Are we seeing the decline of motorcycling in the UK?

Are we seeing the decline of motorcycling in the UK?

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Discussion

Wooderson

Original Poster:

412 posts

222 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Does anyone else have a niggling feeling that motorcycling in the U.K, as we know it, is on a slippery slope towards oblivion?

I not taking about conspiracies for wholesale banning motorbikes from the likes Brake!, but more that a number of external/passive factors are interplaying that are/will lower the number of riders on the road and make motorcycling less attractive and/or less viable for transport or leisure.

Off the top of my head these factor concern me!

  • Decline in the number of riders on the road and it becoming an increasingly old man’s game. At one end of the age spectrum people aren’t training beyond CBTs, while at the other end the generations of riders brought up riding during the golden era (1950s to 1990s?) are getting on a bit/dying off!
  • Towns and Cities have, or are looking to, ban or punitively tax older vehicles, including bikes, from entering city centres.
  • Blanket 20mph and 50mph speed limits curtail the joy ‘making progress’ and beating congestion.
  • Mainstream media seems to consciously ignore motorcycle sport or actively promote motorcycling as a viable transport option. On a related issue, the likes of Sweden’s rather dystopian ‘Vison Zero’ seems to have absolutely no place for motorcycles within a civilized society.
  • Sharing the road with inattentive drivers – mainly using phones - is getting farcical!
  • Bike theft – especially in London - is beyond farce. I hate that I can’t realistically hope to park on the streets a ‘nice’ bike – be it a Panigale, a Street Triple or a GS - without a serious doubt that it will still be there come home time. I don't want to commute on an old stter!
  • Bloody dashcams meaning that even a cheeky wheelie could see you on trial by social media and the Daily Mail.
While I appreciate new bike registrations have increased year-on-year for the past 4 years or so, is this not a due to the huge popularity of ‘cheap’ PCP finance? The impact of this huge shift in how we ‘own’ and live with our motorbikes has yet to be felt, but it strikes me that this system of leasing new bikes for 2/3 years at a time is instilling a totally different mindset and attitude towards, for example, home mechanics and modifying.

While it isn’t all negative, I do think that new technology will be the savior of power two-wheel transport – be it driver-less cars that are better at looking out for bikers than humans or the development of electric motorbikes and E-bike push bikes that will get more people onto two wheels of some form.

Sorry for slight negatively, but I’m genuinely interested to hear where and what BB thinks we’ll be riding in 20 years’ time


Edited by Wooderson on Thursday 29th September 12:50

BuzzBravado

2,944 posts

170 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
I'm fairly new to motorcycle and i'd say it is the other way around. I see more people commuting by bike or scooter than ever before. The motorcycle parking bays around my place of work are often full.

gareth_r

5,712 posts

236 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
The current licensing regime is having the intended effect.

av185

18,432 posts

126 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Wooderson said:
-
- Sharing the road with inattentive drivers - is getting farcical!
You appear to have excluded the many inattentive and moronic RIDERS from your comprehensive list. yes

SAS Tom

3,398 posts

173 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
As many people here know I work in a bike clothing shop and I would say that there is an increase. We've had a massive increase in business this year over last. It has felt like everyone has finally got disposable income again and so biking has been possible for people.

As many people say it is very much something older people do. We see a lot of middle aged blokes doing their test then straight out to buy a new GS.

Fleegle

16,688 posts

175 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Wooderson said:
Does anyone else have a niggling feeling that motorcycling in the U.K, as we know it, is on a slippery slope towards oblivion?
No

hebegb

1,523 posts

146 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Fleegle said:
Wooderson said:
Does anyone else have a niggling feeling that motorcycling in the U.K, as we know it, is on a slippery slope towards oblivion?
No
Based upon (SAS)Tom's final sentence above.....YES !
smile


sjg

7,444 posts

264 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Indeed, cities are full of commuters on cheap utilitarian 125cc scooters who just do the CBT every 2 years.

The older generation are far more likely to have cash spare for "toys". Much of the rest are still worse off than a decade ago, salaries not keeping up with inflation and higher rents or big mortgages.

Cycling for leisure is booming, I know plenty of ex-bikers amongst people I cycle with who bash out 60+ miles on the road bike or a few hours on a MTB on a Sunday morning for 2-wheeled fun instead of getting the motorbike out. Keeps you fitter too.


Wooderson

Original Poster:

412 posts

222 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
hebegb said:
Based upon (SAS)Tom's final sentence above.....YES !
smile
hehe

dugsud

1,125 posts

262 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
As far as I can see motorcycling appears to be getting more popular across all ages and genders, there particularly seems to be a recent increase in female riders passing their tests and getting big bikes.

My wife passed her test last year and at least half the riders on her course were female, all after 600cc+ bikes.

