Motorcycle, Bicycle, and Parts Manufacturing (U.S.)

NAICS 2022 code 336991 — a Histometrics industry primer

1. Overview

This industry covers the factories that build motorcycles, bicycles, mopeds, motor scooters, and their parts inside the United States. It is a small, cyclical, discretionary-goods business: people buy a new motorcycle or bicycle when they feel confident about their finances, and they skip the purchase when they don't. The federal statistics that define the industry count only U.S.-based production, so the industry is dominated on the dollar side by American motorcycle assembly (above all Harley-Davidson) and is very light on bicycles, because roughly 97–99% of bicycles sold in the U.S. are imported, and approximately 99% of bicycle component parts are still produced overseas [7][21][22].

Why an investor cares: it is a recognizable-brand, consumer-cyclical space with one iconic public company, a struggling electric-motorcycle spin-off, and a long tail of private makers. Returns track the consumer cycle, interest rates (because many units are financed), demographics, and — increasingly — trade policy on Chinese imports and batteries.

Public-market ways in are narrow: essentially Harley-Davidson (ticker HOG) and its majority-owned electric offshoot LiveWire (LVWR); Polaris (PII) has exited the motorcycle business, completing the sale of a majority stake in Indian Motorcycle to Carolwood LP in February 2026 [9][23]. Private-market ways in are broad: the largest U.S. bicycle brands (Trek, Specialized), electric-motorcycle maker Zero, a wave of e-bike startups, and hundreds of small custom builders are all privately held.

2. What it is and how it's structured

In scope (NAICS 336991): establishments primarily manufacturing motorcycles, bicycles, tricycles and similar cycles, mopeds, motor scooters, electric bicycles, and the parts and accessories for all of these [4].

Explicitly excluded — and where those activities are classified instead:

• All-terrain vehicles (ATVs), snowmobiles, golf carts, and similar off-road/personnel carriers → NAICS 336999 (All Other Transportation Equipment Manufacturing) [4]. This matters because Polaris and Honda make most of their powersports money in 336999, not 336991.
• Children's non-bicycle wheeled toys → NAICS 339930 (Doll, Toy, and Game Manufacturing) [4].
• Wholesaling of motorcycles/bicycles → merchant wholesaler codes (NAICS 423110 / 423910); retail dealers → motor-vehicle and sporting-goods retail codes; repair shops → personal-goods repair codes. None of those are counted in 336991.

Operating model. A large motorcycle OEM designs vehicles and powertrains, machines or fabricates selected assemblies, buys numerous subsystems, paints and assembles the finished vehicle, conducts testing and regulatory certification, and sells wholesale through dealers. Harley-Davidson identifies steel and aluminum castings, forgings, sheet and bar alongside purchased fuel-injection systems, batteries, tires, seats, instruments, wheels, and electrical components as important inputs [24]. The bicycle side is usually more internationally disaggregated: U.S. companies often retain design, engineering, brand, marketing, distribution, and dealer relationships while purchasing frames, drivetrains, wheels, batteries, or complete bicycles from Asian suppliers. SRAM, for example, describes Chicago as its headquarters, Indiana as a Zipp wheel manufacturing location, and Taiwan as a major engineering center [25].

Ownership mix. The dollar value in this industry is concentrated in a few large motorcycle manufacturers, while the bicycle side is a long tail of small, often family-owned or founder-owned shops. There are 408 firms operating 429 establishments [1][2]. Only one U.S.-headquartered pure play is publicly traded (Harley-Davidson); its EV unit LiveWire is separately listed but majority-owned by Harley. Most bicycle "manufacturers" in the U.S. are really designers, marketers, and assemblers that contract-produce frames overseas — so ownership ranges from a public giant down to two-person custom frame builders.

3. How big it is

Federal figures for the U.S. manufacturing industry:

The undercount caveat — read this before quoting the $3.8 billion. These numbers measure domestic factory output, not the U.S. market for these products, and the two are wildly different here:

• Bicycles barely register. Because ~97–99% of bikes sold in the U.S. are imported (about $1.09 billion of bicycles imported in 2024, mostly from China, Cambodia, Taiwan, and Vietnam) [7], almost none of the U.S. bicycle market shows up in this manufacturing code. Estimates of the retail U.S. bike market vary widely by source — from roughly $6.6 billion [14] to $14.75 billion [20] in 2024, depending on methodology — but all estimates are many times the $3.8 billion domestic-manufacturing figure. The economic weight of bicycles in America sits in imports, brand/design, components, and retail, not in factories.
• Motorcycles dominate the domestic dollars, because Harley-Davidson still assembles bikes in the U.S. But even here the code understates the corporate footprint the other way: Harley-Davidson's reported revenue includes financial services and overseas sales, so it is not comparable to the $3.8 billion domestic-shipments number.
• Employment is small (8,445) but firms can still be sizable. The SBA calls anything under 1,050 employees "small" [3], yet the top firms are far larger — Harley-Davidson had approximately 5,500 employees at the end of 2025, including roughly 1,700 unionized hourly employees at U.S. manufacturing facilities [26] — so the industry is a handful of big players plus a fragmented tail, not a field of equals.

Bottom line: 336991 is a small manufacturing industry sitting underneath much larger markets for its products that are served mostly by imports and by revenue lines (financing, apparel, service) that fall outside the code.

4. The investable universe

Publicly traded (U.S.-listed):

Note that Polaris (PII) completed the sale of a majority stake in Indian Motorcycle to Carolwood LP in February 2026 and is no longer a direct motorcycle play [23]. The big-volume brands in the U.S. market — Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, BMW, KTM, Triumph, Ducati — are all foreign-owned and manufacture largely abroad; U.S. investors reach them only through their foreign parents, not as domestic pure plays.

Major private and other owners:

• Motorcycles: Indian Motorcycle (now majority-owned by Carolwood LP, with Polaris retaining a minority stake; Indian had contributed approximately $478 million, or 7.0% of Polaris revenue, in the twelve months ended June 2025) [9][23].
• Bicycles: Trek (Waterloo, WI — the largest U.S. bicycle brand, privately held), Specialized (Morgan Hill, CA — private, part-owned by Taiwan's Merida), Cannondale (owned by Netherlands-based Pon Holdings). Small U.S. producers that actually build domestically include Kent International, Detroit Bikes, Allied, Moots, and Guerrilla Gravity.
• Electric motorcycles: Zero Motorcycles (Scotts Valley, CA — private).
• E-bikes: direct-to-consumer brands such as Rad Power Bikes, Lectric, and Aventon — mostly design-and-import operations, privately held/venture-backed.

Takeaway: there are very few public plays and no pure-play public U.S. bicycle manufacturer. Most of the addressable ownership is private.

5. How the money works

This is a manufacturing business, so the levers are the manufacturing ones: unit shipments × average selling price, gross margin, capacity utilization, and input costs (steel, aluminum, and — for electrics — lithium battery cells). Because the products are big-ticket and discretionary, the industry is cyclical: volumes swing hard with the consumer cycle, and factories carry fixed costs that punish margins when volumes fall.

Harley illustrates the fixed-cost leverage: its motorcycle business shipped 124,500 units in 2025, 16% fewer than in 2024. HDMC revenue declined 13% to $3.578 billion, gross margin fell from 28.0% to 24.2%, and operating margin moved from positive 6.7% to negative 0.8%. Management attributed the deterioration to lower wholesale volume, incremental tariffs (approximately $67 million of new or increased tariff costs in 2025), incentives, and unfavorable manufacturing leverage [27][26].

Beyond the metal, owners make money in ways specific to this industry:

• Premium pricing and brand. Harley's model is high average selling prices plus high-margin parts, accessories, and apparel/licensing — recurring, brand-driven revenue that outlasts the initial bike sale.
• Captive financing. Harley-Davidson Financial Services provides floor-plan loans to dealers and retail loans to buyers; the finance arm is a distinct profit engine. Notably, Harley-Davidson reported $339 million of consolidated net income in 2025 even though its manufacturing segment lost $29 million, because HDFS had an unusually strong year — HOG is therefore exposure to both motorcycles and consumer/dealer credit, not a clean manufacturing pure-play [27].
• Dealer-inventory discipline. Manufacturers sell wholesale to dealers, who sell retail to riders. When dealer inventories get too high, the maker cuts shipments to "align wholesale with retail" — exactly what drove Harley's 16% shipment drop in 2025 [27]. Watching wholesale-vs-retail alignment is key to reading these companies.
• The bicycle value trap. In bicycles, most U.S. "manufacturers" don't capture the manufacturing margin — it goes to Asian contract factories and, above all, to the component duopoly (Japan's Shimano and the U.S.'s SRAM), which supplies the drivetrains. U.S. bike brands capture design, brand, and distribution margin, not fabrication margin. Domestic frame-building is a small, premium niche.
• Aftermarket and apparel carry higher and steadier margins than whole-vehicle sales and cushion the cycle. Fox Factory notes that aftermarket sales generally earn higher margins than OEM supply [29].

Two numbers to watch: unit shipments (volume/cyclicality) and gross margin (pricing power vs. input and tariff costs).

6. What drives demand

• The consumer cycle and credit. Discretionary income, consumer confidence, and interest rates drive whether buyers finance a $20,000+ touring bike. Rising rates raised monthly payments and cooled demand into 2024–2025.
• Demographics — the structural headwind for motorcycles. The core U.S. motorcycle rider base is aging: median owner age reached about 50 by 2018, up from 32 in 1990, and the under-24 share collapsed over that period [13]. There are approximately 9.26 million registered motorcycles in the U.S. (FHWA changed from estimated to actual state-reported data in 2024) [30]. Growth pockets are women and Hispanic, Black, and Asian American riders, who skew younger [13]. Manufacturers' long-run problem is recruiting new, younger riders rather than reselling to an aging base.
• The e-bike / micromobility boom. Bicycles are being reshaped by electrification: nearly one million e-bikes were bought or sold in the U.S. in 2024 (including approximately 450,000 direct-to-consumer units worth about $800 million that conventional retail datasets had missed, plus roughly 80,000 peer-to-peer transactions). E-bikes represented about 7% of U.S. bicycle unit sales but roughly 30% of bicycle revenue, and are the fastest-growing segment (cargo e-bikes especially) [14]. For comparison, e-bikes represent 53% of bicycle sales in Germany, suggesting significant adoption headroom in the U.S. [14]. This is the one clear growth vector in the category — but domestically it is served mostly by imports.
• Participation. PeopleForBikes found that 112 million Americans — 35% of the population aged three or older — rode a bicycle at least once in 2024 [31]. Cycling participation, urban commuting policy, and gas prices all nudge demand; the pandemic caused a cycling surge that then normalized downward through 2024 [8].
• Trade policy. Tariffs directly change landed cost and retail price for imported bikes, e-bikes, and battery cells, shaping affordability and demand (see §7).

7. Regulation

• Motorcycle emissions. The EPA regulates motorcycle exhaust under the Clean Air Act; model-year 2010-and-later Class III motorcycles must meet Tier 2 standards (HC+NOx ≤ 0.8 g/km) [15]. California's Air Resources Board (CARB) sets stricter exhaust and evaporative standards and runs its own certification, which effectively becomes a second national bar for anyone selling in California [16]. Aftermarket tuning creates additional enforcement exposure; Harley-Davidson previously agreed to a $12 million Clean Air Act civil penalty concerning noncompliant tuning devices [32].
• Vehicle and rider safety. Motorcycles must meet federal motor-vehicle safety standards; helmet laws are set state by state.
• Bicycle safety. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's mandatory standard, 16 CFR Part 1512, sets the requirements a bicycle must meet to be sold in the U.S.; non-compliant bikes can be barred from the market [17]. For e-bikes, electrical/battery safety (UL 2849) is increasingly required — New York City, for example, mandates it — driven by lithium-battery fire concerns, and e-bikes are governed by a state-level Class 1/2/3 system. In June 2026, CPSC approved publication of a proposed mandatory lithium-ion battery standard for micromobility products [33].
• Trade and tariffs — the fast-moving one. Bicycles and e-bikes from China carry Section 301 tariffs; an e-bike exclusion expired in June 2024, restoring a 25% duty [19]. During 2025, combined China tariffs on bikes and e-bikes spiked (reported as high as ~145%) before negotiated rollbacks brought e-bike rates down toward the 40s of percent, with a scheduled increase in lithium-battery tariffs to 25% in 2026 [18][19]. The de minimis duty-free exemption for low-value China parcels was also closed, adding cost and compliance friction to direct-import e-bike sellers [18]. Harley incurred approximately $67 million of new or increased tariff costs in 2025 [26]. Trade policy is now a first-order variable for this industry's pricing.

8. Competitive dynamics and consolidation

Federal concentration figures show the top 4 firms account for 65.3% of U.S. industry revenue, the top 8 for 69.9%, the top 20 for 78.4%, and the top 50 for 87.9% [2]. (The Herfindahl-Hirschman index is suppressed in the federal data.) Read carefully: that concentration reflects the motorcycle side, where a few large assemblers dominate domestic dollars. The bicycle side is fragmented among many small domestic makers, but they contribute little revenue, so the blended statistics look concentrated.

In the broader U.S. market (imports included), motorcycle brand share is competitive: Honda edged Harley-Davidson for the 2024 unit-sales lead (~20.0% vs ~19.9%), with Japanese brands together near half the market [12]. Harley reported 34.5% of new U.S. registrations for motorcycles above 601cc in 2025, down 2.8 percentage points from 2024, in an underlying U.S. 601cc-plus market of 237,683 registrations [24]. Harley leads U.S.-made volume and the heavyweight/touring segment; Japanese and European brands lead smaller-displacement and sport segments.

