MIC highlights 2023 accomplishments

The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) has highlighted its notable accomplishments, including achievements by its powersports industry partners, from 2023. In its recent RideReport, the MIC shared these accomplishments (not all 2023 accomplishments listed in the MIC RideReport are listed here):

Government Relations

– Federal Trade Commission: The MIC Government Relations Office secured a major victory with the FTC for powersports dealerships nationwide. Powersports dealerships were excluded from the FTC’s new junk fees rule after the MIC Government Relations Office submitted comments to the agency requesting an incremental approach and stressing that the problem is an automotive issue. The FTC’s website stated that the new rule will “fight two common types of illegal tactics consumers face when buying a car: bait-and-switch tactics and hidden junk fees.”

– Capitol Hill Fly-In: More than 30 MIC members, five of the MIC Board of Directors, members of the SVIA and ROHVA boards and the MIC Dealer Advisory Council, and MIC staff participated in more than 70 meetings during the Capitol Hill Fly-In in D.C. Meetings set up by the MIC Government Relations Office are a valuable opportunity for dealerships and powersports companies to discuss important industry issues with our nation’s elected officials, key appointees and several Washington insiders.

– Right to Repair: The Government Relations Office team secured powersports exclusions from digital right-to-repair bills in New York and Minnesota. The MIC’s Scott Schloegel also testified before the Maine Legislature’s IDEA Committee, urging them to ensure that a proposed right-to-repair bill does not inadvertently stop motorcycle and off-highway vehicle sales in The Pine Tree State. Right-to-repair provisions in LD 1911 require diagnostic connectors that are common on passenger cars and various trucks but are not always found on powersports vehicles. The MIC urged Maine’s legislature to follow the lead of Massachusetts and New York by amending the bill to specifically exclude motorcycles and off-highway vehicles from the requirements.

– Catalytic Converters: The MIC Government Relations Office worked with California state legislators to have motorcycles excluded in a new bill requiring engraving or etching on catalytic converters, among other anti-theft measures. Drafted to clamp down on an epidemic of automotive catalytic converter thefts, Senate Bill 55 would have created several expensive problems for motorcycle manufacturers, dealers, resellers and customers.

– California Red Sticker Fix: The Motorcycle Industry Council called on all powersports companies to add their names, on their letterhead, to an MIC-drafted letter in support of legislation to allow continued use of competition-model OHVs on public lands in California. “Without the passage of California Senate Bill 708 in the state assembly, the use of competition OHVs on public land in the state will be in jeopardy,” said Scott Schloegel, senior vice president at the MIC Government Relations Office.

– Internal Combustion Engine Bans: The MIC Government Relations Office opposed bills in several states, including three Massachusetts bills that would amount to a statewide sales ban on vehicles with internal combustion engines by the end of this decade. The GRO sent two letters to the co-chairs of the state’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, urging that motorcycles be excluded from all of these bills.

– PFAS Chemicals in Vermont: The Government Relations Office team opposed legislation in numerous states that would ban PFAS in textiles, packaging, youth products and powersports equipment. Seeking an amendment to a Vermont state PFAS bill, Scott Schloegel from the MIC Government Relations Office testified before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, aiming to protect powersports riding gear from a January 1, 2025, ban on PFAS chemicals used in the manufacture of textiles.

– PFAS Chemicals in Maine: Scott Schloegel traveled to Maine to testify at a meeting of the state’s Board of Environmental Protection. The board is considering regulations regarding the state’s ban on products containing PFAS chemicals, which will significantly impact powersports sales. The regulations would require detailed notifications of products for sale in Maine that contain intentionally added PFAS chemicals. They would also ban the distribution and sale of any new product that contains intentionally added PFAS beginning in 2030.

– PFAS Chemicals in Nevada: The MIC Government Relations Office secured an exclusion from Nevada’s PFAS bill for powersports youth vehicles, clothing, gear and parts. The bill had passed both of the state’s legislative chambers but was then vetoed by Governor Joe Lombardo.

– Motorcyclist Advisory Council: The MIC and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation held many meetings with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration staff and urged members of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to call on the Department of Transportation to reconstitute the Motorcyclist Advisory Council, which is now in the process of selecting new members. The MIC Government Relations Office secured a meeting with NHTSA’s Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman and Associate Administrator Nanda Srinivasan to discuss the importance of reconstituting the MAC. GRO staff also met with NHTSA’s Michelle Atwell, chief of the Safety Countermeasures Division, and her lead motorcycle safety staff LaCheryl Jones and Aleigh Jerome, to discuss motorcycle safety coordination and the importance of the MAC.

