Waiting to get my haircut yesterday, I was leafing through People magazine (no bike magazines available) and I came across a picture of Brad Pitt riding down the street on his F113 Hellcat. Then I’m looking a little further and there is Tom Cruise getting on his motorcycle, an F113 Hellcat. I think Confederate Motorcycles has the PR game mastered. At $61,000, they’re a lot less expensive than the custom choppers by the big name builders and they still have an unmistakable look, besides, choppers are more of a zillion dollar a year, in your face, sports star motorcycle, Hellcat’s are just cool.
James - Whybike.com says
Acura, Cadillac, Hummer, and Lexus all give free cars to the stars in order to make it into People magazine or Entertainment Tonight. Acura sales went up a lot after Ashton and Demi were seen in People magazine getting out of on of their SUVs.
hoyt says
anyone else want to see a riding comparison among the Hellcat, Ecosse Heretic, & American Cafe Racer Supermanx? Every year the major moto magazines write about 600 cc, 1000cc sportbike “comparos” or “shootouts”…..kind of boring reading after awhile.
These three bikes are out of my price range, but with major magazine exposure perhaps more shops will begin creating bikes with more sport-inspired abilities [?]. The more shops out there doing work like this could create a lower price for custom sport bikes or cafe racers (Sucker Punch Sallys has the right idea for the cruiser scene – custom choppers for under $20k). As a side note, if more custom chopper shops had the same plan as Sucker Punch Sallys, H-D could really be scratching their heads.
aaron says
i like the hellcat and love the wraith, but i think confederate is in the “brand building” mindset. perhaps i overestimate the cost of 10-20 full page ads per month, but i thought the low production of these bikes would not allow such a promotional spending spree…
dave says
Hmm. Well, thanks for seeing those two pics, but didja notice that the Cruise Hellcat was mis-labled as a “custom-built Yamaha Warrior”? haha, made us laugh around the shop.
BTW, Yes, *some* stars do get things given to them in exchange for publicity. Most are just loaned. As far as the above-named individuals, they *both* approached us to *purchase* their respective bikes, and had to wait the 2months for delivery, just like all of our other customers. Fortunatly, they both love the bike. They are both on the list for Wraith’s as well, but again, waiting lists apply. (other customers getting first delivery)
As far as the promotional spending spree….
To date: We have only spent $$ on our *own* internal print advertising. The various magazines/film/and television coverage have all come to us, and *asked us* if we’d be interested. And to answer the inevitable question: No, we will Never do a Biker-buildoff.. We’re cooler than that… 😎
Keep your colective eyes out on the horizon for some exciting offerings from Confederate in the next few months…
Dave
http://www.confederate.com
kneeslider says
Don’t worry too much about labels in People, it’s a picture mag, sort of a waiting room rated Playboy. I didn’t notice the caption but I definitely noticed the Hellcat.
It’s also nice to know Brad and Tom (listen to me, first name basis …, geez!) waited in line like everyone else. Long term, it’s all of the other customers that keep a company going when the stars move on to their next big thing.