With Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycle as anchor exhibitors for the V-twin market, the expectation for a record V-twin market dealer and consumer attendance is growing.
The timing of AIMExpo means that both Indian (seven weeks) and Harley (three weeks) will have a brand-new opportunity and timing cycle to give their 2018 new models an expo environment public debut almost straight after their launches – this is the first time that either OE has had such an opportunity, and no doubt a major factor in their decisions to embrace the combined “European style” trade ad public attendance show profile that AIMExpo has brought to the U.S. powersports industry.
The 2018 Indians were on show at the Sturgis Rally, but despite some key dealer and embargoed press sneak peaks of parts of the 2018 line-up at Sturgis, the much anticipated new Harley models (on which so much depends for the Motor Company) were only getting their dealer-unveil at their Los Angeles dealer convention at the end of August.
While it remains to be seen what decisions show owner MIC Events (Motorcycle Industry Council) makes for the long-term after the existing plan to move on to Las Vegas in 2018, there’s no doubt that the ‘critical mass’ effect that will, in all likelihood, be seen at Columbus, could have a dramatic effect on the long-term shape of the market’s show cycle.
"broad enough and deep enough"
MIC Events Senior Vice President and powersports industry trade show veteran Mike Webster and former MIC Chairman and Cycle World publisher Larry Little have both pointed to the location that Columbus brings to the prospects for the show.
In May, Webster told AMD that “some 41 percent of powersports dealers and 50 percent of the U.S. population reside within 500 miles of AIMExpo Presented by Nationwide’s new location in the City of Columbus.”
He went on to predict that “the ease of access to this central location offers all potential attendees - consumer and trade, V-twin, ‘metric’ and the broader powersports industry - the opportunity for a one-stop expo opportunity to engage with all its customers like never before. The game has changed!”
Headlined by the Championship of the Americas (COTA), the sole AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building Official Affiliate design and engineering competition for the domestic U.S. market, its ‘Made in America’ parts and accessory showcase, and its “Custom Culture” initiatives (see also Comment, page four), AIMExpo has pulled out all the stops to deliver on the vision of “a show that is broad enough to represent the whole industry, and deep enough to satisfy each sector of the industry,” as Bob Kay, Custom Culture Director for MIC Events, put it when we spoke with him as he was headed to Sturgis on his antique Springer front end 1979 FX!