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Secret motorcycle industry panel looks for ways to reverse sagging sales

Gabe said:
New or used, bikes are the same or cheaper then they were in the 70s.
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Yet they aren't being ridden by many < 25s. Not now, not in the recent past.

Here's a question: At any time in the past 30 years, has there been a motorcycle boom among high school and college-agers that was even close to the 1970s boom?

Answer: No. In 1985, 2,000,000 motorcycles were owned by < 25s. That declined steadily to 600,000 in 1998, then began to rise again. I don't have survey results after 2003 (when MIC surveys were still reasonably priced), but with average owner age now over 50 and 8,000,000 motorcycles on the road, the < 25s can account for no more than 1,000,000.

Try as they will, the "cabal" has no history to inform their admirable effort to revive motorcycling among the young.

How do you get 18-year-olds excited about motorcycles? It can't be done, IMHO, by showing them the practical, thrifty side of a mode of transportation that they already know is highly risky.
 
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DataDan said:
Yet they aren't being ridden by many < 25s. Not now, not in the recent past.

Here's a question: At any time in the past 30 years, has there been a motorcycle boom among high school and college-agers that was even close to the 1970s boom?

Answer: No. In 1985, 2,000,000 motorcycles were owned by < 25s. That declined steadily to 600,000 in 1998, then began to rise again. I don't have survey results after 2003 (when MIC surveys were still reasonably priced), but with average owner age now over 50 and 8,000,000 motorcycles on the road, the < 25s can account for no more than 1,000,000.

Try as they will, the "cabal" has no history to inform their admirable effort to revive motorcycling among the young.

How do you get 18-year-olds excited about motorcycles? It can't be done, IMHO, by showing them the practical, thrifty side of a mode of transportation that they already know is highly risky.
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Nicely put, DD (as usual). I don't think this is really a problem in the usual sense of the word.

Did you know that Harley Davidson only sold 15,000 motorcycles in 1960? That's less than 10% of current production. And H-D far outsold Triumph, Toyopet, Heinkel, Norton or whomever else was selling bikes in the USA back then. Then the late 60s/70s moto boom comes and that's supposed to be the new normal. It was an aberration the industry milked as Baby Boomers went through their various life phases and issues.

I just don't think, outside this bubble we've been inside for the last 40 years, that motorcycles are really a thing here, not in the same way they are in places like China, India or Italy. Outside crowded urban areas like the Bay Area, it's just too easy to get around in a car. Other than lifestyle, why buy a motorcycle? Yes, they are awesome. But so are a fuckload of a lot of other things.

Here's where I feel oogy. I could use my oh-so-influential (LOL) position as a motorcycle writer to promote our sport/hobby, but I think it's an inherently dangerous activity and shouldn't be promoted. I don't think it should be discouraged, exactly, but I'm not sure it's really a good thing to encourage people to do.

Anyway, thanks for reading. This may be good column fodder.
 
secret motorcycle societies....
cloak and shifter shit.
they run around in the dark jiggling their keys :teeth:rofl
 
berth said:
Really?

Is that why you bought one and ride? Identity?

Who are you trying to identify with?

What identity did you adopt when purchasing a motorcycle?
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I bought one because it was something to replace an expensive sports car and it was something I dreamed of for years. However, on this site, we see plenty of riders who believe riding a motorcycle makes them something more than if they didn't ride. They consume motorcycle paraphernalia and shirts, name their animals after motorcycle stuff, tell girls and guys they're interested in that they ride, have pictures of their rides, trackdays, dirt sessions, etc on their phones and as their avatars on other sites, and that's just the start of it.

Make no mistake, almost everyone here believes riding a motorcycle makes them "different" than the common person and that is something they take pride in. THAT is identity.

I've raced for over a decade, but I refuse to wear racing shirts, I try to steer away from moto clothing as much as I can and overall, I try not to let it be my identity. But there's no way I can do that when my parents and friends talk about my history with their own pride. there's just no way to get away from it...
 
Adler said:
Millennials can’t even afford houses, why would they care about a 2 wheel machine that everyone tells them is a death trap?
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Along that same line, safely storing a motorcycle is also a challenge for many younger people. I know I put off getting one until I had a garage.
 
j5m said:
Along that same line, safely storing a motorcycle is also a challenge for many younger people. I know I put off getting one until I had a garage.
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Yep. If you don’t park it in a garage you might as well kiss it goodbye sooner or later out here. Crime is too high in the Bay Area. Now if you live somewhere nice, or rural in another state or area it might not be so bad ..
 
j5m said:
Along that same line, safely storing a motorcycle is also a challenge for many younger people. I know I put off getting one until I had a garage.
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Also hard to do maintenance without a garage, and bikes get really expensive if you can't do your own work.
 
