FOCUS – THE AFTERMARKET
It’s no big surprise that the PWC aftermarket has thinned significantly. Just pick up an old copy of any watercraft magazine, then compare its ads to that of a recent cover date. Companies have streamlined their offerings, abandoned the sport entirely, maybe even been driven out of business.
Why? The answers are many, although most can be distilled down to a few basic changes over the years, changes that have resulted in both a different buyer as well as a different crop of PWC on the market. Whatever the reason, however, the end result is the same — aftermarket manufacturers and performance shops are fewer, their technological demands are far higher…and only the biggest and strongest have survived the fall.
What is the reality of today’s aftermarket? Powersports Business placed the focus on three of the industry’s leading shops – Riva Racing, R&D Racing, and Group K – to discover a few of the answers.
WHERE HAS EVERYONE GONE?
It’s a fact. The aftermarket has been reduced to just a ripple, at least compared to the wave of potential business that seemed to be for the taking a decade earlier.
The most frequently cited reason, of course, it that the craft themselves have gotten so much better in stock form. And typically, better means faster. Production boats today easily surpass the highly modified machines of yesteryear, and require no costly upgrades, expensive race fuel, or mechanical ability on behalf of the owner to achieve their success. And when things are that good in stock form, fewer owners will be tempted to tap into the aftermarket looking for an improvement.
Or so goes the theory. “Obviously, the PWC are getting faster and faster out of the box,” agrees Dave Bamdas of Riva Racing, one of the few companies that have actually found a way to thrive in today’s tighter marketplace. “They’re getting to a point where an increasing number of customers are thinking they’re fast enough. Which obviously limits the amount of aftermarket that can be done.
“But we are believers there will be a good group of customers who’ll want to go faster no matter how fast the craft is out of the box. That’s why we invest in the performance development side of things. The biggest reason I keep hearing why a lot of aftermarket companies are 90-percent out of the business is because the crafts are so good, so fast, that there’s nothing more they can do with them. I disagree. It’s the same as the customer for a Yamaha R1 sportbike: It’s a rocketship, but there are still parts to sell that guy.”
And sell they do. Whereas the number of aftermarket companies has dwindled dramatically in recent years, shops like Riva have surged forward, establishing themselves as the go-to companies for those who still wish to feed that need for performance. The process, however, has not been easy.
“I think the competition among the factories themselves has definitely raised the bar of performance with the speed of the stock machines that they sell,” explains Glenn Dickinson of R&D Racing, yet another one of the mega-strong that have survived. “Back when, 550s and 650s, on a good day you were going maybe 50 mph. And now, I don’t think there’s a vehicle out there that goes slower than that stock in production today. We’re on up to 70 MPH with some RXPs. That’s a challenge right there – to improve on what the factories have already done. It’s definitely not like the old days where you could throw anything at it and it’s better. You really have to work hard.
“It’s an exhausting course now, to produce quality products to make a difference. There are companies out there that have been extremely challenged in that regard. Some of them fall by the wayside along the way. But that’s what we do — R and D.”
FOUR-STROKE WORLD
Obviously, it has been far easier for the largest companies to make the cut. Especially now, considering the fact that the market has not only moved toward a more complete, more expensive end product, but also undergone yet another significant change of late – the switch towards a four-stroke source of power. More intricate and technically advanced than their two-stroke counterparts, four-strokes demand not only yet another level of expertise, but yet another dollar investment that would make any good business owner pause.
It’s a change that has left at least one high-profile shop reluctant to jump on the bandwagon.
“I’ve been doing things with personal watercraft since the mid-eighties, so I have a good perspective of the history of the machinery and what it can and cannot do,” states Harry Klemm, founder of the long-running performance shop Group K. “And we’re standing back away from the four-strokes for awhile. I’m making the intentional choice to do nothing with them for a few reasons.
“The first is they’re considerably more expensive than any PWC has ever been, with the exception of the one new Yamaha model. That itself is an issue, maybe not a giant one, but it assures that these are not going to be ‘family vehicles’ where you’d let your kid ride it around. They’re awfully fast, and it doesn’t take much for a stupid kid to get in a lot of trouble.
