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COMOTO the parent company to RevZilla, Cycle Gear, J&P Cycles has just settled a dispute with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the alleged selling of non-exempted add-on or modified motorcycle parts in California.

In total, COMOTO will pay $1,937,500 to resolve the alleged violations, in a mixture of fines to CARB and payments for environmental projects that benefit the community.

The Borg collective that is Comoto Holdings continues to assimilate large brands into its collective of retail enterprises for the motorcycle industry. No, not familiar with the name Comoto?

Surely though you have heard of – if not shopped at – the companies that Comoto controls, as it is the holding company for RevZilla and Cycle Gear, and it is also now the new business entity that owns J&P Cycles.

There is new leadership at the venerable two-wheeled online retailer RevZilla, though you wouldn’t know it beyond the PR-friendly Technical.ly publication where the news was published yesterday – and not on the company’s own news site.

Announcing that Ken Murphy will take over as the head of both RevZilla and Cycle Gear (technically, Murphy will become the President and CEO of Comoto Holdings, which owns both RevZilla and Cycle Gear), the news means that RevZilla co-founder Matt Kull is stepping down from the role, which he has held in an official and in an interim capacity since Anthony Bucci’s resignation from the post in late 2016.

Murphy comes from outside of the motorcycle industry, but has retail experience, working in the mattress and shoe business.

Don’t look now, but RevZilla has quietly launched its own motorcycle apparel line, under the name REAX.

The news has yet to hit the PR wires, but the new brand is featured on the RevZilla homepage, with 12 items (5 jackets, 4 gloves, and 3 pants) debuting for the product launch.

Almost two years in the making, RevZilla says that the REAX brand comes from the company’s experience selling and reviewing motorcycle apparel for the past decade. 

Drawing from the experience, and the bounty of customer feedback that they have access to, the REAX brand aims to bring quality motorcycle gear, at an affordable price point.

From the early indications so far, the REAX team has seemingly achieved that very goal. From the product photos, the pieces look well-designed, and come with minimal branding.

You know him as “Hey it’s Anthony from RevZilla!” in the online motorcycle store’s popular videos on YouTube, but Anthony Bucci is also the CEO and Co-Founder of RevZilla, and is part of the reason why the nerds are taking over the motorcycle industry.

Today, RevZilla announced the departure of Bucci as its CEO, effective on January 13, 2017. After that point in time,  fellow RevZilla Co-Founder Matt Kull will take on the job as interim CEO, while RevZilla continues to look for a full-time replacement.

RevZillians shouldn’t worry too much about the leadership change though, as Bucci will continue his customer-facing activities with RevZilla, and he will also remain an integral part of RevZilla’s advisory team.

This announcement also doesn’t affect Bucci’s position on the Board of Directors for Comoto, the holding company that oversees both RevZilla and Cycle Gear.

It is Friday, and I am still not sure why there is dearth of publications covering the movements between RevZilla and Cycle Gear. The largest brick-and-mortar motorcycle retail chain, and the most influential online retailer in our industry have just come together under one roof. Boom goes the dynamite.

Intonations of this deal have been in the news space for almost a week now, and by my last count, outside of our coverage here on Asphalt & Rubber, there has only been Motorcyclist’s rehashing of RevZilla’s press release, this 64-word story by PowerSports Business, and RevZilla’s self-published letter on the topic, by CEO Anthony Bucci.

If that doesn’t say something about the current state of moto-journalism, then I don’t know what does. It is a topic worthy of its own story, but that will have to wait for another day. Instead, I am here to talk to you about business, millennials, and future of consumerism.

The speculation about RevZilla and Cycle Gear can stop now, as the brands are finally talking about their plans together for the future.

In a letter posted to RevZilla’s in-house publication, Common Tread, RevZilla CEO Anthony Bucci announces that RevZilla will be acquired by a new holding company, which will also own Cycle Gear.

The holding company’s board of directors will include Bucci, and his fellow RevZilla founders Nick Auger and Matthew Kull, as well as the private equity firm J.W. Childs, which bought Cycle Gear back in 2015.

While Bucci’s letter to RevZilla customers states that the two brands will only be “sister companies” that will operate independently of each other, his FAQ on the subject leaves the door open for collaborations between the two brands, which would be the obvious benefit of their new ownership structure.

Respected newswire Reuters is reporting that Cycle Gear is close to finalizing the purchase of motorcycling e-commerce giant RevZilla. Citing a source “familiar with the matter” at hand, Reuters suggests that the deal could close in the next coming days, with the new venture worth between $400 million and $500 million.

If true, this acquisition would mark a titanic shift in the motorcycle retail space, with America’s largest brick and mortar chain combining with the industry’s most prominent online parts and apparel purveyor.