Superspreader Event: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

UPDATE September 10, 2020:
Scrutiny, then disagreement of methodology and then harsh criticism of the academic modelers from San Diego State University’s Center for Health Economics & Policy Studies arrived quickly after they published their findings in a 63-page report. The researchers sought to quantify the Sturgis Rally COVID-19 impact in South Dakota and nationwide by analyzing the (anonymous) cell-phone data of attendees.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said the study was “fiction,” and criticized journalists who reported on it.  “Under the guise of academic research, this report is nothing short of an attack on those who exercised their personal freedom to attend Sturgis,” Noem said in the statement. “Predictably, some in the media breathlessly report on this non-peer reviewed model, built on incredibly faulty assumptions that do not reflect the actual facts and data here in South Dakota.”

Media References:
USA Today
WSJ (paywall)

The Associated Press as of last week identified 290 cases from 12 states tied to the rally. Instead of looking at contact tracing and trying to identify specific people who had the disease and passed it onto others, the San Diego researchers looked at the areas that sent the most people to the rally and how case trends changed after the event.

*****

A scientific “Discussion Paper” (dp13670) was recently released referencing preliminary work, which documents the spread of COVID-19 due to a mass gathering conducted during a pandemic against the guidance of the CDC.

The document explicitly refers to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and how a single superspreading event can be leveraged to impose restrictions on future mass gatherings.

Discussion Paper Highlights:

• The per 1,000 case rate increased by 10.7 percent after 24 days following the onset of Sturgis Pre-Rally Events.
• A total of 263,708 additional cases due to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
  These cases represent a cost of over $12.2 billion, based on the statistical cost of a COVID-19 case of $46,000 estimated by Kniesner and Sullivan (2020).
• The cost is enough to have paid each of the estimated 462,182 rally attendees $26,553.64 not to attend.

The document concludes that the spread of the virus due to the Sturgis Rally was large. The authors provide descriptive evidence and suggest stricter mitigation policies to limit exposure due to the behavior of non-compliant events and those who travel to them.

Photo courtesy of IZA Institute of Labor Economics Document.

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The 80th Sturgis Rally Is On With Major Adjustments

Sturgis City Council Release

The Sturgis City Council voted 8-1 last night to host the rally and announced today that the 80th Annual City of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will move forward.

However, there will be significant changes designed to reduce the large crowd gatherings in the downtown core with the intent to “safeguard the community and residents.”

That there is a true definition of dichotomy.

The City Council decision, given most all other large outdoor events and indoor concerts around the U.S. have been canceled or rescheduled, is an interesting one. The annual rally will generate millions in revenues for the host city, but no mention of that trivia in the press release.

Buffalo Chip Email Blast

According to Sturgis Rally stats, in 2019 there were 490,000 rally visitors — at least 70 times the estimated 2019 population of Sturgis (6,500), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  In other words, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attendees in 2019 were the equivalent to half of the state of South Dakota’s estimated 2019 population of 884,659.

Read the full City Council release HERE.

A few items known as of today that will be implemented at the event:

• Attendees will be asked to practice social distancing and follow CDC guidelines.
• Enhanced safety/sanitization protocols will be carried out in the downtown area.
• City sponsored events including opening ceremonies, parades, B1 Flyover, and live music at Harley-Davidson Rally Point are cancelled.
• Photo towers will NOT be installed.
• Temporary vendors will be required to abide by state and federal protocols and guidelines related to COVID-19.

I’m not trying to “COVID Shame” anyone thinking about or planning to attend the motorcycle rally.  But, remember a long, long time ago when the freedom of riding across the U.S. and attending a rally didn’t bring this type of risk?

Images courtesy of City Council and Buffalo Chip.

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Growing Restless

I grow restless. I must go. I need a road trip. It is not just me.

The nation feels like it is pulling itself apart.

There’s the coronavirus and ongoing spread. Skyrocketing unemployment. Concern for our livelihood.  Will our employer bring us back to work. Then there is the color of justice and the ethnic disparities of the criminal justice system. Not to mention, the behavior of individuals that boil over into violence, looting, and riots.  I’m not trivializing the protests because people who participate in these types of events do so for a real reason.

Individually, each protester has logic, beliefs, and reasoning, but when a crowd becomes angered, tribal mentality often sets in and leads to a criminal mindset. It’s impossible to predict when a group will suddenly turn into a rioting horde. But, can we all agree that “protestors” shouldn’t destroy their communities?

I’ve digressed.

I’m itching to go for a long ride on the Harley. Clearly, these are frustrating times and a road trip is one of the last remaining fragments of the American dream. I cling to it like a splinter from the true cross. We may no longer be able to ride west to a land beyond fences but, for a little while longer at least, we remain mostly a nation without permanent, police roadblocks.  Although, I must admit that during the Laughlin River Run, the motorcycle road blocks set up by the Mojave County Sheriff in-and-out of Oatman really agitate me!

And, yet I still think about riding there. I don’t know why. Probably because I have already gone so many times. I recall the old days at the Flamingo, now the Aquarius, when there were patches everywhere from everywhere. The Hells Angels would put on a nightly show of bagger wheelies and motorcycle tricks for the riffraff. It was the PR classic image of the good ‘ol rowdy boys having fun. Now those good, old days are long gone. Everything changed after a “spontaneous” biker brawl between the Hells Angels and Mongols in 2002.

The old idea of freedom (to come and go as I please) seemed evident not long ago. I have yet to adjust to the many recent improvements in my country. I do not own a motorcycle with an electric plug and an estimated cruising range of 100 miles and doubt I ever will. I own a gasoline burning, American motorcycle that makes noise. As a result, I still think about the solitary desert Muse, two-lane black tops, cornfields and the vast landscape of 14,000 foot peaks.

The road trip has always been so essential and my personal restlessness has been boiling for a couple of months now.

Earlier in the year I was anxious to ride and it was all about calendar planning. I scribbled rallies and ride plans in boxes on a paper calendar. For several days I sat at my computer reviewing maps and motel locations with a calendar in one hand and my checkbook and a calculator in the other. My laptop browser had multiple travel sites open. When I started the planning process, I thought it would be as much fun planning the trip as going. It wasn’t and that was before traveling became a casualty of “The COVID.”

I am starved for rides this year and was aiming for Arizona Bike Week, Laughlin, Devils Highway (HOG), 80th Sturgis and Reno. I guess it is a good thing they cancelled Pendleton Bike Week and Hells Canyon or else I would be trying to fit that in, too.  To date, they’ve all been cancelled.

And it’s looking more like I might not need to be concerned about adding in the cost of the “World Famous Sirloin Tips” and a Budweiser at the Loud American Roadhouse on Main Street. The Sturgis City Council has prepared a set of protocols that will be used when making the decision to hold or cancel the 80th motorcycle rally.  They will assess the COVID situation again on June 15th and determine next steps.  I know that if I did go, I must return from Sturgis with a tee shirt and other crap I don’t need. Once I get there I can’t help myself.

There is freedom on the road. To point my front wheel towards the east, twist the throttle and leave the misleading news with click-bait headlines all behind. This year might be the year that a spontaneous day trip turns into a long distance solo motorcycle tour.

It’s time to see this great country!

Photos taken by author.

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Covid-19 Bites Harley-Davidson

Q1’20 Harley-Davidson Retail Motorcycle Sales + Motorcycles and Related Products Segment Results

Let’s jump right to that impressive Q1’20 financial result:

• Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) posted earnings of $69.7 million compared with $127.9 million in the same period a year ago.
• The dividend was slashed to 2 cents a share from 38 cents.
• The motor company is in talks with major U.S. banks to secure $1.3 billion in liquidity.
• Harley’s U.S. retail sales were down 15.5% compared with the same period a year ago.
• International retail sales were down 20.7% compared with 2019.
• Harley’s U.S. heavyweight motorcycle market segment share was down 2.2 percentage points, to 48.9%.

