Declining bike sales

[KBs PensNmore]

Some of the reasons for the slump in sales at Harley Davison are as follows -


Apparently the Baby-Boomers all have motorcycles. Generation X is only buying a few, and the next generation isn't buying any at all.


A recent study was done to find out why Millennials don't ride motorcycles.


1. Pants won't pull up far enough for them to straddle the seat.


2. Can't get their phone to their ear with a helmet on.


3. Can't use 2 hands to eat while driving.


4. They don't get a trophy and a recognition plaque just for buying one.


5. Don't have enough muscle to hold the bike up when stopped.


6 Might have a bug hit them in the face and then they would need emergency care.


7 Motorcycles don't have air conditioning.


8. They can't afford one because they spent 12 years in college trying to get a degree in Humanities, Social Studies or Gender Studies for which no jobs are available.


9. They are allergic to fresh air.


10. Their pajamas get caught on the exhaust pipes.


11. They might get their hands dirty checking the oil.


12. The handle bars have buttons and levers and cannot be controlled by touch-screen.


13. You have to shift manually and use something called a clutch.


14. It's too hard to take selfies while riding.


15. They don't come with training wheels like their bicycles did.


16. Motorcycles don't have power steering or power brakes.


17. Their nose ring interferes with the face shield.


18. They would have to use leg muscle to back up.


19. When they stop, a light breeze might blow exhaust in their face.


20. It could rain on them and expose them to non-soft water.


21. It might scare their therapy dog, and then the dog would need therapy.


22. Can't get the motorcycle down the basement stairs of their parent's home.


Its a bit harsh I know ....................... nothing about having to kick start..Ha

[A Duke]

Hi,
Many a true word spoken in jest, this looks like a whole page of them to me.
Regards

[rustynail]

Or maybe they just want to stay out of hospital. Been there done that.

[KBs PensNmore]

2 words to describe a motorcyclist, tempory Australian.

There are old motorcyclists,
and there are bold motorcyclists,
but no old bold motorcyclists.

[rrich]

The rhetorical question:

Why do motorcycle riders have bugs in their teeth?

(Been there, done that and I understand)

[rustynail]

2 words to describe a motorcyclist, tempory Australian.

There are old motorcyclists,
and there are bold motorcyclists,
but no old bold motorcyclists.
Jack White rushes to mind.

[Tonyz]

17 above ....I can easily solve that :rolleyes: my pliers are ready

[KBs PensNmore]

There was a bloke who used to ride bikes hard, if you didn't scrape the exhaust pipes , you weren't trying hard enough type of bloke.
Anyway, he got sick and tired of the bugs getting caught in the zipper, making it very hard to get the Jacket off, in his wisdom he thought that if he turned the jacket around, that would fix the problem. Which he did.
So away he went, flatout, round the bends up the straights round the bends, he'd just gotten out of the bend, when a car is travelling on the wrong side of the road, Dam Yanks he thinks to himself as he's laying the bike on it's side. Anyway, he's lying there quite still, but alive, the paramedics roll up and check him out, he's breathing but just.
They leave his helmet on to be safe and get him to the Hospital, Drs check him out, still breathing, just.
The wife come to the counter and is met by the Dr who says "Mrs Duke your husband I'm sorry to say has just passed away!!". "What happened?" asked the wife, to which she was told "He was breathing OK on his own but when we went to turn the helmet around he Died!!!!"

[rrich]

There was a bloke who used to ride bikes hard, if you didn't scrape the exhaust pipes , you weren't trying hard enough type of bloke. … snip … "He was breathing OK on his own but when we went to turn the helmet around he Died!!!!"

LOL! I remember that one. Mr. Lebinger told it in class, 8th year about 1955 or 1956.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Hehehe.

In the late 80's a mate and I went on a long run to pick up some 2nd-hand parts for my bike, a 1945 WLA Harley. I was riding my ol' gal while my mate took his beat up old 750 Kwaka (painted sky blue in house enamel, complete with brush strokes and a ratty old sheepskin to hide the the tears in the seat. We were so high-tech and bling-bling back in those days! :rolleyes: )

We left early in the morning from Morwell, about 150km E of Melbourne and headed to Colac, about 150km W of Melbourne. Being country boys, we sorta got lost in the middle of Melbourne for a while but decided to enjoy the scenic detour anyway.

Along the way, we passed through a suburb called Toorak. Quite posh. About this time we were feeling fairly sore and weary (a WLA is a rigid frame, no suspension to talk of except for the seat springs) and, on seeing a cafe with blokes in full leathers and helmets around sidewalk tables with what looked like bikes between them, we decided a cuppa was a good idea and pulled up too.

I remember thinking it was nice of the management to put lengths of timber in the gutter to ease the transition off the road...

Anyways, we pulled up and while we were stripping off our leathers a cheery young girl came up to the table to take our orders. Or so I thought.