“The other thing is there are some basic issues with the boats as a whole. I understand the dynamic of emissions laws and that they have to build these four-strokes to comply. But just the fact they can put the fact they can put the four-strokes into PWC doesn’t mean they’re a great application.”
As proof, Klemm cites one of the common concerns regarding four-strokes — water intrusion. As he sees it, it’s common for a PWC to get submerged once or twice a season. But whereas a two-stroke owner could simply pull the spark plugs, flip the ski over on the beach, and pump out the water within, a four-stroke is another matter. Worse yet, an owner not familiar with the workings of the engine could rely on his former two-stroke thinking, and hydraulically lock the cylinder to the connecting rod, blowing the engine.
“There are hundreds of four-stroke PWCs in service departments as we speak with bent connecting rods from someone touching the start button after sinking it,” Klemm claims. “It’s a $2000 tab and it’s never covered under warranty. That’s problematic. So if a customer experiences that once or twice, he’s forever getting rid of his PWC.”
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
It’s a concern that has been voiced since four-strokes first emerged on the scene.
“I see some complications with the four-stroke platform, on the customer’s behalf,” agrees R&D’s Dickinson. “With two strokes, they’re a very simple engine. You give someone a how-to kit and they can do it themselves. With a four-stroke you can sell them the kit – you can sell them cams and springs, superchargers, whatever – but it’s far beyond most people’s ability to put it on themselves. Then they have to go to the shop, and the shop has to be pretty reputable to pull it off, to get that stuff on there correctly. And the labor side has increased enormously. That’s going to continue to be a pitfall for high performance in the four-stroke industry.”
And an opportunity for those smaller shops that, like Group K, find a way to specialize in other areas.
“Last year was one of my biggest years, business-wise,” says Klemm. “Where a lot of other people are bailing out of the PWC business, we’ve been doing a lot of restoration, restoring older PWC models. Since I’ve been there when they all came out new, I have all my data on what works best. You can find used watercraft that you can’t buy anymore – it’s not just that used boats are cheaper, it’s that you can’t buy them. Won’t happen too often, but I’ve got a guy in my shop right not to do a top-to-bottom engine rebuild on a Jet-Mate. It’s a weird little boat, a little barge for three, and you can’t get anything like it. I’m having people do that with old boats. They’ve bought something for a thousand bucks, and after putting some parts in it and freshening it up, it’s something they’ve got like three thousand in that’s going to last five or six seasons.
“You can’t touch that in showrooms anywhere.”
Still, the reality of today’s market is that there are still those who want nothing less than the latest and greatest thing going. And for those customers, the four-stroke is fast becoming the dominant platform. If the big names like Riva or R&D are to survive, they must embrace the technology. Those not willing or able to adapt will either find their own niche like Klemm, leave the industry, or go out of business.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
“It is getting more difficult to make aftermarket parts for PWC because of the four strokes,” Bamdas readily admits. “It’s a whole new technology, more complicated. Most of the companies were all two-stroke oriented. Some have made the transition, but some people didn’t want to. Or can’t, aren’t capable of doing it.
“As an aftermarket guy, I have to address the supercharged four-stroke fuel injection. We’re fortunate because of our racing background and the staff I have, we have a development center on premises and we’re able to make that four-stroke transition. We’re able to get these four-strokes on a dyno and we have all kinds of computer diagnostic systems where we can develop the horsepower, then get it into the hull, then into the water to do our water testing. We have an ideal situation here for product development, where a house garage shop doesn’t have that.
“It helps that my performance department is based at the world’s largest PWC dealership, so I have access to all the new models. When the new 2005 RXP comes out, I have it the next day. I can get it down to my R and D center and do what I need to do with it. Where some guy who’s making intake grades in a garage has to come up with $10K to buy this boat, and then fit it for a grate and try and sell it. Difficult.”
But necessary. “We all stay on top of the market place and what’s hot at any given time,” explains Dickinson of R&D. “The four-strokes are here, and they’re here to stay. They’re good vehicles. They bring a lot to the table for keeping our sport alive.”
