Hawg Heaven

After a long hard winter any sign of spring is welcome—flowers budding, the grass turning green, the return of songbirds and, especially in NH, the roar of motorcycles. The Granite State is a hawg heaven, ranking second nationally in 2014 for motorcycles per capita—one motorcycle for every 17 people, according to trade publication motorcycle.com.

It’s not just the homegrown Easy Riders that fuel NH’s economy. Each June, more than 200,000 motorcycle riders flock to the Lakes Region for Laconia Motorcycle Week, generating more than $100 million in revenue for businesses statewide. Those riders—who cross gender, economic and social lines—contribute significantly to tourism, NH’s second largest industry behind smart manufacturing and high tech. And they don’t confine themselves to the Lakes Region, hitting the open road to spend money at motorcycle shops, gas stations, restaurants, retail stores and hotels across the state.

“It’s not hard to see how it could be that much with just the hotels alone charging a couple hundred dollars or more a night for rooms. And people tend to stay for quite a while,” says Charlie St. Clair, executive director for Laconia Motorcycle Week, a week-long bike rally that draws motorcyclists from across the country and around the globe, of his estimate of the week’s financial impact. “And I think that’s probably a conservative estimate.”

Entering its 92nd year this June, Laconia Motorcycle Week includes bike rallies on the Weirs Beach boardwalk, live music and the Loudon Classic motorcycle race, one of seven motorcycle races held annually at NH Motor Speedway in Loudon. “Right here off of Route 106 from May through Columbus Day, that’s all you see are motorcycles,” says Tom Blanchette, director of operations for the NH Motor Speedway. “Generally speaking it’s a very large component of the tourism picture.”

Revving the Economy

If NH ever declared a state vehicle, it may as well be the motorcycle. And that’s good news. As of Jan. 1, there were 68,202 motorcycles registered in NH, according to the NH Department of Motor Vehicles.

Blanchette of NH Motor Speedway says each of their motorcycle races brings in between 1,000 to 1,500 entries. Each of those riders spends upwards of $2,000 just to be in the competition, including travel and accommodations. Then there are the people the races attract, Blanchette says. “All together, we may get 3,000 to 4,000 people in here,” he says. “And all of them are eating intown, buying gas, getting hotel rooms, staying at camp grounds. I don’t have exact numbers, but that’s a pretty sizeable economic impact. And that’s every weekend there’s a race.”

But that is but a drop in the bucket compared to the economic juggernaut that is Laconia Motorcycle Week. Karmen Gifford, executive director for the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, says that as long as the weather cooperates, those nine days are a boon for local hospitality businesses and mark the kickoff of the Lakes Region’s summer season.

“Many of them really start coming up the week before Motorcycle Week,” Gifford says. “They’ll ride in, and they either camp or stay at a hotel. They might go sit and have a leisurely meal and people watch, bike watch. Then in between events, they need to get off their bikes for a little while, they might go out zip-lining or just touring the area and exploring.”

Cynthia Makris, the owner of The Naswa Resort on Lake Winnipesaukee and president of the Laconia Motorcycle Rally Association, says even during the recession, people were still filling up her hotel for Motorcycle Week. And in the two years of recovery, she’s had more people pre-order their rooms a year in advance. “Motorcycle Week is about 10 percent of our income for the season,” she says. “And it has a trickle-down effect. You know you might hear a lumber company or a convenience store say it does nothing for them. But it does. People are making money over those nine days, and they are spending it here. The police and firemen are making overtime that week, and they may use that money to build a deck or renovate.”

St. Clair says that effect can be seen across the state. Riders may start out in Laconia, but they soon make their way to the Seacoast and White Mountains or other parts of the state. “It’s basically spring break for adults,” says Dan Kennedy, co-owner of Whitehouse Gear in Conway, which sells motorcycle gear and sees it share of Motorcycle Week visitors. Many come back to visit during other times of the year, Blanchette and St. Clair say.

