Profits ? - It's Simply Pocket Science by Mark Williams

With the ghastliness of Zmas and the New Drear's Eve safely out of the way, it's traditional to gaze into crystal balls for some glimmer of the glorious commercial future that beckons this coming year. Unfortunately my balls aren't offering much cheer in this or, indeed, any other respect. So no change there, then. Frankly, I fear the next year is going to see a continuing and perhaps accelerating downturn in the bike trade, if only as a consequence of overall retail trends and the economic pressures which blight them. You know the story, higher taxes kicking in this spring, escalating housing costs, can't afford to send little Marmaduke to public school and buy a V-Rod, blah-blah-blah. But talking of little Marmaduke, or rather his blue-collar peers in Bolton and Broadstairs, there might perhaps be some hope in the longer term, and here's why. For reasons too barmy to explain, I exposed my liver to the festive season on the storm-swept Pembrokeshire Riviera, and whilst surfing homewards through South and Mid-Wales I happened to notice two or three clumps of kids in full festive off-road attire giving it some welly on their motorised Xmas presents. Coincidence clearly paid a part in this, and it's also true that I spied several more familiar convoys of grown-up trail riders squelching off into the murk once I got nearer home. But seeing more than a few kiddies in fields on toy moto-crossers and bijou quads during the course of one afternoon was nevertheless very impressive. 'Catching 'em young and keeping 'em keen' would seem to be the maxim here, but as I implied in my column last month, this is arguably easier in the off-road market than it is for the road bike crew.

Of course as those of us who regularly cover ourselves in mud will be quick to moan, the legislative and environmental pressures on off-road riding mean that you can't just decide to switch to flogging knobbly-tyred 'bikes and expect to make a killing. The dealers who do have inevitably had to involve themselves in off-road sport and the sensitivities of a fairly peculiar market in order to grow their businesses, and that neither comes cheap or quick. This is perhaps less true of the kiddiwinkies off-road market where a cheap-ish toy bike bought for Xmas can be forgotten by summer just 'cause the little darling lost his nerve, and thence his interest, after he'd fallen off a few times. Or some other fad came long and captured the imaginations of his peer group. So if you want to develop repeat business, don't expect to do it selling cheapjack mini-crossers built from Chinese tin to parents doting on childish whims that can evaporate before you can say 'Playstation 2'. Training, sporting affiliations, junior-sized clothing/safety wear and midget-mode accessories are the sorts of things you'll have to offer if there's a year-round and year-on-year business to be had from this market. But take the long view and you may discover that today's Christmas present may be a four or five grand moto-cross, enduro or trail bike with all the trimmings a decade or so down the road. Or rather off-road (ouch). However all may not be lost for the committed road bike dealer wondering where his next market's coming from. The other incident that startled me during the alleged season of good cheer was the sight of some callow youth awkwardly riding around an almost deserted seaside car-park on what appeared to be a tiny replica of a Yamaha race bike. Still shakey after a long night of yuletide excess, I thought perhaps that this was a cruel alcoholic illusion, but 'pon closer inspection and a brief word with the acned rider of this absurd motorised confection, I discovered this was indeed what is seemed to be, namely a 40cc 2-stroke motor propelling a scale accurate toy racer.

Built unsurprisingly by an ingenious Italian company (but why not Yamaha themselves ? , you should be asking), it turns out that this is but one of an entire subculture of 'pocketbikes' or 'micro-motos' fast gaining a devotional following, particularly amongst teenagers who can't afford (or don't want) real racing motorcycles but love their style and sass. Polini, GRC, Pasani and Blata are some of the companies involved, and from occasional mainstream press coverage you may be vaguely aware of their products and even an ad hoc race series that's been built around them. And at prices ranging from £700 to £2000+ for the most powerful (12bhp !), someone's making money here. And of course like the mini moto-crossers and kiddie quads, a quick Christmas cash-in isn't going to help bike dealers sustain long-term turnover (although as with karting, there's a certain perverse potential in catering to a fanatical sub-culture that's never going to go anywhere except round and round on tiny tracks). However I can see that these pocket rockets could just possibly convert their owners into becoming real motorcyclists once they tire of wibbling along six inches from the ground at, well at what must be a rather alarming 30-odd mph. The trick here would be not just to sell miniature repli-racers, but to offer pocket versions of bikes that are actually practical and affordable, say EN500s and Bandits. If the Big Four's marketing depts got their acts together, they could offer discounts, or at least some kind of training and insurance deals, to anyone moving up from the pocket version to the real thing. Sounds a bit fanciful I know, but you try dreaming up new ways of getting kids onto bikes instead of into cars that doesn't involve hanging around school playgrounds with a sheaf of Metzeler Girls posters underneath your grubby raincoat. Although on second thoughts...

The above article is from the February 2003 issue of Motorcycle Trader
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