[Rick O'Shea]

I know of 6 in North Carolina;  2 in Marion, Rick O'Shea, AceCafe has 2, and I have one.  I'm the only one in a 30 mile radius.

   1 in Highlands, 1 in Cashiers 1 in Franklin, and whatever Blue Ridge Wheeltor runs near Brevard

[robbw]

Okay, i'm starting a poll.

[1 Thump]

Just got this from Blassco's blog at www.royalenfields.com

Me: What about the U.S. market? Does Royal Enfield have a chance to become a bigger player?

Dr. Padmanabhan: At the show we're two booths away from Triumph. It is gratifying to see what they have done in the U.S. From 2,000 bikes to 12,000 bikes in 10 years. That is encouraging.

Last year we built 52,000 bikes; 5 percent of them sold outside India. I look at the world and I see that there are whole countries where the Royal Enfield brand is known, and I'm not selling there. It's reasonable to think that in a couple of years we could sell 10 percent of our bikes outside India.

So I say to Kevin, you're selling 400 to 500 bikes a year in the U.S. We should (set a goal) to be selling 700 or 900.

About 400-500 sold per year.

[Ice]

I suspect the current state of the US economy to be a major factor.

 A couple years ago when RE's annual production was only 35,000 units per year average export  was between 10%-15% with roughly half of that going to the US.

[singhg5]

There has been an overall decline in sales of motorcycles in US due to economic downturn.  Close to me some dealers have closed and disappeared - even those who had many years of experience and expertise.  The ones that are open have had a very rough year or two. 

US being such a large land mass, only bikes that go on highways have a chance to sell in a significant numbers.  That leaves RE out of the major players league.  The number of REs in US should be compared to Japanese or European or other Asian bikes that are non-highway bikes such as Yamaha Virago, Honda Rebel, Suzuki TR 250 or similar bikes.  That will give some idea as to how is RE doing in US.  If those bikes are sold in numbers similar to RE, that indicates that the geography is limiting factor.  Anybody has annual sales figure for any of these smaller bikes in US ?

Expecting RE to compete with highway hogging bikes is like comparing apples to oranges.  In its current form RE does not have much chance to compete with other bikes sold in US, unless it becomes slightly bigger bike.

RE want to sell their bikes to other countries - as they recently entered S. America.  They would like to expand to places where they have not traditionaly sold bikes - provided they can make enough to meet local demand in India. 

US market for RE will remain the way it has been - a niche market. 

[Ice]

 The motorcycle market is cyclic in nature and for most consumers they are a luxury item  or  play thing.

 Thinking back to the 1973 oil embargo and the recession of the late 70's-early 80's I remember the general shift was toward middleweight higher fuel economy models.

Cheaper to buy and operate.

[lasalsa]

  I think I have the only Machizmo AVL 350 in the U.S. According to the NHTSA. Oh BTW.. It's "Export Model". The Letter says it! 

[barenekd]

My dealer says he has sold a dozen and I know he had 11 in stock the last time I was there. Another dealer friend had 8 in stock the last time I was in there and one in the shop. I saw two iron barrels at the BSA club ride, and I've seen three or four different iron barrels at other motorcycle get togethers, one, a cafe racer. There are a couple of other dealers here that I haven't been to their shops, but I know for sure that one of them had at least four in stock. So that should get a total up to 40+ in the LA area.
Bare

[kingrock]

Got mine. My neighbor has an avl. Saw a c5 at americade. Only RE there. And 1 other c5 military that buzzed by a couple of weeks ago. That's 4 in the capital district of NY.