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BMWMOA Not Very Attractive to Some

However, I have to wonder if everything we have to offer as an association boils down to the rally and attending it as the ultimate in membership experience how many RR riders would ever show.

no... the rally is just the gateway drug. :ha
 
My guess is that any S1000RR riders that attend the rally are going to be locals. I don't think owners of this bike are going to ride them across the country to attend a rally.

maybe... it might depend on what incentives are in place and how well we reach out to these riders. (or, trailer-ers as the case may be...)

i heard it said by a BMW official that the reason the S1000 riders don't ride to rallies is that the bike is too uncomfortable to ride more than 100 miles...
 
My guess is that any S1000RR riders that attend the rally are going to be locals. I don't think owners of this bike are going to ride them across the country to attend a rally. The MOA and BMW marketing dept are on diverging paths.Tom

We are on the same path when it comes to the traditional BMW market. The difference is BMW has found a way to remain committed to serving those markets while expanding into others. For all our window dressing I am not certain we are really interested/able in expanding our market/customer base.

no... the rally is just the gateway drug. :ha

Politically they may not agree with Nancy but when it comes to rallies many sport riders do and ...

justsayno.jpg


maybe... it might depend on what incentives are in place and how well we reach out to these riders. (or, trailer-ers as the case may be...)

i heard it said by a BMW official that the reason the S1000 riders don't ride to rallies is that the bike is too uncomfortable to ride more than 100 miles...

I can't agree with you more when you pitch doing market research to find out what BMW owners in these new to us market segments are interested in and would like to have in an organization like ours. Without actually talking with them in a market research manner I couldn't disagree more more.
 
maybe... it might depend on what incentives are in place and how well we reach out to these riders. (or, trailer-ers as the case may be...)

i heard it said by a BMW official that the reason the S1000 riders don't ride to rallies is that the bike is too uncomfortable to ride more than 100 miles...

Interesting. I hit the 600-mile-time-for-service-mark in two rides on my RR.
 
Not So . . . . .

I can easily do 200-300 mile days on mine. Seat is more comfy than R100RT. Once wrists are conditioned to forward riding I am good to go.
The bike would look silly with panniers. I have a BMW tailbag that looks and works great. Too small to travel.
I am a teacher and the kids think the bike is cool. They think I am cool too!
Campbell Tellman II
'93 R100RT
'11 S1000RR
:thumb
 
Worry is wasted

Seems that BMW is satisfied with their place in the motorcycle world. I still lust for some cool BMW t-shirts, hats, and other gear with the BMW logo. Go in any Harley dealer and you can find everything from leather jackets to toilet seats with their logo. BMW is more protective than a first-time mother at a Raiders vs. 49'ers football game when it comes to their logo and trademark.

If they're happy being in 7th place with 1% of US sales vs. HD at 1st place with 28% (http://knol.google.com/k/the-u-s-motorcycle-market#), I'm not losing sleep over it. :dunno
 
As I was cleaning out a closet, I found an old (2007-era) BMW sticker sheet with 4 cartoon motorcycles: F800 Stuntwars champion, HP2 enduro Baja 500 top 5 finisher, K12S Bonneville Landspeed Record, R1200S Daytona MotoST winner.

Do rich old guys like or need cartoon stickers? Generally no, but their kids or grandkids do. Seems like BMW was planting a seed now that I look at the sheet from 4 years ago and reflect on all that's happened in that time.

Sometimes trying something new, or different than what is traditional is hard to accept. It becomes easier to criticize and attack then reach out and understand.

Sadly, those who do try something new, usually are the ones attacked and criticized and therefore do not try again. Even if their ideas are what is needed for the future.
 
I have no numbers to back up my opinion, but I'd be willing to bet the average age of a S1000RR rider is still far greater than the average age of a GSXR/ZX/whatever rider. As such, why would you expect a sudden wave of "young" RR riders to take the step to join the MOA and the bigger step to devote time to the admittedly-dead MOA forums?

Additionally, I know of NO S1000RR riders who are remotely near my age. Of the people who are near my age and on a BMW, it's 9 times out of 10 an airhead. Of the people who are near my age on a motorcycle, 99 times out of 100, it's not on a BMW.

BMW's are rich old guy bikes. That's what the numbers say. That's the way it's been for BMW for ~88 years, and the MOA ~39 years. Sounds like it's working out for both organizations thus far.



:ha Wow.


Hey, not to hijack the thread, but did you graduate from college, yet? You seemed to be on a good path, but I haven't seen any posts for a while. I'm just curious and hoping that it's all working out.
 
unless you've done the research, this is an opinion. i've had some conversations with others that are knowledgeable about this segment and their opinions are different than yours. in candor, some of these people are black, and the S1000RR is very appealing to this community. i've hung out with these folks a bit and they are very very different in how they interact with each other and with their bike.

for sure, when you strip away everything but the person, there are joiners and there are loners.

the questions i have are:

- if a joiner, what type of club are you interested in joining (e.g. only sportbikes but of all types, all types of bikes in a marque, only sportbikes of the marque... etc.)

- what are the dimensions of the discussion (riding, tuning, racing, other tech... or social, or stunting, or gang banging... ha, those last two would be us, eh?)

