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(10-13-2020, 01:17 PM)LongRanger_imp Wrote: My girlfriend’s 42-year old daughter is the general manager of two established and well-known multi-line motorcycle dealerships in San Diego. She doesn’t ride and has no desire to do so. She claims her biggest demographic is the young enlisted men (Navy and Marines) who home-port in San Diego and want something inexpensive to ride while they’re not on deployment. She sells a lot of Hyosung’s and Kymco’s. At her other dealership, which mostly sells Yamaha and Polaris / Indian, young folks are more interested in dirt bikes than street bikes. That's certainly the case at my house. We have one street bike, my CB1100, and three dirt bikes. Coronavirus shut down most of our summer vacation travel, so we put a lot of hours on the dirt bikes this year. All the motorcycle dealerships within about an hour radius have been consistently sold out of dirt bikes since April. Everybody wants one.
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the Husqvarna vitpilen 401...
my goodness that tail is...uh...um....ah heck, it's just plain...
![[Image: 9ba4d3b7fa2584d8b4c460053680212d.jpg]](https://cb1100forum.net/forum/uploads/imp/202010/9ba4d3b7fa2584d8b4c460053680212d.jpg)
...gly
you know, like something got cut off.
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Actually she look like those new electric buzzing bike. Those who find her ugly are a sign of aging.. hahaha...
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(10-13-2020, 01:17 PM)LongRanger_imp Wrote: My girlfriend’s 42-year old daughter is the general manager of two established and well-known multi-line motorcycle dealerships in San Diego. She doesn’t ride and has no desire to do so. She claims her biggest demographic is the young enlisted men (Navy and Marines) who home-port in San Diego and want something inexpensive to ride while they’re not on deployment. She sells a lot of Hyosung’s and Kymco’s. At her other dealership, which mostly sells Yamaha and Polaris / Indian, young folks are more interested in dirt bikes than street bikes. I have waited now for many weeks and still do not get it , am I getting old ?
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(10-13-2020, 03:00 PM)pdedse_imp Wrote: the Husqvarna vitpilen 401...
my goodness that tail is...uh...um....ah heck, it's just plain...
...gly
you know, like something got cut off.
Youll get no argument from me there. I never could warm up to the looks of that particular one, but they're consistently sold out in the new rider market...so much so that they're hard as heck to find in stock.
Were going to be seeing a lot more bikes with "unique" anesthetics like that coming round the bend in the next decade, especially as electric bikes become more practical. In fact, the rise of electric bikes is probably going to be the thing that gets more young people riding, for one simple reason: no clutch.
We all think of that as anathema to a good time, but for a lot of young new riders its the biggest barrier. They just dont want to learn a manual transmission. Theyre intimidated.
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(10-13-2020, 03:00 PM)pdedse_imp Wrote: the Husqvarna vitpilen 401...
my goodness that tail is...uh...um....ah heck, it's just plain...
...gly
you know, like something got cut off.
Yap
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(10-13-2020, 10:29 PM)misterprofessionality_imp Wrote: (10-13-2020, 03:00 PM)pdedse_imp Wrote: the Husqvarna vitpilen 401...
my goodness that tail is...uh...um....ah heck, it's just plain...
...gly
you know, like something got cut off.
Youll get no argument from me there. I never could warm up to the looks of that particular one, but they're consistently sold out in the new rider market...so much so that they're hard as heck to find in stock.
Were going to be seeing a lot more bikes with "unique" anesthetics like that coming round the bend in the next decade, especially as electric bikes become more practical. In fact, the rise of electric bikes is probably going to be the thing that gets more young people riding, for one simple reason: no clutch.
We all think of that as anathema to a good time, but for a lot of young new riders its the biggest barrier. They just dont want to learn a manual transmission. Theyre intimidated. That's a great point about the clutch and shifting. Close to 98% of new cars in the US are automatics. If a CVT trans or other automatic is ever successfully adapted to a 250-750 size bike, it would be a huge selling point. DCTs are close, but expensive and not so smooth.
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[url=https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTvFxuDhO4QZeNm51tWoHvViMs2xldAXHNplA&usqp=CAU]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/image...A&usqp=CAU
701
Sorry I can't figure out how to get this pic on here but I believe this version, while not ideal, has a better "tush" than the 401.
As far as young folks and bikes, I just don't see it. I employ about thirty young folks. Mostly in the 20-25 year old range. No talk of bikes unless they are trying to have a conversation with me about them. And I can tell you they know nothing about bikes. In fact one called my CBR300R a "hog". They just have no interest in anything that is not dealing with their phones and instafacetweetchat. It's sad really.
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pekingduck ' Wrote: [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?pid=278238#pid278238] If a CVT trans or other automatic is ever successfully adapted to a 250-750 size bike, it would be a huge selling point. DCTs are close, but expensive and not so smooth.
You hit the nail on the head. Honda had two low displacement dct bikes that sold horribly because they had no cool factor, cost way too much, and came in ADV and Cruiser formats, both of which young people have no interest in.
They have a cvt in the super cub but thats just too small for the price.
Honda seems to be the only ones interested in making smaller clutchless bikes though.
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I don't have any kids myself, but I have friends with kids, and young coworkers (A girl here at work just called me her "Work Dad" this morning for helping her with her car).
When they ask me to help them get into motorcycles, I usually hear about Ninjas and Gixxers. When I try to curb their enthusiasm for a bike that would be too much for them to handle out of the gate, some of them just go ask someone else.
Those who stick around to listen to my advice about finding something cheap to learn on look at standards like SV650s or KLR650s. They look at my CB and my Triumph and say "Those are cool, but they are old man bikes".
As for the Husky, I'd take the 701 any day of the week. Just not now... I'll wait for a used one after someone takes the hit on the dealer price.
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