I always come up with these great ideas that could possibly make a fortune. However I’m not a millionaire yet since my ideas always get used by someone else before I do anything about it. Here is another one, and I’m giving it away.

Motorcycle market is saturated with different styles and makes of bikes. Cruisers, Sportbikes, Adventure Tourers, Choppers, Supermotos, Classics, Naked bikes. Pick the style that you like and you will see offerings from most of the manufacturers.

With all these choices available, large group of potential motorcycle owners can’t even think about buying one. In US the majority of them are females, with some males in the mix. In Asia it’s most of the population. These poor souls are limited to buying 250cc Honda Rebels and 125cc scooters, they can’t even dream about getting on a sportbike or God forbid Adventure bikes such as BMW GS or KTM 990ADV. Yes, I’m talking about vertically challenged people.

Let’s just think about US market for a second . Average adult height in US is 5′7″ or 171cm. That is barely enough for a sportbike let alone adventure or offroad models. But how many people fall below average? Would 30% estimate be generous enough? How many people that you know want to buy a bike but cannot reach the ground? How many have dropped their bike because it’s too tall but they want to ride anyways? With over a million NEW bikes sold in US each year, it seems to me that there is huge opportunity to sell at least 30% more. That is over 300 000 bikes. Keep in mind that the million bikes sold are spread among a dozen of bike makers, and 300 000 share could belong to just one manufacturer because there is NO COMPETITION in this market niche, a dream for any business. Can you do the math and think about the rest of the world? My head is spinning from all the $$$ coming in.

Some might say that there are ways to lower the bike. Yes, it is possible to certain degree, however it jeopardizes the handling of the bike, and that is a huge element of overall motorcycling experience.

So what we need is a company that will create motorcycles designed to fit short people. They can have full lineup: Sport, Naked, Supermoto, Cruiser, Adventure, Touring etc. If the bike is built from the scratch with rider’s height in mind, nothing has to be compromised. Give them proper engines and they will sell like hotcakes. My feeling is that growing company like Hyosung could pull it off (change the name to something like “SHORTY” of course) Is anyone listening? I can provide you with my address so you can send me royalty checks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 11:56 am and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Offroad, Riding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.