With National No. 1 plates at stake, the 2020 AMA Hillclimb Grand Championship takes place in Wisconsin this year, with Bay City's Valley Springs Motorcycle Club to host an amateur national championship event at Valley Springs Motorcycle Club, August 7-9. The club's 500-foot hill also was the site of AMA Hillclimb Grand Championships in 2012 and 2014. Riders with the ten fastest times across all classes will compete for the King of the Hill award in a run-off at the end of the program on Sunday; valleyspringshillclimb.com
The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) announced +5% growth for sales of new personal watercraft in 2019. New powerboat retail unit sales closed Q4 +4% overall on a rolling 3-month year-over-year (R3M YOY) basis and closed 2019 -1 percent on a rolling 12-month year-over-year basis, marking the second highest level of new powerboat sales in 12 years. Wake sport boats were +5%, cruisers +4% and jet boats +1%. New yacht sales were -6% for 2019.
Founded over 100 years ago and renamed in 1947 by 'Bub' Tramontin, Tramontin Harley-Davidson (Hope, NJ) has closed its doors with current owner and founder's son Bob Tramontin retiring after 45 years in the business. Bob is quoted as saying that "based on current Buy-Sell market conditions, we were unable to find a qualified buyer. After lengthy negotiations, thanks to George Chaconas of Performance Brokerage Services, we were able to reach a retirement incentive buy-out with Harley."
Manchester Harley-Davidson in New Hampshire has been acquired by Paul Veracka, his second acquisition since he split from his brother Michael and started his own company. Manchester H-D is located 35 miles north of sister store High Octane H-D, which is in Billerica, Massachusetts. "High Octane is already the largest new bike dealership in the North East, and we feel that with the vast H-D community in New Hampshire, Manchester has the customer base to equal or beat it. Our 2020 goal for the dealer group is to have five of the top ten new bike volume dealerships on the East Coast," said Veracka. "This is my sixth H-D dealership now with the goal to own ten in total in the next couple of years." Collectively, Paul's company will likely sell over 5,000 H-D motorcycles this year.
The 2020 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) Show will be staged at the Las Vegas Convention Center from Tuesday 3 November through Friday 6 November 2020.
A new SEMA Industry Perspectives Report, 'Independent Retailers are the Most Common Sales Channel for Specialty Automotive Parts', has found that independent retailers in the automotive aftermarket remain the most used sales channel for getting parts to consumers. While manufacturers and distributors sell into a variety of channels, including direct-to-consumer, over 80% of manufacturers report that their products sell through independent specialty retailers, and that while many retailers and installers report selling some of their inventory through online auction sites and marketplaces, these only account for 7% of sales.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, B&B, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news