Feeding the Hawg

With so many motorcycle enthusiasts living in and visiting NH, there is a strong industry here catering to them, including 60 licensed motorcycle dealerships.Dealers and resale shop owners report that though sales dipped during the economic downturn, the past two years have seen business coming back strong, says Anthony Lockwood, business operations manager for Mom’s Motorcycles of Manchester. His business, he says, has seen a 25 percent increase in the past year. Part of that has to do with the company adding the Indian motorcycle line, which retails for about $10,900 to $28,000, and is known for including a number of amenities that would cost extra on other bikes. Lockwood explains that it seems his customers want more for their dollar than what they traditionally used to accept.

“The chopper craze—people buying $40,000, $50,000 bikes that were unreliable and broke down all the time—those days are gone,” Lockwood says. “That’s not going to happen anymore.” That “craze” was in the early 2000s and fueled by the popularity of the reality shows like American Chopper, where Paul Teutul and his son Paul Jr. would create tricked-out custom bikes. For a while, these bikes were all the rage but then the recession hit and fewer people were getting custom work done, says Roger Pageot, owner of RPM Motorcycle Services in Nashua. By 2010, cycle enthusiasts on the Internet were calling a time of death on the craze, and multitudes of custom bikes were showing up in
online auctions.

It’s also helped that manufacturers across the board have lowered the suggested retail prices on many bikes in response to customer demands, says George Skaperdas, general manager of Nault’s Windham Motorcycle. Even consignment dealers are seeing an uptick in business. Pageot says he’s seen a 10 percent increase in sales. He explains that during the economic downturn, sales slowed, but his service department continued to do a healthy business. Basically, his customers were opting to keep a bike limping along rather than pay for a new one. These days, he’s seeing the opposite as well as customers starting to invest in extras like detailed paintwork to customize their bike.

Dealers also are saying they are seeing a change in clientele. “We are seeing a lot more women coming in,” Skaperdas says. “I think they are tired of sitting on the back of a bike. They want their own.” The Motorcycle Industry Council reports nearly 25 percent of riders nationwide are women, and the number of women buying motorcycles continues to rise.

Blanchette says they’re even seeing a new kind of participant in the races at the Motor Speedway. “You’re more likely to see lawyers, neurologists, accountants, politicians, business owners entering a race than you are some young kid looking to make a name for themselves,” he says. Kennedy of Whitehorse Gear says his clientele tends to be older. “Motorcycling is not inexpensive. Older people tend to have more disposable income. We see people with an empty nest now and at a stage of life where they can spend more time on themselves,” he says. Indeed, some customers come in and drop a couple of thousand dollars to outfit themselves and a family member, he says. 

Despite what you’ve seen on “Sons of Anarchy,” motorcyclists are far from society’s outlaws. Instead of motorcycles terrorizing the streets, kinder, gentler motorcycle clubs rule NH’s roads. “We encourage anyone with a bike to come out,” says Ed Kobisky, president of the Manchester Motorcycle Club, one of the oldest motorcycle clubs in the country, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. “We have kind of a family oriented atmosphere.”

The club’s 70 members include men and women, ranging in age from 30 to 80. Manchester Motorcycle Club annually hosts The Way Home Ride, a fundraiser for veteran’s housing, as well as an annual fundraiser for the local Lion’s Club. It also holds fundraisers for individual members as necessary. And when members of the community provide the club with names of underprivileged children who are interested in motorcycles, members will show up with a care package for the child and let the child look at their bike.

So why is NH a motorcyclist’s paradise? Some point to the fact that NH is a “choice” state, meaning riders can go with or without helmets on the road. But mainly people cite the change of seasons and the variety of scenery and terrain as the root of the irresistible draw. “You can just get out and ride and get lost for 200, 300 miles and never backtrack twice,” Skaperdas says. “And there’s the beauty of the mountains and the Seacoast and the lakes region, what more could you ask for?”