Another quarter, another poor performance from Harley-Davidson, though the market seemed to buy into the promise that this time it will be able to turn things around.

Déjà vu…

Management promising to fix things again by “crafting strategy accelerants” to deliver improved sales and better returns.  However, it admitted that its efforts thus far haven’t worked and also said it was “refining” the plans it had already devised, but it wouldn’t reveal how it was going to achieve them until this summer. Granted the financial problems Harley-Davidson encountered this quarter aren’t necessarily all of its own making, though it hasn’t helped itself along the way.

It’s important to note that the Harley-Davidson trends in the U.S. have been weak for years despite the economy being strong for so long. That is a major problem and the acting Harley-Davidson CEO, Jochen Zeitz, remains vague on what the motorcycle company is going to do to change that dynamic.

The “ReWire” Board

The fact that management chose the term “ReWire”, emphasizing the electric future to describe their refining plans reads like a satirical article in The Onion.  It’s as if CEO, Jochen Zeitz said, “I’ve heard some concerns going around, and I want to impress upon each and every one of you that I’m taking every possible step to ensure that we tap into a market that has traditionally been neglected by motorcycle manufacturers, Harley-Davidson is announcing a new line of motorcycles designed specifically for men.”

The “ReWire” plan consists of five main points:

• Enhance core strengths and better balance expansion into new spaces.
• Prioritize markets that matter.
• Reset product launches and product line-up for simplicity and maximum impact.
• Build the Parts & Accessories and General Merchandise businesses to their full potential.
• Adjust and align the organisational structure, cost structure and operating model to reduce complexity and drive efficiency, to set Harley-Davidson up for stability and success.

The ReWire playbook abandons some of the previously ratified “More Roads” plan, but there is so much “CEO Speak” — “designed to address top priority opportunities, drive consistent execution and reset the company’s operating model in order to reduce complexity, sharpen focus and increase the speed of decision making.” — in that investor call its difficult to know what exactly remains “committed” to or what will stop.

Little is certain these days, but there’s one sure thing: in a situation where 30+ million people were laid off or furloughed in the past 6-weeks, people are definitely thinking about their wallets.  And living with ever-present, crushing uncertainty and the knowledge that people all around us are dying isn’t the stimulus to rush out and purchase a new motorcycle.

Let us face facts.  It’s going to be a different world for a while. After all, temperature checks, touch-less payments, masks, wipes, take-out and distancing were not part of the Harley experience before the March closures.

If Harley-Davidson is about anything, it’s about bringing people together. Lots of them. And really, really close — with motorcycle rallies, music festivals, HOG events and all the cross country rides.  Looking at you Sturgis!

The whirlwind of 400,000+ motorcycle enthusiasts half-hearted adherence to CDC guidelines, while gathering all week in a number of local bars, and eating VEGAN-burgers could be viewed as a controlled experiment to determine the virus’s true incubation rate.

I have some gray in my hair and beard, something you will see in a majority of Harley enthusiasts.  I find the idea of a Harley specifically aimed at men deeply patronizing.

Photos courtesy of Harley-Davidson.

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The Big Kahuna

Great Northwest Day For A Ride

Like many of you, I was going stir-crazy after being cooped up in the house for the better part of 15 days and started thinking about stacked switchbacks and rolling hills.  I was ready for a break, and decided to unplug and spend some time on the H-D.

I’m not sure what it is, but when I roll down the road with the wind in my face, I’ll get a whiff or a scent of something that reminds me of BBQ turkey legs grilling.  That inevitably leads to thinking about other deep fried delicacies, ice cold refreshments and some live music.

Today’s ride was no different.

With my mind wandering about Crisco, I mentally pivot to that time The Big Kahuna BBQ went to Sturgis.  I remember Jeff Stumpf, a big guy with an enormous grill that sounded like a flame-thrower, and could roast six whole hogs at a time.

