THE Cub Report, Version- I’m No Sterling Archer

Ever notice how back in the day that many rc companies advertised only about racing? That wasn’t just the case in rc either, it is easy enough to look at the motorcycle industry and see the exact same thing. Sure, being the fastest on Sunday did sell a lot of a cars and bikes, but it wasn’t the best thing in the world for long term sales. For example, much of Honda’s motorcycle line is made up of performance bikes like the CRF450R for dirt and the CBR1000RR on the street side. Sure, both are excellent machines capable of tremendous performance, but what high-end performance bikes are not good for is Joe Blow consumers. Young thrill seekers (or racers) can certainly have the time of their lives on such machines, but hand either to a Joe Blow and they are likely to get hurt (or worse).

All that racing marketing lead to very few real-world machines for the average American motorcycle rider. On both the dirt and street sides, you’ll only find antiquated machines based on decades old tech for the Joe Blows, and there aren’t many of them. Motorcycles aimed at the masses are pathetic at best, which result in people either buying a bike that doesn’t fit their needs or they simply don’t buy one at all. That is not a good way to stay in the black.

RC turned that corner in the late 90’s. Previous to that rc advertising (and many product line-ups) were all about racing. However, a little Texas company named Traxxas was smart enough to realize that the real money to be made was from the average backyard basher, not from the smaller percentage of people that actually raced on a weekly basis. Once the T-Maxx hit it showed the rc industry that indeed it was a great thing to not only produce products aimed right at the masses, but you could market directly at them with great success. Today we see entire line-ups dedicated to bashing like ARRMA, ECX, Axial, and Vaterra, most of which are big hits on the sales floor.

Sadly, with me being a huge lover of motorcycles, I see the metric motorcycle manufacturers don’t have their version of a Traxxas and are stuck in the same old marketing routine since the 80s. They continue to not only lose market share, but continue to put out products that don’t suit the average rider. Not to toot my own horn (ya right… LOL), but they could really use own their version of a Cubby, someone that is willing to pipe up and speak out for the masses, that the industry types would actually listen to.

To boil it down, I wish the motorcycle industry would get their act together. While rc has had some rough sales in the last few years, at least they offer an outstanding product line-up regardless of what type of fun you are looking for (racing/bashing/crawling/drifting), something that can’t be said in the motorcycle industry.

That’s it for this week. I hope everyone out in rc land has a fantastic week and try to support your local bash spots and hobby shops when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter