Number of Women Riders is Growing

Recent Survey Shows Shift in Rider Demographics

 

Ivine, CA (PR Newswire)- According to a recent survey, nearly 1 in 5 motorcycle owners in America is now female, compared with 1 in 10 less than a decade ago, based on data accumulated by the Motorcycle Industry Council. In fact, the data suggests that women may soon comprise ¼ of total motorcycle ownership in the U.S., a major shift in motorcycling demographics.

 

Among all age groups surveyed, women riders now make up fully 19% of American motorcycle owners. The survey showed the greatest growth among the younger generations, with Gen X women riders up to 22%, and Gen Y (Millennials) up to 26% female ownership.

 

“As the number of Boomer and mature motorcyclists shrink and are replaced by newer riders, we could soon be looking at a solid 25% of motorcycle owners being female,” stated Andria Yu, MIC Director of Communications. “We’ve seen with our own eyes many more women riders- on the roads, on the trails, on the track, with families, at motorcycling events, forming clubs and just being a part of everyday group rides. Many people in the industry have worked some 30 years to achieve this, and now the data confirms it: More and more women are getting out there and enjoying motorcycles.”

 

The MIC polled 2,472 adults nationwide for the 2018 Motorcycle/ATV Owner Survey. For decades, the MIC has served as the census board for American motorcycling, and they have tracked this steady growth in women owners/riders over the years. In fact, major efforts to invite more women into the world of motorcycling dates back to the late 1980s, when manufacturers and distributors formed the “Discover Today’s Motorcycling” initiative in an effort to encourage and introduce new riders to the sport. Cam Arnold, an industry exec and organizer of the “Women in Powersports” event last week in New York, stated “Throughout the 1990s and on till today, the big brands have dedicated increasing amounts of attention to the women’s market, and we’ve simply seen more and more positive imagery on TV, in movies, and in many mainstream settings where women on motorcycles are just having fun.”

 

Despite some studies that motorcycle ownership seems to have declined overall in the past 10 years, the MIC report indicated that motorcycling has actually grown in popularity and acceptance in American culture in recent decades, according to their survey. They found that 66% of women riders say their family and friends have a positive attitude toward motorcycles and scooters. Good news, indeed.

For more information on the Motorcycle Industry Council, visit their website: www.mic.org 

  

ProRider Atlanta- The Ultimate Rider Course

It is widely understood and acknowledged that motorcycle police officers are among the best trained and most proficient riders on the planet, in any country. The extensive and strenuous street training they undergo challenges the limits of man and machine. Very few police officers undertake the vigorous course. Fewer still successfully complete it. Yet those who do possess a skill level in riding virtually unknown to the rest of the motorcycling world.
Ken Anderson is one of those elite riders. With over 30 years experience as a motorcycle officer, including hundreds of hours of intensive training on multiple levels, and a seasoned police instructor himself, Ken has now brought this training to the civilian motorcyclist. ProRider Atlanta takes main skills taught and drilled into motorcycle officers and translates these into civilian format, to benefit the wider rider world.

I had the opportunity to participate in Ken’s ProRider class back in October, and the 8-hour course was one of the most challenging and rewarding I’ve ever undertaken. I took the course on my 1998 Yamaha Royal Star, since it’s equipped with front and rear highway bars in the event of a drop (which didn’t happen, I’m proud to say). I’ve always been very confident on the big Yamaha, having logged nearly 16 years and 90,000 miles on it. By the end of the day, I would come to realize how much more I and my bike are truly capable of.
Led by Ken and aided by Ken’s wife Patty, we were coached through riding tasks as basic as the proper way motor officers mount and dismount their bikes (from the right side, never the traffic side), how to correctly lift a dropped bike, and the safety reasons for always staying in gear while at stop lights. Ken taught then demonstrated proper clutch/throttle modulation, with Ken asserting, “The power of your motorcycle is not in the throttle, it’s in the clutch. You can twist the throttle all day, but the bike won’t roll forward until you release the clutch.” So, learning your clutch’s “friction zone” and how to manage your throttle and rear brake in unison with it, is key to improving slow control riding, obstacle avoidance, and negotiating tight cornering without resorting to “duck walking” your bike through parking lots.

We worked on the skills of clutch/throttle/rear brake management all day through a series of increasingly difficult cone courses, from simple cone weaving, quick lane change, deep & wide corner negotiating, and performing a complete “360” within a tight circle of cones. As we drilled these over and over, Ken would stop and give individual observations and instruction, as well as group debriefs before moving on to the next exercise. We didn’t master the techniques fully in one day (moto cops take months, even years to master the skills), but we each dramatically improved as the day progressed.