The Bay area is not the U.S.
There are millennials all across the country buying houses, cars and raising families.
How do we sell motorcycles to them is the bigger question.
You have to think outside the BA.
 
... we’re human, so we categorize things ...
catagories can be useful (eg for advertising marketing)
before we have the time
to get the real story ...

... my twenty one year old nephew by
marriage (Grant) was filling up his ‘79 Porche Targa 911 SC
at a gas station
when a good ol’ boy walked by and said
to him “nice day for a drive in daddy’s car ...”

“No sir,” Grant said with a smile. “Got it with
my own money without an engine when I was
fifteen. Restored it myself and paid for the parts, too ...”

The good ol’ boy went to put gas in his pick up,
and after a minute stuck his head over his pump
and said “this world needs more young people like you ...” :laughing:thumbup
 
VicTim said:
Here is a very relevant and interesting interview with Miguel Galluzzi the head of Piaggio design.
https://www.cycleworld.com/video-fi...zzi-head-piaggio-group-advanced-design-center
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Moto-Guzzi-MGX-21-Flying-Fortress-3.jpg


... “Flying Fortress” ... just about as
cool a name as “Super Glide” ... :thumbup

... interesting to hear him talk about
Aprilia’s racing history being important
to young people (as opposed, to my mind, Moto Guzzi’s race history ...
ancient history now, I guess ... :laughing:afm199)
 
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SFMCjohn said:
Moto-Guzzi-MGX-21-Flying-Fortress-3.jpg


... “Flying Fortress” ... just about as
cool a name as “Super Glide” ... :thumbup

... interesting to hear him talk about
Aprilia’s racing history being important
to young people (as opposed, to my mind, Moto Guzzi’s race history ...
ancient history now, I guess ... :laughing:afm199)
Click to expand...

Where's the like button?:cool
 
Holeshot said:
Motorcycles have always been about identity in the US, not transportation...and even when people use them to commute, they're STILL about identity...
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True, but isn't this one of the biggest changes forecasted for the future? Stuff I've read indicates fewer kids getting drivers licenses, and transportation shifting to a commodity instead of the vehicles to deliver it.

My view is that cheap, convenient urban transportation is the only way to break into significant numbers of new riders. I totally disagree with others about dirt riding because there are too many barriers (storage, gear, and the fact you basically need a truck to move them around).
 
The final report from this roundtable is now available. Charles Fleming of the L.A. Times reports here: No easy ride: Motorcycle industry is in deep trouble and needs help fast, panel agrees.

Links to three publications from the panel can be found on this page. There's a summary report, transcript, and a data-rich overview of motorcycle sales and ownership. Some familiar names participated, including BARF's Surj Gish.

IMHO, this is a significant step toward understanding where motorcycling is headed. If you're interested in the subject, I recommend reading Fleming's Times article (he was also a participant) and the panel's summary. Here is a very brief summary from Fleming's bullet points:
  • Sales are flat or falling in almost every area.
  • Baby boomer buyers, the most consistent motorcycle consumers, are aging out of the industry fast.
  • The industry has failed to increase sales by making new riders out of women, minorities and millennials.
  • The old dealership model is broken and needs a makeover.
  • The arrival of autonomous vehicles may push motorcycles off the road entirely.
 
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Thanks for the links Dan.

That Guzzi is pretty sweet berth.
 
Thanks Dan. And Surj for participating.
 
DataDan said:
  • Sales are flat or falling in almost every area.
  • Baby boomer buyers, the most consistent motorcycle consumers, are aging out of the industry fast.
  • The industry has failed to increase sales by making new riders out of women, minorities and millennials.
  • The old dealership model is broken and needs a makeover.
  • The arrival of autonomous vehicles may push motorcycles off the road entirely.
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A lot of industries, businesses, clubs and even political parties are having very similar issues. They stick with their old way, hope their old supporters will keep them afloat and slowly dwindle into nothing.

This is actually very interesting topic.
 
dangerzone02 said:
A lot of industries, businesses, clubs and even political parties are having very similar issues. They stick with their old way, hope their old supporters will keep them afloat and slowly dwindle into nothing.

This is actually very interesting topic.
Click to expand...

The SCCA (Senior Citizens Competition Association) is another organization that will die soon. In a similar fashion to motorcycles, the current crop of elites does nothing to embrace newcomers. We jump on squids and pirates in an attempt to assert our superiority in this hobby. The salty old folks who have been racing since before I was born helped me make a quick exit from the SCCA. Now the organization has no volunteers, membership is declining, car counts are down. The car and motorcycle enthusiast world as a whole is dying, and the cause is in the mirror.
I have no kids, and no stake in the future. I'm definitely part of the problem, but I don't care in the least. Do you actually care? As we age and the industry dies off, is it really a great loss?
 
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