Is It Time to Leave the Sport? Honestly… I’m Starting to Wonder.

Relax said:
If you haver to use AI to express an opinion, then is that really your opinion?
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some people are bad at communication?
 
TK4 said:
"I've owned a dozen boats over the years, each suited to the water I was frequenting. When I lived in LA, I kept a small offshore capable trawler with a VP 140hp, on Simcoe a 24' Well craft twin Merc 5.7s on Sharbot I had a Baja 24 with twin 150VROs, and my last on Lake ON was an aluminum Marinette 32 with twin 350hp Crusaders. And a dozen others of utilitarian design scattered in there."

I was up in Collingwood a few summers ago at a timeshare and went down to the docks. I couldn't believe the number of 'big water' boats with 3,4 or more 300+ HP outboards bolted to the transoms. Everything on them is fly-by-wire, not a cable to be seen. The guy at the gas pump was filling up one of these monsters and I asked him how long it takes. He said he'd be there at least 15 minutes. Crazy.
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That's one of the reasons I got out of boats. Burning 100l/hr is pricey.
 
Jayv said:
But England doesn't have a new Queen though.

Does that mean its time for me to leave the sport?
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Hey Jayv — your wordage expounds on the legitimacy and logicality of the topic at hand. that is an excellent starting point in initiating a meaningful dialogue between two or more conflicted parties.

But now — let's explore another angle to this contentious topic.

What follows must be self-evidentiary as espoused by the following principles — but not is as much as with reductio of the ad reversum argumentums:

1. Let's not forget about the state of flux of geopolitics in this — the ebbs and flows of popular opinion of the populace at large to advance their idealogues and pogroms of zealotry​
• The inconvenient matter of the dialectics — cause and affectation being a separate nuanced topic.​
#4. The deliciousness of soup and the irreversibility of the tastes of the larger populace at will to distinguish between the rationality of liquid sustenance and the cessation of a beloved recreational activity.​
— futhermore and hithertoforehere — Boats.​

I'm reminded of a quote by the late, great author Rudyard P. Kipling, who once wrote:

"Whether it is within the slings and arrows of discontent that one must rend meaninglessness from this wretched world — it is not enough to be. It must be more to rage — rage at the dying of the light inside of the local motorcycle commercial establishment!"​
 
Where motorcycling is thriving...at the other end of the spectrum Marc and Candi in Indian insanity :eek:
 
Trackday said:
You make solid observations about how life today pulls young riders in a thousand directions, but that’s exactly why the industry is shrinking—not because people suddenly stopped liking motorcycles, but because the gap between “wanting to ride” and “being able to ride” has never been wider.

Older riders have dreams—and we can finally live them.
We worked hard, built careers, gained skills, and now have the means to buy the machines we used to drool over in magazines. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, good for us. We should enjoy the payoff.

But let’s not confuse our ability to chase our dreams with the health of the sport.
Our demographic is not growing the industry—we’re just propping it up for a few more years.

The industry is getting smaller. Full stop.
Dealers closing. Fewer new riders. Higher barriers to entry.

This isn’t nostalgia—it’s math.

Are modern bikes “better”?
Depends on your reference point.
  • Compared to last year? Maybe not.
  • Compared to five years ago? Debatable.
  • Compared to 10–20 years ago? Depends on whether your priority is riding or being managed by electronics.
Does a 2025 bike objectively outperform a 2005 bike? Sure, spec-sheet wise.

Is it more fun, more accessible, or more affordable? That’s a lot more subjective.

The cost-to-entry gap is the killer.​

Take your example: would a 20-something walk into a dealer, buy a 600 supersport, and start hitting track days?

Decades ago: absolutely.
Today: not a hope in hell.

Here’s their reality:
  • Living costs are brutal.
  • Insurance is brutal.
  • A new 600 costs what a middle-class car used to cost.
  • Used bikes are cheaper, yes—but insuring one as a young rider is a blood sacrifice.
  • Even finding a place to live eats all their disposable income.
Add in a generation raised on screens, subscription services, gig work, and financial instability, and yeah—motorcycling becomes a dream, not a decision.

And we haven’t even touched the dealer ecosystem, parts pricing, service costs, and distributor profit margins that make the barrier even higher.

Shops don’t disappear because riding isn’t fun.​

They disappear because the ecosystem can’t sustain itself.
It’s not just “everything costs money.”
It’s that everything costs more, delivers less, and leans on an aging population to keep the lights on.

Your examples of other hobbies actually prove the point.​

Karting got too serious.
Hockey got too expensive.
Same story: the activity didn’t die—access died.

Motorcycling is heading down the same path unless something changes.

The bottom line?​

Older riders like us are living the dream. Great. Let's promote it.
But are we the last big wave.
The sport isn’t feeding the next generation—it’s pricing them out, drowning them in tech they don’t need, and offering fewer places to ride, service, or even buy a bike.

If we’re honest, that’s the piece everyone keeps glossing over: the industry isn’t adapting to modern realities—it’s just shifting the cost onto a shrinking group of aging riders.

And eventually, that well runs dry.
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That’s a narrow perspective. 90% of the world’s motorcycles are sold outside the USA and Canada. Most of world is growing as mororcycles are economical transportation.

I agree North American numbers are dwindling. Why? Lots of reasons, but my feeling is that risk aversion is the biggest culprit. I live in the same neighborhood now that I did as a teenager. In the In 1980 5 guys on my street had dirt bikes, and that was about the same for the rest of the hood. Most of those guys ended up riders. I haven't seen a dirt bike in the hood for years. When my son was in high school, he had exactly 1 cohort with a dirt bike. I went to that school, there were a dozen of us in my group, probably 50+ kids with dirt bikes at school.

Cost to entry? My 1 year old DT175 Enduro cost $1000 in 1980. My insurance was $250. I made $3/hr at a lube station - so the bike cost me 330hours to buy, and 83 hours to insure.

An equivalent today, XT250 would be about $6000. Insurance $2000. The kids that work at the same lube shop make $20/hr today, so it would take about the same number of hours to pay now as it did then.
 
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Mad Mike said:
That's one of the reasons I got out of boats. Burning 100l/hr is pricey.
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I kept a 26 footer at the narrows in Orillia. It got 3 MPG but a typical weekend was a trip to the town docks, one gallon, and return to the marina, stopping at Chief's Island and anchoring for the day or sometimes weekend, enjoying the camaraderie. The return trip to the marina was another gallon.

I spent more on fuel getting to and from Orillia from the GTA.
 
I am considering quitting motorcycles and taking up golf because I hear it is les frustrating and cheaper!
 
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