Ken also taught essential skills such as braking in curves, keeping eyes up and looking where you want to go, “not at your front wheel” as he calls it, and rear crash avoidance. We ended the day with a nerve-wracking exercise in emergency braking and escape, as in hard front/rear braking that results in a controlled tire skid and stop. We practiced this from 20 mph, then 30, then 40 mph, seeing the evidence of stopping distance in our skid marks. My Yamaha is not equipped with ABS or Traction Control like most other class participants, but I found I could stop in every bit the same distance they did after numerous runs, and wasn’t intimidated by my screeching tires as I came to a straight, controlled stop. Wow, and whew!

By the end of the day, Ken and Patty awarded each of us an official ProRider certificate of successful completion, which my insurance company has promised to honor with some discounts. Nice.
In all, this class pushed me beyond what I thought my limits were. I saw how much more riding control I am capable of, and how much more my bike is capable of as well. My confidence in my riding skills certainly has notched up a level.
*Oh, cool feature of Ken’s class- you can return to keep practicing the skills with subsequent classes, free of charge, for up to one year (subject to space availability in the class).
I highly recommend Ken’s ProRider Atlanta motorcycle course. Every rider should seek to improve their street skills. In my experience, there simply is no better instructor than a seasoned motorcycle officer. And Ken is the best of the best.

*For more info on ProRider Atlanta, click here- www.prorideratlanta.com
*Check out their Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/prorideratlanta/
*Photos by Phil Gauthier

Time Passages

 



Last month, my father did the unthinkable-he sold his motorcycle. It was a 2003 100-Year Anniversary Edition Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic. Beautiful bike, and he took immaculate care of it. Best of all, he rode the heck out of it, often with my mother riding pillion. So to see it go was hard, to say the least. But it was time. He’d been struggling with ill health in recent years, especially 2018, and turned 79 years old over the summer. He quipped, “The older I’m getting, the heavier this bike is getting.” He asked me to help him sell it, and it went to a good home- a former H-D mechanic, getting back into riding, who has a great affection for Heritages. Very appropriate.
I was saddened myself, because not only was this the passing of an era for Mom and Dad, it was a sort of “time passage” for me as well. We had pounded out many roads and road trips together over the past 13 years or so, logged many miles, made many memories. Precious few, even in motorcycling, can say they’ve ridden much with their fathers (or mothers), but I can, and I’m thankful.

 Dad grew up riding motorcycles, back in the 1950s. He owned a stripped/bobbed 1954 Triumph Tiger 500, and was the hooligan of West Roxbury, Massachusetts on it. He street raced, blasted through town with the baffles out, rode with a pack of rascals, preened on it for the gawking pretty girls, but kept his heart for one- My mom.
When Pop left for the Air Force, he sold the Triumph to a friend, who apparently wrapped it around a tree outside town, barely living to tell the tale. No pictures remain of the bike. Pop rode Cushmans while spending a year on Okinawa, then returned home to marry my mom, settle into a career in the airline industry, and raise three crazy, “wild at heart” boys down in “God’s Country” here in the South. He left motorcycles behind for many years, even while supplying us kids with trail and dirt bikes.
I took up street riding in 1996, and by 2005 Pop caught the bug again too. We fixed up a 1982 Yamaha 550 together, and after test riding it some, Dad decided to jump back in, this time on a Harley. First buying a 2006 Super Glide, then swapping for the Heritage (more comfortable for Mom), they both went all-in, decking out in all the best H-D gear, adding a bike trailer and toy hauler to the collection also.

 We rode all over the southeast together, and many of the famous routes down here- the Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, and Blue Ridge Parkway, to name a few. I’ve cherished every mile, every hour, riding with him across these years. He’s already experiencing “seller’s regret” understandably, grieving the steady passing of time, cursing the relentless marching of age. But it was time, they both acknowledge.
I guess I’m grieving too, selfishly, knowing our days of riding together are over. But I’m grateful to have ridden with them these years, and grateful my girls have inherited a love for riding, by the times they've shared with me on my bikes.
The guy who bought Dad's Harley? He told me how excited he is to take his wife riding with him, and hopes his daughters will fall in love with riding as well, on the back of that Heritage. As the saying goes- “One man’s sunset is another man’s dawn.”
Oh, Mom and Dad are talking about buying a golf cart now. A gas-powered one. With the big, knobby tires. Maybe raised white lettering. And an engine he can tinker with- maybe squeeze a few more horses out of? This could get interesting....

