Is motorcycling dying?

[Bigjawa]

Screenshot_20241129-121743.pngScreenshot_20241129-121626.png

Depends on what's selling, and why.

At a guess, a lot of that increase will be gig economy food delivery rides, who will never progress to larger bikes. Actually, that's two guesses.

I imagine if you were to plot those numbers on a graph and add the number of gig economy jobs, the lines would pair up pretty closely.

It'd be genuinely interesting to see how many people only ever do one CBT and don't renew it or go on to do their tests.

6 of my kids are old enough to ride. Only one has shown any interest in it and not until his mid twenties. You go into a bike shop now and it's like a Saga day out, all sorts of lovely small bikes available and they aren't selling. I remember the local honda dealer bing rammed with NS125Rs and MTXs. Now you see one solitary little 125 tucked away in the corner.

[Horse]

. You go into a bike shop now and it's like a Saga day out,

I remember the local honda dealer bing rammed with NS125Rs and MTXs. Now you see one solitary little 125 tucked away in the corner.

Yup, add an ever-diminishing, ever-older, motorcycling population, allied to ever-more-expensive bikes, it's not going to lead to a surge in riders and sales.

At one point (early 1980s?) Honda had 12 different 125s on sale in the UK.

[Wossname]

I'd love to see the stats in how many riders there are in NI compared to when they brought in the mainland system.

JOOC and on a tangent…. Do new riders in NI still have to wear R plates for a year after passing their test? And limited to 45mph? That seems a crazy rule - being overtaken by all the HGVs on motorways/DCs.

[Bigjawa]

I'd love to see the stats in how many riders there are in NI compared to when they brought in the mainland system.

JOOC and on a tangent…. Do new riders in NI still have to wear R plates for a year after passing their test? And limited to 45mph? That seems a crazy rule - being overtaken by all the HGVs on motorways/DCs.

Yup, although with bikes, it's nearly universally ignored.

There's also the whole grey area around the fact that if you already have a full driving licence, you're merely adding a category. It's not like you put Rs up if you add class C or D to your car licence.

[Felix]

It is dying for me. This Fazer i bought will be my last bike. If it blows up when i take it out the shed next year then so be it. If it lasts 10 years then Bonus. I will be 71 by then and probably to fucked to ride the thing anyway. Probably have the same attitude if i was younger as electric cars and bikes can fuck right off.
That got me thinking about patch clubs. Will they just fade away also? Cant see them riding around on Electric bikes

[ChrisW]

Just got back from a late lunch / early evening drink and we were overtaken on the way back by a Ducati 749 or 999 in the drizzle. Given that it's the 30th Nov - that gave me hope

Loads of bikes out earlier, too, in the dry - but then we see loads of traffic funnelling into and back from N Wales.

[Tomcat]

I don't think it'll ever die out entirely, though I can see it undergoing some fundamental changes, as it did in the 70s. Back then it was transitioning from an activity that everybody did because they couldn't afford a car, through mods and rockers to Easy Rider fashionable. In the 80s it was no longer fashionable and there were cheap cars on the market attracting the young lads. Learner laws were stifling easy access and the industry seemed to have run out of original ideas.

Fast forward to today - a tortuous and expensive new rider process, extortionate insurance costs, draconian road policing and every fucker thinks "safety" is the only thing that matters, rather taking the point away from riding. Most riders (in my observation, anyway) are older guys and they are the ones keeping the industry going, buying expensive bikes that the young guys on crap wages and ZHC can't afford, and they are dying out or getting too old to ride. It's been said many times before, but if motorcycling can't be made more attractive and affordable for young people, it's going to be a much smaller industry in future.

[Bigyin]

At a guess, a lot of that increase will be gig economy food delivery rides, who will never progress to larger bikes. Actually, that's two guesses.

A lot of them are moving away from the peds and 125's to leccy pushbikes now as they dont have to pass a CBT to ride them or pay for insurance and most seem to be hopped up with illegal bigger batteries to hit about 30 mph anyway. Very few cops know the law on leccy pushbikes, power limits etc so the risk of getting nicked on one is minimal unless you are taking the piss and blatantly bombing round close to normal engined vehicle speeds.

[Horse]

Most around here still using ICE scoots. I have seen one electric (sit on) scooter and one e-bike.

[KungFooBob]

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/n ... ept-secret

[Taipan]

So do Hipsters now qualify as the Noughties revival movement?

[MrLongbeard]

Gah!, more photoshop / AI photo bollox

[Taipan]

Gah!, more photoshop / AI photo bollox

Dunno. It came from here, but the point still stands, will the hipsters be spoke about in 30+ years as the Hipster revival movement or suchlike?

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/dis ... mans-ride/

[Horse]

Gah!, more photoshop / AI photo bollox

Dunno. It came from here, but the point still stands, will the hipsters be spoke about in 30+ years as the Hipster revival movement or suchlike?

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/dis ... mans-ride/

Also:

https://x.com/gentlemansride/status/1748956111955263869

And the rider on the twin headlight bike looks about to topple!

[Mr Moofo]

Gah!, more photoshop / AI photo bollox

Dunno. It came from here, but the point still stands, will the hipsters be spoke about in 30+ years as the Hipster revival movement or suchlike?

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/dis ... mans-ride/

Also:

https://x.com/gentlemansride/status/1748956111955263869

And the rider on the twin headlight bike looks about to topple!

That is how I think I look on my Triumph Scrambler.
However in reality I can flat foot it both sides - but my head still thinks I am going to drop it!

[Hot_Air]

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/n ... ept-secret

That’s a great read

It’s a shame Steve Rose stopped writing for motorcycle magazines. The quality of writing in today’s motorcycle magazines is much less engaging.

[Buckaroo]

Good article: funny, true and has captured a lot of the flack we have to take.

[Horse]

And the rider on the twin headlight bike looks about to topple!

That is how I think I look on my Triumph Scrambler.
However in reality I can flat foot it both sides - but my head still thinks I am going to drop it!

'Stopping' is something many riders can't do.

Ok, yes, they manage to stop - but not necessarily under full control.

Many riders wobble to a halt, then actually stop whichever side it's falling towards. Often they'll just stick both feet out, just in case. Then probably grab the front brake, making the stop even less controlled or comfortable.

Others will stop one side down, always. To be fair, I much preferred left foot down because it meant I could use the rear brake for the final dab of brakes to stop

Others will always put their right foot down.

The ability to decide which foot, then control and stop accordingly, is rarely taught or practiced.

How can that be achieved?

Some riders pre-empt it by waggling one foot out in the air, that weight further out encourages the bike to lean that way.

Better control is achieved by counter-steering. A short press-release just as you squeeze the clutch and do the final bit of braking.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I can choose which foot to put down first and I don't have a preference. I've never been taught how but it seems obvious to me.

Not a scooby doo how I actually do it. I just do

It would seem utterly bizarre to me that you have to be taught how to stop and make your left or right foot the one which goes down first. Who are these weirdos without an innate ability to just make it happen?

[Horse]

Who are these weirdos without an innate ability to just make it happen?

Dunno. In general it's just something I'd noticed over the many years of seeing riders out and about.

We used to cover it with back to biking riders on BMWs. Often they'd not ridden for many years. It was part of being consciously in control. Also with keeping the rear brake covered as otherwise they were likely to grab at the front brake.

But it would appear that the rider in the picture could benefit from it.