The Aftermarket Market

Motorcycle culture has always been about customization: the excitement of an aftermarket exhaust, or the prestige of a gold-anodized Öhlins TTX suspension. But many aftermarket performance components actually impede the bike, while styling add-ons often reduce its overall cash value. What is the future for motorcycle customization?

The pages of CMG are filled with strong voices advocating the pros and cons of stage-one engine tuning, smaller rear sprockets, chrome vs matte finishes, and of course, loud exhaust pipes. What many see as an opportunity to set their motorcycles apart, others see as nothing more than ruining a perfectly good stock machine.

For bikers seeking to free more power, lighten the load, or improve comfort, the wide array of aftermarket parts are a godsend. Unlike our forebears who had to mail away for obscure, hand-printed lists of tuning parts from foreign lands, we in our Amazonian world can get just about any kind of aftermarket motorcycle part delivered to our doorstep with the click of a mouse.

By rights, the world motorcycle aftermarket industry should be on fire, with exploding sales and an ever-widening range of brands and sources to choose from. It is growing, but not the way you might expect.

Let us help you help yourself

The aftermarket performance industry found fertile ground back in the 1970s, when Japanese manufacturers were rapidly advancing the state  of motorcycle engine technology. Those popular Japanese motorcycles featured weak frames and spongy suspension that couldn’t cope with the power of their engines, so tuners developed and sold bolt-on parts that  dramatically improved the handling of their bikes.

Some assembly required : the 1982 Biota KB-2 took the strong power plant of a Kawasaki GpZ but replaced everything else with race track inspired technology. The result was Japanese muscle in a package that could handle.
Some assembly required : the 1982 Biota KB-2 took the strong power plant of a Kawasaki GPZ but replaced everything else with race track inspired technology. The result was Japanese muscle in a package that could handle.

The aftermarket champions we think of today, brands such as Yoshimura or Öhlins, grew up largely in that period. They provided much-needed quality in areas where the motorcycle manufacturers were lacking, due to cost or market constraints. These bolt-on companies flourished in racing too, which added shine to their brands while providing lots of free advertising. Some offered so many modifications that their kits eventually evolved into full-fledged independent motorcycle manufacturers themselves, such as Bimota, Moriwaki, and Metrakit.

Later in the 1980s, as the Yamaha-Honda war pushed mass production motorcycle chassis performance to match engine potential, many of the aftermarket frame and suspension brands closed, but there was still the styling and image element. While a stock Honda or Suzuki might be technically capable far beyond the skill of most riders, consumers wanted to make their mounts special. The aftermarket became more about customization for identity and prestige, and less about performance.

Radical Ducati RAD02 is a rolling catalogue of early 2000's Ducati aftermarket parts. A standout motorcycle but scarcely better than the original.
Radical Ducati RAD02 is a rolling catalogue of early 2000s Ducati aftermarket parts. A standout motorcycle but scarcely better than the original.

In the cruiser boom of the 1990s, the aftermarket reached its apogee. Companies published vast, telephone-book-sized catalogues filled with thousands of bolt-on accessories and replacement parts for a hungry audience. The mechanical and architectural simplicity of the cruiser platform made it easy, because so many of the functional auxiliary components of the motorcycle were easily accessible, and highly visible compared to contemporary faired bikes.

For better or worse

In this age of slick products and demanding consumer expectations, the idea that a small company can develop an accessory that will connect seamlessly with a highly sophisticated vehicle made by a transnational conglomerate is laughable. Even parts as mundane as tires are so proprietary to specific bikes that there’s little choice when replacing them.

It can be agonizing to attempt to install aftermarket heated grips, a slip-on exhaust pipe or luggage rack. Despite promises of easy, painless set-up, almost invariably “hole A” does not line up exactly with “slot B”, or the instructions require you to “cut the wiring harness 3” from the existing connector…” Yes, because butchering the factory wiring always ends well.

That new BMW aftermarket clutch lever, not so easy to install, but hipsters everywhere love the Vice Grip look.
That new BMW aftermarket clutch lever, not so easy to install, but hipsters everywhere love the Vice Grip look.

Exhausts are a matter unto themselves. Stock pipes are designed to meet stringent noise and particulate emissions, so they tend to muffle a lot of sound and power from the engine. Also, it must be admitted that in the making of motorcycles, the exhaust system simply does not merit that much design capital, so they tend to be a little lackluster in the looks department, as well as cheaply made. But they do function flawlessly, in all conditions and circumstances, something that takes an army of engineers thousands of hours of painstaking calculation and design to accomplish.

The traditional wisdom of aftermarket exhausts is that installing one to replace the stock item will simultaneously reduce a lot of weight while unleashing loads of pent-up power from a restricted engine. This is fundamentally true, but only under some conditions. Listen to any race bike idling (or open-piped Harley) and one immediately appreciates the lack of smooth fuelling. That lumpy, gritty rasp, attractive to some, is actually a sign of terribly inefficient combustion. At some point up the rev range, the engine breathes more freely and produces more power, but broadly speaking, the power and torque bands are uneven and totally inferior for real-world road use.  Such “tuning” can also spike fuel consumption, and increases wear and carbon build-up throughout the combustion system.

Looks good, and according to the manufacturer this pipe frees up serious power. But does that make it a better real world motorcycle?
Looks good, and according to the manufacturer this pipe frees up serious power. But does that make it a better real world motorcycle?

Aftermarket body kits, designed to deflect air from riders and shield passengers, often do so at the expense of smooth air flow. Large screens appear to work well in steady winds, but large crosswind components, unsteady speeds, or bumpy roads cause eddies in the air flow that create violent buffeting. This exposes the vast complexities of motorcycle aerodynamics. At an OEM level, refining the final design of the body system to prevent buffeting across all reasonable conditions involves supercomputers, wind tunnels and often the cooperation of universities. Fluid dynamics is really, really hard.

What all this means, is that the small motorcycle accessories company of today has a steep mountain to climb if it wants to offer performance-enhancing parts to today’s demanding consumer. Most of the big aftermarket brands of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, names like Vetter fairings, Krauser luggage and Marzocchi suspension have gone, replaced and absorbed by the OEMs themselves.

Vetter Windjammer made many motorcyclists smile, like this guy. Actual aerodynamic improvement was debatable.
Vetter Windjammer made many motorcyclists smile, like this guy. Actual aerodynamic improvement was debatable.

I embrace you as a brother

Today the aftermarket industry is very different. The return to global strength by European brands BMW, Triumph and Ducati in the early part of this century saw them follow the example pioneered by Harley-Davidson, and take the tuning scene in-house. Carbon-fibre bodies, shiny anodized goodies and performance enhancing parts are developed in parallel to the OEM production vehicle, and by the same professional engineers and designers. When new motorcycle models are launched, a suite of “genuine factory accessories” are made available to consumers directly at the point of purchase.

The result has been an overall shrinking of the traditional aftermarket industry, from one that flourished as a diverse pool of individual companies, into a small core of internationally known brands that have tethered themselves to specific motorcycle OEMs. Yoshimura, for example, makes and sells exhaust kits for many brands of bike, but is so closely related to Suzuki that it gets exclusive access to factory R&D. Similar relationships exists between Italian Termignoni and Ducati, and Touratech and BMW.

Official Harley-Davidson accessories, engineered to work right, and available right at the dealer make happy customers.
Official Harley-Davidson accessories, engineered to work right, and available right at the dealer make happy customers.

The debates that used to echo throughout the motorcycle universe, about which shock or exhaust was best for a given bike, have largely faded into the past. They’ve been replaced by forums run by the motorcycle manufacturers themselves where customers can speak directly with the teams that developed their bike and all its accessories. Where there were once only rare, individual tuning gurus like Hideo Yoshimura or Craig Vetter, who only bequeathed their hard-won knowledge to a few, Grand Prix level motorcycle tuning and optimization is available today to everyone.

It has been a huge, democratizing and profitable transformation of an industry that goes back nearly as far as the motorcycle itself. But when all bikes are locked into proprietary technology that profoundly limits the envelope of customization, have we not lost a big part of what makes the motorcycle ownership experience unique?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About the author

Michael Uhlarik is an international award-winning motorcycle designer with over 16 years of experience creating bikes for Yamaha, Aprilia, Piaggio, Derbi and many others.  He is a veteran motorcycle industry analyst and part-time industrial design lecturer.  He is based in Nova Scotia. 

7 COMMENTS

  1. Well said. And witness the many websites devoted to full on custom builds. This is where the attention and creativity has moved to. Some of these customs will fail to perform as well as a factory machine but what rolling works of art they can be! We have the best of both worlds now

  2. Great read!

    As has been touched on in previous comments, the fact is that bikes these days are built really really well. Sportbikes have long since only been able to be properly exploited on a racetrack, and cruisers are finally seeing some real improvement (*cough*Polaris*cough*).
    It’s relevant to this article to also point out that the Big Four gentleman’s agreement to not build bikes that would not exceed 300kph was shaken on about 15 years ago. Litrebikes routinely now have more horsepower than a y2k GP bike, and off the showroom floor are well capable of wearing out a set of tires long before anything else in the course of a track day. Realistically there isn’t much in terms of performance upgrades that these machines can accommodate that most riders could even find themselves in need of after literally hitting the edge of performance envelope of the stock bike. This definitely has an impact on the aftermarket whereby there isn’t nearly as big of a need for one.

  3. I will address your question, about demographics.

    The aging population in North America is the reason why the big four Japanese brands have not returned to the kind of full catalogue of bikes of pre-great-recession times. For example, why did Suzuki not update the GSX-R line once in a decade? Why are they selling the ancient TU-250 over here when the 250 market is so hot now?

    The answer is Asia. The sales growth of the global motorcycle industry is in Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and especially Indonesia. Why waste time trying to pry the last few new motorcycle dollars from 55+ Americans when there are literally tens of millions of new middle class consumers who can ride all year long.

    Yamaha and Honda are now most hotly linked to the slogans “Semakin di dipan” and “Satu Hati”.

    We are no longer the centre of the world, TK4. We should be grateful. Thanks to this demographic shift, we get terrific, inexpensive motorcycles like the Honda CB500 family, Yamaha R3, and others.

    • Thank you Michael, for an insightful article and reply.
      You are correct (once again) – one can witness the demographic changes with models like the Honda Grom and the huge list of aftermarket bits.
      There was a time when one out of every two motorcycles sold in North America was a Honda, and one out of two of them was a CB350. No question, the latest generation of middle and lightweights is stellar.
      As a wiser man than I once said, “its way more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow.”
      Let’s hope that trend continues.

  4. “But when all bikes are locked into proprietary technology that profoundly limits the envelope of customization, have we not lost a big part of what makes the motorcycle ownership experience unique?”

    To take this article in a kind of sideways fashion, one issue I have is when new machines are given road tests or ‘riding impressions’ journalists tend to overlook the shortcomings in favour of feel good reviews. The next year or major model change, they tell you all about what was wrong with the old one and how the new one is so much better. I realize this is a case of not biting the hand that feeds you, but being more critical could help us lesser lights in not only buying a new machine but in what to buy and how to bring it up to snuff.
    The full blown chopper craze seems to have slowed down too, replaced by generally unrideable cafe racers bodged together with bailing wire and duct tape. I applaud the efforts, but the results are generally less than stellar.
    As I have alluded to in previous posts, the makers have shot themselves in the foot by building machines that are too good. One regularly sees bikes that are 30+ years old still out there running around. Its tough for anyone in the aftermarket to be all things to all people and make a living. There is a resurgence in very small specialty manufacturers out there, but you have to hunt for them.
    What thoughts do you have too, about the aging of the riding population ? Could this be changing the target audience for accessories ?

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