{"id":12666,"date":"2021-07-04T03:25:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T10:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=12666"},"modified":"2021-07-04T03:25:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T10:25:24","slug":"how-much-milk-is-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2021\/07\/04\/how-much-milk-is-left\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Milk Is Left?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I read a Wall Street Journal<\/em> opinion piece by Peter Funt (of the Candid Camera<\/em> show).\u00a0 His article was on the pandemic lockdowns and isolation inducing more folks to publish their memoirs, and Funt made the case that this was not such a good thing.\u00a0 Most memoirs are God-awful boring.<\/p>\n

That got me to thinking about the adventure touring genre.\u00a0 You know, the books, blogs, videos, and endless Facebook posts and forums about adventure rides.<\/p>\n

Adventure rides.<\/p>\n

We used to call a motorcycle ride a motorcycle ride.\u00a0 Now they are all “adventure” rides.\u00a0 And we don’t tell a story or do a bike test.\u00a0 Now, it’s a reveal.\u00a0 Harley is going to introduce a new bike in few days.\u00a0 But it’s not a new model announcement.\u00a0 It’s a “reveal.”<\/p>\n

Ten to twenty years ago, the place to go to read good riding stories was ADVRider.com and their Rides page (back then, the stories and photography were actually good) and HorizonsUnlimited.com.\u00a0 Now it’s mostly videos, Facebook, and blogs.\u00a0 There’s too much of this (and I say that as guy who writes a blog).\u00a0 I seldom view any of it.\u00a0 Which is not to say you should stop reading ExNotes.\u00a0 We’re different, you know.\u00a0 We’ve never had a “reveal” (other than that one unfortunate wardrobe accident in China) and we never will.<\/p>\n

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All of the above begs the question:\u00a0 How much milk is left in the adventure riding cow?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fads come in waves, and a surefire way to know that a wave is dissipating on shore is when a big company tries to surf in on the little bit of surf that’s left.\u00a0 Witness the Pan America, Harley’s too much, too late entry into the ADV world.\u00a0 Harley wants to compete with the BMW GS, KTM, and Ducati high end ADV bikes.<\/p>\n

It’s hard for me to see how Harley is going to prevail.\u00a0 For starters, my feeling is that most folks who ride big V-twin cruisers (folks who form the bulk of Harley’s current customer base) have little interest in adventure touring.\u00a0 \u00a0The premise is that Harley will attract a new crop of customers, presumably drawing the sheeple who would have bought BMWs, or KTMs, or Ducatis.\u00a0 Color me skeptical, but I just don’t see it happening.<\/p>\n

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No, what’s happening is a sea change, not an opportunity to do a little surfing in a dying market.\u00a0 The world moves in fads, with each fad having about a ten-to-twenty-year life, and we’re due for a new one.\u00a0 I just don’t know what it is.\u00a0 Consider this:<\/p>\n