The Beaver King

6,095 posts

194 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
av185 said:
Wooderson said:
-
- Sharing the road with inattentive drivers - is getting farcical!
You appear to have excluded the many inattentive and moronic RIDERS from your comprehensive list. yes
As have you in excluding a major part of the Op's statement, "mainly using phones".

Not easy to use your mobile on a motorbike.....

TheInternet

4,703 posts

162 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
gareth_r said:
The current licensing regime is having the intended effect.
An increase in the number of motorcyclists due to fewer of them being dead? Presumably there are stats for this and the OP's points in some detail.

TimmyWimmyWoo

4,305 posts

180 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
I thought the same thing waiting to board the ferry back from Santander the other day. In a pen of about 100 bikes the average age was easily 60+. I was the youngest person there at 30… there was a serious older-age bias. Naturally it could be because younger bikers don't get the ferry back from Santander (!), or tour… but it made me think that it's an ageing biking population (like the general population I guess).

8potdave

2,280 posts

212 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
It seems that way to me as well, I think people have been brainwashed into thinking it's the most dangerous pass time in the world by their parents. Speed and using the roads for enjoyment seem to be completely frowned upon. I'm 34 and my old mans generation were a bit less cautious and less safety aware and the ones before that even less so. People seem a little scared now so I imagine my sons generation will be warned off them even more than we were. I'll do my bit to keep it going biggrin

phil4

1,203 posts

237 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
I don't know. I agree that there are older riders out there, I've only just done my DAS, and my wife is just starting out.

Perhaps it falls to the young to be using the scooters and 125cc, permanently on CBT, where as the bigger bikes for the fun of it fall to older people with disposable.

I'd also guess that gradually the fun is being stamped out of the road. Lower limits, worse surface, more congestion etc. All perhaps making people think twice about bothering with a bike.

dugsud

1,125 posts

262 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
TimmyWimmyWoo said:
I thought the same thing waiting to board the ferry back from Santander the other day. In a pen of about 100 bikes the average age was easily 60+. I was the youngest person there at 30… there was a serious older-age bias. Naturally it could be because younger bikers don't get the ferry back from Santander (!), or tour… but it made me think that it's an ageing biking population (like the general population I guess).
I remember thinking exactly the same thing 30 years ago when I went on my first bike tour in the 80's.....old gits everywhere!

I think its a touring thing!

Jazoli

9,086 posts

249 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
dugsud said:
I remember thinking exactly the same thing 30 years ago when I went on my first bike tour in the 80's.....old gits everywhere!

I think its a touring thing!
It's not just touring, the average age on PH BB northwest rideouts is well into the middle forties and we do anything but tour.

_Neal_

2,658 posts

218 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Fleegle said:
Wooderson said:
Does anyone else have a niggling feeling that motorcycling in the U.K, as we know it, is on a slippery slope towards oblivion?
No
Agreed. I've seen an increase in bikes (scooters and big bikes) in London over the next few years, more people in the office (of both sexes and all ages) buying bikes and scooters, sales on the up etc etc.

As to the OP's point on home maintenance and modifying, I suspect that will be a dying art, especially in London where people may not have the facilities (e.g. a garage) to work on their bikes. Another factor is of course that bikes have been really very reliable for years now.

I'd say that biking is becoming a better and better option in London for many people, not a worse one, due to the congestion and cost aspect, and the fact that biking is, in my view, seen as more mainstream and socially acceptable than at any time in recent memory. Good times for biking I say.

Bad times for bikers who like to think they are members of some kind of exclusive badass road warrior club, maybe biggrin

feef

5,206 posts

182 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
no shortage of yoofs on 125 supermotos with loud exhausts here. One part annoying (as they just ride around town all night) one part encouraging to see them getting into biking

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
_Neal_ said:
Fleegle said:
Wooderson said:
Does anyone else have a niggling feeling that motorcycling in the U.K, as we know it, is on a slippery slope towards oblivion?
No
Agreed. I've seen an increase in bikes (scooters and big bikes) in London over the next few years, more people in the office (of both sexes and all ages) buying bikes and scooters, sales on the up etc etc.

As to the OP's point on home maintenance and modifying, I suspect that will be a dying art, especially in London where people may not have the facilities (e.g. a garage) to work on their bikes. Another factor is of course that bikes have been really very reliable for years now.

I'd say that biking is becoming a better and better option in London for many people, not a worse one, due to the congestion and cost aspect, and the fact that biking is, in my view, seen as more mainstream and socially acceptable than at any time in recent memory. Good times for biking I say.

Bad times for bikers who like to think they are members of some kind of exclusive badass road warrior club, maybe biggrin
Problem with biking in London is the lack of parking. Personally thought for a while about how few bikers I see these days.