While we were kicking back, sipping our cuppas my mate nudged me and when I looked around there was a bloke in the cafe doorway taking our photo. I just smiled and waved and went back to my cuppa... a few minutes later the waitress came back, looking a bit embarrassed. She asked us - very nicely - if we could move on and not to worry about the coffees, they were on the house.

It was no skin off our noses, I mean, free cuppas! So we donned our kit, kicked the bikes into life and started off again. That's when I noticed that these big, bearded men in full leathers and fancy kit weren't riding bikes. Well... not what I'd call bikes anyway. They were the Vespa brigade! Big, tough scooter riders wearing leathers with 'faux colours & patches' scared by a couple of country boys riding machines that didn't have electric starts. :D

About 10 years later I attended a party in Melbourne and was telling the tale when a young woman burst out laughing. Apparently she was the waitress and that was one of her fondest memories of the job.

She hadn't come out to take our order, that wasn't a service the cafe provided; the manager had asked her to come out and tell us to leave because we were scaring the customers. But she thought we were so nice and polite and the manager was being so heroic, sending her out to deal with us while he hid indoors, that she decided to wind him up a little. At least until he started talking about calling the Police and broke out the camera for evidence of our mis-doings. Then she hurried out to get things sorted.

I liked that gal. :)

Anyways, it just goes to show that for all we like taking the mickey outta millennials, that 'type' of person was around far earlier. I'm quite sure my Grand-dad would say the same about my generation! "Young fella, my generation may have invented television, but we aren't addicted to it."

[tony_A]

Anyways, it just goes to show that for all we like taking the mickey outta millennials, that 'type' of person was around far earlier. I'm quite sure my Grand-dad would say the same about my generation! "Young fella, my generation may have invented television, but we aren't addicted to it."

I read a book written by one of the early pioneers in my area, James Fenton. He wrote the book as an old man, around 1900, and it related to the opening up of this area in the mid 1800's. There's no doubt they did it tough but one of his comments of his that stuck in my mind was "that the young folk of today (1900) wouldn't cope with what we went through".

Funny how some things don't change.
The young folk I see around here are riding mountain bikes instead and going like cut cats, up hill and down. They can show you grazed elbows/knees, and some super impressive bike handling skills. In that regard the young folk are no different than they were 40 -50 years ago when I was one of them.

[rrich]

File this under 'Stupid things that people do in their youth'.
I was in my mid 30s and the company that I worked for (Now Experian) had sent a group of us up to Silicon Valley for training. There was a front end (Com-Ten) company that had training facilities in the area also. We were all staying in a budget motel that had a swimming pool. My room was on the second floor and the hallway ended on one end at a balcony in the pool area.

We were all supposed to go swimming before going out to dinner and drinks. Our supervisor was buying. As I entered the balcony I noticed that the railing was less than 1.5 meters from the pool. I tossed my towel down into an unused chair, climbed over the railing and jumped into the shallow (1 Meter) end of the pool. If you understand the physics it is a very easy thing to do.

There was a Com-Ten bloke lounging in the pool area. I'm not sure if he actually saw the leap but the huge splash and all the commotion from my work mates made him sit up and notice. He was looking around wondering 'who are these effing idiots?' The office of the motel was in that corner of the building and the manager came out into the pool area. He was trying to figure out what had just happened. He didn't see anything wrong so he went back to the office to register another client of the motel.

A bit later our supervisor came into the pool area and every one was telling him what he missed. First he asked if I had been drinking. Then he said that he didn't believe that it was possible and I couldn't have done the jump. So I did it again. This time I stayed under water a bit and swam to a deeper part of the pool where the water was about 1.5 Meters deep.

This time the Com-Ten bloke had a terrified look on his face and packed up all his stuff and left the pool area. The manager came rushing out to the pool area screaming "What is going on? Who is jumping into the pool?" There were three or four of us at that depth in the pool. I looked up at him and said, "We're all jumping in the pool. Isn't that what pools are for?" The manager left in a huff as we were all almost dying laughing. We all left a bit later for dinner.

It gets better.
About 3 or 4 years later I had to go back to the Silicon Valley area on business. There was some big convention in the area and there was nothing available at any of the hotels. I called the motel and with some luck I had a room for the night. As I'm checking in and obtaining my key the desk clerk asked, "How did you hear about us?" I explained that I had stayed here before and went on to say, "I'm the guy that jumped from the second floor balcony into the shallow end of the pool." His eyes got extra wide and his mouth dropped open. Then he said, "I wasn't working here then but I heard about it." All I could do was laugh a bit.

It gets even better.
The next morning as I'm checking out, the manager comes over and starts to chew me out because he had to install a fence on the balcony up to the third floor. I told him that I noticed that and if I had my bathing suit I would have done it from the third floor this time. (No I wouldn't have.) The look of horror on his face was priceless. He then told me that I was banned from staying in the motel.