w
e have carried out the idea of a “Year In Review” issue every year since 2007. I can remember writing each article that ushered in the Year In Review issue, and while each of them had their own ups and downs, I can remember last year’s like it was yesterday. We had just come through what we thought then was the worst part of COVID and were sure that we would be back to normal by Daytona. After thinking that 2020 was one of the hardest years, we had ever faced, the sequel was a real pisser! Rally attendance was hit or miss. Everyone was holding back on production costs, so even when the numbers were strong, there seemed to be less happening. Stores that sell magazines that closed altogether during the first wave of the pandemic were opening slowly, but some of them had decided not to carry some products anymore, magazines being among them. But our readers were there, strong and steady. If you were one of the hundreds of people that included notes in with your subscription giving us a little extra support, please know that you are the reason we forged ahead. The editorial this month goes into that in detail a little
10 February '22 - March '22 - Cycle SOURCE MAGAZINE
more, but suffice it to say it warmed our hearts to realize that this community still lives and dies together. While there were some hard times, plenty of bad times, this was the year we had for 2021, so let’s take a look back before we box this one up and put it in the rearview! THE INDUSTRY: The industry came into 2021 like a bear, with many
suppliers reporting all-time record sales. After all, everyone was home, had some government money and little else to distract them from time with their motorbikes. I guess it was somewhere around the middle of the year that this would create a vacuum. You see, those parts had to come from
somewhere, and all of a sudden, they stopped. Shortly before this, it was a joke that if you had a stack of 2x4 lumber, you could trade it for a Knucklehead, but that quickly became the fact that if you had the most common size tires for a bagger, you could pretty much name your price. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for anyone who survives on dayto-day counter business to stay in the game, and we wish them the best for the year to come. Hopefully, this supply shortage gets figured out, and we can start to get back to some semblance of normalcy. One thing that was a strong blip was the introduction of Bagger racing. Unfortunately, by early this year, they had split into two factions. One was Bagger Racing League, and the other was Road America. This took a little bit of the wind outta the sails of what could have been a lot stronger. V-Twin Visionary announced a new partnership with Harley-Davidson and their intention to do a traveling roadshow for 2022, and by mid ’21, they were already pulling off more activations for the performance V-Twin crowd. Two of the strongest things on the manufacturer’s side were the H-D Pan America and the new Sportster S. It would seem that with a
