Attendance Dips At IMS In NYC

NEW YORK – Lyrics to the song “N.Y.C.” from the musical “Annie” extol the city’s virtues crowing “You’re big, you’re loud, you’re tough” before proudly proclaiming “You’re standing room only, you crowd, you cramp, you’re still the champ.”

How true that is – unless you happened to be at the three-day Progressive International Motorcycle Show as RIDE-CT was recently. This shrinking annual affair at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center showcases manufacturers machines; touts gear, accessories and other products for riders; and even offers a shave, a haircut and a shoe shine in an area called Flo’s Chop Shop.

What it also offered this year was loads more space for spectators in the form of wider aisles between exhibits, added breathing room between motorcycle models in many of the individual displays, and far fewer vendors. I’m guessing that the layout was purposely configured to mask that the IMS is no longer the crowded, cramped “must-see” event that it once was.

As recently as 2013, attendance at the IMS was nearly 73,000. A snowstorm in 2014 saw attendance drop significantly to 58,811. It rebounded slightly to to 61,609 last year but was back down this year to 58,580 – without any inclement weather.

RIDE-CT always goes to IMS to hear the spiels from manufacturers, but mostly to catch up with familiar faces. Before the show opens at 2 p.m. on Friday, there’s a six-hour press event where scribes literally get herded from display to display by irritatingly persistent minions. The downside is hearing brand reps drone on about their model lines. The upside is that there are recently-announced new models to see in person for the first time before the doors open.

This time, for instance, Honda showed off the restyled CB1100 and announced it would be sold in the U.S. BMW had new R Nine T derivatives (the R Nine T Racer and stripped down R Nine T Pure), while Ducati showed off the new Scrambler iterations (the Desert Sled and Cafe Racer).

Ducati also had a new 1299 Superleggera on display. It’s a limited edition – only 500 made – superbike with 215 horsepower and an $80,000 price tag. As of showtime, it was almost sold out.

Mostly, though, the press sessions offer little in the way of freshness. Harley-Davidson emphasized its new Milwaukee Eight engine, which was announced in August. In an era of social media where news has a shelf life measured in minutes, as opposed to months, Harley-Davidson’s presentation came off as stale time filler.

So did Indian’s session, which featured a “branded” custom Scout model shown off by Brian Klock of the Klock Werks custom shop in South Dakota. Nice bike, but I won’t give free publicity to the beneficiary. Wait a minute, I’ve already mentioned Progressive because it’s in the show’s title. OK, the Klock Werks custom, according to Indian, was “built to commemorate Indian Motorcycle’s partnership with Red Wings Shoes.”

The manufacturer briefings do sometimes contain clues of what’s to come and anecdotal nuggets:

Royal Enfield promised three new models in 2017 – one in spring, one in summer and one in fall. Can-Am reported that 25 percent of buyers of its Spyder reverse trike are new to riding. Can-Am will mark 10 years of selling Spyders next year and has sold more than 100,000 of them. BMW said that 79 percent of R Nine T buyers bought their bikes based on styling as opposed to the other factors, such as performance and reliability, that normally lure buyers to BMW.

Missing from the manufacturer parade were Triumph and Piaggio, which produces both Aprilia and Moto Guzzi motorcycles. Missing, too, were dozens of small-time vendors. This made the IMS much more airy. So did depleted foot traffic. Of those who did attend, 89 percent were active riders, according to a post show report. A total of 63 percent had been riding for six years or more, while 37 percent had been riding five years or less.

There definitely seemed to be fewer attendees on Friday afternoon. A friend who went back on Sunday said the the same was true.

Providing a little spark to the event was Vanguard, a new bike brand out of Brooklyn. It brought a prototype model. (More on Vanguard in the next RIDE-CT.) MAX BMW in Brookfield also gave spectators a reason to gather by rebuilding a 1961 BMW R69S over the course of the IMS, then taking it out for a ride on the streets of New York.

Why the declining popularity of the IMS? I still maintain that shifting the show from a mid-winter date several years ago hurt. The mid-winter date signaled that a new riding season wasn’t that far off and was a pleasing antidote to snow. Holding it two weeks before Christmas is just inconvenient. A check of The Javits Center’s calendar shows an open weekend Feb. 10-12 that certainly would have been preferable to this month’s dates.

Another likely factor behind the dipping attendance is the decreasing interest in motorcycles as baby boomers gradually age out of the recreation without being replaced by younger riders; something the manufacturers are tackling with numerous smaller models. This year’s coast-to-coast IMS tour saw the slate contract from 11 cities down to seven.

I also suspect the absence of many vendors can be traced to cost. Nonetheless, the post show report revealed that 63 percent of attendees made purchases and 86 percent said the show will influence future purchase decisions.

Was it worth going to the IMS? Sure, reconnecting with old friends and business associates is always worthwhile, but the value decreases as the show continues to slide.

Another snippet from “N.Y.C.” in “Annie” came to mind after taking a taxi back to Grand Central Terminal; the part where industrialist Oliver Warbucks sings that he can’t get enough of New York, “enough of the cab drivers answering back, in language far from pure.”

Somehow we’d gotten an overly aggressive cabbie who constantly weaved between lanes. This soon ticked off an S.U.V. driver who pulled alongside and started shouting. A profanity-filled, high-decibel verbal battle through closed windows ensued. Sitting in the front seat next to the cabbie, I kept stone-faced, looking directly ahead and figuring at any second that the irate driver to my immediate right would pull out a gun and begin firing.

Nearing 40 years after “Annie” debuted on Broadway, the words from “N.Y.C.” still ring true.