Indian Debuts FTR 1200 for 2019

 

Indian Motorcycle is shifting gears.

Since reopening for business in 2013, the legendary brand has targeted the tourer, bagger and cruiser crowd with their array of Chief, Chieftain, and Scout models. But with the runaway success of their vaunted FTR 750 flat track championship-winning race machines, the motorcycle world has been begging for and anticipating a street legal version. 

The wait is over.

 

Set for a 2019 release, Indian Motorcycle has introduced the flat-track inspired FTR 1200, a radical departure from their successful formula in recent years. The company had been hinting at a street version of their flat tracker since early 2016, with Indian R&D working hard to make good on the rumors. “We needed to make sure we delivered on the style of the FTR750,” international Product Manager Ben Lindaman said. “We had a world-wide focus group—we got a lot of feedback that the styling was right.” In our humble opinion, they hit the proverbial nail on the head.

 

The style, riding position, and aggressive tuning indicate Indian clearly intends to make a splash in the popular naked bike/streetfighter pond, well beyond the tried-and-true cruiser and classic tourer markets. Cycle World noted from the unveiling, “Peak power is claimed to be around 120 hp, and the torque curve shown at the press announcement is broad, with a slight double hump: an initial torque peak at a low 3,500 rpm, the slightest of valleys, and then a second peak at 6,000 rpm with 85 pound-feet.” The model’s slogan seems appropriate-

“Born on the dirt, Built for the street.”

 

From what we understand, Indian Motorcycle will offer the FTR 1200 in two iterations- the Standard and the S version. Standard will only be available in black, frame and bodywork, while the S will come in a variety of color combos, including the Indian Race red with white tank panels. Both will run with ABS, while the up-spec S will have a Bosch stability control system and multiple ride modes. Weight looks to be 488 dry.

Pricing will be $12,999 for the base model, with the S models ranging from $15-16,000, depending on paint scheme.

This bike will open new doors for the company. We fully expect to see more from this line in the years to come.

 

Taking the Long View

One of the skills we riders must consciously and constantly practice to stay sharp on our bikes is our situational awareness. Keeping focused while riding through ever-changing scenarios, constantly scanning our surroundings for potential threats, maintaining a “360 degree” awareness, are all vital street skills. Yet there are moments while riding that we can still experience a brief lapse in attention, can lose perspective for a moment in the saddle.

Nick Ianatsch of the Yamaha Champions Riding School trains hundreds of racers and street riders every year, and teaches an additional skill that I’ve added to my own survival arsenal. Ianatsch calls it “looking sooner, scanning back if necessary”. This entails periodically searching far forward while riding, casting your vision out as far down the road as possible, then drawing your gaze back to your immediate situation. This practice reorients the mind, resets focus, and broadens perspective while at speed.
 Kyle Wyman, MotoAmerica Superbike racer and YCRS guest instructor, describes the practice as “looking two steps forward, one step back...two ahead, one back.” Ianatsch further explains, “On the street, you look all the way through the freeway onramp to the traffic flowing or not flowing. You look not just around the canyon corner but skip your eyes to the road unwinding below you and see the radar trap on the next straight. You look past the green light and see the car leaving the gas pump and heading into your lane. Big picture. And then you bring your eyes back to the nearest probable issue.” 

Big picture. An apt descriptor. Every motorcycle riding instructor guides students to “get your eyes up”, “look farther”, and “go where you look”. All sound advice and good practice. But I’ve improved my “big picture” while riding by incorporating Ianatsch’s “look sooner” skill, which I’ve come to call, “taking the long view”. When I’m riding, I’ll force my eyes occasionally to look as “deep field” as I can, taking in every movement, every potential hazard and obstacle, every possible escape route, far out ahead of me. I certainly acquire a bigger picture this way. I find myself with a wider awareness, a calm centering, and a renewed concentration, as I ease my gaze back to the immediate. I often draw a deep breath and blow it out slowly in the brief process as well, adding to the reinforced control I experience.
Taking the long view certainly applies to life as well as riding. We can feel so overwhelmed in the course of our days, with events in the world as well as our own lives. Not only that, we often live soaking up a constant bombardment of information and stimuli, from which it is difficult to extract ourselves. Periodically “unplugging from the Matrix” as my wife calls it, and pushing our vision beyond our immediate to the distant to those things most important in the long run, can help us restore perspective.
 As a Christ-follower, I’m reminded of this frequently as I read the Bible. An example is found in Colossians 3:2- “Set your mind on things above (long view), not on things of this world (immediate view).” This helps center me in trying times, personally and when I look out at a crazy world.

