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Motorcycle Sales: Dismal
Published October 20, 2009 | 
The most recent sales figures for motorcycles don’t look good at all. The industry is taking a shellacking unlike anything I’ve seen since ’81-82. As of the third quarter of this year…
…motorcycle sales totaled just 434,370 so far this year, down from 771,950 in the first 9 months of 2008 for a drop of 337,580, which makes overall sales down 44%.
I wish i could say things were going to get better soon, but I don’t believe that to be the case. For instance, take our current 9.8% unemployment rate. If we counted employment stats like they did prior to 1973, that reading would actually be 17%. Those are depression numbers.
And, speaking of the depression, everyone thought things were going to get better and better in 1931. There was lots of happy talk about the economy, just like there is now. I’d like to think that’s as far as the parallel goes, but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
Economy is part of it. Â The other part is that the RUB phenomenon died out too, and was dying off before the economy tanked.