Consolidation is currently running toward deconsolidation and private ownership. Polaris completed the sale of a majority stake in Indian Motorcycle to private-equity firm Carolwood LP in February 2026, establishing Indian as a standalone company (Polaris retains a minority stake) [23] — removing a public competitor from the motorcycle field. Harley's own EV bet, LiveWire, remains sub-scale and loss-making [28]. Bicycles continue to consolidate globally into a few large brand houses (Trek, Specialized, Pon) sitting atop Asian contract manufacturing and the Shimano/SRAM component duopoly.

9. Risks

• Cyclicality and rates. Big-ticket discretionary demand falls in downturns and when financing costs rise; fixed factory costs magnify the earnings swing.
• Demographic decline (motorcycles). An aging rider base and weak youth recruitment threaten the core U.S. motorcycle market's long-run volume [13].
• Import dependence and tariff whiplash (bicycles/e-bikes). With ~97–99% of bikes imported and ~99% of components produced overseas [7][22], sudden tariff changes on bikes, e-bikes, and battery cells can swing landed costs and retail prices sharply [18][19]. Tariffs can protect some domestic production while simultaneously raising input costs for domestic assemblers.
• EV-transition losses. Electric motorcycles remain a money-losing niche; LiveWire's electric-motorcycle segment generated only $6.1 million of 2025 net revenue against $18.1 million of cost of goods sold, producing negative gross profit and a $73.8 million operating loss [28], and CARB's zero-emission motorcycle push adds compliance uncertainty.
• Lithium-battery safety and liability. E-bike battery fires drive regulation, insurance, and recall exposure across the whole cycling side. CPSC has proposed mandatory battery standards [33].
• Concentration risk for public investors. U.S. public exposure is essentially one company (Harley), so a single firm's execution, brand health, and dealer-inventory management dominate the investable case.
• Input costs, FX, and supply chain. Steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, rubber, lithium-ion cells, semiconductors, rare-earth materials, and imported components expose margins to commodity and currency moves. Supplier concentration matters because some specialized components cannot be quickly re-sourced or requalified [29].

10. How to invest, and the outlook

Public-market routes. The clean public play is Harley-Davidson (HOG) — an iconic brand with a captive finance arm; it pays a modest quarterly dividend and has bought back stock, and its market value reflects a mature, cyclical, demographically challenged business [24][27]. Note that the captive finance operation introduces consumer-credit, funding, and residual-value risk alongside manufacturing exposure. LiveWire (LVWR) is a small, speculative electric-motorcycle bet, majority-owned by Harley and still pre-profit — its losses make it venture-like rather than a mature manufacturing exposure [28]. Fox Factory (FOXF) offers partial exposure to bicycle suspension and components, but only 22% of 2025 sales came from bicycle products, with the rest from powered vehicles and sporting goods [29]. There is no pure-play public U.S. bicycle manufacturer, and the big foreign motorcycle brands are reachable only through their overseas parents. (Reserve current share prices, dividend yields, and valuation multiples for your own live check — the figures above are point-in-time.)

Private-market routes. This is where most of the industry actually lives: private equity (Carolwood's Indian acquisition [23]), the large private bicycle brands (Trek, Specialized, SRAM), electric-motorcycle maker Zero, venture-backed e-bike brands (Rad Power, Lectric, Aventon), and hundreds of small custom builders and aftermarket-parts makers. Due diligence must establish whether the target actually manufactures in the United States or is a U.S.-headquartered brand outsourcing production. Adjacent private exposure includes dealer networks and the high-margin parts/apparel aftermarket.

Near-term drivers to watch (forward-looking). (1) Interest rates and consumer confidence, which govern financed unit sales; (2) resolution of China tariffs on bikes, e-bikes, and — from 2026 — lithium batteries, which will set import pricing [18]; (3) how a standalone Indian competes under Carolwood ownership [23]; (4) e-bike growth and tightening battery-safety standards, the category's clearest tailwind and its clearest liability [14][33]; (5) whether motorcycle makers can recruit younger, more diverse new riders to offset an aging base [13]; and (6) the trajectory — and cash burn — of the electric-motorcycle transition [28]. The reported base case is a mature, low-growth domestic motorcycle industry with a structurally growing but import-dependent and tariff-exposed e-bike segment layered on top.

