BMW Motorrad USA has announced the opening of eight new dealerships within the past five months to better serve new and underserved markets.

“In 2010 and beyond we will continue to identify growth opportunities for the BMW brand in markets that do not currently have a BMW motorcycle dealership by partnering with new or existing motorcycle dealers in those areas,” Todd Andersen, the company’s marketing manager, states in a press release.

The newest BMW dealerships are

• Van-Wall Powersports in Perry, Iowa;
• BMW Motorcycles of Chattanooga in Chattanooga, Tenn.;
• Bergen County BMW Motorcycles in Rochelle Park, N.J.;
• Montgomeryville Cycle Center in Hatfield, Pa.;
• BMW Motorcycles Tulsa in Tulsa, Okla.;
• BMW Motorcycles of Spokane/Westside Motorsports in Spokane, Wash.;
• BMW Motorcycles of Utah in Sandy, Utah; and
• Kissell Motor Sports in State College, Pa.

“Our dedicated dealer network was the key to our success last year,” says Andersen, citing the fact that BMW Motorrad USA outperformed the industry for the second year in a row in 2009 despite an overall motorcycle industry decline of 41 percent. “Our dealers continued to serve our customers well thanks to new products like the K1300 GT, K 1300 S, and the new S 1000 RR superbike, as well as attractive financing programs from BMW Financial Services.”

BMW says it now has 143 active dealers. In comparison, in February 2008 it had 136; last year it had 139.

2009 Sales Performance
BMW Motorrad says that worldwide, 87,306 BMW motorcycles were delivered to customers in 2009, a year-over-year drop of 14.1 percent and in line with company expectations.

BMW says that while the world market for motorcycles above 500cc was still about 1.5 million units in 2007, it shrank to about 900,000 units in 2009. This corresponds to a market drop of around 40 percent in two years. In 2009 alone, the world market declined by more than 30 percent, BMW says. The company did not cite sources for the statistics.

BMW Motorrad says that in the U.S., its third-largest market, 9,168 BMW motorcycles were registered, a drop of 22.5 percent compared to the previous year. But the company says it increased its share of the over-500cc market by 2.0 percent to 2.6 percent.

Husqvarna Motorcycles, the second motorcycle brand of the BMW Group, had worldwide sales figures of 13,052 units, a drop of 3 percent. BMW does not divulge U.S. sales, but does say they were up in 2009.

from Dealer News

BMW S1000RR on the Dyno: Off the Charts!

By Gabe Ets-Hokin 

from Motorcycle Daily.com

The entire collection was sold for a total of 1,038,400 euros (US$1.57 million), well over the pre-auction estimate of 590,000-780,000 euros. The collection was put up for auction by Neutken’s estate after the former BMW dealer died in 2008. The entire collection was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest motorcycle collection of a single make.  See Motorcycle News for the entire story

BMW Motorrad shocks the motorcycle world with the announcement of a new inline 6 called the “Concept 6″.

With the recent occurrences at Harley Davidson, one may assume this ship is taking on water, and those assumptions are probably right.  Evidenced by the missteps Harley Davidson has made, it is easy to surmise this company is sailing without a compass, or any strategic plan.

First you had the Buell debacle.  Last week Erik Buell, owner of Buell motorcycles,  announced the end of the Buell Blast with an aggressive media blitz, complete with a You Tube video.  Erik seemed genuinely excited about the new direction his company was taking.  Fast forward a couple of days and Erik is making another video, only on this one he’s proclaiming Harley Davidson has decided to dissolve the entire Buell company.  The decision to end this brand of 25 years, seemed hasty and ill thought out, and if you watch the video of the eulogy, you will see Erik Buell is devastated.

Second, is the 2008 purchase of the Italian bike manufacturer, MV Agusta.  What the hell was Harley thinking here?  Answer.  They weren’t!  Now with sales of the super sport-bikes way off,  they are ready to dump the brand they should never have purchased in the first place.

Navigating the sea of business in these difficult times take skillful navigation and a steady hand.  Harley Davidson’s leadership seems to have none of these traits.  This company looks as if they are drifting along with no plan or purpose, just hoping everything works out.  I hope for all of our sakes, it does.

Listen to Erik Buell tell the story.

The next time you are enjoying a Sunday afternoon cruise and some young punk flies by you on his crotch rocket keep this in mind, it may not be a “young punk” riding that bike.  According to a recent online survey conducted by Sportsbikeclub.com that sport bike rider may be older than you think.  Here’s a few results of the survey.

• The average of age of a sport bike rider is 38.7.
  
• Annual household income of $60,000.
• 1/3 said they plan to purchase another bike with in the next year.
• 87.7% modify their motorcycles, 68.6% will spend more than $500 and 31% will spend more than $1000 annually on mods.
• On average, sport bike riders spend $700 annually on parts, $650 on accessories, and $475 on apparel.
  

News

The Pilgrimage, Myrtle Beach’s final biker rally of the year, is always smaller than the two spring events, but this one was dismal according to vendors and businesses. Full Story

Ben Spies dominates race 1 at Magny-Cours, but a 4th place finish in race 2 puts him in second place in the overall points standings. 10 points behind Haga.

Sunday’s ride found me winding through the back roads of Clark County.  Traffic was light and the weather was cool, perfect for a little solo time.   Below are a couple of shots I took of a local farmers market.

The much anticipated news was confirmed, Ben Spies will ride for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in 2010 MotoGP Championship. 

“A Harley Lands in America, by Way of Europe” is a piece from New York Times writer Stuart Brown.

KTM’s Hans Trunkenpolz dies at age 65.

In an unrelated story “Forced to use the front brakes”, is a lesson on why proper motorcycle training is a necessity.  Read the story here.