Is Motorcycling dying?
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:03 pm
Well is it?
Surely not................ the cry will go up from the aficionados here
BUT....scratch a little deeper and it might be
Today I went to Darlington, a town of maybe 30,000 at a guess and all the former bike shops had shut, boarded up
That got me thinking, I had a quick ready reckon of towns local to me & counted up all the bike shops that had closed up, lost their main dealer status or packed it in.............in the last 10 years
It was a bit of a sobering thought and none had opened to take their place
I then thought, how far I would need to travel to view and new Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha over 600cc and worked out it would be at least a journey of 50 miles, when before it would have been about 10-20 miles - 10 years ago
To see a BMW/KTM/Triumph etc it would be 30 miles & I live in Yorkshire, the largest county in the UK................not the Shetland Islands
The amount of bike related businesses that have closed is quite frightening
So that got me thinking again...
Fewer youngsters seem to be getting into bikes
Bike Licences seem to be getting harder to obtain
Bikes aren't 'cool' to youngsters anymore
Motorcyclists are getting older
Bikes now, cost a heck of a lot nowadays to buy NEW - starting to £8000 upwards to about £16000, which is a heck a lump of dosh to a lot of people
More and more regulations are being introduced
Insurance companies are placing restrictions, like mileage and carrying pillions etc
Bikes are more complex now, requiring main dealers to service and fix
Motorcycle sport is continually under threat and I see the latest is a campaign to close Mallory Park, due to residents' complaints about noise
All of this is polarising our hobby, reducing new entrants to motorcycling
So.................is it slowly dying?
Surely not................ the cry will go up from the aficionados here
BUT....scratch a little deeper and it might be
Today I went to Darlington, a town of maybe 30,000 at a guess and all the former bike shops had shut, boarded up
That got me thinking, I had a quick ready reckon of towns local to me & counted up all the bike shops that had closed up, lost their main dealer status or packed it in.............in the last 10 years
It was a bit of a sobering thought and none had opened to take their place
I then thought, how far I would need to travel to view and new Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha over 600cc and worked out it would be at least a journey of 50 miles, when before it would have been about 10-20 miles - 10 years ago
To see a BMW/KTM/Triumph etc it would be 30 miles & I live in Yorkshire, the largest county in the UK................not the Shetland Islands
The amount of bike related businesses that have closed is quite frightening
So that got me thinking again...
Fewer youngsters seem to be getting into bikes
Bike Licences seem to be getting harder to obtain
Bikes aren't 'cool' to youngsters anymore
Motorcyclists are getting older
Bikes now, cost a heck of a lot nowadays to buy NEW - starting to £8000 upwards to about £16000, which is a heck a lump of dosh to a lot of people
More and more regulations are being introduced
Insurance companies are placing restrictions, like mileage and carrying pillions etc
Bikes are more complex now, requiring main dealers to service and fix
Motorcycle sport is continually under threat and I see the latest is a campaign to close Mallory Park, due to residents' complaints about noise
All of this is polarising our hobby, reducing new entrants to motorcycling
So.................is it slowly dying?