Motorcycle sales weakened in March: Just a blip or start of a trend?

[globalrider]

Sounds like you are an exceptional rider. Many claim it, few can deliver.

As I understand it, the black line means you actually have lost some braking potential vs a pulse system by locking the tire for longer periods there, and in the wet it would be a greater difference in stopping distance between your ability and ABS.

No I never claim it unless someone questions my use of ABS.

The faint black line is not due to a front wheel lock-up, but threshold braking. The last thing you want to do is lock up the rear. Besides, on a lock-up of some 25+ feet, the front end would likely wash out because I had to make a very slight shift in my lane (and why I dropped the raised rear wheel) to avoid an idiot bicyclist who decided to do a snap 90 degree turn on a country road. Cleaning my BMW GS as I usually do when I get home, I had to wipe a rubber streak (from his rear tire) off my left engine guard. Yes, it was that close! I don't stretch truths...exactly why I am not a politician.

During a course, I did both some threshhold and ABS braking in a Porsche 992. 1.34G during threshhold braking (no ABS kicking in) and only 1.22G during ABS braking (full force on the brake pedal).

Of course if you remember the old ABS ad on TV when they first came out with ABS showing a driver in a panic mode locking up their brakes, but also steering around the object. A driver who froze on the brakes will also be frozen on the steering wheel. LOL

 

[kbasa]

I notice with a lot, not all but a lot of the young kids these days don't pay any attention to anything except the screen in front of their faces.
So far, you can't ride a motorcycle using a smart phone or game controller in real life but hey, I could sit in my living room eating pizza and drive as fast as I want with a game control. Who needs lots of money to buy a motorcycle when I Game boy will do? St.

You need to meet more young people, in my estimation. My nephews, all four of them, are into airplanes and cars and are highly engaged with their hobbies/schooling. Yes they have phones and yes they know how to work them, but it's not the sole focus of their lives.

It feels like the complaints I hear about millennials. I work in a company filled with folks that are between 24 and 45 and they work far harder than I ever did and are highly engaged in their work and friends.

In my experience with not only millennials but the following generation, "don't pay any attention to anything except the screen in front of their faces" is completely false.

You may differ. That's fine. But I can't share that sentiment in the least. When I was a young man, I heard comments just like yours except they were moaning about how we wore tight pants, had long hair and didn't seem to have much interest in assuming responsibility. And here I am, getting ready to retire after a long and successful career.

I think we can cut the kids some slack.

 

[globalrider]

You need to meet more young people, in my estimation. My nephews, all four of them, are into airplanes and cars and are highly engaged with their hobbies/schooling. Yes they have phones and yes they know how to work them, but it's not the sole focus of their lives.

I think we can cut the kids some slack.

That applies to your nephews and those are few from what I have seen. It also depends on parents and how they spend time with their kids on hobbies/interests.

I spent about 6 hours at the BMW Museum this past June, it being the 100th anniversary of the BMW motorcycle. A group of late teens to early 20s came through with BMW coveralls on. I believe they were engineering students. We all had a very long talk at one of the displays and they seemed very interested in what they were doing and very inquisative (typical Germans). Of course I asked them "are you practical engineers or cubicle engineers". Don't laugh, I knew a mechanical engineer who just graduated and had absolutely no idea how a clutch worked on a car. Sad!

 

[kbasa]

That applies to your nephews and those are few from what I have seen. It also depends on parents and how they spend time with their kids on hobbies/interests.

I spent about 6 hours at the BMW Museum this past June, it being the 100th anniversary of the BMW motorcycle. A group of late teens to early 20s came through with BMW coveralls on. I believe they were engineering students. We all had a very long talk at one of the displays and they seemed very interested in what they were doing nd very inquisative (typical Germans). Of course I asked them "are you practical engineers or cubicle engineers". Don't laugh, I knew a mechanical engineer who just graduated and had absolutely no idea how a clutch worked on a car. Sad!

You may want to meet more young people, too.

If you have a cars and coffee near you, go visit. It's full of younger folks geeking out on cars as hard as their parents and grandparents.

 

[globalrider]

If you have a cars and coffee near you, go visit.

I used to go, but too many "key turners" a term I coined a few decades ago. They knew nothing about cars and just bought them for the status symbol.

 

[RPGR90s]

As the father of an 18yo heading off to college, the issue with younger people is inflation. Rent, gas, vehicles, etc. are so expensive that they can't afford basic needs as salaries haven't kept pace with inflation.

When I got out of college, my first job paid $30,000 a year and I could afford a starter home and a nice car. My first house cost $59,000 and my payment was $510 a month. Today, a basic apartment rents for $1500 a month but those entry level jobs are now paying about $45,000 a year. My college tuition, room, and board was $3200 a year...my daughters is $28,000 (thank God she has scholarships!).

We're probably looking at the first generation in the history of America that will not be able to achieve or improve the standard of living their parents had.

And our Govt. prints paper, calls it money, and we wonder why the dollar has deflated in value.....

 

[kbasa]

I used to go, but too many "key turners" a term I coined a few decades ago. They knew nothing about cars and just bought them for the status symbol.

They're not serious enough for you? The cars hold no attraction?

OK, I guess.

 

[bigjohnsd]

 

[elementist]

People see what they want to see. At museums, at coffee shops. I think that's why short travel doesn't have the same effect on people that moving somewhere for a longer period does. Hard to look past your own perceptions.

 

[powwow]

People see what they want to see. At museums, at coffee shops. I think that's why short travel doesn't have the same effect on people that moving somewhere for a longer period does. Hard to look past your own perceptions.

Well said.

 

[ponch1]

As the father of an 18yo heading off to college, the issue with younger people is inflation. Rent, gas, vehicles, etc. are so expensive that they can't afford basic needs as salaries haven't kept pace with inflation.

When I got out of college, my first job paid $30,000 a year and I could afford a starter home and a nice car. My first house cost $59,000 and my payment was $510 a month. Today, a basic apartment rents for $1500 a month but those entry level jobs are now paying about $45,000 a year. My college tuition, room, and board was $3200 a year...my daughters is $28,000 (thank God she has scholarships!).

We're probably looking at the first generation in the history of America that will not be able to achieve or improve the standard of living their parents had.

Yup and cui bono? This has been building up for a while now...

 

[ponch1]

I think that inflation might be part of a shorter term problem, but after we moved to a trickle down economy in the 1980s, earnings for 99% of us have remained essentially flat with no or little growth in our purchasing abilities.

When my dad bought a fairly nice house in the mid 70s in Boston, it was 2.5x his salary as a sole breadwinner middle management marketing guy. Is that still true? I'd venture that it's more that 5x someone's annual salary and that it regularly takes two breadwinners to purchase a home. When we bought our current home in 1999, purchase prices was about 4x our annual combined income. Now, 24 years later, it's worth about

It's easy to conflate inflation with loss of ability to acquire housing, but when you combine our earning power remaining essentially stagnant for the last 40+ years and recent inflationary problems, you have a very difficult problem to solve.

Turns out trickle down didn't work, did it? People are stuck and as discretionary spending dries up among the young (I never had any until I was in my 30s), they are well advised to save for a house instead of buying a motorcycle.

Your economic principles may vary from mine, that's fine. But it's hard to ignore.

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yes, the system has been gamed to push the equilibrium more to the up or top class, where money doesn't have the same velocity. Trickle down only works well with an ethical/pro-social upper class. Such is not the case now. Another indicator is how much debt people are carrying. Behind the curtain it's horrifying.