14 • July 2026 • Powersports Business

I’ ve spent more than 30 years in this industry watching it navigate crises that threatened to define it. The three-wheeled ATV ban. The personal watercraft wars. I was

JAN PLESSNER on the front lines of the PWC fight.

What’ s happening today with the e-moto craze feels familiar and that’ s exactly what worries me.

When I joined Kawasaki, the median age of the U. S. motorcycle owner was 32. The MIC puts it north of 50 today. Ownership among 18− to 24−year-olds has collapsed from 16 % to 6 %.

The kids who should be our next generation of customers are out there right now, doing wheelies riding e-moto bikes illegally on busy streets, oblivious to the rules of the road, and heading toward the same cliff we’ ve seen before.

To make sure I had my facts straight, I sat down with my first( and favorite) Kawasaki boss, Roger Hagie, a 40−year KMC government relations pro.

THREE-WHEELED ATVS The CPSC became aware of a growing number of injuries among inexperienced riders who did not understand these vehicles’ characteristics.

Before the CPSC banned the manufacture and distribution of new consumer-grade three-wheel ATVs in the U. S., the OEMs were already designing age-appropriate model standards and had begun manufacturing four-wheeled vehicles.

The lessons learned were painful, but our industry-funded programs that offered incentivized, hands-on rider training for our customers( and their age-appropriate family members) worked.

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Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, Polaris, and Can-Am collectively established mandatory dealer guidelines and implemented cancellation clauses for noncompliance. The consent decree took effect in 1987, following the CPSC’ s findings of irresponsible rider behavior: impaired operation, failure to wear protective gear, and allowing young riders to operate machines intended for adults.

The lessons learned were painful, but our industry-funded programs that offered incentivized, hands-on rider training for our customers( and their age-appropriate family members) worked.

SECOND RODEO PWC enthusiasts, mostly new to boating, were causing havoc on the water. They didn’ t realize they were operating a vessel and were unfamiliar with basic waterway rules and other important boating practices, such as launch ramp etiquette.

Most importantly, our customers, who loved their zippy two-stroke“ motorcycles on water,” weren’ t winning popularity contests within the broader boating community.

With the ATV crisis still fresh, I was hired by Kawasaki corporate to help turn the tide against what was becoming a widespread movement to restrict PWC. I had purchased my two stand-up Kawasaki watercraft a few years earlier, and I was excited to fight the good fight.

SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT Compared with today’ s e-moto situation, PWC manufacturers collaborated to address rider behavior issues using a variety of effec-

See Plessner, Page 15

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