https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/storie...omen-stay-safe

Police are after some support because they have nothing to go on.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17...enheim-palace/

Not news, but a link to some good photos of wildlife:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49690173

Motorcycles helping to save lives in Kenya

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-...-on-two-wheels

I haven’t seen this referenced anywhere else so have a look at the article about Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor’s latest jaunt:

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/long-way-up-tv-/

Now, whilst this isn’t strictly a travelling by motorbike article but specifically a Harley article there is an interesting aspect that does affect us - that of the changing demographics of motorcyclists in the west mainly. The reason for the fall in sales of Harley has been put down, in part, to younger people not taking up riding and older people, well, getting older.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/...er/4908382002/

This is true across all brands and looking at the price of bikes from the major companies I can see that continuing as the prices are close to prohibitively expensive for younger riders. My gut feeling is that the younger riders aren’t getting involved for other reasons as well including the pay back time for investment in training - we insist that they spend ages getting trained but are the results worth it for them, will they get quicker gratification from other pastimes?

This is not a uniquely motorcycle situation, I am a scuba diver and there are fewer young people getting involved and going though the training. As a member of dive club I can see that we have taken great steps to attract younger people into the sport and these have paid off and we now have a far younger demographic than we did, say, ten years ago. As an organised sport we have also made advances nationally through the British Sub Aqua Club and there are now more young people entering than there were some years ago - but these advances were made by an organisation in a reasonably structured manner. Sadly I don’t know of an equivalent motorcycle organisation that can do the same sort of thing for motorcycling - perhaps I am overly pessimistic - I would be very happy to be proven wrong.

No peer reviewed research just my observations as an all year round biker in the uk.
The fastest growing bike style sector must be the adventure section. The touring section remains buoyant. Sports bikes and cruisers are not as prevalent as they were.
Up until about 10 years ago the amount of bikes queuing for a ferry were half a dozen, then things changed, now there could be over a hundred bikes on a ferry heading for Spain.
Despite what people write on social media, it seems to me, that the journey has become more important than the bike and the journey has become, at the least a tour, if not a major trip. Young people are spending money on trips rather than bikes and cruisers are just not practical.
Secondly image is a huge factor in riding a motorcycle and your typical HA Harley rider is just not fashionable. Anyone that may have been swayed by that image in the past is now a hipster - there are loads of young people at hipster style rallies.

Looks to me like Harley have been relying on past glories and took their eye off the ball - they could have jumped on the back of the hipster movement and sold a load of bikes - look at BMW and Triumph.

My niece's boyfriend rides a 125 Duke on learner plates, but has little or no intention of taking his full test - he is saving up for car lessons which will make him more employable. Getting a full bike licence is too expensive a luxury, and sooo much hassle now. CBT, Mod 1, Mod 2 plus the theory plus lessons. Hassle and expense must put many young folks off.


The TRF are trying to introduce youth training schemes for road and trail. Is MAG or any other organisation doing anything?

I didn’t now about the TRF initiative - that is interesting and I will have a look into it - my attempts at luring my kids into bikes have, to date, been unsuccessful. SWMBO started riding lessons when we first met and took her CBT but didn’t get around to taking her part 2 so now the CBT has expired.

I was hopeful that the introduction of the theory side for car drivers would make the steps to the full bike licence seem less intimidating but, alas, it appears not.

Interesting to hear that the number of adventure bikes going on trips has risen. -on my only trip abroad I was the only bike going to Spain and one of three I think coming back - but that was some time ago.

That's the truth of it - a car is, despite all the 'discussions' about emissions and overcrowding and killing the planet, a necessity for a lot of people. The days when people worked in the factory at the end of the street are long gone. Around here (roughly Oxford UK) housing and employment are usually miles apart with public transport only picking up on a few of the more popular commuter routes and then with only a fraction of the capacity needed. New housing developments continue to be built on the assumption that purchasers will have to travel to work and that, for the most part, that journey will be by car.

Where do motorcycles fit into that? They don't. I do occasional work for a company carrying out government traffic surveys and Mon-Fri the percentage of motorcycles showing up in the statistics is close to zero. In the summer it's not unusual to see more council mowing machines than motorcycles. Bike numbers rise at the weekends but that's the leisure market not the daily commute. With the exception of a small number of 'student' scooters and Deliveroo fast food bikes motorcycles don't have much to do with the workaday world.

I think I was lucky to get my licence back when the test was drive round the block and don't knock the examiner over. When I look at what's involved these days I don't think I'd bother - and that's the conclusion both my 20 something kids have come to. It's not worth the effort to get a licence for something that's purely a leisure activity. It's not as if the pleasures of biking have passed them by - my son uses an electric bicycle he built himself for his daily commute for example, but the obstacles in the way of having a petrol engine power that bike are not worth it.

Making obtaining a motorcycle licence a task of labyrinthine complexity - and thereby putting the less determined off - has pretty obviously been government policy for some time. They can't really just ban bikes but they can - and have - put so many obstacles in the way in the expectation that riding will eventually die on the vine. Some people - the more enthusiastic or determined or just old (covering most of us here I suspect) will find a way through but it's the population of casual riders that's been culled by the regulations. Nobody needs a motorcycle these days. They may want one but that's a different matter.

Made me laugh about not hitting the examiner :laugh. A friend of mine was taking his test and the examiner stepped out in front of the wrong bike, when my mate came round the corner the examiner was laying in the road with a crowd round him ������

When I started biking in the early 80s lots took the test (easy and cheap) but most abandoned biking not much later for a car. Of course when they had some disposable income years later they had their license so it was easy to take up again - that won’t happen now.
The biggest population now taking up biking are women - not so many younger ones though - but it’s still a growing market for the motorcycle industry. They also want to go adventuring - 20 years ago my wife was a bit of a novelty riding a bike around Europe, not any more ������

LOL Examiner not too observant! When my bro took his test, he got lost before he reached the examiner's hideout, but made it back to the test centre withi time and unscathed so they gave him the pass! He spent his early years commuting on a chicken chaser (C50) on mud/cowsh1t soaked and frequently icy back lanes. It taught him skills not only to keep upright, and recognize dangerous surfaces, but also how to fall off relatively painlessly (something to do with starting the dismount early I believe) Anyway, he's a much more gifted rider than I. The git.

In the UK there has been a complete shit storm (that is a technical term so clearly annoy be offensive) about the exam system that was thrown into chaos by Covid-19 - essentially the exams were all cancelled. The organisation and government have just relented to massive public pressure to give the pupils the award that the teachers thought they would get. You will get the idea from this BBC news article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53810655

I was wondering what has happened to the exam systems around the world.

__________________
You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54290245

I’m not sure that this will affect too many travellers but it may fact some.

__________________
You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

Is this down to import tariffs pushing up Harley prices to levels no one is prepared to pay or just that the Harley lifestyle 'dream' doesn't work in India? I notice the report is illustrated with a still from Easy Rider. Maybe struggling through the traffic in Mumbai on some lumpy overheating chop doesn't have the same appeal as cruising down the open roads of Texas.