New exec at KymcoUSA

[Stig / Major Tom]

One current problem with 2 wheel market in us----riders/buyers do not ride enough or at all.  There is some fun in long rides.....but you have to do it.....not trailer it!

There are many reasons why an adult would chose not to take long rides.
Most bike owners have connections and responsibilities to their family, job, bank account - or all the above - which they gladly put first in their lives.
You enjoy long bike rides.
I greatly enjoy a daily ride - and will nearly always be home before brunch.
We each have our priorities, and enjoy our rides.
I am happy to promote the qualities of my scooter, and riding it - but I feel no responsibility for, or expect to change, this country's lack of interest in riding...
Stig

[Forbes1964]

There are many reasons why an adult would chose not to take long rides.
Most bike owners have connections and responsibilities to their family, job, bank account - or all the above - which they gladly put first in their lives.
You enjoy long bike rides.
I greatly enjoy a daily ride - and will nearly always be home before brunch.
We each have our priorities, and enjoy our rides.
I am happy to promote the qualities of my scooter, and riding it - but I feel no responsibility for, or expect to change, this country's lack of interest in riding...
Stig

No. We don’t have the responsibility to change anything. However, the heads of the various companies do have that responsibility if they want to grow their company, or even simply maintain sales and profitability. I hate seeing companies that make products I like fail. I hate it even more when they don’t even try. Where’s their imagination? I can’t help but think of Lee Iacocca who saved Chrysler from the early 1980s and into 1990s by  simply making ONE car and putting different bodies on it. ONE of those bodies was a MINIVAN. He took a low quality box and transformed the industry. He caused America to buy something it didn’t even know it wanted. Not all risks pay off. But some do. I guess you can tell that I believe that there is an untapped market. Sales may never take off like lightening. But I’m sure they can grow their market if they TRY. Forgive my beating this horse over and over. LOL.


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[Stig / Major Tom]

I totally agree that advertising would help out the sales of scooters and motorcycles. I don't know why we can't have the classy advertising which Europe and Asia has.
Saw a very rare motorcycle advertisement today by Honda, of the big Honda Goldwing ...because it was a Honda sponsored golf tournament!
Maybe Hero will run a bunch of TV commercials. Any bike adverts will increase dealer traffic!
Stig

[monkeybongos]

Can't help believing if people knew:
1) how much fun scooters are
2) how economical they are (compared to cars/trucks)
3) how practical and versatile they are  (errands and carrying stuff, ease of parking, short commutes)

they would give them more consideration.

Most of the rest of the world uses scooters more than autos due to financial necessity.  Cars are becoming increasingly unaffordable for people in the US, plus we're likely to have oil price spikes and supply shortages this decade.  Maybe even this year.  We're going to regret not moving towards scooters and away from autos, hope we don't wait till it's too late.  That's without even accounting for the environmental benefits, which are substantial.

Remember the run on bicycles during the oil crisis' in the 70s?  If I were a scooter dealer, I'd think about building my scooter inventory.  Could be in great demand soon, not too mention difficult/impossible to get a few months from now.

[CROSSBOLT]

Forbes mentioned Lee Iacocca and saving Chrysler and he is right! Iacocca listened not to the "Well, we always done it this way!" and took drastic measures to do things differently to save EVERYONE'S jobs. This same kind of thinking COULD be used to save this, our dear importer, from extermination. Policies that are similar to competing manufacturers and importers PENALIZES dealers financially. Monkey points out the outrageous cost of 4 wheels these days not to mention the complexity. The new guy at KUS does not stand a chance UNLESS he is more like Iacocca and not like his predecessors.

[leomagnus]

The one thing that made me appreciate scooters was living in Europe, along with high gas prices. You can go shopping with places to put things, you can park in tight spaces, you can give people rides, you can smell the fresh/smoggy air of Rome....j/k, and they are a pleasure to ride and to enjoy the scenery up close.

Dean

[randyo]

Then again, I think it's just the 450 that those companies are carrying from the KYMCO line, and they obviously have the 700 UTV and a whole lineup of ATVs. So, maybe it is. Like CROSSBOLT said, the folks down at HQ should just ask us what to do. Wouldn't that be fun? LOL.

the Arctic Cat 700 is also a rebadged Kymco, my brother has one , it's a beast

[scooterfan]

The one thing that made me appreciate scooters was living in Europe, along with high gas prices. You can go shopping with places to put things, you can park in tight spaces, you can give people rides, you can smell the fresh/smoggy air of Rome....j/k, and they are a pleasure to ride and to enjoy the scenery up close.

Dean

Same here - the one thing that really made me appreciate scooters was n visit to the city Bologna, Italy a number if years ago. During the visit I immediately noticed how many citizens and young people were riding scooters. Previosly scooters didn’t really impress me, but seeing so many beautiful, tastefully dressed women and young girls riding scooters with very high screens really made an everlasting impression. These women and men were even riding in rainy conditions on their scooters.
I started talking to a young guy about the many scooters in Bologna just when he got off his scooter. He turned out to be a student. I am not sure whether he got his numbers right, but he told me at that stage the number of students in Bologna was about 400 thousand.