Back in 2004, he loaded up his 7,500-pound, cast-iron barbecue pit on wheels and drove to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally dreaming of ‘get-rich’ plans.  He would sell 20,000 BBQ turkey legs and 4,000 ears of corn to the hungry bikers at the rally.

What could go wrong… a lot it seems.  A girl he hired to help was arrested for flashing her wares.  A guy he hired was also arrested and couldn’t bail out. Jeff was short-handed in a big way. His interesting Sturgis story is HERE.

But, I’ve digressed.

I do enjoy walking around in a crowd clutching a prehistoric-sized BBQ turkey leg as much as the next guy, but as a kind of ghostliness settles over the locked-down northwest, a turkey leg will have to wait.

Until then, it’s time to order up a tasty blend of hickory and applewood smoked meat on a stick from Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que.  Take out only please and then an ice cold beer at home.   Mmm. Mmm.

Photo taken by author

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Harley-Davidson’s Entrepreneur and New Mastermind

Jochen Zeitz — Harley-Davidson interim President and CEO

The ultimate maverick has been hired to preserve and renew the freedom to ride.

I’m talking about Jochen Zeitz — the entrepreneur and new mastermind in charge of Harley-Davidson until he is offered the position permanently or a recruitment committee finds a replacement CEO.

So, what do we know and who is this man?

• Speaks seven languages — five spoken fluently including Swahili
• Has his own charitable foundation
• Owns unpublished Hemingway letters and collects robust amounts of African art.
• Owns a luxury tent-camp in Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve close to the confluence of the Sand and Keekorok Rivers
• A published author: one book is a dialogue with Benedictine monk Anselm Grün called The Manager and the Monk: A Discourse on Prayer, Profit and Principles
• Co-funded ‘The B Team‘ with Sir Richard Branson
• Awarded the Financial Times Strategist of the Year award — three times
• Honored by the fatherland and awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit
• Sits on the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) board
• Formed the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Inside: Zeitz MOCAA)
• Founded ‘The Long Run,’ an organization that grades sustainable tourism projects
• Purchased a 50,000-acre Kenyan retreat — Segera Retreat Lodge — to develop a new type of tourism leveraging “the 4Cs”
• A pilot and travels across Kenya in his 1929 Gypsy Moth biplane that was used in the Oscar-winning movie, Out of Africa
• Wears t-shirts, no socks, meditates, likes to run and became a guitar virtuoso in 5-years — professional percussive technique

Jochen Zeitz at Segera Retreat Lodge

As a slacker who would debate a good life is better than a good job, paint me truly inspired for that list of accomplishments!

Talk about an extreme producer with a missionary zeal!  And, I haven’t mentioned the best part… a profile of his “day job” achievements.

Mr. Zeitz represents qualities too good to be true and the idea of him shilling for some corporation to hawk motorcycles deflates the “HERO” excitement.  It’s clear, Mr. Zeitz won’t be satisfied until he has done everything to promote his vision of a new, better world.

LiveWire — Jochen Zeitz — Milwaukee, WI

With his multi-millions in fortune, Jochen Zeitz is likely the richest person in history to run Harley-Davidson as interim president and CEO.

So, again, who is the 57-year old sandy-haired, 6’1’’ athletic build of a man?

Mr. Zeitz was born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1963, to a gynecologist father and dentist mother.  He grew up in a time when the Green Party and the anti-nuclear movement were enjoying strong support in Germany.  Along with the time he spent at the family’s lodge in the Odenwald forest, the outdoor exposure planted seeds of interest in environmentalism.  He was educated at Karl-Friedrich Gymnasium, Mannheim, south-west Germany, and then international marketing and finance at the European Business School of Oestrich-Winkel near Wiesbaden.

Jochen Zeitz and wife Kate Garwood

Mr. Zeitz began his professional career with Colgate-Palmolive in Hamburg in 1986. He then moved to Herzogenaurach in the Franconian countryside to work for sporting goods manufacturer Puma (Bio) in 1988. From there, he rose rapidly though the ranks to become head of marketing in 1991 and vice president — international and head of the global marketing and sales department.  In 1993, at the age of 30, he became chairman of the board of Puma, making him the youngest CEO of German firms with commercially traded stock. He dramatically reduced staff numbers, took production to Asia, made English the corporate language, started sponsoring African football teams and was credited with turning around the near-bankrupt business into one of the world’s top three sports brands.

