Where have all the real riders gone?

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mikenixon
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Where have all the real riders gone?

#1

Post by mikenixon »

Recently, a business associate really got me thinking.  Both of us live in the West, he in Arizona and myself in California, and we were discussing the powersports industry and our experiences in it, just shooting the breeze and enjoying trading old stories.  I happened to mention that back when I started out in the industry I was riding so often that for a number of years I did over 25,000 a year.  I said it kind of offhand, as if it were no big deal, and it really wasn't.  Most of the people I knew back then did the same kind of riding.  But you would have thought I had said something ludricous, impossible, like I had dated the latest supermodel or something.  In fact, the guy made it quite clear he didn't believe me, and this was someone who, though quite a bit younger than I had himself had been in the industry over 25 years, and is a staff manager for a pretty important company in the powersports business.  Frankly, I was a little put off.  Stunned, even.

What is so amazing about riding every day, anyway?  Hmm.  I guess I just answered my own question.  People don't ride like that any more.  The industry used to be full of people who rode as a lifestyle, one you could even have called alternative, though today that term has been appropriated to mean something else altogether.  But riding, in California at least, *was* an alternative back then.  It was a special, unique lifestyle.  I owned three motorcycles in succession before I owned my first car, and even today, 40 years later, the bike-to-car ratio in my family is still heavily tipped toward bikes.  It seems to me motorcyclists were motorcyclists full-time 40 years ago, not the "weekend psuedo misfits" Harley-Davidson has publicly admitted marketing to, or the "get busted up on dirt tracks twice a month" guys, or even the "ride to the nearest destination for coffee and camaraderie" types, all of which together seem to make up the riders of today.  

Not that I have anything against modern riders.  They're my customers.  In fact, they're the customers of everyone who does business in today's powersports market.  And that's the point.  The industry demographic has changed.  I suppose in certain regions things were always slower than in California.  I mean, one of the reasons it is so hard to find a nicely preserved vintage bike in California is we rode the darn things while much of the rest of the country put them up for varying numbers of months each year.  I continue to be amazed at receiving 40-year old carburetors for rebuild that look as good as the day they were made.  In the past month I have done both a CB400F set and a first-year GL1000 that were virgin, never messed with.  What an experience!  These things don't exist in California, where machines racked up three to four times the miles they did everywhere else.  But today, even in California, folks no longer ride like they used to.  Part of this surely has to be due to the specialization of motorcycles in recent years.  There aren't many "standard," do-everything machines any more.  Nor is motorcycling the egalitarian activity (I dislike the term "sport") it was originally.  The cost of today's bikes has priced many of us out of riding, to some degree.  Ironically, those of us who service them no longer can afford them.  It's become a rich man's pursuit.  It's a different game, that's for sure.

I have slowed down too of course.  It's been a few years since I rode in a downpour hard enough to soak me through and make streetlights malfunction.  It's been a long time since I rode from San Diego to L.A. and back every evening for several months at a stretch.  The times that even with heavy gloves my fingers went numb and hurt like the dickens when warmed up again at the end of my ride.  Being run off the road, on purpose by a redneck in a pickup truck playing a game of "chicken", more than once.  Running over a piece of sewer pipe on a California freeway one night and being tossed off the bike.  Riding through thermals and scent pockets going into and out of valleys.  Watching the sun rise on an unnamed village in rural southern Arizona.  Crossing numberless waving corn fields in Nebraska.  Riding through perpetual dampness in Northern Oregon in September.  Taking the dare to attempt the Canadian border from Southern California in just 10 hours and missing it due to a radar ticket while in sight of my goal.  Riding in fog so thick it was like riding in a box.  I eventually sold my CB500 Four with 94,000 miles on it, and later rode my 81 CBX over 40,000 in just 15 months, with part of that a 2,000+ mile, 12 day trip from San Diego to Illinois and back.  

Yeah, things are different now.  I don't ride as much as I used to.  And neither does anyone else.  4,000 miles is now the average yearly use for the typical rider.  This used to be hard for me to fathom, and it still is at times, despite knowing I don't do nearly as much riding as I used to.  It just doesn't seem possible somehow that folks can ride so little.  Just as my friend thought it impossible that anyone could ride so much.
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#2

Post by Lefty »

When gas was 38 cents a gallon, 1972, I would think nothing of riding from Seattle to Knoxville hammering the throttle all the way. Not so anymore. Just sayin if you are living close to the bone, too much month at the end of the money and it cost $15 to ride 100 miles those long rides have to fit in the budget somehow.


Mac aka Lefty from Durango CO
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#3

Post by rogue1000 »

Yes, much has changed from the '60's and '70's ....too many things to account for in a one page (or three page, even) report. I remember a two year stretch when I didn't own a car and commuted to work on my mc, even in the snow (too bad it was a Triumph). I think I put about 18k one year on my Daytona...
Now, 40 years later, I'm certainly not man or rider I used to be; high price of everything, kids in collage, house payments, time sucking responsibilities, wife...all things I didn't have back then. Yet I still managed 10k on my hack rig the first 12 months of putting it together, mainly because it got double the mileage my truck gets, which is why I went back to riding in the first place after 25 years away...
I find 25k miles very believable, especially for the time frame. But is will be a rare rider that clocks that up per year in these (expensive) times...
The only constant is change.....
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#4

Post by salukispeed »

