News Briefs

In July, Black Girls Ride Founder Porsche Taylor led a group of 225 all-female riders through the streets of downtown New Orleans on a bright pink Polaris Slingshot - "the ultimate show of girl power" culminated with an outdoor party and included a Polaris Slingshot giveaway to one lucky female rider from Illinois. The women had covered more than 200,000 miles collectively, and Taylor said: "The trip to New Orleans put the spotlight on the growing family of African-American and female motorcyclists in the U.S."

Ducati owner Volkswagen (VAG) has signed an as yet unspecified cooperation agreement with Chinese made electric scooter maker Niu. Founded in 2015 with what quickly became China's most successful crowdfunding campaign, and one of the 10 most successful at the time, Niu is NASDAQ listed and with importer KSR Group has more than 400 dealers (with workshops) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland alone.

 

In what truly does mark the end of an era, industry legend Joe Teresi is finally out of the motorcycle publishing business and in retirement. Easyriders magazine and the rest of Teresi's Paisano Publishing operations have been acquired by ER71 USA, Inc. who immediately announced that they would be "transitioning to a total rebranding of Easyriders. As such, the last issue of Easyriders in its current format and package will be the September issue (#554), on sale August 6th."

 

Turin, Italy based Tacita Motorcycles is the latest E-bike manufacturer to cast covetous eyes on the domestic US market, having established Tacita USA Corp. in Miami, Florida - headed up by CEO Axel Heilenkotter. Tacita says it has been building electric motorcycles since 2011 and plans to offer two model ranges - the T-Race off-road and Enduro E-bikes, and three power/price point cruiser style models (T-Cruise) that are clearly aimed at Harley's LiveWire. Whereas most electric motorcycles have a 'Twist & Go" throttle, the T-Cruise will apparently have a more conventional gear shift transmission.


H-D have entered into a strategic agreement with PSXDigital to certify integration of what is described as the market's "first and only fully integrated Customer Experience Management platform powered by Artificial Intelligence (CXMAi)" into its Dealer Digital Certified Program - the benefits are said to include the freedom of full platform asset owner-ship, smarter data-based sales and marketing decisions, more leads, faster lead response times and 97% two-way connection rate with consumers and SEO-incorporated mobile-first custom adaptive website design.

EagleRider and REVER have announced a mutual discounts and privileges partnership that integrates the world's "foremost ride discovery, planning, tracking and sharing app with the world's leader in motorcycle rentals, tours and motorcycle membership services."

Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, B&B, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MNW