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) — Cape Town

In 2003, he insightfully signed 16-year-old future Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt to Puma.  In 2007, he was appointed to the Board of Harley-Davidson.

Puma was acquired by luxury goods conglomerate Kering in 2007, and a few years later Mr. Zeitz served as Kering’s Chief Sustainability Officer.  In 2011, he set up a sustainability committee for Harley-Davidson, which he also chaired.

Also in 2011, he wanted to step back and focus on his environmental work and resigned as CEO of Puma.  He became a director of parent company Kering and chairman of the group’s sustainability committee.  He co-founded ‘The B Team’ with Sir Richard Branson in 2013.  That same year he launched the Kenyan Segera Retreat with a focus on his foundation’s 4C philosophy for sustainable tourism.

In 2020, he was hungry for something much more and became Harley-Davidson’s interim president and CEO.

Jochen Zeitz — 1929 Gypsy Moth Airplane Photo credit: Eric M Rojas

On a personal level — he divorced his first wife Birgit Jöris in 2012 following an 18-year marriage.  He is currently married to LA-based producer Kate Garwood‚ 41‚ producer of the 2016 movie “Race”‚ about U.S. track star Jesse Owens.  They have two children; 4-year old Jesse born September 2017 and a three year old. He keeps homes in Switzerland, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, a 50,000-acre ranch in Kenya and has property in west London.

When researching material for this blog post, I was blown-away on the amount of information published about Mr. Zeitz.

In a 2013 interview with the International Bar Association, he stated no plans to marry again, although at the time he was in a long term relationship with Kate Garwood. He was adamant about no intention of having children. ‘No, definitely not,’ he stated emphatically. ‘Never say never, but it’s very unlikely. It’s not something that fits with my daily life and I’ve never believed that having children without a father around is a good idea. It’s not really something I would get excited about.’  Just a short four years later both occur.

Jochen Zeitz at Segera, his 50,000-acre ranch. Photo credit: David Crookes

In recent press interviews, he’s stated the joy of his decision to have children late in life, because now he can see them grow up versus having such a busy schedule in running a company and traveling for 10 months in a year.  An interesting side bar: Speculation swirled that Jesse, their first child, was named after the 1930s athlete and fueled by the fact that Jessie Owens was provided with shoes for the 1936 Olympics by the Dassler brothers‚ who went on to found Adidas and Puma. 

But, I’ve digressed and want to return to connecting the Harley-Davidson dots… Mr. Zeitz’s experience at Kering was a critical influence and the driving force behind Matt Levatich’s (the recently fired Harley-Davidson CEO) pivot to sustainability that led him to think much more about environmental profit and loss at Harley-Davidson.  Mr. Zeitz had devised an environmental profit-and-loss account method at Kering which, put a figure on what a company’s air pollution, land use, water use and carbon consumption cost the planet.

Jochen Zeitz’s Favorite Thing — A Scottish Bailey — Photo credit: Charlotte Haden

While Mr. Zeitz — wealthy, world-view philosophy, competitive, over-achiever and relatively young — has the luxury of carving out grandiose, acronym-fueled sustainable ‘visions’, that struggling businesses like Harley-Davidson, desperate to increase motorcycle sales, might find distracting or even an irritant.

We’ll have to read the biography when ex-CEO Levatich publishes the book, but as an outside observer, one distraction example is: it took eight years, millions of dollars and the work of over a thousand engineers to fully realize a product that few want — the Harley-Davidson LiveWire — the Milwaukee company’s first premium electric motorcycle to go on sale in September 2019.  As a long-serving Harley-Davidson board member, Mr. Zeitz convinced executive management to focus not just on the moral justification for electric engines, but on the needs of Harley-Davidson customers to have healthy natural landscapes in which to ride. The logic behind this claim, was that “what every rider loves about the ride – it’s the environment they’re riding in, isn’t it?”  Soon afterward, the marketing and brand alignment teams marched in unison to support sustainability as a major part of the brand.

