The motorcycle industry is dying

[LongRanger_imp]

I don't have the facts to back it up, but in the '60's and '70's, I imagine a good chunk of kids learning to ride minibikes was located in Southern California (after all, it holds 6-7% of the U.S. population and was then the de-facto center of the motorcycling universe). There were lots of off-road places to ride and race (Indian Dunes, Saddleback, Carlsbad, Lake Elsinore, Trabuco Canyon, Chula Vista, etc.). Sadly, most of these places were paved over and developed in neighborhoods several decades ago. So while I agree the electronic conveniences of today's world probably redirect a youth's energy into passive activities, I'd also suggest the relative lack of convenient, legal places to ride off-road, at least in this part of the country, probably contributed to the waning of the sport we see today. Extinction due to the loss of habitat.