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www.PowersportsBusiness.com NEWS Powersports Business • March 17, 2014 • 5 4 • March 17, 2014 • Powersports Business NEWS www.PowersportsBusiness.com www.powersportsbusiness.com Editorial and Sales: 763.383.4400 Subscriber Service: 847.763.9565 EDITOR IN CHIEF: Dave McMahon 763/383-4411 (dmcmahon@powersportsbusiness.com) MANAGING EDITOR: Liz Keener 763/383-4413 (lkeener@powersportsbusiness.com) SENIOR EDITOR: Tom Kaiser 763/383-4424 (tkaiser@powersportsbusiness.com) ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR: Christopher Gerber SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: Dodi Vessels PRODUCTION ARTIST: Kelsey Houle (khoule@epgmediallc.com) PRODUCTION MANAGER: Angela Schmieg VICE PRESIDENT/TRADE GROUP: Amy Collins NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Allison Gruhn 763/383-4467 (agruhn@powersportsbusiness.com) NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER Mark Rosacker 763/383-4433 (mrosacker@snowgoer.com) NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER David J. 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Send editorial materials to EPG Media, LLC, 3300 Fernbrook Lane N, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55447, 763/383-4400. No responsibility will be assumed for unsolicited materials. Powersports Business is a registered trademark of EPG Media, LLC. Copyright 2013 by EPG Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited unless expressly authorized by publisher. REPRINTS: For more information on e-prints or reprints from Powersports Business, contact Bernadette Wohlman, 763/383-4400 x2464. Printed in U.S.A. from the Tribeca location. The storefront and side of the new Tribeca structure comprises two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows that allow passersby to see everything inside. The building's glass-and-metal design fits right into the hip, yet historic, vibe, comple- menting the Greek revival and cast-iron archi- tecture styles of this Tribeca neighborhood. John Maguire, general manager and parts manager, said that H-D of NYC first decided to open a Manhattan store two years ago. "As we were scouting around for a site, we said, 'Wait a minute — we already have the perfect location!' Owner/dealer principal Avi Jacobi owns this property. It's a co-op building, and the David Z. shoe store used to be here, so we gutted it and built it up into a high-tech dealership," Maguire said. The building's interior is simply stunning, with new Harleys lining the wall of windows on the left and a café on the right. Prominently ensconced on the coffee bar is a program- mable La Cimbali espresso machine specially imported from Italy. DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE The 17,000 square-foot footprint is spread across two floors. A Power Wall, a touch-screen kiosk that allows customers to digitally design and view their dealer-customized bikes on a large movie screen set against the back wall of the first-floor showroom, is virtual H-D1 cus- tomization on steroids. Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture worked with Avi's nephew, Asaf Jacobi, H-D of NYC pres- ident and general manager, to develop the digital architecture. In fact, Asaf shared the concept with Harley-Davidson, and The Motor Company proposed to co-develop it with H-D of NYC. The Power Wall is the first of its kind and is intended to serve as a model for future Harley dealerships. After the Power Wall demo, the staff unveiled six H-D of NYC custom bikes: the Sportster Glit- ter, a custom FXDB, Softail Breakout and FLHP Road King, a Sportster bobber and a V-Rod Mus- cle made into a touring machine. Each features the H-D of NYC logo styled after the iconic New York City subway token. The lower level encompasses MotorClothes, footwear and helmets, the parts department and the main showroom. Every motorcycle is individually displayed with a striking wall mural of the New York City skyline serving as backdrop. There's a glass-enclosed lift sus- pended between floors, which acted as a dais for the dealership's checkered cab-style bagger during the event. In the future, when a cus- tomer buys a bike, the lift will be used to bring the bike up to the ground level. SERVICE EXPANSION AT SISTER STORE But the service department is noticeably absent. "This is the first dealership Harley has ever approved without a service department. They had to verify that Queens could handle two locations," said Jim Maguire, John's brother who also is service manager. No service department? The folks at H-D of NYC have it all figured out. They offer con- cierge service: Customers can bring their bike to the Tribeca location and the staff will trans- port the bike to Queens to be serviced and then bring it back to Manhattan. Or, customers can just arrange for bike pickup and delivery. "We had to expand the shop in Queens to 12 mechanics. Eventually every aspect of the Queens dealership will be renovated to complement the new store here. We want you to feel like you're sitting in your friend's living room while you're waiting for your bike to be serviced," Jim said. Also on hand at the December event were representatives from Rivera Primo and S&S Cycle, along with a number of Harley-David- son executives, including director of mar- keting experience Steve Piehl, senior vice president and global chief marketing officer Mark-Hans Richer, director of the young adult segment Mike Lowney, vice president of global integrated marketing Shelly Pax- ton, director of strategic marketing for North America Stacy Watson and field marketing manager Dan Mattias. "We're the only Harley dealership servicing Manhattan, and we will attract multiple seg- ments given our location," John Maguire said. "There are tour buses that come down Broad- way. Tribeca is a hip neighborhood, and we're hoping to get some young hip urban