Segera Retreat — Laikipia, Kenya

The result?  A new mission, twisting the brand’s historic celebration of freedom into a desire “to preserve and renew the freedom to ride” and TWELVE quarters of sales decline.  Along with a $2,152,500 million severance payment to Matt Levatich.

Mr. Zeitz believes and is on record, stating there is more to corporate life than the relentless pursuit of profit. Wait, what?!  Isn’t profit what got Matt Levatich fired?

I’ve watched “An Inconvenient Truth” and the sequel. The oceans are heating and the poles melting, but color me skeptical of environmental groups with sustainable-for profit-business interests.  We’re all too aware of what the world needs: another multi-millionaire telling others how to behave better once they have made their own fortune while flying private and choppering into a rich man’s playground.

Jochen Zeitz GQ Article — in German

The motor-head scholars, bankers, real estate agents, lawyers and fashion designers who gather not to drink cheap brew, but to sip $15 “born to be wild” martinis and straddle $40,000 motorcycles might pontificate on the value of sustainability, but I just don’t see grizzled leather-clad loyalists describing Harley-Davidson as the world’s most sustainable manufacture over a beer at the Sturgis rally.

But, sometimes there’s a man. I won’t say a hero – ’cause what’s a hero? – but sometimes there’s a man – and I’m talking about Jochen Zeitz here – sometimes there’s a man who, well, he’s the man for the time and place.

A man who will improve the brand that is unique, exciting and one that gives value to it’s riding customers.

But wait, there’s more… An incentive if he kicks a field goal… according to the company 8-K regulatory filing, the interim Harley-Davidson, CEO Jochen Zeitz, is eligible and will receive a $3 million bonus (in the form of restricted stock units (RSU’s)) that would vest one year after the grant date and become payable if his employment continues to the date of the installation of a new CEO.  That $3 million would come on top of the annual base salary of $2.5 million he is receiving now after taking over for Matt Levatich. I don’t think this will be too difficult since Mr. Zeitz has served on Harley-Davidson’s board since 2007.

UPDATED: April 17, 2020 — Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and sales impact, Harley-Davidson announced that its acting president and CEO Jochen Zeitz and the company’s board of directors would forgo any salary or cash compensations. As mentioned above, Zeitz currently has an annual base salary of $2.5 million.

Photos courtesy of Harley-Davidson, Jochen Zeitz, Twitter, Eric M Rojas, David Crookes, and Charlotte Haden

Information Source & References: IBA, Independent,Wired,Business Daily Africa, Milwaukee Business Journal, Adventure Rider, Infosys, Telegraph, Financial Times, Angama Blog

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Indian Looks To Smoke The Competition

Indian Challenger vs Harley-Davidson Road Glide

Earlier this week, Indian announced the “Challenger Challenge,” a campaign that invites motorcyclists to test ride the Challenger and the Harley-Davidson Road Glide® Special back-to-back for a head-to-head comparison.

It’s not the typical, behind-the-scenes advertising effort by Indian to sell a product in its own time and in its own way.  Instead, it’s a high-visibility campaign marked with in-your-face marketing which proclaims — the Challenger will absolutely “smoke the competition.”

That’s a blue-collar craftsmen and beer-bellied “motor-head” inflammatory call to battle!

Will Harley-Davidson laugh and say, ‘Good try, bad result‘ expecting it to reinvigorate the Road Glide sales or will the Milwaukee gurus sit up and make a hard-eyed comparison of the competition’s strengths?

I’ve posted previously that motorcycle growth rates domestically are decelerating.  Wall Street is worried that the motor company has tapped out demand for their line-up as sales cool.

