The U.K. Bike Scene: Is it healthy?

The testing system has put people off…too much money involved, and the U.K. is a low pay country!

Over priced and over complicated to pass a full bike test and overpriced large bikes .
No youngster is going to go beyond CBT then pay the price of a car for 2 wheels that won't be any good for a night out dressed up on the pull with your mates.
In the sixties bikes were cheap transport now apart from small run arounds that only need the CBT they are viewed as weekend toys for oldies.

Anything to do with motorcycles has become very expensive. when i was a lad it was cheap form of transport to get to work and hang with ya mates. having recently got back on a bike I was horrified at the cost of semi decent kit and add what a youngster would pay for insurance .. Im sure this is 95% of the reason.

youngsters are not very well treated by "OGs"… seen them mostly secluded in a corner at bike nights. there should be more engagement, more appetite to engage and teach. suspecting there are many who'd like to be involved in the scene, but are not welcomed as they should be.

no disrespect to a certain type of riders, but people on GS, Tigers etc never nodded back to me, they all seem so grumpy and act superior (obviously subjective)

three words: driving license, insurance. Those keep young people away from bikes. But a lot of youngsters still want to ride – they just do it with balaclavas on…

Even a modest sized new bike, is getting ridiculously expensive. The cost of insurance just continues to spiral out of control, and the relentless war on speed in this country is killing biking pleasure. Young people are not attracted to bikes like they used to be. Thankfully I have seen a steady increase in young riders taking their test. But it will be a long time before there’s a significant change in the biking demographic. We need cheaper entry level bikes, and a reality check on the insurance companies. Thankfully the Chinese are making affordable bikes available, and the more we older bikers encourage the beginners,things will get better.

I agree with most of the reasons offered, but think the present economy, struggle to get on the housing market and cost of living all take motorcycling out of the reach of many youngsters. I was 54 and in a good job when I returned to motorcycling. We should all give younger motorcyclists a positive welcome when we meet them 😊

I'm not white, and I used to go to bike meets and cafes, but after a while they just weren't interesting. Most motorcyclists don't go, probably.

Costs are all major factors not just for youngsters but us oldies as well. I have 2 lovely bikes but it’s just another hobby for me. I’ve always loved bikes since the early 70s but that was then and this is now. I think to many youngsters biking is perceived to be an old man’s thing and to a large extent it is. It’s not considered ‘cool’ enough for many young people my own kids included.
Super Sausage, Rykas at Box Hill Ace Cafe and Loomies are all great bike meets but OMG stay away from the food it’s absolute shite in all of them!

There are more decent bikes out there under £3000 than you can shake a stick at. Youngsters have had their manlyness drummed out of them. They would rather have an electric pushbike these days, and stay in touch with their feminine side.

I started riding on my 16th birthday and have been all year around ever since. At 17 it cost me £6 to take my bike test which involved riding around the block 10 times and 5 questions on the Highway Code. You could also ride a 250 on an L license.
My son is approaching 21 and would love to take his test and buy his own bike but he simply can’t afford the cost of even taking his test let alone buying a bike. It is unfortunately the same for so many young people. What is the answer I really don’t know but I know lots of young people would be on the road on a bike if it was more affordable.

I live in Plymouth and have always enjoyed watching the bikes roll in on the Brittany ferry over the years.
But in the last 5+ years I have noticed a big difference. Once there was a varied mix of bikes coming in, old and new. But now, it's always 98% of all bikes that would cost £15K + coming off the ferry. And the cost of the crossing itself has spiraled out of control too during the summer months. It's at least 3x cheaper for me to travel all the way up to the euro tunnel to cross the channel now than use the ferry on my doorstep.

Vale onslow rode his own bike when he was 100. The governments for a long time have wanted to get rid of bikes, why do we have to go through so much just to ride a bike when any aholes can drive any car, if they have the money a 17 year old could drive a sport's car way more powerful than any bike, you only have to look at YouTube to see top of the range sports cars being totalled by teens.

I'm staggered by lots of smashing bikes but no disc locks let alone a chain in sight…,
On the demographic front it's not looking good- who knew that we'd have lived through a golden age of biking – and it's demise😢

Having a mother as an ER Nurse, I wasn’t allowed to have a motorcycle as a child. I was 30 before I got my first motorcycle. Part of it was money but what really drove me to finally buy one was making friends with a guy who rode.

68 now still riding most day s , spain .trip next year, poland after, live in cumbria, so ride the road in lakes ,and passis.

I'm 32, ride an Africa Twin and I've been riding since i was old enough to do the DAS, cant remember when it was..

I think one of the main reasons you aren't seeing more young people on bikes is, myself and everyone I know my age who ride have absolutely no desire to go to these "biker cafes" and just stand around drinking shit coffee looking at other peoples bikes… When I go out on my bike I just ride all day and avoid these kinds of places

In 1977 I think the stat is nearly 300,000 motorcycles & mopeds sold, with a much bigger population total bike sales for 2023 was just under 114,000………kind of says it all. I chose 1977 because that was the year I became road legal, and when people my age eventually pack it in it may carry on for a while but will decline rapidly the cost, and legislation, packed roads, with cameras everywhere doesn’t seem worth it for somebody starting out – far easier in the past we had the best of it.

I’ve just done a DAS in my late 40s (never had any interest in bikes, just fancied a new hobby), and through my lessons and tests, I met about 10 other learners; only one was older than me, and three of them were female. Young people are interested in bikes, but are they interested in hanging out with a load of old men at biker caffs? Probably about as much as non-white riders are when you’ve got three Union Jack-festooned Rocket 3s parked up.

Could you do a quick overview in a video of the set up you were rocking on your helmet, camera, mic etc?

Another excellent video 👏🏻

I started riding back in 1996 aged 18, and was lucky to be part of on of the biggest bike meets, if no 'the' biggest weekly bike met in the UK, at the Basset's Pole in Brum and my local one at The Waterman near Warwick.

I remember it being always absolutely packed and them always needing several marshals just to get people in and parked at the Waterman on wednesday evenings.
It was not uncommon to have 4000 bikes there and the demographic was generally in the 20's to 40s , with smaller groups of over 50s.

Now, the bigger biker meets in this area only ever seem to have a couple of hundred bikes at most and the demographic is like you say, middle aged men and rough looking ladies.
Also, they seem to have less of a buzz about the meets nowadays, and people always seem a bit staid and quieter than back in the 90s.

I watch the few younger bikers coming onto the scene on their youtube channels and they go to these meets and say "wow!! I can't believe how many bikers are here" and I just think to my self 'if only he/she knew how much has been lost'.

It's sort of sad, but we're still here at least and hopefully as cars become less and less viable, the bike scene will invigorate again.

If you want to see if the motorcycle scene is healthy come to the Chilly Willy run on the 12th of January in aid of the air ambulance we had over 800 bikes turn up in January 2024
Northampton active bedford road NN4 7AA

Also bikes are getting to expensive and very few high mileage riders
Most seem to ride at weekends to a cafe if the weather is nice or some event or other
I'm off to Harrogate tomorrow to watch an FA Cup match a round trip of about 500 miles on my R1300GS I will cover about 25,000 miles this year on this and my F750GS
I'm a volunteer blood biker so do a few Mile's running blood and Breast Milk around
The only younger bike in my family is one of my son in laws who has 2 bikes and is a 37 year old white male but does very few Mile's on his bike and like me also has a car
John
stalbansbiker