kids. It starts with a T-shirt from our T-shirt Loft, then a leather jacket from the Leather Lounge, then they throw a leg over a bike. And the courts are right down the street. Lawyers have been stop- ping by to find out when the store will open." It turns out that this is not a soft opening. John says, "We're hitting the ground running. We're opening for business tomorrow." PSB Marjorie Kleiman aka Shadow is the editor Thunder Press North Edition, a Powersports Business sister publication. Suzuki sees year-over-year sales growth in January Boulevard B.O.S.S. brings sales increases to dealers With year-over-year sales gains in every cat- egory of motorcycle and ATV product, Suzuki Motor of America, Inc., (SMAI) throttled into 2014 in convincingly strong style. Collectively, Suzuki dealers nationwide reported retail sales in January were significantly higher than those for the same period last year. "Shoppers have a lot of reasons to visit Suzuki dealers," said Rod Lopusnak, SMAI's general manager — National Sales. "With exciting new product arriving and our indus- try-leading retail programs led by the power of we trust implicitly and who has the experi- ence and enthusiasm to lead Husqvarna's growing and vibrant motorsport department. Husqvarna Motorcycles is already achieving racing success, and as the season progresses we want to ensure it continues." "To represent Husqvarna in motorsport is a real honor," Jonas said. "I am extremely grate- ful that Mr. Pierer and Pit Beirer have placed their confidence in me as Husqvarna Motor- cycles expand their racing activities around the world. Husqvarna will have a motorsport man- agement and technical support system ready to handle these increasing demands — one that mirrors the hugely successful working prac- tices of KTM motorsport. This really is a very exciting time for both the Husqvarna Motor- cycles brand and myself personally." POLARIS, YAMAHA ISSUE RECALLS Polaris and Yamaha issued recalls of a select number of units in late February, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Com- mission and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Polaris has issued a recall of about 16,550 Rangers. The throttle cable can melt on the exhaust pipe and fail to operate properly. This can cause the rider to lose control, posing a crash hazard. The recall involves 2013 Polaris Ranger 500 EFI and Ranger Crew 500 EFI models. Polaris has received one report of a vehicle's throttle failing to return to idle after accelerat- ing, causing the operator to lose control of the vehicle and be thrown from it, resulting in a scraped shin. The units were sold at Polaris dealers nationwide from June 2012 through February 2014 from between $9,300 and $11,000. Meanwhile, Yamaha recalled 24,000 2009- 13 YZFR1 and 2012-13 XTZ12 motorcycles. On the affected bikes, the headlight may generate enough heat to cause the bulb con- nections to expand, resulting in an arching in the bulb socket, which could cause the socket to overheat and melt and cause the headlight to malfunction. Dealers will be repairing the headlight socket of the affected units. Yamaha also recalled about 1,300 of its YZ250 and YZ450 competition off-road motorcycles when it was learned the drive chain can detach and cause the rider to lose control, posing a crash hazard. About 1,300 units were affected. The recall involved 2014 Yamaha model numbers YZ250FEL, YZ250FEW, YZ450FEL and YZ450FEW. The bikes were sold at Yamaha motorcycle dealers nationwide from December 2013 through January 2014 for between $7,500 and $8,500. PSB HOTNEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 H-D CONTINUED FROM COVER (Top) Harley-Davidson of New York City's newest dealership is located in Tribeca, on the corner of Broadway and White. (Bottom) The Power Wall is the first-of-its-kind at any Harley-Davidson dealership, and is planned to serve as a model for future Harley dealerships. Asaf Jacobi, president/general manager of H-D of NYC, designed the con- cept behind the touch-screen kiosk and projection screen. ARI Network Services announced that it has signed an agreement with KYMCO USA to offer the manufacturer's more than 620 inde- pendent dealers in the U.S. KYMCO USA- branded websites. Harnessing the power of ARI's dealer web- site platform, the branded sites will give autho- rized KYMCO USA dealers exclusive features including factory promotions, pre-loaded inventory data and access to KYMCO USA's image library. In addition, the websites will be included in KYMCO USA's dealer locator. "We look forward to working with KYMCO USA and their dealers to help drive more traffic, leads and sales not only to their websites, but to dealers' brick and mortar stores," said Roy W. Olivier, ARI president and CEO. "With the majority of consumers researching products online, it's more important than ever for deal- ers to not only have an online presence, but to make sure that consumers visiting OEM web- sites can find their dealership." Each site also includes used equipment pages, which dealers can utilize to load their entire inventory of pre-owned vehicles. Plus, the website enables dealers to automatically feed their inventory data to third-party classi- fied sites, including CycleTrader.com, Motor- cycleinventory.com, ATV.com, Motorcycle. com, Chopper Exchange and CarSoup. "It's very exciting to be partnering with ARI and to have the opportunity to offer our dealers KYMCO USA-branded websites," said Rick Pawelka, KYMCO USA director of marketing. "As an emerging brand, it's impor- tant that our dealers follow the coordinated national advertising programs developed by KYMCO USA's advertising department. Hav- ing a brand-specific, online presence that reflects the image and marketing direction created by KYMCO USA is just another step in the right direction." PSB ARI to provide websites to KYMCO dealers P01x09-PSB4-NEWS.indd 4 3/5/14 11:29 AM