Challenger Challenge Stats

My initial reaction of the Indian campaign was, it being reminiscent of the 1980’s when commercials were a sign of the times — desperate, struggling times that car manufactures hoped would turn prosperous.  You might remember, “If You Can Find a Better Car, Buy It” ad campaign?  The face behind that familiar slogan was Ronald DeLuca — the advertising whiz hired by Chrysler Corporation chairman Lee Iacocca to turn around Chrysler’s late-1970s death plunge in a recession-weary America.

Indian has the not-so-simple task of convincing Americans that the motorcycling passion isn’t an archaic lifestyle teetering on the edge of the toilet bowl.  Or if Millennials are truly killing motorcycles, then why not ride it out in style with a new Indian Challenger!

Carey Hart and Big B

The Challenger Challenge is set to launch at Daytona Bike Week on Friday, March 6th.  The product demo tour will visit Indian Motorcycle dealers around the country, as well as select motorcycle rallies and events, including Sturgis in August. In addition to the national tour, select Indian Motorcycle dealers will have a Road Glide on hand to ensure that any customer who visits their dealership can take the Challenger Challenge.

Of course there will be a full-court press with social hashtags and digital media including a video series where Carey Hart and Bryan “Big B” Mahoney, pit the new Indian Challenger against the Road Glide Special in a series of rubber burning tests that showcase power, torque, braking and handling.

We will know soon enough if the campaign is more about finding new customers who don’t necessarily want to own a motorcycle or boosting the Indian public image and extending the brand’s good name.

Photos courtesy of Indian Motorcycle.

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Brace For Impact As Harley-Davidson Announces Layoff

News about Harley-Davidson during the month of August has been a bit of a wild ride.

There was the consent decree and $15M settlement with the EPA. Then the announcement that Harley expanded the list of bikes on recall that may have been built with defective hydraulic clutch systems.  Then the biggest engine-product launch for the company since 1988, when the Twin Cam made its debut.

And now today, the day before the Milwaukee Rally kicks off, Harley-Davidson announced that approximately 200 employees will face layoffs starting in October as the company adjusts motorcycle production due to slower sales.

According to various news reports including Rick Barrett, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the union stated many of the layoffs will take place at Harley’s assembly plant in York, Pa., and some will occur at the engine plant in Menomonee Falls, where the company employs approximately 1,000 people, as well as in Tomahawk.

Given that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attendance was down roughly 40% from a year ago (some of which was expected), suggest that some riders are busy doing other things than throttling down rural America’s roads to a rally which makes the launch of its Milwaukee-Eight engine motorcycles key to amp up any new motorcycle sales.

Photo courtesy of Sturgill Simpson Video.

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Indian Motorcycle Announces 2017 Line-Up

Indian Motorcycles

Could this be a historic mark on Sturgis?

Seventy-five years after Ed Kretz dominated the first motorcycle race on the sands of Daytona Beach, Indian Motorcycle announces the 2017 line-up just days before the start of the 76th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and just hours before Harley-Davidson’s Q2’16 financial results.

Indian states the 2017 lineup includes the recently released Scout Sixty, Indian Springfield and Chief Dark Horse models with new color choices.

A new and the industry’s largest and brightest touch-screen information and entertainment system has a 7-inch display with turn-by-turn navigation, Bluetooth audio and USB flash drive support. The Chieftain bikes come with 100 watts of audio, while the more expensive Indian Roadmaster has 200 watts.  The screen is glove compatible with two-finger touch capabilities, according to the company.

Indian has grown at a brisk pace, introducing nine new models since its relaunch in August 2013.  The motorcycle industry is looking to be flat this year, so Indian and Harley-Davidson are in a share battle.  For the full year, Polaris sees motorcycle sales increasing in the high teens on a percentage basis.

Time will tell if it’s a brand, a dealership or a bike thing as the two companies slog it out in the back half of the year.  On the surface it looks like Indian will once again challenge its main rival.

If you are headed to the 76th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally,  riders can view the entire new 2017 lineup at the Indian Motorcycle Factory display on Lazelle St. or experience them firsthand with a Factory Demo Ride at 2100 Whitewood Service Road (I-90 at Exit 30) from August 6 – August 12 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily.

