UK Biking is dying out.

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daveuprite
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UK Biking is dying out.

Post by daveuprite »

This pic says it all. A retro bike surrounded by retro people. Balding, grey, ageing, white, male. UK biking is going to die out if it can't attract new blood.

Image

Debate....?
Agent Orange
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by Agent Orange »

Kids arent interested. Xbox generation etc. I commute daily and see a young lad about once a week, the only others are on a CX500, a knob on a V strom and a couple of older guys on L plated Yam 125s That's it. Even off road bikes are all middle aged blokes. Like me lol

Since getting my Honda Grom, the knob on the V Strom, doesn't even look at me, same helmet/jacket etc as I wear on the KTM 990. Thats why he's knob. I just laugh as I whiz through traffic and hear him chasing with his open pipes KNOB
Last edited by Agent Orange on Sun Mar 25, 2018 10:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
Richard Simpson Mark II
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by Richard Simpson Mark II »

The last time I went to the NEC bike show (about 8 years ago) I had turned 50. I was expecting to feel 'old'...instead most of the show visitors looked older than me.

So mainstream motorcycling is getting older and older...hence the guys who rode sports bikes in their 30s turning to adventure bikes in their 40s and 50s, not because they were going greenlaning or riding around the world but just because they could ride them without being in agony after half an hour. Coming soon...loads of interest in bikes with low seats (metric cruisers and retros) as the arthritis starts to eat the knees and hips of the soon-to-be 60-somethings. See the Triumph 'Blobber': a retro which is nothing other than a recreation of an imagined past for Triumph: Edward Turner, for all his faults, would never have signed off such an ugly contraption. But it's really comfy for old codgers.

What appeals to 'youth' are dirtbikes and scooters...but that has its downside
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by PHILinFRANCE »

But it is a nice bike
daveuprite
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by daveuprite »

PHILinFRANCE wrote: Sun Mar 25, 2018 10:44 am But it is a nice bike
It's a lovely bike Phil. One of the better retros out there right now I reckon.

And before anyone says it, yes I am 51, slightly balding and working hard on the grey too! I am one of these same bikers I suppose. However I'm still a spotty youth in my head, not ready to give up on sports bikes, race circuits, getting very dirty or riding like a loon quite yet.


(P.S. Are you back in La Belle France, Phil?)
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by minkyhead »

thres less for sure ...pre 2009 there were over 60.000 new test passes ....it collapsed after the new stricter test to near 30.000 its slowly recovered and stands araound 40.000 now ....so it would be fair to surmise that ..around 180.000 less riders that could have been ?over the last 9 years
whats the wether forcast ..wheres me map
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mark vb
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by mark vb »

Not all old codgers....my daughter's BF took his test a couple of yrs ago, had a Sinnis for a year, and now has a NC750X. He's a mere 30 yrs old! Furthermore, he commutes from E. Kent to Wimbledon, 200 mile round trip. Sadly, a rare breed. But he was always a keen cyclist so I suppose was halfway to m/cycling in any event.
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by Treadtrader »

I was chatting to Alun recently during one of his rare "visits" to the UK.
Apparently sales of motorcycle tyres are well down, if no one is riding, then no one's wearing them out.

When governments should be encouraging two wheeler travel, easing congestion in towns and cities, they seem to be doing the opposite.
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by BobH »

It could be that there is more desire/pressure to have other consumer products and not to mention owning/saving for a house. So younger people have more demands on their spare cash. I know both my sons would like to have bikes but that will have to wait until their finances are settled/better. It may be that just those who are able to commute are able to get into bikes earlier.
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Re: UK Biking is dying out.

Post by Richard Simpson Mark II »

Interesting...it seems we may have reached 'peak stuff'...people aren't spending money on all kinds of things the way they were.

The list includes meals out, fashion, toys, electronics...famous names in all of those markets are in deep financial trouble.

And it's not just high-street shops...I daily get increasingly desperate emails from online retailers which I might have used once several years ago begging me to buy stuff at silly discounts. Builders' merchants too.

IMHO people aren't confident enough to spend: they realise the current burden of consumer debt is too great

It's only PCP deals that are keeping the new car and motorcycle market going...and that's a situation that won't last forever.

Deeper down, I suspect we are in transition to a post-consumerist world. It took decades for people to accept man's influence on the climate, and just one David Attenborough programme on the TV to turn the nation against plastic packaging.

And a good thing too.
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