On April 28, 2020 a joint statement from the American Motorcyclist Association, Motorcycle Safety Foundation and the Motorcycle Industry Council suggesting motorcyclists "Prepare Now To Ride Again Soon" during the height of the pandemic. We loved the message — "We urge you to contact your local dealer today to determine how they can help you. Your dealer can put your mind at ease by telling you the measures they are taking to ensure your safety, such as phone or online orders, social distancing, drop-off procedures, and more." But there was more to this innocuous message than meets the eye.
The signatures from AMA CEO Rob Dingman and MIC CEO Erik Pritchard marked the first time in decades that the two organizations had jointly worked together on anything and to have the leading ridership organization in the world and the Industry Council both championing dealers as their common ground made this document far more than a simple feel-good message. Rather than try to read more into the message, Dealernews decided to go straight to the source!
Both Rob and Erik were gracious enough to share their thoughts on why it was important to bury the hatchet… and believe it or not this was in the works well before the COVID crisis. Part 1 of our conversation can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMkRkA5iqAM
And the original memo from AMA/MIC/MSF is here:
