Royal Enfield has now commenced operations at its planned new CKD (complete knock down) assembly facility in Brazil. Located in Manaus, capital of Amazonas state, it is the fourth Royal Enfield CKD assembly unit across the world, after Thailand, Colombia and Argentina. It has an annual assembly capacity of more than 15,000 units.
Indian Motorcycle Company has recalled 7,811 Chief, Super Chief and Scout motorcycles due to possible fuel pump failure.
Parts Canada has been announced as the exclusive distributor in Canada for the German made parts and accessories for Kodlin Motorcycles business. Two years ago, Kodlin hired former Custom Chrome and Kuryakyn senior executive Holger Mohr to set up Kodlin USA at Morgan Hill, California. This deal is a next stage in a relationship established earlier in 2022 when Drag Specialties started Kodlin distribution in USA.
Zurich, Switzerland based Hostettler Moto AG, a subsidiary of the Hostettler Group conglomerate with seven branches throughout Switzerland, has announced that it is no longer to sell Indian motorcycles from January 2023. The company took over the Indian motorcycle business from Arrigoni GmbH in spring of 2021. Indian was down by more than 38% by the end of August 2022.
Following a winning performance at the 2022 FIM Motocross of Nations (MXoN) that brought the MXoN Chamberlain Trophy back to the United States, the U.S. team - which included Eli Tomac, Chase Sexton and Justin Cooper, with five-time World Champion and AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer Roger DeCoster as Team Manager - has been honored with the 2022 AMA Motorcyclist of the Year award. It had been 11 years since the U.S. last won the Chamberlain Trophy, and this year the U.S. MXoN did so in front of thousands of fans on home soil at Red Bud Track 'N' Trail in Buchanan, Mich., on Sept. 25, 2022.
Drag Specialties has hired Kristalyn Manka for the southern Michigan and northern Indiana area. She has several years of experience at the dealer level, managing shop and service. She started riding in 2017 and has owned ten motorcycles since. She currently rides a 1999 Harley-Davidson Super Glide and a 2018 Honda Grom.
The Cole family of Harley-Davidson dealerships has bought South Charleston's H-D of West Virginia (formerly Dennis's H-D) from long time 1974 founding owner Dennis DiFillipo. PSB reported that "The Cole Group owns and operates several dealerships in the mid-Atlantic region, including Black Sheep
H-D in Huntington, WV, Cole H-D in Bluefield, WV, Black Bear H-D in Wytheville, VA, Black Wolf H-D in Bristol, VA, and Black Jack H-D in Florence, SC. H-D WV will continue to operate from its current location, however, there are plans to combine the Huntington and South Charleston locations into a one brand, new state-of-the-art facility."
Progressive AFT says 2022 was a "season of record-breaking viewership numbers. The sport reached an all-time high of 3,377,919 total viewers, with 2,861,000 P02+ viewers tuning into the sport's debut season on FOX Sports alone. The 2022 season saw the series join forces with FOX Sports in a blockbuster new multi-year agreement, in addition to relaunching the popular FansChoice.tv livestreaming hub halfway through the year." FOX Sports provided 150 hours of linear television coverage for the sport in 2022.
Organizer Ruth Lemass (SDL Exhibitions Ltd. in Dublin) has announced the closure of the biennial Carole Nash Irish Motorbike and Scooter Show. The show had been due to make its post-Covid comeback in March 2023, staging the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building affiliate round for Ireland - a competition that produced an Irish World Champion Custom Bike Builder with Don Cronin of Medaza Cycles fame. He won in 2013 with 'Rondine' - a still much admired 1971 Moto Guzzi. "Over the 20 years of the show, we've seen an amazing 300,000 motorcyclists come through our doors. We've seen brands being launched to huge success, while we've seen others reach an audience that they would otherwise never have met," said Ruth.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com