More Riders Is Good for Everyone
It seems like every company associated with the motorcycle industry wants to see more people out on two wheels. Many of them have special programs and initiatives to make that happen. Well, now the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) has announced its long-term initiative to get more people riding.
“While many of us, with our individual businesses, have taken steps to grow ridership, we also should be working together, and the MIC wants to help make that happen,” said Paul Vitrano, MIC board chair and senior assistant general counsel at Indian Motorcycle and Polaris Inc.
Vitrano went on to say that the MIC has partnered with a team of researchers and strategists from Centauric LLC to look at the barriers to entry for new riders and come up with a new plan for the future. “Centauric has committed an impressive multi-disciplinary team of behavioral scientists, engineers, and business consultants, and takes a unique approach to problem-solving. We are excited to be working with them on this critical initiative,” Vitrano said.
So, the news is that the MIC has started a long-term initiative to get more people riding. That’s fantastic, but there’s little to no information at this time as to what the initiative looks like specifically. The official plan will be presented at MIC’s American International Motorcycle Expo in September in Columbus, Ohio. We’ll be at AIMExpo, so we’ll try to update you on this when the time comes.
Oh boy…looking at Centauric’s website they seem like snake oil salesmen to me (but I am a skeptic).
How are they going to convince all the helicopter parents out there that bubble wrap their kids that they should buy them motorcycles?
can’t wait to see what they (don’t) come up with
this has been done multiple times since I started riding in 95′
every time the results were
NON EXISTENT.
hope they get the advice on ‘sale or return’
There is one place for Centauric to start for maximum results… the insurance industry. Remember the “Older riders 3x more likely to be injured” story from a few years ago? (as if older people aren’t 3x more likely than young people to be injured doing anything, even taking a bath)
That “news” hit the MSM (like the Times chain, when do m/c stories EVER show up there?), with “stories” presented by at least 5 different writers, all quoting the same study. Which it turns out was not ever actually published, it only made it to the online “pre-publish” website of the British medical journal (after at least one refusal to even post it there). The “study” was done by a Masters STUDENT, who refused to tell me who funded it. What group has the resources/influence to get such a study done, with multiple attempts, then have it placed in prominent MSM outlets like the Times chain within 48 hours of the study hitting the British medical journal website?
Up here in Canada, for a new rider, it can cost nearly as much to insure a used small-displacement bike as buy it.
Insurance. Look there.
There’s definitely room for improvements in the area of insurance. That should be one of the key places, but there are plenty more spots that could use some attention as well.
The less apparent aspect to my previous post is how tightly controlled motorcycle-oriented content is controlled/manipulated in the MSM. Other than the occasional local charity-ride coverage, how many “positive” m/c articles appear in North American news? Pretty much none. Even international mega-sport MotoGP and World Superbike get zero mention in the North American MSM. And yet every m/c crash or gang/riding-mob event gets “if it bleeds it leads” attention, if not nationally, definitely at the local level.
How can a new “you meet the nicest people” campaign be successful if the MSM only carries negative m/c articles? Sochiro Honda advertised during Disney and variety TV shows… unlikely that will happen anytime soon these days. Occasional product placements in tv shows or movies is not going to get the job done. Besides, it is too often the bad-guys on the bikes.
And while bike ownership/licensing may not apparently be dropping quickly, the number of active riders in my area has dropped by at least half since last year. The usual destination spots like the Timmie’s in Dunnville and the parking lot in Port Dover are nearly devoid of bikes where in the past any sunny day, even midweek, saw at least a dozen or so bikes at any one time.
Add in that Vision Zero city/road planners and politicians are working hard to make roads “safe” for autonomous vehicles, they recognize motorcycles will be difficult, if not impossible for AVs to “see”. How long before all motorcycles are mandated to have beacons that AVs need to find us? Why not beacons for pedestrians and bicyclists? Well maybe them too if this 5G cellular push gets fully rolled out.
I agree with Darren-p, hope the MIC got a money-back guarantee on this, as past attempts have failed miserably. We wouldn’t be talking about this if those past campaigns had worked.