So the impression in Italy has changed my mind about scooters completely. Since I bought my Agility I realized I should have bought a scooter many years ago. My scoot is such a pleasure, I can not see myself not riding a scooter in future.

[pa-outdoorsman]

the Arctic Cat 700 is also a rebadged Kymco, my brother has one , it's a beast

I didn't know that. Well, I guess that's good then. Like I said in a previous post, perhaps the best bet for KYMCO in the U.S. off-road market is to just let Tracker and Arctic Cat handle the marketing while KYMCO builds the machines. Both Tracker and Arctic Cat are established brands (though Tracker is only recently moving from the boating category to off-road) that have some good visibility and track record with consumers. Selfishly, I would like to see the KYMCO name become more recognizable. But maybe we are actually better off the way it is. Let the Tracker and Arctic Cat buyers subsidize those of us who purchase the same machines for far less from a local KYMCO dealer!

P.S. Tell me more about your brother's 700. I never drove a 700 or even saw one outside a showroom. Do you have any experience with the 450 to be able to compare them in terms of power, ridge stability, etc.? Just curious.

[Stig / Major Tom]

From my talks with two dealers I learned that the reason I was seeing so many left-over scooters when I first shopped scooters in the winter of 2012/2013 was due to the crash of '08.
The scooter market was racing along into 2007 - to the extent that dealers increased their orders of new stock for 2008 and 2009. After the Madoff affair and the market scare --- purchases of unnecessary toys, like scooters (and the values of luxury items like collector cars & art works ) took a real hit.
4 years on I was seeing new '09 scooters and motorcycles on dealership floors in 2013.
I nearly bought a lovely wine colored 2009 125 Yamaha Vino at $2499, instead of my 2013 LIKE200i.
The Vino was aircooled like I wanted, but carbureted - so I went for the larger LIKE with its EFI, twin discs and twin shocks, bigger tail light and 2 yr warranty.

Stig

[klaviator]

One current problem with 2 wheel market in us----riders/buyers do not ride enough or at all.  There is some fun in long rides.....but you have to do it.....not trailer it!

I don't have any issues with people trailering their bikes, in some cases it allows you to ride more.  I do agree with you that many, maybe most of the scooter riders in this country don't ride much.  I have seen several year old scooters with less than 1000 miles on them.  Getting out and riding allows others to see scooters and might get them interested.  Short rides or long rides doesn't matter.  It also helps when you post pictures and ride reports.  I have had probably around 10 people, maybe more, that told me that reading my ride reports inspired them to buy a scooter.  My long time riding buddy bought a Like 150i a few months ago.  A couple of years ago there was no way he would have bought a scooter but he saw how much fun I was having so he bought one.

[souzamoto]

the Arctic Cat 700 is also a rebadged Kymco, my brother has one , it's a beast

Actually that is not true. Kymco has never supplied an ATV or SxS over 500 cc to AC (nowTextron).the only SxS from Kymco is the 500 which is the UXV450. The ATV,s from Kymco are the 90, 300 and 570. The latter being a MXU500. Most of the larger ATV and SXS AC’s are actually Textron’s badged as AC. The Wildcats are still the AC design as are a few of the Prowlers. When Textron bought AC the began to kill off the AC off road brand. That didn’t go so well so now they are back peddling and reinvesting in the AC brand.

[randyo]

Actually that is not true. Kymco has never supplied an ATV or SxS over 500 cc to AC (nowTextron).the only SxS from Kymco is the 500 which is the UXV450. The ATV,s from Kymco are the 90, 300 and 570. The latter being a MXU500. Most of the larger ATV and SXS AC’s are actually Textron’s badged as AC. The Wildcats are still the AC design as are a few of the Prowlers. When Textron bought AC the began to kill off the AC off road brand. That didn’t go so well so now they are back peddling and reinvesting in the AC brand.

fwiw, I am only going by the KYMCO that I have seen imprinted on the engine of my brothers 700cc Arctic Cat UTV

maybe they only supplied engines ?

[randyo]

I stopped by my local dealer today. I got into discussion (they were not aware of the ne exec) they told me that Kymco ATVs outsell scooters 5:1, and are much more reliable, in the service end, for the Kymco ATVs it's primarily routine service, but some of the Kymco scooters have issues more than routine service

[pa-outdoorsman]

I stopped by my local dealer today. I got into discussion (they were not aware of the ne exec) they told me that Kymco ATVs outsell scooters 5:1, and are much more reliable, in the service end, for the Kymco ATVs it's primarily routine service, but some of the Kymco scooters have issues more than routine service

That doesn't surprise me at all. I am sure you could dig up the market research somewhere, but I'd be shocked if the ATX/SxS market in the USA isn't at least 5X bigger than the scooter market. I'd guess maybe even 10X or 20X the size, meaning that for every scooter sold in the U.S., there are 10-20 off-road vehicles sold. Anyone else care to guess the relative the size of the markets, or have any data to shed some light on it?