⚙️ #17 EICMA Round-up 👀

In mid-November, the Dust team headed to Milan, Italy for EICMA (Esposizione Internazionale del Ciclo, Motociclo, Accessori S.p.A.), also known simply as the Milan Motorcycle Show.

This was EICMA's 109th year, and it was an EXPERIENCE. People, booths, bikes and suppliers to the max. There were nearly unlimited bikes being shown in both the petrol and electric flavors, and while it was great to see them coexisting in one space, we felt the show was missing the spirit of innovation in category and Brand. We were often asking ourselves, why is no one taking a leap to push the industry forward?

Over 4 days at EICMA we managed to connect with a host of leaders from old and new OEMs plus supply chain vendors. We thought that this month's newsletter was a great opportunity for us to share our take on electric trends from EICMA, what it all means, and where Dust fits in.

Electric Trends

Long touted as the next big thing, it felt like electric came of age at EICMA 2023. Within the electric story are several sub-plots, five of which we unpack below.

1. Incumbents plug into established categories. Several household brands switched on electric offerings at EICMA including Royal Enfield. The Electric Himalayan is a liquid-cooled proto billed as a test bed for a possible electric future. It's likely the Royal Enfield €50m investment in Stark for 10% in 2023 helped this project get rolling. More from Visor Down (Here).

The CR-E is the flagship Honda e-proto and will be raced by Trey Canard. It's likely Honda’s sister Mugen Motorsports helped because they've deep e-drivetrains experience. More from MXA (Here).

2. China copies china. The Surron Light Bee phenomenon is spawning a swarm of cheap Chinese copies. The core moto industry can benefit by marching this army of young recruits up the ramp into high-performance dirt bikes. The many Surron copies at EICMA included Talaria, RFN, Rawrr, Gowow, Arctic Leopard, plus the long tail of Alibaba rip-offs on the internet.

3. Zero updates their line. A nod to market maturation is that Zero overhauled several bikes for 2024. The DSR was reintroduced with a beefier chassis, Gates carbon belt drive, higher-capacity 15.6kWh, new Z-Force 75-10 motor, plus larger upper fairing and windscreen. The FX Dual Sport (and FXE Street), are now the only models sporting the smaller 34 kW motor and frame platform.

4. Kove debuts E-MX. Chinese company Kove founded in 2017 showcased their new petrol range for 2024 plus an all-electric moto which looks to be going head-to-head with Stark Varg. More at The Pack (Here).

5. Super 73 shows more C1X variants. The two new versions of the anticipated C1X, called "El Jefe" and "LePew" looked great. Playful and evocative styling, fun-size package and drive technology pushing the boundaries make this something to really watch. We believe this one could surprise a lot of people.

What It All Means

As usual, there was plenty of action at the show - but was it meaninful? Everyone is starting to talk about electric but incumbents remain glacial. China is driving entry-level, but lack a strong connection to the consumer and no one is offering fun premium mid-market off road bikes for core riders (yet).

Digging below the surface there were some gold, but the lack of real innovation from the big players, Japanese brands especially, left us wondering if the immense improvement in Chinese quality leaves them at risk?

Where Dust Fits In

EICMA confirmed there's no premium mid-market bike for the masses sitting above the Light Bee but below the Kove/Stark, and this is where Dust fits in.

We believe Dust fills a gap in the market by bringing the fun back to these performance machines, building a Brand that connects with more people. Our Dust bike will be the one you pull out most often for high-performance play because it's low maintenance and rippable close to home.

Without the incumbents moving to innovate with new categories of bike, or build iconic brands that extend into adjacent markets, Dust has copious white space to play with. We think this connectedness to the sport alongside high-quality bikes at a fair price from a US-rooted brand with great after-sales service is a winning formula.

Gold Dust

• Super fun review of the new Oset electric trials bike. This is a bike that can perform technically, but at the end of the day, it has the biggest benefit of putting a smile on the face of everyone in your family. Who doesn't love that!? (HERE)
• We talked primarily about electric trends and bikes at EICMA this year, however, there were a lot of very exciting petrol bikes and technology on display as well. Everything from hybridization to massive displays of new helmets, to the new Ducati Hypermotard that had everyone drooling. (HERE & HERE)
• E-moto company, Zero, is aiming to earn the Maudes challenge trophy with an electric dual sport bike revealed at the 2023 EICMA. The Maudes is a challenge that was founded in 1923 and is awarded to constructors for completing a task that proves to be an industry-pushing endurance test. In this case, they will be riding 1,300 British miles and will push 2 bikes and 6 riders to the max. It has not been awarded since 1994, so we are excited to see how Zero performs! (HERE)

Catch us at newsletter@dustmoto.com OR just respond to this email!

Done and DUSTED for this month. See you all on the next lap.