As the founder of XDL, and the guy running operations on a daily basis, it is my job to figure out the big picture behind the sport. I always have to ask myself: "How do we fit in?" and "Is it all worth it?" After all, as anyone in the sport can attest to, being in stunt riding is still a big struggle. I've done a lot of research over the last 2 years, spoken to a lot of people and come to the conclusion that stunt riding will not only prosper, it will play a major role in growing the sport and culture of motorcycling over the next 10 years. In fact I firmly believe that stunt riding will be one of the top three or four actions sports in the world, right up there with skateboarding.
In a nutshell, India will change the significance of stunt riding around the world and in less than 10 years become a central part of the sport. Here is why. 85% of all motorcycles world wide are sold in four countries that are very close geographical neighbors: China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Let me put that in perspective. Less than 500,000 motorcycles are sold in the U.S. a year, versus 52 million in those four countries. Even worse, as recently as 2005 over 1 million units were sold in the U.S., meaning we've lost over 50% in sales over the last 7 years. Compare that to India, where over 12 million motorcycles are sold every year and the market is growing at over 15%. In addition, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam represent over half the world's population of 18-34 year olds, with 65% of people in those countries under the age of 35. So what is the bottom line? Countries like India, and the Southeast Asia region in general, will give the sport of stunt riding the critical mass it needs to become attractive to major corporations such as sponsors and media companies. India has a huge, young population that rides motorcycles. Of course that still doesn't explain why stunt riding will be such a big deal, so lets talk about that next.
So we've discussed why other forms of motorcycling and other action sports cannot easily break into India, Indonesia and other markets. But what is the status of stunt riding in India? In India, the number two manufacturer, Bajaj Automotive, launched a brand called Pulsar 10 years ago. That brand is super interesting because from the outset, they decided to tie the image of Pulsar to stunt riding. In fact I think they have never done an ad where one wheel wasn't off the ground. Imagine that, the number two manufacturer launching an entire line around stunt riding. That would be like Yamaha in the U.S. saying that they would create a new category of bikes and build it around the image of stunt riding. That is how advanced things are in India. To date, Pulsar has sold 5M bikes and 750,000 units are sold annually. They sell more bikes on the image of stunt riding in India than we sell ALL forms of motorcycles in the U.S. And Pulsar sponsors a very popular show on MTV India call Stuntmania, that is going into its 5th season. The common counter-argument I hear a lot is that bikes in India are small displacement and people still don't have a lot of money to buy stuff. Well displacements in India have been going up, specifically because of the stunt riding-based sport bike category. 10 years ago 100% of the displacements were 100cc or less. Today, 20% are 150 to 220cc. It would be foolish to think that in five to 10 years displacements won't start reaching Western levels. And incomes have been rising rapidly. The number of middle class households went up 40% in the last 10 years and now make up 62% of the population. And there is plenty of anecdotal evidence as well. People in the local scene tell us that every weekend 10-15 more guys show up at the stunt spot. And when they do shows in the same venues, the audience grows tremendously over time. So we know that stunt riding is growing rapidly, both as a participant sport and a form of entertainment.
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