18 • April 2025 • Powersports Business

BY BRENDAN BAKER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

According to a report, a significant dip in visitors to Bike Week 2025 in Daytona Beach has created concern among the tourism board of directors for the beach town that runs the event.

The Halifax Area Advertising Authority board, comprised of hoteliers and representatives of other local businesses, oversees and funds the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. A board member told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that the organization wants to understand why attendance is dropping for one of its marquee events.

Meanwhile, our sister-pub Rider Magazine appeared to be having a grand old time at the 2025 event, posting multiple videos of the daily activities and rebel rousers. Daytona Bike Week typically is the kickoff to selling season in the U. S., as spring is just starting to appear in many areas, and dealers are getting prepared to greet customers new and old.

“ There were countless things to do and see, and we took in as many as we could, from Main Street nightlife to scenic cruises through Ormond Beach – and actually on Daytona Beach,” American Rider Editor-in-Chief Kevin Duke wrote.“ We also checked out cool bike shows, browsed hundreds of vendors, took a few demo rides, and witnessed thrilling racing action at the Speedway.”

Just how much did Bike Week attendance fall off in 2025? Is this a sign of the season ahead for dealers?

According to the News-Journal report, attendance at key spots in Daytona Beach was down by as much as 24 % compared to last year’ s event. The comparison uses geofencing data from a company that the board hired in 2024 to analyze

The V-twin market has struggled in the past few years with increasingly expensive models and a customer base that is growing older and moving on to other activities.( Rider Magazine / YouTube screenshot)

the event. The board speculates that the data doesn’ t seem to match what they’ ve had in the past.

On Main Street, where the biggest crowds gather, the cell phone data suggested that there were 178,600 visitors at this year’ s Bike Week with 289,300 repeat visitor stops. However, in 2024, there were 233,500 visitors and 382,400 repeat visits.

Daytona International Speedway attendance was down 20 percent according to cellphone tracking. However, the city’ s own spreadsheet comparison showed Main Street visitors down only 7 % year-over-year, and only a. 07 % drop in Speedway visitors.

City officials are looking into the discrepancies; however, more and more events use geofencing technology to estimate attendance levels. The city expanded the cell phone reporting to cover Teddy Morse’ s Daytona Harley-Davidson, a hotspot for crowds and other events.

One thing is clear: if the data is correct and the numbers are down, it could signal a trend for the season ahead if bikers are not interested in one of the year’ s largest events. The V-twin market has struggled in the past few years with increasingly expensive models and a customer base that is growing older and moving on to other activities. While Daytona Bike Week now incorporates a much more diverse crowd and representative bike brands and models than it has in the past, it is still predominantly an American iron group of riders and enthusiasts.

Hanover Powersports is situated in the heart of Morris CountNew Jersey, minutes from Morristown, Livingston and right by the Home Depot Plaza. Right: The service department features exceptional technicians who are a part of the Hanover family.

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“ It was just a little storefront where my dad started selling motocross apparel and accessories,” Jesse says.“ Mopeds were really popular at the time, so we would have all these kids come in and buy mopeds. And they later grew up and became some of our current customers.”

Hanover Powersports really began taking off once Vinny started getting Honda equipment. The small motorcycle accessories shop continued to grow with each passing year until Vinny eventually upgraded to a bigger piece of property down the road.

“ There was an old house on the property, which my dad knocked down, and then he built the new store from the ground up,”

notes Jesse.“ Opening in the early’ 90s, that business continued to grow until we eventually outgrew the place and then relocated to another location along the same road.”

The almost 30,000−square-foot facility was a much-needed upgrade for Hanover and helped the dealership continue to grow. That is, until the early 2000s when the market started to plummet, leaving businesses across the country strapped for cash.

Luckily, Vinny still owned the previous location that he had built himself, so they were able to move the dealership back down the road. This is where Hanover still stands today.

“ We could certainly use more space, but we utilize every inch as effectively as we can,” Jesse says.“ We also have a warehouse which is not too far off site, which is where we keep a lot of rolling inventory.”

PROVIDING FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Being situated in New Jersey, the winter months certainly slow business down, but Jesse and his team have some tricks up their sleeves to keep product moving.

“ Both my dad and I are members of an offroad motorcycle club, which is in Southern New York state up in the Catskills,” Jesse mentions.“ It’ s a private club that has 45 members, but we have about 1,500 acres of private land with a motorcross track and a ton of trails.”

With all this room for activities, Jesse and his father host races and events at the site a few times a year.“ We even do a customer appreciation day where we invite all of our customers up there and they get to ride for free,” he says.

Not only do these events help bring the community together for a day filled with

fun, but it also allows Hanover employees to get up close and personal with their customers. Creating those memories and relationships is great for turning one-time buyers into loyal customers.

Hanover Powersports also markets themselves on a variety of different platforms to help boost business. Between e-blasts, social media, Google ads and a little bit of radio, they keep a steady fan base.

“ I’ ve been branching out into Facebook marketplace for the last couple of years, and we’ ve been putting more marketing emphasis into that,” Jesse says.“ I have an integration service which posts most of our inventory on the marketplace, and that’ s really blown up. We get a broader audience on there.”

Reaching a broader audience allows Hanover to sell to customers outside of the state who are still ride during the winter months, helping to keep business steady while the locals rest their bikes.

Even with smart marketing tactics, Hanover Powersports’ success boils down to its resourceful and friendly staff.

“ Everyone that works here is knowledgeable. We all own bikes and we all ride,” Jesse says.“ We’ re not your typical run-of-the-mill, high-volume store. When you walk in, you really feel like you’ re coming into a family-run powersports dealership.”

MotoAmerica’ s King of the Baggers series has exploded in popularity since it debuted in 2020, featuring Harley- Davidson and Indian motorcycles pushed to the limits of bagger performance. Now customers will be able to purchase a race-spec Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide RR streetbike for themselves. If they’ ve got deep enough pockets.

Harley-Davidson’ s CVO Road Glide RR will be a limitedproduction model of only 131 hand-assembled units available through select Harley dealers in the U. S., with a whopping MSRP of $ 110,000. For that chunk of change, according to

Rider’ s recent write-up on the CVO, customers will get the most powerful production Harley Big Twin ever offered in the MoCo’ s 122−year history, complete with a race-ready chassis, an intricate a CNC-machined billet swingarm, and championship-winning racing components.

Starting with the engine, the Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide RR is powered by a Stage IV Screamin’ Eagle 131ci( 2,147cc) V-Twin that makes a claimed 153 hp at 5,750 rpm and 150 lb-ft of torque at 4,750 rpm, with a redline elevated from 5,900 rpm to 6,500 rpm. It features a gaping 68mm throttle body and a CNC-ported intake manifold, fuel flowing through CNC-ported cylinder heads, combustion chambers, and 2mm-larger valves. The 34mm exhaust valves are made from expensive Inconel to resist fatigue. The 2−into−1 Akrapovič full-titanium exhaust is 10 lb lighter than the standard Milwaukee-Eight exhaust.

The CVO Road Glide RR is also equipped with top-shelf Öhlins suspension components. Up front is an inverted 43mm Öhlins FGR Hypersport Superbike fork, and in the rear are Screamin’ Eagle Öhlins Remote Reservoir shocks.