When I wrote about the e-moto craze in the July issue, I explained why this moment felt familiar.
We had the three-wheeled ATV crisis in the ’80s, followed by widespread restrictions on personal watercraft in the late ’80s and ’90s. In 1985, most North American ski resorts had banned snowboarding. But only five years later, roughly 476 ski areas were open to these knuckle-dragging lunch-tray riders.
In each case, an industry faced a wave of untrained users, alarmed regulators, and headlines threatening to shut the fun down. In each case, the industry survived and came out stronger.
For decades, the bicycle and motorcycle industries took divergent approaches to safety. Motorcyclists were encouraged to take rider education and training courses that gave them the skills and confidence to use the
roadway system.
The bicycle industry, by and large, skipped education and instead lobbied the government for separate infrastructure, such as bike lanes and paths. That strategy worked to a point, but it came with a cost.
To justify building separate bicycling infrastructure, advocates argued that riding in traffic is dangerous, often exaggerating the risk. The message stuck. It didn’t just win bike lanes; it convinced many “would-be riders” that the street is unsafe.
That’s a trap we don’t want the e-bike generation to fall into. These kids are already riding what are, in effect, pretend motorcycles. Let’s not push them backward into cordoned-off bike paths when the natural next step is forward, into full-fledged, legal motorcycling.
That’s the opportunity buried in this mess. I believe these future motorcyclists are ours to lose.
Not every e-bike rider causing trouble is doing so for the same reason, and we need to stop treating them as a single group.
The first cohort is simply uneducated. These are kids who never learned the rules of the road and parents who do not understand the distinction between legal e-bikes and illegal e-motos. They don’t know what they don’t know. This group responds to real education, delivered clearly, before a citation or a crash forces the issue.
Check out the Ebike Training for Teens online course at www.teenebiketraining.com.
The second cohort includes mostly riders of e-motos and modified e-bikes, who chase viral content and follow influencers who treat breaking the law as the whole point. One account alone can put daily reels of outlaw riding culture in front of millions of young eyeballs.
Education won’t fix a business model built on defiance. I don’t have a clean answer for this one, and I’m not going to pretend I do. But treating it as the same problem guarantees two things: we solve neither, and it puts the whole enterprise and future of this pathway to motorcycling at risk.
Currently, the only legal places to ride an e-moto are private property or legal dirt bike trails.
The Bellemont Project is a social enterprise founded by Beth Black, a former e-bike shop owner and safety advocate. She is working with families, schools, dealerships, and first responders on e-bike and e-moto safety. Her programs are grounded in adolescent behavior research rather than scare tactics.
Beth’s book, “The Caring Parent’s E-Bike Survival Guide,” has been an Amazon best-seller in its category. It offers parents a plain-language resource for a much-needed conversation. It’s the kind of thing a dealership could stock at the parts counter and hand to a nervous parent on day one — a low-cost, high-trust move.
Lee Parks is a former motorcycle racer, author, trainer, and gear manufacturer. He wrote the best-selling book Total Control and founded the Total Control Training program for motorcyclists. Lee and his team are launching a scalable in-person e-bike safety and education program designed to help stakeholders respond constructively to the e-bike crisis.
RideReady will equip riders with the knowledge and skills to avoid becoming an enforcement issue or a statistic. Like the founder’s street motorcycle courses, this program is also built on proven strategies to prevent crashes.
Neither program replaces what the ATV and PWC turnarounds ultimately needed: an organized industry response. In the meantime, dealerships can help by directing uneducated riders and their parents in the right direction.
Whatever the industry decides to do, it needs to move quickly because legislation isn’t waiting.
Local crackdowns on illegal e-moto riding are spreading, and some parents are being held responsible. One Southern California county has reportedly compiled a list of more than two dozen parents under scrutiny. One parent now faces an involuntary manslaughter charge after their child, while doing a wheelie, struck and killed an 81-year-old pedestrian.
Another parent faces child endangerment charges after a modified e-moto crash left their 12-year-old son with serious injuries. The parent and child had already reportedly completed a court-ordered diversion class after their child was riding illegally.
These are not hypothetical consequences anymore. Legislatively, it’s getting messier, not clearer.