– “Self-Driving” Cars: The MIC met with and wrote to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expressing concerns over “self-driving” software on Tesla automobiles and how it poses a grave risk to motorcyclists in traffic.

– Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month: MIC and Motorcycle Safety Foundation staff from the Government Relations Office secured U.S. House Resolution 384, recognizing May as Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month.

– 50 Years of MSF: The Government Relations Office secured U.S. Senate Resolution 310 honoring the Motorcycle Safety Foundation on its 50th anniversary. The resolution passed unanimously in the Senate.

Ride With Us

– Thousands Try Riding: Ride With Us brought its hands-on Moto Intros to eight venues across the nation in 2023, several of them being new locations, and added 668 more prospective new riders to the thousands before them who have sampled two-wheeling ever since the launch of the industry’s market expansion initiative.

– New Moto Intros: The MIC’s Ride With Us team delivered the 30-minute entry-level Moto Intro experiences – on special riding ranges with guidance by Motorcycle Safety Foundation coaches – to the famed Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the MotoAmerica road race national in New Jersey, and the SEMA Fest in Las Vegas, all for the first time.

– SEMA Shows: Ride With Us Moto Intros were back at the automotive aftermarket SEMA Show, gaining local media coverage and hosting nearly 150 riders with an average age of 28, the same young cohort reached at SEMA Fest, a music and car culture event open to the public.

– Overland Expos: The Ride With Us Moto Intros returned to all four Overland Expo events from coast to coast, reaching audiences already engaged in a wide variety of outdoor recreation. Hundreds of Overland Expo guests, at events staged across the nation, have sampled the 30-minute Ride With Us Moto Intros, on small bikes, with the guidance of Motorcycle Safety Foundation coaches, on dedicated riding ranges.

– Year-Three Moto Intros: The 2023 Ride With Us Moto Intros began in Flagstaff, Arizona, at Overland Expo West – and hosted more than 100 participants. The event kicked off the third summer of Moto Intro experiences.

– Ride With Us Online: The Ride With Us Moto Intro series was backed by a new Ride With Us website. It works as a new-rider portal, presenting all the relevant and helpful information needed along the way to becoming a motorcyclist.

– Digital Advertising: In just its first month, a Ride With Us digital advertising campaign generated 1.2 million impressions and 985,000 completed views – a completion rate of 82 percent. The program’s Google search campaign garnered 1.4 million impressions and 60,000 clicks.

– Babes Ride With Us: The Ride With Us team hosted a special hospitality area for female riders who were new to Babes Ride Out at one of the group’s events in Santa Barbara, California.

Research and Statistics

– New Sales Categories: Recognizing the tremendous growth of the ADV market segment, the Research and Statistics Department added a new category to the MIC Retail Sales Report for the first time in decades, dividing the adventure and dual categories as specific types, underneath the general dual heading.

– Rising Sales: Through its ongoing data collection work, the Research and Statistics Department reported that among leading brands, sales of new motorcycles and scooters increased 4.4 percent through the third quarter of 2023, compared with the same period the previous year. Through September, off-highway motorcycles were up 14.7 percent and the dual-sport segment went up 6.6 percent.

Membership

– New Members: The MIC welcomed more than 70 new members to the association roster in 2023, including dealers, aftermarket manufacturers and service providers.

– Dealer Savings: Motorcycle dealers and retailers were offered enhanced payment solutions with CardConnect powering the MIC Bankcard Program, featuring significant cost savings through member-only rates that can substantially reduce monthly processing fees.

– Discounts for Coaches: The MIC began a new Motorcycle Safety Foundation RiderCoach discount program, allowing MIC members to offer discounts on soft goods, hard parts and powersports vehicles to nearly 6,000 nationwide MSF coaches who help bring new riders into motorcycling and help veteran riders with advanced and refresher training.

– Join Us: For questions about membership, services and programs, or general inquiries, please contact MIC Member Services.

Technical Programs

– The PFAS Problem: The MIC issued a call to action on the PFAS problem. MIC member companies were requested to provide input to Eric Barnes, MIC vice president of technical programs, so staff could relay concerns to the Environmental Protection Agency.

– The Working Group: The MIC PFAS Working Group continued assisting a variety of powersports companies that rely on PFAS chemicals and face new federal and state regulations that could change manufacturing across the industry. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a class of synthetic chemicals used for decades in a wide range of consumer products.