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Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns, NAICS 336991 (2023). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
2. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 Economic Census — Concentration ratios and receipts, NAICS 336991 (2022). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
3. U.S. Small Business Administration. Table of Small Business Size Standards (2023). https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
4. U.S. Census Bureau. NAICS 2022 — 336991 Motorcycle, Bicycle, and Parts Manufacturing (definition and exclusions) (2022). https://www.census.gov/naics/
5. [Removed — superseded by 2025 data]
6. [Removed — superseded by 2025 data]
7. IndexBox. United States Bicycle Market Overview 2024 (2024). https://www.indexbox.io/blog/bicycle-united-states-market-overview-2024-6/
8. IBISWorld. Bicycle Manufacturing in the US (2025). https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/bicycle-manufacturing/4357/
9. Polaris Inc. Polaris to Separate Indian Motorcycle into a Standalone Company, Will Sell Majority Stake to Carolwood LP (2025). https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/polaris-to-separate-indian-motorcycle-into-a-standalone-company-will-sell-majority-stake-to-carolwood-lp-302582394.html
10. [Removed — superseded by 2025 data]
11. [Removed — superseded by FHWA data]
12. Ride-CT. Honda Sales Leader In U.S. In 2024, Worldwide Leader, Too (2025). https://ride-ct.com/honda-sales-leader-in-u-s-in-2024-worldwide-leader-too/
13. CSM Research / Riders-Share. The Aging Rider Crisis / Motorcycle Rider Demographics (2026). https://www.csm-research.com/the-aging-rider-crisis-how-demographic-shifts-are-reshaping-motorcycle-market-strategies/
14. PeopleForBikes. Electric Bicycle Market Insights / The U.S. E-Bike Market Is Bigger Than the Numbers Show (2024). https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/e-bike-market-bigger-than-numbers-show
15. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Regulations for Emissions from Motorcycles (Light-duty). https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/regulations-emissions-motorcycles-light-duty
16. California Air Resources Board. On-Road Motorcycles. https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/on-road-motorcycles
17. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission / eCFR. 16 CFR Part 1512 — Requirements for Bicycles. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-II/subchapter-C/part-1512
18. PeopleForBikes. Bike Industry Update on Tariffs 2025 (2025). https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/bike-industry-update-on-tariffs-2025
19. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News. Key tariff exclusions, including on e-bikes, will expire June 14 (2024). https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2024/05/24/key-tariff-exclusions-including-e-bikes-will-expire-june-14
20. Grand View Research. U.S. Bike Market Size, Share, Growth — Industry Report (2024 market ~$14.75B). https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-bike-market-report
21. U.S. Census Bureau. NAICS 336991 Profile — County Business Patterns (2023). https://data.census.gov/profile/336991_-_Motorcycle%2C_Bicycle%2C_and_Parts_Manufacturing?codeset=naics~336991
22. PeopleForBikes. Diversifying Manufacturing — Supply Chain Insights. https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/diversifying-manufacturing--supply-chain-insights-
23. Polaris Inc. Polaris Completes Separation of Indian Motorcycle and Sale of Majority Stake to Carolwood LP (February 2026). https://ir.polaris.com/files/doc_news/Polaris-Completes-Separation-of-Indian-Motorcycle-and-Sale-of-Majority-Stake-to-Carolwood-LP-2026.pdf
24. Harley-Davidson, Inc. 2025 Annual Report. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/793952/000079395226000024/hog015258-ars.pdf
25. SRAM. Company Profile. https://www.sram.com/en/company
26. Harley-Davidson, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/793952/000079395226000011/hog-20251231.htm
27. Harley-Davidson, Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results (2026). https://investor.harley-davidson.com/news/news-details/2026/Harley-Davidson-Delivers-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Financial-Results-and-2026-Outlook/default.aspx
28. LiveWire Group, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1898795/000189879526000028/lvwr-20251231.htm
29. Fox Factory Holding Corp. Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1424929/000142492926000012/foxf-20260102.htm
30. Federal Highway Administration. Highway Statistics 2024, Table MV-1. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2024/mv1.cfm
31. PeopleForBikes. Bicycling Participation Report 2024. https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/bicycling-participation-report-2024
32. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Harley-Davidson Clean Air Act Settlement. https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/harley-davidson-clean-air-act-settlement
33. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Statement on Proposed Lithium-ion Battery Safety Standard for Micromobility Products (June 2026). https://www.cpsc.gov/About-CPSC/Chairman/Peter-A-Feldman/Statement/Statement-of-Acting-Chairman-Peter-A-Feldman-on-CPSCs-Proposed-Lithium-ion-Battery-Safety-Standard-for-Micromobility-Products