This was in my local newspaper today:
Classic Motorcycles Roar Back
Tuesday, December 3, 2002
[PHOTO]
Bernard Li stands with a phase two prototype of the Vincent Black
Lightning S. Li is trying to bring back the British brand Vincent, whose
bikes last rolled off assembly lines in 1955. He has acquired all
trademarks. (Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
BY MIKE FREEMAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. -- In the three decades that he has been
riding motorcycles, Bernard Li has heard all the biker banter about
mythic machines, from the old Indian bikes to classic Harley-Davidsons.
None fascinated him more, however, than the Vincent Black Shadow, a
long-out-of-production British machine that in its day was the fastest
thing on two wheels.
Li, 56, is trying to bring back the Vincent brand, which last
rolled off assembly lines in 1955. He acquired the trademarks and has
spent about $2 million to date designing and building four prototype
bikes that resemble the old Vincent but include modern engineering.
Li unveiled the bikes to potential investors and motorcycle
enthusiasts at his suburban San Diego home in Rancho Santa Fe last month.
In resurrecting a modern version of the Vincent, Li hopes to tap
into a surprisingly robust market for motorcycles.
For street bikes, annual retail sales in the United States have
soared from 194,000 in 1995 to 494,000 in 2001, according to DJB
Associates, an Orange County consulting and research firm. Citing
statistics from the Motorcycle Industry Council, Li said consumers
purchased $5.45 billion in new bikes in 2000.
Harley-Davidson dominates the street-bike market. The company has
delivered nearly 200,000 bikes to retailers so far this year. A phalanx
of Japanese companies -- Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki -- gobble up
most of what is left of the street-bike market.
Li isn't alone in trying to hop on the motorcycle bandwagon. Big,
well-financed companies such as snowmobile giant Polaris Industries also
have jumped aboard. Polaris began making Victory motorcycles in 1998.
And Indian Motorcycle attracted more than $45 million in venture capital
when it roared back to life in 1998 after being out of production for
more than four decades.
Along with Li, a tiny company north of San Diego in Carlsbad,
American Eagle Motorcycles, is in the game. Founded in Northern
California in 1996 and known for making choppers, American Eagle is now
under new management and is introducing a sleek sport cruiser bike.
Don Logan, an investor in American Eagle, took over as chief
executive in February 2001, and moved the operation to Carlsbad this summer.
American Eagle has produced fewer than 1,000 bikes in its six years
in business. But Logan plans to ramp up production next year on the
shoulders of American Eagle's new STX sport cruiser, which he calls the
"lightest, fastest, best-looking bike on the road."
The expansion effort has been funded so far by a $750,000 private
placement with investors, Logan said.
The company says selling 500 bikes will generate $10 million in
revenue and a $4.8 million profit.
Li's Vincent Motors USA and American Eagle are not big or
well-financed. Both are looking for investors to help move their plans
forward. And industry experts say any company without deep pockets faces
long odds of success.
Officials at Vincent and American Eagle say they can compete by
aiming for niches in the market that others are not filling.
The original Vincent, renowned for its speed, is a collector's
item. Hunter S. Thompson praised vintage Vincent bikes in his books, and
one was featured in the movie Batman.
Li says today's "retro" bikes, which tap into the nostalgia of baby
boomers, are mostly cruisers -- large, highly stylized motorcycles such
as Indian and Harley-Davidson.
But nobody is making retro sport bikes, Li said. Sport bikes tend
to be smaller, high-perform- ance machines.
"Indian is a retro cruiser. We rely on a similar sentiment, but we
appeal to a guy who is much more hardcore," Li said. "We appeal to a guy
who probably grew up riding Japanese sport bikes."
Li, who has owned two dozen motorcycles over the years, founded the
car care company Eagle One in Carlsbad. He sold the privately held firm
to Valvoline in 1998 for an undisclosed sum.
He acquired the Vincent trademarks in 1994, and has hired bike
designer James Parker and Roush Industries near Detroit to engineer the
new Vincent. Honda also has signed a letter of intent to supply its RC51
engine for the new bike.
Li has funded the venture himself thus far. He says it will take
$18 million to get into full production. He hopes to have bikes, which
would sell for about $20,000 for a standard model, in dealerships in 2004.
Li expects to deliver fewer than 1,000 Vincents in 2004, with a
peak of about 2,000 or 3,000 bikes a year.
Experts say Harley-Davidson has an advantage over retro companies
in that it never went out of business and therefore doesn't have to
spend money to revive its brand.
"Vincent was a great name in motorcycling years ago," said Dave
Finnerty, general manager of San Diego Harley-Davidson. "But it's like
the other old brands that have come back. They have the styling
characteristics of the old bikes, but really it's a whole new company
that's coming into the motorcycle market by attaching itself to an older
name."
http://www.sltrib.com/2002/dec/12032002/business/7695.htm
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+Chase Kimball ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), nom de Plum "Lord Brancaster" aka
+"Hannibal" in the Quake Clan "Zero Tolerance." Associate editor at
+http://www.gaminggroove.com ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
+
+"Sun-treader, light and life be thine for ever!" Robert Browning,
+"Pauline."
+
+Visit my home page at http://www.aros.net/~chase to view the
+virtual gallery of fantasy art of Jesse Allen, and the home site
+of the Wasatch Avian Education Society.
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