[woodsrat]

I spent three days at the Indianapolis Motorcycle Expo working an exhibit dedicated to preserving the history of "The Pioneers of Hoosier Motorcycling".

I didn't get to walk around very much but when I did I saw only one street-legal 125, a Kawasaki Z125. If there was a Honda Grom in attendance I didn't see it. No KYMCO dealers were there, either so there were no K-Pipe's or their new answer to the Z125/Grom, the Spade 150cc. Street-legal bikes from other importers such as SSR and SYM were notably absent as well.

Indy is Harley country and the vast majority of the attendees and vendors were either of or trying to sell to this crowd. Everyone seemed happy and the crowds were huge.

The one thing a younger friend (about 30) noticed was that the majority of the crowd was close to 50 or over. This does not bode well for motorcycling.

The "beginner bikes" represented at the show were Honda Rebels and Harley "Streets". It's obvious that the dealers have absolutely no interest in offering small bore motorcycles and this was backed up in a conversation I had with the Executive Chairman of the Motorcycle Dealers Association of Indiana. He's a former Honda/Kawasaki/Suzuki dealer who told me what I already knew--there's virtually no profit in them. As an example he told me dealers made $48 on the sale of a Honda CRF-50 and bikes like the Grom weren't much better.

The kids are addicted to their electronic toys, new motorcycles are priced beyond their reach and the dealers don't want to dink with trying to sell small bores. With all this it's no wonder we'll never see street-legal 125's in any numbers here ever again.