Kawasaki and Yamaha are closing many of their plants!!

[Stu]

I think thats the problem a lot of youngsters don't want a bike as a hobby they just want transport and as you have pointed out a car is cheaper to get started with and you can keep dry in a car, drive around with your mates and pick up chicks  

 

With bikes you usually find one person gets a bike and some of their mates follow then the rest get cars and then they end up giving it up and going the car route  

[S-Westerly]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

I think thats the problem a lot of youngsters don't want a bike as a hobby they just want transport and as you have pointed out a car is cheaper to get started with and you can keep dry in a car, drive around with your mates and pick up chicks  

 

With bikes you usually find one person gets a bike and some of their mates follow then the rest get cars and then they end up giving it up and going the car route  

Sad but true. I went more than 30 years without a bike. Do I regret it now? Yes I do but at times I just could not justify it and at other times I either couldn't  afford one or had other interests which just left no time in my life for a bike.

[Trooper74]

I would think that 90% + of motorcycle manufacturing is for the unlicensed, un regulated South Asian market. Typical first worlders, we only seem to see the high value top range motorcycles as our aspiration ...

That factories are closing is worrying for lots of socio economic reasons ..... Our tiny first world usage is one thing but the 2nd / 3rd world market getting smaller is an indicator ...... of something else ... above my pay grade ... Are electric bikes taking over Asia ?

[Stu]

21 minutes ago, S-Westerly said:

Sad but true. I went more than 30 years without a bike. Do I regret it now? Yes I do but at times I just could not justify it and at other times I either couldn't  afford one or had other interests which just left no time in my life for a bike.

 

I was 23 when I did my test and never being without a bike! 

 

My dad was a biker my mam was a biker as was 2 of my uncles and all their mates and always had off road bikes as a kid so I was always surrounded by bikes.

 

Naturally I grew up wanting bikes all the time and I made it my mission to do my test and get a bike although I did my car test first but bike test came 3 months after. 

 

I work on the theory that I go to work to earn money for my luxuries not just to pay bills so I have always made sure I had a bike and a car. 

[Bender]

@StuI think you hit the nail with there just ain't the enthusiasm.

 

I often wanted one and could have had one at most times in my life, it probably would have been sold at a couple of times too, truth is I just didn't want one enough.

 

When younger I deliberately avoided them as I knew how that would end  

 

Middle age, everything got in the road, kids,work,breakups, again could have just didn't.

 

Mates had bikes, uncle had bikes, I had cars.

[Stu]

I think thats the problem @Bender there has to be a want there and not necessarily a need 

[S-Westerly]

True - I had no need for a bike and although I always sort of wanted one I didn’t want it enough to sacrifice something else to pay for it. Largely to do with raising and educating my kids. Once they left the nest and I sold the boat I then had the time, the money and most importantly  the  desire to have a bike.

[James in Brum]

In my case it was a want for a long time but not enough of a want and then it was the most practical solution to a need. Even now I don’t feel as Nerdy about bikes as I have been about other interests such as climbing and that is because I have the kids as a distraction from having room for my own interests.

I suspect like a lot of people my age there are so many consumables that are considered by us all as necessities and the last fifteen years of financial situation has been in the context of the financial crisis. A spare few thousand for a hobby just isn’t available. 
 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

It’s an unnecessary cost and seen a dangerous thing to do so the whole things viewed as irresponsible by a lot of people.

Lost count of how many people have been either genuinely or annoyingly concerned I’m about to kill myself. I only told one person I worked with at the time I was getting a motorbike (he is a biker) because I heard the amount of grief other people gave him. He agreed best not mention it because they’d go on a bout it relentlessly. 
The fact you’re more likely to end up seriously injured horse riding or playing rugby is dismissed by most people because they’re viewed as ‘healthy’ pursuits but in reality if you totted up the cost to the NHS of sports like football it would far outweigh motorcycle accidents. 

A marvellous example of the perception and reality being skewed is the fervour that people took up cycling and were encouraged to do so by the government during these lockdowns. Jump on a bicycle and make yourself a vulnerable road user with no experience “what’s that you say, you’re only 6 years old? It’s not a problem but remember no riding on the pavements thats illegal” the number of shaky out of control cyclists on the road was shocking. Even if you use cycle lanes you still need to cycle to them. Not that I’m not for children taking up cycling I am but it’s the perception of the risks I find odd, it’s usually based on a ‘common sense’ view which is just inherited information not based on fact. 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

In my case it started with need due to needing two forms of transport but being too poor to afford two cars.

 

When my wife returned to work we had two cars and I was bikeless for a few years.

 

Then when the kids finished uni and I had a bit of cash for the first time it was a case of wanting a bike which I could justify as I used it for work even though it wasn't absolutely necessary.

 

When someone then left me a bit of money and I'd sold a classic car I'd finished restoring it was the luxury of buying a totally impractical bike just because I wanted it. I didn't want to get to the end of life having the regret of not having had a nice bike.

[S-Westerly]

2 minutes ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

In my case it started with need due to needing two forms of transport but being too poor to afford two cars.

 

When my wife returned to work we had two cars and I was bikeless for a few years.

 

Then when the kids finished uni and I had a bit of cash for the first time it was a case of wanting a bike which I could justify as I used it for work even though it wasn't absolutely necessary.

 

When someone then left me a bit of money and I'd sold a classic car I'd finished restoring it was the luxury of buying a totally impractical bike just because I wanted it. I didn't want to get to the end of life having the regret of not having had a nice bike.

I can totally get that. I saw a Ducati Multistrada parked up and thought I really fancy one of those. A few months later I came into some cash unexpectedly, not a lot and certainly not enough to go wild on but enough to buy a  nice bike. The rest is history.

When my wife whinged a bit I pointed out you're a long time dead. 

[Guest]

I still remain positive about younger people and motorcycling, although I agree that we need to keep offering something for younger riders and the industry needs to help to promote positive images and challenge some of the 'common sense' views. 

 

The challenge of younger people not using cars is a real one:

 

Young people ditch the car – and won’t go back (passengertransport.co.uk)

Study reveals reasons for drop in car ownership among young people (aol.co.uk)

End of the car age: how cities are outgrowing the automobile | Cities | The Guardian

Millennials Don’t Care About Owning Cars, And Car Makers Can’t Figure (fastcompany.com)

 

Now, I actually feel that hope exists to make bikes interesting propositions to younger people. Yes there are views around practicality and safety, but bikes are cheaper than cars in most cases, and used bikes can be very affordable. As I mentioned before, if you spend any time on Instagram and YouTube etc., there are loads of young people doing interesting things with bikes.