New motorcycle sales dropping - dealers shutting.

[Trevorleach]

Last bike I owned was a GPZ1100B1, had it for years as my only transport, went all over the country in it, handling and brakes were excellent!

 

[premmington]

Average age of a UK motorcyclist is 54 yrs old.

Honda researching this...

Interesting read below:

Honda & Nottingham Trent University | Honda Engine Room

We took the scientific approach to gain insights into the young person’s perception of motorcycles with Nottingham Trent University. Discover more here.

www.honda.co.uk

 

[mtt.tr]

Average age of a UK motorcyclist is 54 yrs old.

Honda researching this...

Interesting read below:

Honda & Nottingham Trent University | Honda Engine Room

We took the scientific approach to gain insights into the young person’s perception of motorcycles with Nottingham Trent University. Discover more here.

www.honda.co.uk

Only 22years before I'm average at something

 

[Bornfree]

Only 22years before I'm average at something

I was average 6 years ago.

 

[GRW]

Average age of a UK motorcyclist is 54 yrs old.

Honda researching this...

Interesting read below:

Honda & Nottingham Trent University | Honda Engine Room

We took the scientific approach to gain insights into the young person’s perception of motorcycles with Nottingham Trent University. Discover more here.

www.honda.co.uk

I was the average age of a motorcyclist when I was 20, again at 30, 40, 50 - now at 61 I suspect in reality for large capacity motorcycles I might still be, or even on the young side.

This is I think what is killing off big bike sales - the customer base is dying off! The govt have made the license ever harder & so costly to attain, while the bikes have got both ever more expensive, poorer build quality, while (IMO) the riding experience & involvement in riding has been removed by way to many gadgets, rider-aids & trinkets which spoil the connection between rider & machine.

Then of course you have the OTT nanny state persecution & electronic surveillance that makes owning a performance motorcycle (any large capacity m/cycle) a permanent exercise in paranoid vigilance & restraint.

So I just do not ride any more - all the feeling of freedom, joy etc I had , & the love I had for riding motorcycles got asphyxiated.
I still own an R1150R Rockster - and it's an ageing ornament that I just haven't got around to finding the time to sort out & part with (being without a m/cycle & riding was something up till my early 50's I would never have thought possible).

I entertain notions of getting a simple, smaller m/cycle - something with character that might be nice to ride around on for leisure at sensible pace around the lanes of my part of Wales - maybe when my carcass can't mountain bike any more (an activity that took over from the M/cycle partly because there's not a Thief with a Scamera lurking behind every tree, killing off any feelings of freedom & pleasure).

The entire environment (& typical UK weather) for bikes created by our own govts is IMO what is strangling m/cycles.
Its too expensive & it's like paying heavily for something you can only use at 1/10th of its capability, with massively increased risks to life, limb, licence & wallet - not an appealing combination looked at like that.