- how could a club expand your enjoyment of ownership and riding
.... and others. we should be doing research into this segment.

ian

I've had to anlayze areas for mishap research and surprisingly the same attitudes, just differernt genres of motorcycles, was very glaring.
 
Has our society changed to where joining things to become an official part of a group isn't seen as something that needs to be done? What perception does 'joining' offer someone in positive ways. What is the perception of negative things about joining hold.

I see many groups struggling with this, churches, civic groups, bike clubs.

What was offered in joining 30 years ago compared to today?

No answers here, just pondering the phenomenon of needing to join vs not needing to join.

In many ways it comes down to a perceived WITFM (Whats In It For Me) vs at what cost.

For sure the closeness of contact via electronic means is one thing. I know when considering something I can easily reach out and touch a number of folks about a ride, going out to eat, joining me for an event, ask for help or advice on a project. I think that a new model of 'clubs' will have to be understood in order to help any group successful evolve to how things are done with those several generations behind me.
 
Has our society changed to where joining things to become an official part of a group isn't seen as something that needs to be done? What perception does 'joining' offer someone in positive ways. What is the perception of negative things about joining hold.

-snip-

In many ways it comes down to a perceived WITFM (Whats In It For Me) vs at what cost.

-snip-

I think that a new model of 'clubs' will have to be understood in order to help any group successful evolve to how things are done with those several generations behind me.

My fuzzy thoughts on your interesting comments

I don't think the herding nature of our species has change. What has changed is the way we go about it and how the herds gain structure.

Cost benefit analysis plays a role in analyzing this but, in my opinion, is father down the list of key factors than we tend to think and give importance too.

I am not certain it takes that much of a new model as it takes understanding the who what and why that is causing people to herd in any given time. In any time you can point out organizations, parties, clubs etc that did not adapt to changes and became irrelevant to a large enough population to keep themselves viable.
 
On the loners/joiners theme, today's instant communication and electronic interaction has a bearing on the issue. When BMW MOA was formed it was partly a social group but inherently a way to share scarce technical information about these bikes with a less than perfect national distributor and a scant dealer network. Those needs were the Genesis of the local clubs, and MOA was formed almost as a club of clubs.

Today the parts fiche is on line. So are service manuals. Email lists, Forae (plural of forum in Latin) and numerous web pages provide tech info and support. Some groups, Long Distance Riders comes to mind, announce and get crowds at local or less local rides-to-eat and other events without having a club structure to go with it. A note on an email list or forum might get 50 or 150 folks together on a Saturday for lunch or dinner. Face time! Then there is Facebook.

Times are changing and any organization needs to run to keep up.
 
On the loners/joiners theme, today's instant communication and electronic interaction has a bearing on the issue. When BMW MOA was formed it was partly a social group but inherently a way to share scarce technical information about these bikes with a less than perfect national distributor and a scant dealer network. Those needs were the Genesis of the local clubs, and MOA was formed almost as a club of clubs.

Today the parts fiche is on line. So are service manuals. Email lists, Forae (plural of forum in Latin) and numerous web pages provide tech info and support. Some groups, Long Distance Riders comes to mind, announce and get crowds at local or less local rides-to-eat and other events without having a club structure to go with it. A note on an email list or forum might get 50 or 150 folks together on a Saturday for lunch or dinner. Face time! Then there is Facebook.

Times are changing and any organization needs to run to keep up.

Nailed it.

Signed,
A 25-year old with many forae and a facebook account.
 
Forae (plural of forum in Latin)

Hi, Paul,
Forum is the singular, a neuter gender word in Latin. The plural of forum is fora. If it were a feminine gender noun and the singular were fora, then the plural would, indeed, be forae. Just like the singular is medium, the plural is media. I could be wrong, of course. I studied Latin 50 years ago (Latin I in the '61-'62 school year, Latin II in the '62-'63 school year. So, as I said, I could be wrong. (DamnedifIknow, DamnedifIknare, DamnedifIknavi, DamnedifIknatus sum)
 
Nailed it.

Signed,
A 25-year old with many forae and a facebook account.

I agree with both. I've been involved with many groups that weren't "formal", yet we'd end up with fairly well organized gatherings for rides and meals without any true club status.

One way to get S1000RR riders to be involved in rallies would be to offer those at sites that offered a track close by. I think that many, myself included, would be more likely to attend a rally that had the opportunity to attend a track day or two during the day and enjoy a rally type atmosphere at night. There would be plenty of locations around the country that could accomodate such an event. Would that be out of the question?

Just an idea that would seem to satisfy both types of riding interests.
 
I agree with both. I've been involved with many groups that weren't "formal", yet we'd end up with fairly well organized gatherings for rides and meals without any true club status.

One way to get S1000RR riders to be involved in rallies would be to offer those at sites that offered a track close by. I think that many, myself included, would be more likely to attend a rally that had the opportunity to attend a track day or two during the day and enjoy a rally type atmosphere at night. There would be plenty of locations around the country that could accomodate such an event. Would that be out of the question?

Just an idea that would seem to satisfy both types of riding interests.

Hmm...this may be a possibility for the future...
 
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