Impact of the pandemic on motorcycle sales.

YES I absolutely say much of the doom and gloom is overblown. Just like probably 80% of straight news stories (if such a thing exists anymore) for the last 10-20 years. Oh well, we all have our opinions, and I respect yours. Covid or not, nobody wants to get the flu or even a cold, so why not exercise caution when possible.

I will say this when it comes to news. One way to find what is near true is if both liberal and conservative media report essentially the same thing it is very likely to be accurate/true. The other thing is to see what media have proven to be the most centered and true. I tend to not buy either extreme, not from FOX and not from MSNBC. For what is considered the least biased media outlets BBC and NPR/PBS are chosen as best by the most from each political leaning, as the closest to centered and low bias. I thin Reuters is in there too. Then there is Snopes, Politifact, and Fact Check to ferret out the truth on what seems too hard to believe. If they only did checks on motorcycle tires, oil, design, and displacement now...

Least biased,BBC,NPR,PBS.Please tell me your joking.

American journalism is suffering from ‘truth decay’ — the media have become more biased over the last 30 years, RAND study says
Published: May 28, 2019 at 10:58 a.m. ET
By
Quentin Fottrell


U.S. news has shifted to opinion-based content that appeals to emotion; newspapers have shifted less than TV has

Do the research. I did. By majority both liberal and conservative find them closest to center. True in every survey I found. Of course the foil hat crowd from both sides will find fault with that logic as part of the way to try to try to find what is true.

Part of the problem with a lot of people is they do not do any sort of research or try to learn anything more than what they want to hear. Where do you think the internet and social media got their reputation for their level of accuracy and truth? You see it all the time here. Better do a lot of research before you add "go like stink" juice, that some guy said adds 80% horsepower, to your gas. Or before you go buy a KTM690 as your first motorcycle, because the guy said it was the best and easy to ride, plus you won't outgrow it.

Hard to argue with the other point though, isn't it? When both report the same it is very likely true.

That is why you have to research, to find what is legitimate. You might notice this effect has come about since the advent of 24 hour TV and then gotten worse as more and more 24 hour news networks appeared to distort the news to their side. FOX was one of the first as was CNN. MSNBC was set up with the known reason to have the liberal content to counterbalance FOX, but neither one does it. Both are the extremes.

You have to find the truth, not many are handing it out. Too many are out for the shock value and in turn pump out a lot of biased BS feeding the conspiracy theorists on each extreme. Supposedly in the name of news, but as Glen Beck once said when cornered for some of his BS that hurt people - "It is entertainment."

Don't buy anyone source as the facts, do the research find the truth as best you can. Learn what BS sounds or reads like. These days teachers have to educate students on how to research resources for multiple kinds of reporting. One time I found two sources quoting their resources - each other! It was circular. The both claimed the same thing without any source other than each other. You find that in the extreme information sources on almost any subject. Misinformation circulated among the believers, quoting each other. Keep an eye on the information given in some threads in ADVrider pertaining to any number of things like oil, tires, engines, brands, almost anything.

Take your Prozac, go riding, turn off the TV. Pack your own PBJ/chips/ drink on the bike. Work in the garage with tunes when you get home. Forget going to any outings, gatherings of any sort or regrettably...races of any sort. This is the year that wasn't. You have not been able to trust ANY NEWS REPORTER on ANY MEDIA since Walter Cronkite. Don't bother to waste your time..... EVERY ONE of them has an agenda today. The only thing they all have in common is that they want the sponsors to be successful.

Just came from the local dealer, the floor was just about empty. Selling everything and can't get stock in.

My local dealer offers most brands through several showrooms. He also owns the largest H-D store in the area. Its quite an elaborate operation. Anyway he has been shut down since early March. I understand they just re-opened yesterday.

Regarding the media, I think all media concentrates on 'fear' stories. As mentioned above, they also feature mostly 'opinion' articles, which isn't news at all. Even the financial pages tend to push the 'scare' articles, which are also generally just opinions by some Wall Street character looking for press. Most interesting to me is Fox. They seem to have a business strategy based on dividing the public. They know that people migrated to media that confirms their own personal views. Fox constantly posts outrageous columns and other propaganda for the sole purpose in capturing the so-called conservative right. Meanwhile, CNN, NYT etc all try to serve a broader public. The result is Fox is on the tube everywhere because they own the right side of the isle. Meanwhile the others all dilute each other, yielding ratings and ad revenue to Fox. Fox doesn't care about Donald Trump. They care about being #1 and right now Trump is their way to stay on top. MSNBC tries to take the same approach but on the left. To some degree they are successful, but not nearly as successful as Fox. Probably that has more to do with their respective 'hosts'.

Pretty much the plan, but record lows coming this weekend here in Ohio. Bummer!

I find it kind of ironic your saying "take your Prozac" before that rant. Kinda breeds stupidity not figuring out what his what. Look where it's got us so far...

Next weekend is supposed to be in the 70s, off for a ride. May take your advice on packing refreshments in my back pack.

And here in Washington we just went from a couple weeks of rain and 50's, to sunny and 80's.

The parks are opening, some restrictions lifting, lots of people not working, many making.....err... getting more money than usual, the roads heading out of town looked like memorial day, and labor day weekend combined.
I literally saw more bikes on the road this afternoon than I have in the last 6 months.

I haven’t been to a dealership since this started. One that I pass by regularly seems to have more cars parked in front. I didn’t expect it to be this active across the country. It’s a good sign for motorcycling that there’s some renewed interest.

Saturday morning 7:00 am Thirty degrees! Parts of the state actually seeing a bit of snow...

The local Honda dealer had on their web site that all CRF-110s are sold out and not expecting a shipment any time soon. Are they the hot bike now? Went past the shop yesterday and their were a few trucks (tailgates down) and trailers getting ready to load bikes. There is an EZ Up in the parking lot where all deals are made. Hope the dealers and manufacturers are doing a booming business which is the opposite of what I thought would happened.

I was at the local Boise Honda/KTM/Kawasaki/Suzuki shop yesterday getting some service and spoke at length with the service manager. He said they've been having record sales or the past few months and the service dept. is booked out for a month.

He also told me they're selling so many Razars (sp?) at 30k to 40k a pop that the sales people can barely keep up. They delivered a couple while I waited on service. It was a mad house.

Here in Seattle all the shops are booked weeks in advance. There were a few very sunny, warm days lately, I've been riding everywhere, and the amount of bikes out is unbelievable! I've never seen such processions of bike, after bike, after bike...

People are beginning to realize what's truly important in life...

Have you ridden around the back and see the quantity of side by sides they have? Mind blown...

The local Indian/Triumph/Zero dealer had a free lunch Saturday and there was about ten people there. You can hardly walk around the showroom because there are so many bikes in there.

Clark Motorsports? Been there, in January!

Missoula, Montana. Maverick Motorsports. I'd bought a used Honda from them last year; this time I wanted to schedule some work.

Talked to the sales-kid who sold me the Honda. He's a good kid, smart. I offered sympathies that he had to sit out the pandemic in an empty store (it was empty when I was in) and he said, oh, no, record spring, he'd sold a couple just that week so far.

I think people are just beat to the point where they're all saying, fuggit, I'm going riding - and IN STYLE!

also

No, Carl's Cycles.