What do young riders want?

I feel very confident that everything is going to be fine......NOT

The moderators need to address this situation.

If you people spent as much thought answering the op's question, this thread would have ended several pages ago.

Get on track, or take your rants to another forum.

E.

Not asleep
Just not here 24/7 and trust folks to self moderate at times prior to hitting Submit Reply... hoping it still happens

The thread did what threads do, especially in Winter, but let's lose the politics, now matter how slight the hand was.

easy said:

The moderators need to address this situation.

If you people spent as much thought answering the op's question, this thread would have ended several pages ago.

Get on track, or take your rants to another forum.

E.

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Completely agree.

Gail's spot-on, 100% accurate, call-it-like-you-see-it, truth-hurts political rant is not germaine to this discussion of young riders.

I wasn't singling Gail out, think a few need to back track and reread their own words.

Have a few PM's to read and if aisle #9 isn't cleaned up on return will close rather than try to clean up by clipping. What do young riders want? Most likely not anything here which is a reflection of us all.

easy said:

The moderators need to address this situation.

If you people spent as much thought answering the op's question, this thread would have ended several pages ago.

Get on track, or take your rants to another forum.

E.

Click to expand...

No. It could have continued with good on-topic discussion. It just didn't.

PGlaves said:

No. It could have continued with good on-topic discussion. It just didn't.

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It still can.

E.

I have to agree with Dann in Laval and Leon and many others, the cost of insurance and the legislative hassle of owning a bike is not attractive to younger people. In fact, those renting in large cities, or trying to make ends meet in a town, have a hard time maintaining a car. The level of motor vehicle licensing in Vancouver for teenagers has gone down dramatically, they are having a hard time finding a place to live, and a motorcycle is a luxury they often have no place to park, and that goes for cars as well. Public transit and car sharing are much more reasonable for them.

One dangerous aspect to this is the increasing popularity of scooters and electric bikes, which are governed to under 70 km/h or 50cc's. I see them riding on the shoulder of busy roads, they cannot keep up with traffic, lack the braking and handling of a motorcycle with their wheelbarrow sized wheels, and are one "brush" away from a serious spill. Those scooters are in the same league as a elderly person riding on the shoulder of a highway with a wippy orange flag, and I always feel bicycle riders have a better chance.

https://www.icbc.com/vehicle-registration/specialty-vehicles/Low-powered-vehicles/Pages/Mopeds-and-scooters.aspx

Here in Canada, I believe the government and insurance companies (here in BC the government IS the insurance company) has made the ideal teenager transport vehicle, a 250 cc enduro, or a 400 cc bike, not worth their time.
PS the Honda 400 was the ultimate university commuter!


All the talk about the farm in the 60's and the dirt bikes of our youth, doesn't mean squat today. It's a whole different world.

When a thread rolls into 9 pages, there is always some meandering
om

Age

vtbob said:

Have we gotten any comments in this blog from riders under 30 years of age?

I would like to hear what they have to say.

Opinions of us old codgers is really not much use.

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Have we got any post from riders under 60?

To be honest, quite a bit of what I see on this site is meaningless junk. And in an effort to quiet the dissent, I will be leaving after this year is up.

Leaving

martyhill said:

To be honest, quite a bit of what I see on this site is meaningless junk. And in an effort to quiet the dissent, I will be leaving after this year is up.

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I hate to see any members leave, but anywhere one goes they must wade through a lot of meaningless junk to gain knowledge and I personally have gained a lot of knowledge from this forum, enough that when I renewed my membership that was set to expire this month I signed up for 2 years.
Remember if you bury your head in the sand the thing you sit on goes to the top where your head ( brain ) used to be.

Omega Man said:

There is an ad on tv promoting a device to shave your head- in your car......I guess it’s not just problems from pot
OM

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....or alcohol or texting or opioids or changing the station on the radio or fishing under the seat to hide/retrieve a crack pipe.

But as far as what young riders want...your guess is as good as mine. Might be a good idea to ask one.

179212 said:

I hate to see any members leave, but anywhere one goes they must wade through a lot of meaningless junk to gain knowledge and I personally have gained a lot of knowledge from this forum, enough that when I renewed my membership that was set to expire this month I signed up for 2 years.
Remember if you bury your head in the sand the thing you sit on goes to the top where your head ( brain ) used to be.

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There are many other sites where similar info is available, without cost, so little head burying going on. BMWSportTouring and BMW Luxury Touring are two that come to mine. Since no one seems to know what younger bikers want (including manufactures) or more precisely, what BMW MOA needs to do to get more dues paying members, hope your two year membership is fulfilled.

