The Lowdown Show - By ADVrider

On episode 135 of The Lowdown Radio Show, Motorcycle Global’s Michael Uhlarik reports live off the floor at EICMA, the mind-bendingly huge motorcycle industry show held in Milan, Italy. It’s important to understand that for Michael, EICMA is Christmas, the Easter Bunny, his birthday (at least before they began piling up) and his first kiss all rolled into one. You can tell how much it means to him by the way he dresses for it, like a middle-school vice-principal from Rhode Island. Michael gives us a perspective from a true industry insider. Meaning that he gets down on his hands and knees to let us know where the money is spent on a motorcycle and where a manufacturer tightened the purse strings. And wouldn’t you know that one of the bikes Michael scrutinizes is Harley’s new Sprint 440. And, please, please, watch the video version of the show—to listen only to the audio would be like dropping acid while blindfolded at a Phish show. So sit back and let a sleep-deprived, macchiato-fueled Michael Uhlarik take us on a trip.
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The Dealership Dilemma! Your local motorcycle shop is struggling because they don't understand customers

Have you ever been in a motorcycle dealership and felt that your head was about to explode? Not from the prices—that’s another conversation—but because the store was jammed to the gills with so many helmets and jackets and bikes and tins of chain lube, that not only couldn’t you find what you were looking for, but you’d forgotten what you were looking for? That’s what’s in store on this, episode 134 of the Lowdown Radio Show. Our guest, Jennifer Robison, casts an unflinching eye onto motorcycle dealerships. Did you know, according to Jennifer, that customers decide in under eight seconds whether a store is worth their time. Her job, as a dealership strategist, is to make every second count.
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On the Lowdown Radio Show episode 133, editor Zac Kurylyk joins Neil Graham for a preview of some of what’s in store at the upcoming EICMA show in Milan. Royal Enfield will be there with a big dirt bike, Harley-Davidson imprint Livewire will reveal the cryptically-named Dust Spur (which makes us think of good old Clint and those wonderful spaghetti westerns), and KTM returns to the show after a few tough years with a parallel-twin 990 Adventure. Yes, a parallel-twin. Ducati has a Multistrada Gran Turismo with a wet bar, BMW, with the M 1300 GS, figures out how to make an expensive bike even more expensive, and Honda makes a four-banger 500 inspired by the 1990s. But without 1990s graphics. Mercifully. This, and more, this week on the show.
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Motorcycle Global’s Michael Uhlarik joins us to talk focus groups. A group of people assembled to opine on anything from snack bars to topless bars to sissy bars. In this particular case, Michael’s client wanted to find out what non-motorcycling citizens under the age of 30 in five American states thought about motorcycling. Why should we care? Well, for one, this was once motorcycling’s main demographic, and if manufacturers don’t soon learn how to engage them, it’ll be awfully hard for those companies to survive. And you’d think, given that the price of everything has skyrocketed, that inexpensive two-wheeled transportation would have a golden opportunity for growth. But if that’s to be the case, there’s work to be done. This week Michael Uhlarik on the shocking views young Americans have on motorcyclists and motorcycling.

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This week, dealer guru Mark Sheffield joins the show. Maybe it’s because he’s in the middle of a move, maybe it’s because his cat is driving him mad, but this time around Mark takes off the kid gloves and lays down the facts of dealership life. We ask about tariffs. He says call it what it really is: a tax. (Unbelievably, many people don’t get that.) Then we talk profits. And where they’ve gone. And did you know only one motorcycle brand plays it straight when it comes to pricing? As in the price on the website is the price you pay at the dealership. One. Every other brand is doing its best to keep the real cost hidden from consumers. It’s not the dealerships this time, either. It’s the manufacturers that make the bikes that are up to shenanigans. And Mark gives us a legal loophole where you can get the bike you want at a price the dealer doesn’t want to sell it to you for. Seriously. News you can use this week on the The Lowdown Radio Show.
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