Photo courtesy of Indian Motocycles.

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Sturgis – Spontaneous Versus Calculated

Sturgis Rally 2016 — 76th Year

Life is about choices. What to wear, what to eat, where to ride… And if you pondered each one in advance, trying to get it exactly right, you’d be left far behind and barely make it out of your house.

There’s something unique about touring by motorcycle whether it be spontaneous or calculated.  Some riders want a state-by-state listing of the best motorcycle roads with in-depth descriptions of each highway and ratings for the road’s scenery, surface quality, and a description of the best greasy food stops.  They obtain motorcycle maps, get motorcycle trip tips, reviews, suggestions, and more.  Others are just fine to point the front wheel in a direction with back roads, freeways and cornfields without ever looking at a map.

I’m having some personal restlessness and feeling a bit starved for rides this year. I was aiming for Laughlin, Sharkweek/Sturgis and Reno, but circumstances eliminated the first two.  I don’t need to worry about Reno, yet. Although, when I last looked, I see all the local hotels have already raised their rates for those dates.  Then I remind myself that the best rides I take are never the trips to any of the big rallies anyway.

And speaking of the heightened motorcycle adventure called Sturgis (August 6-13th) — prep is in full swing for the 76th Rally celebration which starts in a couple weeks.

Last year Harley-Davidson announced that the motor company is now the “official motorcycle” of the annual Black Hills Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota (through the year 2090!). And until November 2015, nobody had ever successfully trademarked the name of a city, but Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Inc. is the official sponsor of the Sturgis Rally and it has trademarked “Sturgis,” “Sturgis Motorcycle Rally,” “Sturgis Rally & Races,” “Take The Ride To Sturgis” and “Sturgis Bike Week.” The corporation has also trademarked the official Sturgis rally logotype or picture mark. The oldest of these trademarks dates to 1997 and the most recent was registered in 2011, just before their suit was filed.  The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Inc., won that trademark infringement case against Walmart.

But, I’ve moved off topic where every American should try at least once the Legendary Steak Tip Dinner at the Loud American Roadhouse (no colors policy strictly enforced).

Harley-Davidson dropped a press release to outline all their plans at the 76th Sturgis Rally (HERE).  A quick re-cap is:

• The Harley-Davidson Rally Point is a their permanent year-round space in Sturgis that will feature events and live music daily from the stage.
• Kick-off Party for the 76th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Friday, Aug. 5, at 3 p.m.
• Rides:
  • Mayor’s Ride featuring Grand Marshal Ben Bostrom, Monday, Aug. 8.
  • Harley-Davidson Editor’s Choice Bike Show, Tuesday, Aug. 9- Registration 8 a.m./Awards 4 p.m.
  • First Ever Angel’s Ride, Friday, Aug. 12 – The number of women riders is on the rise.
  • Free Motorcycle Demo Rides on the 2016 line-up.  Staging for demo rides takes place in the parking lot behind the Community Center
• The Project RUSHMORE Experience is a behind-the-scenes and hands-on look at H-D’s latest touring motorcycle technology
• H-D Fit Shop and Genuine Motor Parts & Accessories area is new this year will have a “Quick Install” area for 30-minute or less installations of selected accessories for your motorcycle.
• Better than a selfie stick!  Pro Bike photos taken of you/your bike to post on social media and an option to purchase the photo as a keepsake.
• Hollywood Harley Bikes from the movies Captain America and Avengers will be on display including Steve Rogers and the hero bike from FX’s Sons of Anarchy TV show will be located on a red carpet area

In addition, there are many, many other “not-to-be-missed” activities around town, in the camp grounds and at various music venues.

Whether you are spontaneously twisting throttles to South Dakota or making a road trip that is highly calculated — Enjoy!

@HarleyDavidson social media is providing wall-to-wall coverage at #LiveYourLegend.  The official H-D Sturgis App, is at:  www.h-d.com/sturgis.

Photo courtesy of H-D.

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