04-05-2017, 11:06 AM
(04-04-2017, 11:22 PM)The ferret_imp Wrote: I toured through 5 countries in Europe. Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Lichtenstein and although I saw a fair number of motorcycles there (mainly scooters) the vast preponderance of vehicles I saw were still cars...small cars, but cars never the less. When I watch Youtube vids of riders negotiating in European cities, or test riding new motorcycles, it is still single motorcycles surrounded by a sea of cars. European riders may be more serious about riding than the average American (as is the ave Euro car driver), but from what I observed when it comes to commuting the car is still king there.
It may be different in Asia, I'm not sure, never been to Asia, but as far as I observed, the motorcycle has not replaced the car as primary transportation in any of the 5 countries I visited in Europe in any significant numbers.
Of course not.
But I am not talking about the ratio of motorcycle vs. car "transportation miles", I'm talking about the ratio of motorcycle "transportation miles" vs. motorcycle "pleasure riding miles".
This ratio is now (I am, of course, just guessing here) at best 5-10% "transportation miles" in North America, 30-50% in Europe and Australia, versus 90+% in Asia an Africa. If the US and Canada could in that respect get a just little bit closer to Europe/Australia, this would be of significant benefit for the moribund North American motorcycle market. Not perhaps in absolute numbers, at least not immediately, but in the overall "product usage mix", a necessary ingredient of a healthy market.