I will bow out at month's end after some 30+ years. At one time membership was new, different and interesting. Now, it seems the same same over and over. I'll take some responsibility as I grow weary of the ON's repetition in ads, stories and lack of technical insight (exception being those fine airheads), like BMW's Roundel's mechanical columns and factory connections. And I'm not a good candidate for social gatherings...getting to the gathering is fine, doing the "dance" not so much. So Perhaps I should never have been a member to start with?

I do appreciate the help I've received from members/moderators and hope I've provided some useful input from time to time. If the "Club" does manage to stay afloat, I hope it is with new found leverage that enables it the desire and ability to provide members with more useful benefits...like BMW's CCA motorcycle purchase rebate program.

Ride safe

I don't know why there is an over reaction to this thread with long time members quitting in a huff. This thread was pretty mild in my opinion.
I'm 54, I got back into riding after a 30 year hiatus because motorcycles are a luxury, like boats. The manufacturers are doing there job in spades, never has there been more performance, safety, electronics or fun in small cc bikes as as there are now.

What do kids want? Great question.

Autonomous vehicles where you live your life as the passenger?

I don't mind some politics in the discussion, I certainly would not want to go through the "graduated licencing" of the bureaucrats today.

A trend I see with my nephews are they delay getting their license because they can't afford it, or they buy a pickup truck for work because they need it. Ohlin shocks and Klim gear is a privilege for those with disposable cash, but I always give a wave to the kid on the 250cc street legal dirt bike with a lunch kit going to work in the morning, and I'm proud of the Dad's who load up the trailers on the weekends with dirt bikes and bring the kids out for an afternoon scrambling along the logging roads and rock quarries.

I think everything is fine, there is a strong community of motor sports, be it quads, snowmobiles, dirt bikes or street bikes. I'll never lose that thrill.

cam_on_van_isle said:

I don't know why there is an over reaction to this thread with long time members quitting in a huff. This thread was pretty mild in my opinion.
I'm 54, I got back into riding after a 30 year hiatus because motorcycles are a luxury, like boats. The manufacturers are doing there job in spades, never has there been more performance, safety, electronics or fun in small cc bikes as as there are now.

What do kids want? Great question.

Autonomous vehicles where you live your life as the passenger?

I don't mind some politics in the discussion, I certainly would not want to go through the "graduated licencing" of the bureaucrats today.

A trend I see with my nephews are they delay getting their license because they can't afford it, or they buy a pickup truck for work because they need it. Ohlin shocks and Klim gear is a privilege for those with disposable cash, but I always give a wave to the kid on the 250cc street legal dirt bike with a lunch kit going to work in the morning, and I'm proud of the Dad's who load up the trailers on the weekends with dirt bikes and bring the kids out for an afternoon scrambling along the logging roads and rock quarries.

I think everything is fine, there is a strong community of motor sports, be it quads, snowmobiles, dirt bikes or street bikes. I'll never lose that thrill.

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Strong community? Just this organization has lost an average of 900 members annually over last decade...from over 38,000 to 29,000 or so. The industry is half, if that, of what it's high water mark was in sales and assume participants in same time frame. Not sure how "strong" that is. Your example, your nephews, are a prime one for the current state. "Things", they do change. Personally I still enjoy riding my motorcycle, but that doesn't mean there are as many that do. Increasing costs, rising traffic congestion, texting, more legalized drug use, higher average speeds and on. I live in Indiana and rarely see a kid on a dirt bike, but I don't live in the country. Of course I rarely see a snowmobile anymore or many CB radios.

Not sure people are leaving in a "huff" but they are leaving...riders, clubs, sales, dealerships, even manufacturers are leaving. I won't be here, but it'll be interesting what it all looks like in 30 years. And with time one learns to never say "never". Ride safe.

I replied to this thread back on page 1. I thought it would make for a great discussion and predicted it might generate a healthy feedback. Now into page 10, indicates it’s a great topic.
I believe the answer to the original post is actually quite simple. I believe today’s world offers far too many distractions from a very young age, to prevent the concept of riding from even germinating in younger generations. From the earliest of ages, kids are bombarded with all things digital. They literally have “no time” for riding around on a motorcycle. It’s just not interesting enough.
I think the more appropriate question is “how do we get younger folks interested in riding”?, not "what do young riders want”?
Lotsa great responses, keep it coming...
Cheers, Flhfxd.

And.......around here the kids have a jeep or Lexus or Land Rover given to them to run around in. The high school parking lot looks like a high-end car lot.
OM

Visian said:

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That was a well organized video Ian Pretty much covers all the thoughts that I have recently seen/heard on "the" younger generation- including their thoughts on motorcycling.
OM