I turned 16 in 1972 and didn't own a car or have the endorsment to drive one until I turned 18. I got my bike license and rode my 1972 Honda CL100 nearly 10,000 miles the first year. I also rode rain snow sun and fog for two years . People thought I was a little nutz even then. I graduated to a CB350 and then a cb 550 and eventually to a 1974 CB750 that I still own and drove last week . Along with many other bikes along the way. Time and work schedule no longer affords me the same free time and my wife never saw it the same way. ( They are dangerous!!! ) They can be dangerous and I have totaled "two" and also been deliberatly run off the road into a ditch and swamp by a moron in a 1972 chevy station wagon down in Florida. Alot of things have changed on the last 40 years. I am with you and it is just a very few souls that still have the drive to bike everywhere every day. My hat is off to those few.
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#5

Post by Lefty »

Safu.. i think hunting mototrcycle riders is a sport in FL. I too was run off 90 by a redneck driving a pick up who paced me at 80 then 70 then 90 when he forced me off the highway. This was five years ago I was riding a BMW K1200 trike. In the wet grass median I slid forever just missing a culvert and coming to a stop covered in mud and blood. A scene out of Deliverence flashed through my mind.
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#6

Post by mikenixon »

Awesome! I am in the company of some real riders! Honored to be in your midst! Great response to this off-the-cuff ruminous missive. :-). Had no idea so many felt the same. And yes, it *is* more than just a change in perspective, isn't it? Our perspectives haven't changed all that much, but our resources, obligations and priorities certainly have. I maintain however, and the point of the article, is most of today's new riders will likely never have the lifestyle perspective. And I find that foreign, hard to contemplate.
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#7

Post by mikenixon »

Image

Me, on one of many trips up the west coast in 1982. Portland, OR.
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#8

Post by JBz »

Urban sprawl has taken a good chunk of it away. Like said a trip from long Beach to San Diego down PCH was nothing back then but NOW. 91 going out through the orange groves was cool but now no more orange groves just people and cars. HWY 74 used to be one my favorite roads. northern California going through Sebastopol the smell of apples and pears and riding the Mendocino Coast. Might as well pick a foggy day. going through the San Juan mountains of Colorado a couple years ago reminded me of those days......................... Jb
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#9

Post by evilratwing »

My "new" rear tire is almost bald from the 3000+ miles so far this year.. it adds up quick when you car is your bike.
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#10

Post by Bugdaddy66 »

It would seem that today the term "motorcyclist" may not even be applicable any more. We live in a specialist society, and the motorcyclist has followed the motorcycle market. With the loss of the standard motorcycle came the loss of the standard rider. Look in any broad spectrum motorcycle catalog, and both bikes and riders are broke down to a variety of different categories; tourer/cruiser/sport/adventure/dirt/ect. Same for the manufactures. This breaks down the idea of a motorcycle being an all around vehicle, but a recreational vehicle, used for specific purposes at specific times, like a jet ski or 4 wheeler. All but one of the people I regularly ride with would not think of using their motorcycle as daily transportation, it is only for motorcycle rides. My using a motorcycle for daily transportation is about as odd to my co-workers as driving a motorhome to work.
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#11

Post by tomk1960 »

In the good weather, I ride to work every day. The only problem is that I have a 6 mile ride, so it would take forever to accumulate any miles. Whenever possible, I leave at least 45 minutes and stretch the ride out to at least 25 miles. I arrive at work on time and refreshed from a relaxing country ride. I try to do the same thing on the way home too. I'll never be able to pile up more than 4000-5000 miles per year though, since I don't go for a lot of long rides. I would if I had more time, but between spending time with family, my girlfriend, and a million other things, I just don't get to ride as much as I'd like. Maybe when I'm closer to retirement that will change...at least I hope so. I'll take bike over a car any day!
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#12

Post by drumgod »

I would certainly rack up more miles if it was always 70s and sunny. As is, in the last 5 years, my highest mileage year was 15K. I'm at 2.5K so far this year.

I take the bike whenever it is reasonably comfortable... 37 deg and pouring rain? I'll take the pickup. <shrug>
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#13

Post by mikenixon »

Bugdaddy66 wrote:It would seem that today the term "motorcyclist" may not even be applicable any more. We live in a specialist society, and the motorcyclist has followed the motorcycle market. With the loss of the standard motorcycle came the loss of the standard rider. Look in any broad spectrum motorcycle catalog, and both bikes and riders are broke down to a variety of different categories; tourer/cruiser/sport/adventure/dirt/ect. Same for the manufactures. This breaks down the idea of a motorcycle being an all around vehicle, but a recreational vehicle, used for specific purposes at specific times, like a jet ski or 4 wheeler. All but one of the people I regularly ride with would not think of using their motorcycle as daily transportation, it is only for motorcycle rides. My using a motorcycle for daily transportation is about as odd to my co-workers as driving a motorhome to work.
I love it! I could not have said it better! For me too the word motorcyclist has long lost its meaning. Driving a motorhome to work, indeed! :-)
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#14

Post by Oldewing »

I am not as worldly as most in this thread, but I am PROUD to be in the same group.



I ride, because I love it.


Greg
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Re: Where have all the real riders gone?

#15

Post by Lefty »

June 7 2006 headed west on Hwy 50 "the loneliest highway in America" about 30 miles into Nevada I hit a snowstorm. Hang a left on 93, destination for the night Tonapah NV. Cross 318 near Ash Springs and see this sign. Holy crap! Ride back to Ash Springs and buy a gas jug and fill it, fill my tank, strap the jug to the back of my VTX1800. 6000 miles later I rolled back into Durango CO after an amazing ride through Yosemitie, through Sebastopol and up Hwy 1 then 101 to Seattle and a bit north of Seattle to North Cascades Hwy to Spokane then Thompson Falls Mt. Yellowstone, Flaming Gorge and finally home. Lets Ride.


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