Fast Motorcycle Industry News

Minneapolis Ad Agency Wins Indian Motorcycle Account. Twin Cities Ad agency Colle+McVoy has been named agency of record for Indian Motorcycle, which was bought earlier this year in April by Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) The Ad Agency will lead Indian’s international branding, advertising, creative, design, retail and interactive marketing strategy.

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally traffic Count (Again) So, Sturgis Officials use the vehicles traffic count going through the 2 exits to Sturgis from the I-90 to determine the official rally attendance? All those going every year to the Sturgis Rally are quite surprised by the “official” numbers thrown at us 2 to 3 weeks after each rally ends. Of course, Sturgis Officials want to show success and are probably not too inclined to show a declining number of participants. South Dakota Transportation officials say they counted about 10 percent fewer vehicles during this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The Transportation Department says that their count was about 415,000 vehicles in and around Sturgis from Aug. 8-14, down from about 460,000 last year. Pros of the industry will agree that to announce a 10% decline is an over optimistic count. They estimate attendance to be down from 30% to 40%…

So, I think it’s time for DOT to explain its traffic count. 2 wheels equal 1 or 2 bikers? 3 wheels always 2 bikers? a car (how many are inside? how many are bikers?), counting both entry and exit to Sturgis? As many times they exit the I-90 to downtown or leave the city? As a reference, I drove down from Lead (above Deadwood) to I-90 in direction of Rapid City the last Thursday of the rally at 10.30 pm. Weather was good. I saw a total of 16 bikers (both directions) in 1 hour of driving to my final destination…

Polaris Industries Stock Split. Due to shares that have been rising steadily since mid-2009, Polaris Polaris is doing a 2 for 1 stock split. The split will take place Sept. 12 with each shareholder receiving at the close of the market yesterday Sept. 2, 2011 one new share of common stock for each share they held. Last month Polaris, maker of Victory & Indian motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles, raised its 2011 forecast after reporting that second-quarter profits nearly doubled compared to the same period in 2010.

 

9 Responses to “Fast Motorcycle Industry News”


  1. 1 bigalyts Sep 4th, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    I think the reason fort the decline is because Obama wasn’t coming !!!!!!!!!

  2. 2 chopperfreak29 Sep 4th, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    bigalyts: What?

  3. 3 fluke Sep 5th, 2011 at 12:49 am

    look, the numbers could both be correct, I don’t see the confusion.

    The numbers are for all traffic going past a certain point on the highway, Usually all vehicles count as equal and the DOT have no idea of the type or number of passengers. A vehicle passes a point and a counter clicks 1 higher. So through traffic, service vehicles, non rally tourists and people who go past the same point 10 times a day to go to work are also counted.

    Find out the numbers for the week before and after the rally and the subtract that from the total, then work out the percentage drop.

  4. 4 Mike Tomas Kiwi Indian MC Co Sep 5th, 2011 at 6:37 am

    I’ve always been surprised by the official numbers vs the reality and discussing with other industry professionals. Bike and people traffic was way down this year. When it’s possible to get around with min delay in downtown Sturgis (and surrounding areas) it certainly is not just a 10% decline. It would be nice to see substantiated independent research results that our industry could really benefit from.

  5. 5 Rick Lossner Sep 5th, 2011 at 6:51 am

    Polaris : good news continues! The one thing I never understood about KM, was the lack of advertisement for the Indians

  6. 6 Alan K Sep 5th, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    You want to count bikers in Sturgis? Easy! Give those myriads of cops something worthwhile to do, send em around with a stamp and a hand counter and a smile on their face….

  7. 7 Jeff Nicklus Sep 6th, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    There is no way in hell there were 415,000 people at the Black Hills Rally! Closer to 225,000 to 250,000 max! Hell, the last Saturday there were maybe 60,000 still in the area total and Sunday you could have shot a cannon ball in any direction and not hit a soul!

    I have talked to three different hotel owners who tell me their business was down from 37%-39% over the same time period last year ….and I believe it!

    Over & Out,

    Jeff

  8. 8 Jeff Nicklus Sep 6th, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    fluke,

    That method of counting has not been used for many years just exactly for the reasons you give. There is a formula that is used by the officials which accounts for trash increase, water and sewer usage and some other factors that I am not sure what they are and from those factors the final total attendance is figured.

    Over & Out,

    Jeff

  9. 9 Sheriff Sep 6th, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    less people more fun. I remember 1990 when the city of Sundance run out of food, and the local sheriff missed his daily 2 PM lunch

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Cyril Huze