New Jersey recently passed one of the country’s most restrictive e-bike laws. Several states have floated bans on Class 3 e-bikes, which, notably, don’t even have throttles. Some lawmakers are legislating against a threat they don’t understand, combining legal riders along with the illegal e-moto crowd.
If your store sells e-bikes or e-motos, now is the time to be proactive. Become a resource.
Are you directing customers to legal riding locations or providing reliable resources? Are you teaching riders and parents the difference between street-legal and illegal motorized vehicles? Education should be the “go-to.”
The ATV industry survived because a handful of accountable players organized before the government decimated the recreational all-terrain vehicle industry. PWC survived the same way. This time, the players are not just a handful of OEMs.
We have a real shot at transitioning this generation of e-riders into legal, licensed two-wheel customers, and that should be the goal.
But, just like past examples, the window of opportunity won’t stay open forever.
According to eCycleElectric:
“An estimated 1.7 million e-bikes were imported into the U.S. in 2024 by roughly 900 unique businesses, up from an estimated 1 million units in 2023, 72% growth year over year.”
According to PeopleForBikes:
“Roughly 450,000 e-bike units, worth about $800 million, were sold direct-to-consumer from brand websites in 2024, outside the retail channels most market data tracks — plus another 80,000 sold peer-to-peer, putting total 2024 e-bike activity near 1 million units through those two channels alone.”
According to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News:
“Bicycle Market Research puts 2025 e-bike imports at ~1.3 million units; the Light Electric Vehicle Association and eCycleElectric estimate ~2.2 million.”
According to Cycling Electric and Global Market Insights:
“Looking ahead to 2026: No confirmed import numbers yet, but market-size forecasts point to steadier, single-digit growth — a cooldown from 2024’s 72% spike. The biggest wildcards: tariffs and U.S.-China trade tensions, since over 95% of U.S. e-bikes are imported.”
By Paulina Matel & Brad Stanek | Contributors
If you’re a powersports dealer principal, you already understand pressure. You’ve lived through supply chain headaches, flooring swings, staffing challenges, and the constant balancing act between sales, service, and cash flow. You’ve built something real — often over decades. As our recent webinar moderator, Mark Sheffield, framed it — the dealership isn’t just a business; for many owners, it’s their life’s work. The challenge is that one question is easy to postpone until it becomes urgent: what happens to everything you’ve built when it’s time to step away?
Selling or transitioning a dealership is a different game than running one, and you typically only get one chance to get it right. That’s why we are so focused on a practical checklist mindset: understand what you own, what it’s worth, what you’ll keep, and what needs to be true for you to exit confidently.
When we sit down with a dealer for the first time, most fall into one of two camps: they’ve never had the dealership formally valued, or they “have a number” in their head that doesn’t match what the market would actually pay. That disconnect is completely normal. When something represents decades of time, sacrifice, and identity, it’s human nature to assign it a different value than the market ultimately will.
The problem is that the gap between perception and reality usually doesn’t show up until it matters most—when you’re already in a transaction. That’s where we see surprise, disappointment, and sometimes a deal that doesn’t support the life the owner expected after the sale.
This matters even more in powersports because, for many dealers, the dealership represents 70%–85% of their net worth. It’s not just an asset. It’s the asset that will largely determine whether you can retire the way you want, support your family, or transition confidently into the next phase of life.
A simple way to think about it: if you were the CEO of a public company, you’d know your stock price every day. As a dealer, you don’t need a daily number — but you do need a reliable valuation as part of planning. Otherwise, you’re making big-money decisions — expanding the showroom, acquiring another store, adding new lines — without knowing how those moves may impact the future value of your largest asset.
Most exit problems don’t show up at the closing table — they show up years earlier, in the form of avoidable blind spots.
One of the most common pitfalls is underestimating how exposed you really are when most of your wealth is tied up in the dealership. Buyers typically look at a three- to five-year history of financials (your P&L and balance sheet) adjusted for current market conditions. That means even one down year can materially impact goodwill. It’s not just a tough year on paper; it can follow you into the transaction and reduce what a buyer is willing to pay.
Timing is another factor. We saw elevated valuations coming out of Covid, and today the market has normalized. If there’s a disconnect between what an owner believes they can get and what buyers are paying today — and the owner isn’t flexible on timeline. That can create real challenges.
