Trikes: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
The three-wheeled motorcycle concept came out two years before Karl Benz was credited with creating the automobile. However, they have more or less been relegated to a small niche market within the industry.
Horny Toads & the Budweiser Flu
Dear Ma, I hope you’re doing well up there in heaven. We are doing fine down here in Dallas. We have been really busy lately. I have been going crazy trying to manage all my employees. We own six businesses and employ 80 people. Managing all these people is the hardest/worst part of what I
Q&A With MAG CEO Andy Graves
In a follow up to our Executive Interview in May with Tucker Rocky President Eric Cagle, we spoke to MAG’s CEO Andy Graves to ask some questions that were outside of Eric’s realm.
Sales: Are You Playing It Right?
People often look at sales as a war; it’s them against the customer, or it’s them against the other salespeople in the industry. I completely disagree.
The Evel Knievel Museum: Now Open
It’s not something any shop or dealership can do, constructing a two-story addition to house a vast collection of artifacts related to the world’s most iconic daredevil. But Historic Harley-Davidson (HH-D) in Topeka, Kansas has pulled off precisely that and in splendid fashion. Visitors access the new Evel Knievel Museum by a dedicated entrance, then,
Yamaha V-Max and V-4 Valve Clearance
The Yamaha V-Max showed up in 1985 and ran for more than 20 years in its first generation form. Derivatives of this V-4 engine were also used in the Venture, Venture Royale and Royal Star models. The firing order of this engine is cylinder: #1 (0°), #3 (180°), #2 (430°), #4 (610°). There is a
Subprime Credit Opportunities
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard dealers say that they don’t cater to the subprime audience – or better yet – they don’t have subprime customers. It is true that closing a transaction with a prime credit profile customer is usually faster and relatively easier since they are more likely to qualify for
GasGas Gets Serious
As the wraps came off the 2018 model year machine at the EICMA motorcycle expo in Italy last fall, the new ownership team from Grupo Torrot Electric had just taken over and had something to prove. All the jokes about an e-bike company taking over a company called “GasGas” notwithstanding, the European media was mildly
Revival Cycles
Alan Stulberg was five years old when he got his first motorcycle. He says he was “obsessed with it.” He learned to work on bikes, and repaired motorcycles as a side job while he was going to school and getting jobs in technology and sales.
Life in the Vintage Lane
TODAY’S CUSTOM CULTURE IS HUGELY INFLUENCED BY MOTORCYCLING’S PAST It would be hard to argue the huge influence vintage motorcycling has had on today’s custom culture. We must remember an antique motorcycle is vintage but a vintage bike may not be an antique. Vintage actually represents the enduring characteristics of a period in time when
Apparel Pro: Vintage & Retro
While the motorcycle industry thrives on new bike sales, it’s a lot of fun to watch the resurgence of interest in the older, vintage bikes. Driven in large part by the hipster market, which is huge in several unlikely markets across the United States, I see lots of opportunities for dealers to profit from the
Retrograde Motion: What is Old is New Again!
Slab seats, flat bars and universal tread tires… what is old is new again. In a case of retrograde motion, these classic hallmarks seem to be the choice of builders these days (see sidebar on the Handbuilt show).
