Apparently a big drop in sales was expected in 2003, so the actual 3% slide has the industry clicking their heels. Sounds like a lot of scooters, and an increase in American-style midlife cruiser purchases. They do love their Gixxers, though. And you never see this sort of thing in a story about American motorcycling: "...factors such as continuing traffic chaos and congestion charging, mean that interest in new motorcycles is sustained..." Motorcycles as transportation? What a concept!
Fortune magazine has a story on how Ducati is increasing its use of the web to garner feedback on concept models: Automakers have long placed market researchers with clipboards near their show car displays to record the public's reactions, and so do motorcycle makers including Ducati. But by asking web surfers to share their thoughts, the company'is getting a global take on how its new product ideas may actually fly in the marketplace.
This seems a terribly obvious thing to do, since it's practically free, yet the article claims only Ducati is doing it. However, it's likely that all manufacturers pay some heed to what is said online about their concept bikes, whether or not they actively solicit comments.
A recent press release notes that US-based Evader, Inc. is finding good demand for its electric scooters in China, having sold over 1500 in the past month alone. As China continues to boom, the environmental downsides of internal combustion are sure to follow, making electric options all the more appealing. More info on the company itself is at evader.us.
A story from the Hindu News Update Service describes a coming partnership between Aprilia and India's largest motorcycle and scooter manufacturer, Hero Motors. While the article says that Aprilia will have no equity stake, this article from Moneycontrol.com claims that Aprilia is buying 20% equity. If the latter claim is true, this is a very significant development. Up to this point the major non-Indian investors in the Indian motorcycle market have been from Japan. (Update: Moneycontrol.com has posted a transcript of an interview with Hero Motors' Managing Director, Pankaj Munjal. He says that the "snob value" of the Aprilia brand will be worth an additional 10% on retail prices. The equity question remains hanging.)
A story in China Daily details BMW's plans to move into the Chinese motorcycle market. China produces more bikes than any other country, but most of them are small and inexpensive -- anti-BMWs. This fact, combined with the rapid growth in the number of people who can afford their bikes, makes China very attractive for BMW. With China's economy powering ahead at astonishing speed and Chinese people becoming richer, BMW Motorcycle foreshadowed that after buying cars and houses, city residents will consider purchasing quality motor vehicles for sports, entertainment and leisure.
With surprising suddenness on the heels of their recent product-placement coup, Indian Motorcycle is closing its Gilroy, California factory. The original (dare we say "real") Indian Motorcycle Company, based in Springfield, Massachusetts, closed its doors in 1953. This second incarnation appeared in 1999. Whether this signals a downturn in the cruiser market, or in the resuscitated-trademark market, remains to be seen.
Ahmedabad, India is reportedly the country's most polluted city. On September 1, an electric "mini-car" called the Reva went on sale there in hopes of changing that claim to fame. Indian state governments have offered tax incentives to purchasers of the electric car in other locales, and it is hoped this this practice will be adopted in Ahmedabad as well. A Reva Car Company official quoted in the article mentions the possibility of developing electric two-wheelers. India's big small-motorcycle industry, combined with its congestion and pollution problems, could end up making it the hub of electric motorcycledom worldwide.
According to the US Motorcycle Industry Council, sales of motorcycles to riders age 50 and older more than tripled between 1980 and 1998. Not surprising, with the Baby Boomers surging into midlife crisis and beyond during this period. But it does pose a challenge for motorcycle manufacturers -- particularly Harley-Davidson, which has likely benefitted from this surge more than any other manufacturer, yet is terrified of becoming "the old man's bike" and having the next generation of riders grow up without "Harley=Cool" burned into their brains. The Associated Press has a story today titled "Harley-Davidson hoping to lure younger buyers" which addresses this question, and makes it clear that "hoping" is the key word there -- HD simply doesn't yet know what it's going to do.
Motorcycle News from the Day After Tomorrow
by neobike
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So, is this "endearing collectible" not explicitly Harley-branded
because that would have cost too much money in licensing, or because
HD has actually started to become aware of their brand dilution
problems? In any case, when the cruiser boom ends, stuff like this will be featured prominently in the Monday-morning "what went wrong" analyses. (The guy's clearly a poser, anyway. Real tough bears ride
hardtails.)