Where we see the biggest risk, though, is lack of preparation. Many dealers may have an idea of what they could sell for, but they haven’t done the “walk-away” math: what they’ll actually keep after taxes, fees, and deal structure. That net number determines whether the exit works.
We also see dealers go into a sale without a defined process. There’s a saying we like: “One buyer is no buyer.” Without a process, you limit your options, and you’re exposed to whatever is put in front of you. Finally, buyers pay for confidence. If the owner is “the dealership” and the business depends heavily on them, that creates risk in the eyes of a buyer and can impact value. The goal is to build a dealership that operates independently, with systems and the right people in place. And none of that matters if the financials aren’t clean, organized, and defensible — because diligence problems often translate into price concessions.
We hear it all the time: “I got an offer for $10 million.” That’s a great headline, but it’s not the finish line.
What matters is what lands in your pocket after the deal is structured, taxes are paid, and the dust settles. As we discussed in the webinar, many dealers focus on the purchase price, but how the deal is structured can have just as much, if not more, impact on what you actually keep after taxes.
It starts with your corporate structure. Are you an S Corporation, LLC, or C Corporation? Those can be taxed very differently in a transaction, and in some cases (like certain C-Corp scenarios), there can be potential double taxation depending on how the deal is structured.
Then you look at how assets are organized. Is the real estate held separately from the operating entity, or combined? Those can be treated very differently in a sale. You may have one part taxed at capital gains rates while another portion is taxed as ordinary income.
And then there’s the structure of the payout itself. Is it a full upfront sale, or is there seller financing? Those decisions can shift not just when you receive the money, but how it’s taxed over time.
The key point is simple: you need to know the answers to these questions before you go to market. Otherwise, you’re negotiating blind, because how do you know what to negotiate for if you don’t know what you need to keep?
We see a dramatic difference between dealers who plan years in advance and those who react to an offer in real time, and it shows up in both outcomes and stress levels.
A prepared dealer operates with clarity. They’ve likely gone through one or more valuations, so they understand what the dealership is worth in the eyes of the market, not just what they hope it’s worth. They’ve also opened communication early with their CPA and financial planner to estimate taxes and, more importantly, tie those numbers into a real financial plan so they understand what net proceeds can support after the sale.
They also tend to build a team that understands the powersports space specifically, and they create an environment where information flows easily with clean financials, updated tax returns, and a clear narrative around the business. That preparation builds confidence for the buyer and leverage for the seller.
Most importantly, planning creates flexibility. The prepared dealer can choose when to go to market, work to increase value, and be patient if conditions aren’t ideal. The unprepared dealer is often figuring things out on the fly: unclear value, uncertainty around taxes and net proceeds, messy diligence, and a buyer-driven timeline that forces rushed decisions and unnecessary concessions.
Not nearly enough dealers connect the sale of their dealership to a full personal financial plan, and that’s where we see some of the biggest disconnects.
Many owners hear “financial plan” and think narrowly: “How much cash flow can I generate after I sell?” Income matters, but a true plan is broader. Once the dealership is sold, your largest asset is no longer your business... it’s liquid capital. That shift brings new priorities: estate planning (how assets are titled, protected, and transferred), Medicare and Social Security timing, and tax planning that goes beyond the year of sale.
Taxes sit at the center of all of this. It’s not just what you pay in the year of sale; it’s how you structure income in the years that follow. Are there opportunities to smooth income, take advantage of lower brackets, or incorporate strategies like Roth conversions when appropriate? It’s also about flexibility — having different “buckets” of money (taxable, tax-deferred, tax-free) so you can be intentional about where you draw from each year depending on market conditions and tax considerations.
When dealers don’t connect these pieces ahead of time, the sale becomes a standalone event: close the transaction, get the money, and only then ask, “Now what?” At that point, many of the best planning opportunities are reduced — or gone.
If you’re unsure what your dealership is worth, what you’d actually net after taxes, or whether you’re truly prepared to exit — those are real risks.
If you’d like to learn more about how well prepared you are for an exit, reach out to Paulina Matel and Brad Stanek, financial advisers with Morgan Stanley — for a complimentary Exit Planning Checklist.