So in riding and life, may we broaden our “big picture” and endeavor to “take the long view”. May you ride, and live, better for it.

Rob

 

Motus Motorcycles Closes Doors

 The most unforgettable bike I have ever ridden.

In a move that saw another American motorcycle company go under, Motus Motorcycles in Birmingham, Alabama announced their closure via Facebook over the Labor Day weekend. The announcement stated the company “is forced to shut down operations, effective immediately.”

The vision of building the ultimate American sport-touring motorcycle was birthed in the minds and hearts of Lee Conn and Brian Case 10 years ago, and Motus was born. The uniquely American notion of building a bike around essentially half a Corvette engine (their vaunted “Baby Block” MV4 1650) captured the imagination of the American motorcycling world, if not their wallets- the standard MST and sport MSTR fetching a rather whopping $30K-$36K, respectively.

The issue for any fledgling motorcycle brand is always cash to keep going and growing. Conn and Case wrote Friday, “This week, Motus financial backers unexpectedly informed management that they will not provide sufficient capital to maintain operations and grow the business.” After thanking their “Team Motus” for dedicating “so much of their hearts and souls to Motus”, the statement declared the founders “will work to quickly find a new path forward.”

Motus joins a litany of downed American brands in recent years, including Victory, Buell, and Brammo, among others. We at Born to Ride certainly hope Conn and Case can reopen the doors of Motus in the not-too-distant future.

PittRace Crazy for MotoAmerica

The racing was chaotic and crazy at Pittsburgh International Speedway this weekend, with crashes, red flags, and photo-finishes characterizing the championship series in all classes.
Saturday saw questionable conditions on the track due to adverse weather, and when the racing got underway, all bets were off as to who could master the track. In Superbike, Georgia’s own Josh Herrin battled to the front, and held the lead to the checkered against the Texan Garrett Gerloff and South African Mathew Scholtz. This was Herrin’s first win in five years, and the 2013 AMA Superbike champ commented, “I was on the podium when I suddenly realized this was my first Superbike win in five years! That’s a huge deal for me. I just put my head down and went for it.” Points leader Cameron Beaubier and 2017 champ Toni Elias struggled in the wet-to-dry track conditions, coming up 5th and 4th, respectively.

 In Supersport, Frenchman Valentin Debise snatched the Saturday win from Hayden Gillim and Bryce Prince, while class leader JD Beach struggled in the changing conditions, and finished an uncharacteristic 4th, one of the few times he is ever off the podium.
French Canadian and current points leader Alex Dumas took his seventh win of the season in Junior Cup, in a chaotic race that was red-flagged twice due to crashes.
The Twins Cup race was mastered by Jason Madama, taking his third podium of the season, in a near photo-finish run to the flag. Twins had also seen a series of crashes, with a red flag restart as well.
What a day.

 Sunday saw the return of an epic last-lap battle between protagonists Toni Elias and Cameron Beaubier, as the two swapped the lead and some paint until the checkered flag. Elias squeaked out the win by a mere .046 of a second over Beaubier, another definite photo-finish. Elias dedicated his win to the late Brian Drebber, beloved MotoAmerica race announcer, who died tragically on Thursday in a motorcycle accident, on his way to catch a flight to PittRace for the weekend.
JD Beach jumped back to the top of the podium Sunday in Supersport, in yet another red-flag shortened race for the weekend. With a 98-point lead over Hayden Gillim, Valentin Debise, and the rest of the field, and two race rounds to go, Beach looks to sew up the championship at New Jersey September 7-9. After the win, Beach quipped, “I’m not too sure that would have happened if we would have gone the full race distance, but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
Alex Dumas did the double in Junior Cup, after battling Renzo Ferreira until Ferreira crashed out of the race, as did Ashton Yates. Young Dumas holds a 64-point lead in the 300-400cc championship standings.

 Stock 1000 ran on Sunday, and Andrew Lee took his second win of the season, after claiming victory at Sonoma. Again, the class saw red-flags flying, and Lee took the win in yet another shortened sprint to the finish.
Whew, what a wild weekend. Stay tuned for more info on the two remaining rounds, New Jersey and Barber, and make plans now to join Born to Ride at Barber Motorsports Park for the climactic final round of the 2018 season, September 21-23.
Tickets- MotoAmerica.com
Race highlights- BeIN Sports USA on Youtube
Race reports- BorntoRide.com

Rob Brooks