Motorcycle Commentary
In response to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Motorcycle Competitive Information Study, which reveals that the average rider age has increased from 40 in 2001 to 49 in 2010, and the percentage of first-time motorcycle buyers has declined for a second consecutive year, Jim Gianatsis of FastDates.com wrote the following piece:
This is a devastating statistic for the motorcycle industry. With the median age of motorcycle buyers (and hence riders) going up by one year of age, in each of the last nine years.
That essentially means no young new riders are coming into the sport, and sales are dropping at a devastating rate of 5-10% per year, no matter what the economy does to improve.
If this trend continues, in 10-20 years when the current median rider age of 49 years old reaches 60-70 years old, and riders die off/stopping buying motorcycles, there will be effectively no new motorcycles sold in America.
New motorcycle sales have already dropped some 30-70% among manufacturers in the last three years because of the economic collapse in America. This new riders Median Age statistic report means that even if the U.S. economy improves 5-10% per year in the coming years, new motorcycle and product sales will never increase from where they have fallen today, because of the demographics growing older in age at a similar rate–a very disconcerting prognosis.
The only way to turn this around is to sell affordable priced, financed, and insured entry level motorcycles and scooters to teen angers with their parent’s blessing that are as cheap and easy to purchase, insure and operate as $2,000 used car.
We don’t see that happening with TV shows like Stunt Rider on The Speed Channel serving as the only street bike role model for kids, and the statistic that motorcyclists are seven-times more likely to killed in a road accident compared to automobile drivers.
Not since the "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda" ad campaign of the 1960s has a motorcycle manufacturer really targeted the entry level / new rider market.
And all of us in the motorcycle media are guilty of perpetuating this decline in new riders, because we only feature high end and middleweight motorcycles that only affluent older riders can afford to buy.
When is the last time a U.S. motorcycle publication ran a cover feature story on motor scooters and practical 125cc street bikes that a high school/college kid could afford to buy? Never.
We have all helped to kill off the entry-level motorcycle market. It’s all our faults and the industry is coming down around us because of it.
Kudos to Honda for introducing the new $3,995 affordable CBR250R street sportbike for 2011, but it’s still may be too expensive and sporty for what most entry level riders need. It needs to have scooter practicality for carrying school books, gym gear, and a passenger.
Like many of you I was at the IMS Long Beach Show this past weekend. I think I remember seeing about five 20-something-year-olds the day I was there–no one under 20 years. Mostly everyone was 35 years and older. The Los Angles International Auto Show two weeks earlier had a much younger demographic.
We all need to think about promoting and selling entry-level motorcycles in America before the sport dies off, and we put ourselves out of business.
Jim Gianatsis, Gianatsis Design Associates
FastDates.com