By Melissa Coffey | Contributors
Well, here we are. September. The kids are back in school. Summer vacations are over. Football is back. Pumpkin spice has somehow invaded every product category known to mankind, and somewhere in America, a powersports dealer is staring out the front window wondering: “Where is everybody?” If that sounds familiar, I have some unfortunate news.
They’re probably not coming. At least, not the way they used to. For a long time, powersports retail benefited from a pretty straightforward model: Put shiny units on the floor, run some ads, answer the phone, greet the people who walk through the door and sell them something fun.
Then Covid happened. Inventory disappeared, demand went through the roof and, for a glorious little window of time, the industry barely had to sell at all.
Customers called us. We took orders. We made lists. Remember that?
Some dealerships are still waiting for the customer behavior of 2021 to return. Meanwhile, today’s consumer has approximately 47 other things competing for that same discretionary dollar: travel, golf, boats, home projects, concerts, e-bikes and apparently $9 iced coffee.
So, if customers aren’t automatically coming to us anymore, perhaps September is a good month to ask: What are we doing to go get them?
Let’s start with the easiest one: your CRM. Somewhere inside your dealership is a giant list of people who have already raised their hands and told you they’re interested in powersports.
Past buyers. Lost leads. Service customers. Someone who asked about a unit six months ago. Someone who bought a side-by-side three years ago. Someone who bought a motorcycle, but hasn’t been back since. These aren’t cold leads. These are people who already know you.
Yet in too many dealerships, that database is treated like the junk drawer in your kitchen. We know there’s useful stuff in there. We just don’t really want to deal with it.
Call them. Text them. Invite them to something. And please — for the love of all things powersports — don’t make every communication: “HUGE SALE!!! THIS WEEKEND ONLY!!!” Give people a reason to engage with you that isn’t immediately asking them to buy something.
Powersports has one enormous advantage over most retail categories: Our products are fun. We sell things people dream about while they’re sitting in meetings. So why do we sometimes market them like refrigerators?
Host a Saturday morning ride. Do an adventure-bike night. Hold a women’s riding clinic or new-model preview. Bring in a local racer. Have your service department do a 30-minute fall maintenance clinic. It doesn’t need to cost $20,000, and it doesn’t necessarily have to sell a motorcycle that day. It just needs to give people a reason to walk back through your door.
Because once they’re there, something happens. They start touching things. Sitting on things. Talking about riding. Looking at accessories. Remembering how much they love this stuff. And suddenly the person who “wasn’t really shopping” is asking what their trade is worth. Funny how that happens.
Here’s another challenge: Look at your marketing from the last six months. How much of it would make sense to someone who doesn’t already participate in powersports?
If every piece of content assumes the customer knows the difference between every model, trim level, suspension package and engine configuration, we’re talking mostly to ourselves.
The next customer may not walk in saying, “I’ve narrowed it down to these three models.” They may say things like: “My family wants something we can do together;” “I want to start riding, but I have no idea where to begin;” “My friends all have side-by-sides.”
That is your opening. We need to get better at selling the experience before we sell the machine.
Terrible time to sit
Yes, the market is different. Interest rates, affordability, inventory and consumer confidence all matter. But you can’t control most of those things. You can control whether your dealership spends September waiting for traffic — or creating it.
Pull 100 dormant customers from your CRM. Call 20 a day. Plan one ridiculously fun event. Shoot five videos with your phone. Invite your best customers to bring a friend. Ask your team one simple question: “What could we do this month that would make someone want to come hang out here?” Then do it.
Because the dealers who win the next few years won’t necessarily have the biggest buildings, largest ad budgets or most brands. They’ll be the ones who refuse to sit around waiting for the good old days to come back. The customer may not be walking through the door on their own anymore. Fine. Go get them.
Till next time, shiny side up and checkered flags!
Melissa Coffey is a 2x PSB “Women With Spark” award winner and a longtime
powersports and motorsports industry leader with deep expertise in brand building, demand generation, and growth strategy. She now leads CATCH Strategy—her boutique consultancy providing fractional CMO-level marketing leadership, strategic planning, revenue generation and execution support for
companies across the powersports, motorsports, marine,
bicycle, and EV markets.