2Wheeltips

I had an interesting experience this week that I'd like to share. It's not necessarily motorcycle related but could be. It has do to with educated people making really stupid decisions. We all make poor decisions from time to time, part of living and learning. But what possess someone to make a decision like I'm about to describe? We flew in a candidate this week from the West Coast to interview for a sales position. An experienced guy, very successful, 52 years of age. I took him to dinner at a very nice restaurant on Thursday night where we had a few drinks and a glass of wine over a 3 hour dinner. We left the restaurant a little before 9PM and he was to return to our facility the next morning to complete the interview. I drove home and I offered to have this candidate follow me and I would make sure he would have no problem getting back to his hotel aout 10 minute drive from the restaurant. He declined as he had a GPS and assured me he would be fine. The next morning our candidate did not show-up. We called his room at the hotel and got no answer. My 2 assumptions were he either became very ill and went to a hospital or he got arrested. I checked the Ames, IA arrest log and sure enough he was arrested for operating under the infulence "OWI" at 11:45PM that night. So, this brilliant decision cost our candidate this job opportunity, thousands of dollars in fines, suspended driving license, attorneys fees, and travel expenses back to Iowa to go to court. For what???? I share this with you as an example of how perfectly intelligent and rational person can make a tragic decisions they will regret for the rest of their lives. When you are out riding please reflect on the decisions you are making. We all have the ability to do something really stupid if we allow ourselves the opportunity.

The 2wheeltips crew made it over to the Javits Center in NYC last month to check out the International Motorcycle Show. This is our 3rd time going and we always have a good time talking to the vendors and catching up with the latest motorcycle industry gossip. This year was no exception.  We had a great time talking to our friends from National Cycle, Arai helmets, Touch of Purple, West Virginia Tourism and a few others. It was a great show and we had a lot of fun. But we couldn't help but notice a few changes, most of them driven by the slow economy. These are:

Smaller Show
As we all know, the "powersports industry" (motorcycles, UTV's, ATV's, scooters, watercraft) has taken a serious hit due to the declining economy.  The NYC show is one of the largest and over the years we have noticed a steady decline in the size of the show.  Five or six years ago, the show was "standing room only", had hundreds of vendors and was on 2  levels. Now the show is on one level and many of the exhibitors decided not to participate or are no longer in business.  To many, a motorcycle is simply a luxury item they can no longer afford and many people have put off purchasing a bike or they are selling the one(s) they already have. We think the show numbers reflect this new reality.

Smaller Bikes
In prior years, most of the big manufacturers couldn't wait to unveal the latest and greatest bike with bigger engines, more features and even bigger price tags. How things have changed. This year, the spotlight was on smaller bikes. The most memorable were the Honda 250cc (you heard that right) sport bike, the dressed up Honda Shadow (750cc) with Cobra accessories and the Harley-Davidson (mid-priced) softtails. Since banks are not handing out motorcycle loans like halloween candy anymore, the manufacturers have caught on and are now making bikes that people can get financed.

Scooters
We did not see ANY scooter manufacturers at the show nor did we see any "green" vehicles. In previous years, there were at least two at the show. This segment of the industry has taken a serious hit and we personally know of a few scooter manufacturers that are out of business. The only exception was the BMW, but it's a concept scooter.....and is not available for sale.

New Products
Although the industry is changing, we did see some new products and vendors. SpeedpassingXV was there with a new EZPass holder that straps you your arm. NikkoMotoRacing introduced a new line of motorcycle helmets. BLINC introduced some new integrated bluetooth helmets and West Virginia Tourism gave an excellent presentation on motorcycle rallies and events available in their state.

As one of our friends from the industry stated, the industry is getting back to basics and is now focusing on the motorcyclist that has always been there. We will see how this goes in 2011.

Many of you are well aware of the “Hurt Report”, a study done in 1981 by the late-Professor Harry H. Hurt. That study has provided much of the information used to educate riders of where they are at greatest risk of being involved in an accident. Unfortunately, that information is now severely dated and driving habits have changed dramatically over the last 30 years since that study was done. Motorcycling fatalities have continued to increase for the last decade until 2009 where they declined for the first time dropping to 4,462 (2009) versus 5,312 in (2008). The only “good” news here, if you can call it that, is that these tragic statistics have finally caught lawmaker’s attention and a number of new studies are in the works to update crash-causation research. The Federal government as launched a $3 million study into the causes of motorcycle crashes thru the Oklahoma Transportation Center and being conducted by Oklahoma State University. This study sends teams of researchers to the scenes of motorcycle crashes that police are actively investigating to gather data. Each investigation includes a detailed inspection of the motorcycle and its components, rider and passenger impact points, interviews with riders who crashed as well as riders who travel the same route who haven’t crashed, examination of medical records and a lot more. Each crash analysis is expected to require as many as 60 hours of on-scene work and follow-up analysis and investigation. This study will look at 300 crashes and is expected to take until 10/2013 to complete. Other studies underway include Maryland where researchers are studying whether rider safety training really saves lives, or whether just gaining experience by riding plays a more important role in avoiding a crash. In Oregon, researchers are studying where riders look when they ride, and whether visual scanning skills can be learned and if so what is gained from them. A research group in Ohio is looking at different groups of motorcyclist such as cruiser riders, sport bike riders, touring riders etc, do determine if a given group have behaviors common to the group that put them more at risk of crashing than the other groups. Lastly, in Virginia a study by the MSF will use video cameras and data gathering devices to capture rider behavior in an attempt to see what riders do to avoid crashes and what they do wrong when they crash. These studies will be critically important to develop more timely analytical data for us to better understand what causes motorcyclist to be involved in crashes. Here are some recent statistics you might find interesting: •Motorcycle deaths increased by 78% from 2000 to 2007 •Motorcycles only represent 3% of all registered vehicles but accounted for 13% of fatalities in 2007 •The fatality rate for motorcyclist and their passenger is 5.5 times higher than car occupants •50% of all fatal motorcycle crashes involved collisions with another type of motor vehicle. Of those 78% were struck from the front and only 5% struck from the rear •25% of fatal motorcycle crashes involved crashing into a fixed object like a telephone pole or concrete abutment •Speeding was a factor in 36% of fatal motorcycle crashes in 2007 •Florida (530), California (495) and Texas (375) had the highest number of fatalities in 2007 •The NHSTA estimates that helmets saved 1,784 motorcyclist from death in 2007 and if all motorcyclist had worn helmets, an additional 800 more lives could have been saved. Much of the information contained in this article came from the American Motorcyclist article “Safety In Numbers” by Bill Kresnak 11/2010 and Rider Education article by Gene Knutson. If you are not currently a member of the AMA I would strongly encourage you to join. The AMA is to the sport of motorcycling what the NRA is to hunting and sports using firearms as well as our 2nd Amendment rights.