May 12, 2008 – New U.S. motorcycles look for success in tough market

In what is already a highly competitive market, three U.S. companies — Cobra, Diamo and Sabertooth — are introducing new motorcycle models they believe will succeed based on the unique audiences they cater to.
Powersports Business interviewed all three and found out why they think their new models will succeed, and how they’re moving forward in the face of what looks to be a challenging year for the industry.
Bill Peirce, President, Cobra
PSB: Describe your motorcycle and what makes it unique from the competition?
Peirce: The Brass Balls motorcycle line comes from a small manufacturer in Oklahoma City. He can’t handle too many dealers, so what we’re doing is adding two dealers a month to carry this bike. The reason the dealers are biting on this is that we’re not making them take on too much inventory, they have to buy three bikes and a display.
This bike is a bobber, not a chopper. It’s a niche market, and the bike has an affordable MSRP of $17,995. We wanted someone who would grow with us and wouldn’t be one of the more hard-core V-twin types.
PSB: How has your business been affected by the recent downturn in the economy?
Peirce: This year so far our scooter sales are out of this world; they’re better than they were last year. In fact we’re probably going to run out of product before new shipments come in because we didn’t think sales would be this strong for 2008. It’s good and bad because we’ll have great sales but will run out of products in the middle of May and won’t have any until mid-June.
ATV sales are in the tank. I think it’s because the OEMs are dumping them on dealers, and there is just too much competition for the limited number of ATV consumers out there. So we’re having to be pretty creative on how we’re marketing our ATVs.
If gas prices stay the way they are, it’s going to continue to be a huge market for scooters.
Mathu Solo, president, Diamo
PSB: Describe your motorcycle and what makes it unique from the competition?
Solo: The manufacturer we’re working with on the Fischer sport bike is not trying to launch the next Buell, Ducati or Triumph. This is a very niche product. Original production is only 800 units for the first year, so we’re not looking to build an infrastructure that needs to be supported by 5,000 units.
We’re waiting for the factory to go into full production mode with the Fischer sport bike. We’ve had a lot of changes and improvements made to that model since it was first presented to us. Our goal is to try and get these units out to dealers this summer. It’s in the factory’s hands at this point. The main delay was initially the frames that were first built didn’t meet our quality standards, and that was an overseas factory. We determined at that time rather than fix the problem, to try and source the frames to a factory here in the U.S.
PSB: How has your business been affected by the recent downturn in the economy?
Solo: We’re having our strongest year ever. March was the strongest March in company history, and April is shaping up to be the same. I’m hearing that from our dealers as well. I think everyone was nervous after 2007, and from our perspective things have been very strong for 2008, and hopefully that continues through the end of the year.
We’ve always felt that our brand is going to be one of the next big ones. But we feel we can capitalize especially in a challenged economy. We provide a strong, quality product at a very competitive price.
Ben Daniels, founder, Sabertooth Motorcycles
PSB: Describe your motorcycle and what makes it unique from the competition?
Daniels: We use V8 Ford engines in our bikes. We have an advantage in that we’re different than your cookie-cutter V-twin clone bikes you see out there. What’s difficult is getting accepted. People like the bike, but some are scared to ride it, and that’s a challenge we have to overcome.
We’re working on two new models. One is a trike, and also a bagger. Eventually we’re working on having an entire line of V8 bikes. Our biggest struggle is what kind of dealers we want. Do we want to go with guys who are in the business who aren’t enthusiasts, or vice versa? We’re finding that people from the traditional V-twin market are not our best options.
We’re in the high-end toy business, the same people who buy the Ferrari’s, Ford GTs, Vipers, those are our customers. They want something more than a Big Dog or an IronHorse in the V-twin segment. They expect more performance, more horsepower, etc. We’re never going to replace the V-twins, but we’re going to fill that niche.
PSB: How has your business been affected by the recent downturn in the economy?
Daniels: As for the economy it depends on who you’re dealing with. If it’s the IronHorse dealer who took $2 million in inventory that they can’t move, that’s one aspect. In the high-end toy world, the people buying this type of bike are unaffected by the economy if you want the truth. Most of them are the ones making money off the rising price of oil. PSB