On 6/3/2019 9:10 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 6/2/2019 9:48 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/2/2019 5:18 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, June 2, 2019 at 9:59:43 AM UTC-7, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 6/2/2019 10:30 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 6/1/2019 7:01 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/1/2019 4:46 PM, wrote:
On Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 9:42:59 AM UTC-5, sms wrote:
On 6/1/2019 3:02 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 2:22:45 AM UTC+2,
wrote:
On Friday, May 31, 2019 at 2:48:36 PM UTC-5, AK wrote:

*Â Â Â Â Â* Average age of a bicyclist killed on
US roads:
45 (36 in 2002)


Disregarding the "killed" part, this brings up a
question about the demographics of bicycling today.
Are all bicyclists getting older?Â* Is bicycling
becoming an older person activity?Â* Are youngsters
not
taking up cycling?Â* I have friends with children
in the
late teens and 20s age groups.Â* Some of the kids do
ride bikes.Â* But others, their kids do not ride.Â
Yet
they ride lots and lots.Â* I know on this forum some
people say their children or one child does ride.Â
But
how many on this forum have children who do not ride
ever?Â* Yet they do.

All kids in the Netherlands ride a bicycle at least up
to 18 years when they allowed to drive a car. Most of
the times they can't affort a car at that age so the
ride until they earn some money. After that they only
ride recreational or when it is more practical/faster.

"Back in my day" we didn't get driven around everywhere,
it was just
unthinkable that we would even ask to be driven
somewhere
fairly close
to our homes. We rode our bikes. Maybe if it was pouring
rain our
parents would drive us. The times I was driven to
elementary school,
about four blocks away were rare.

In the city I'm in now, it's extremely rare for an
elementary school
student to ride a bike to school. It's still fairly
common in middle
school and high school, but not at the level it should
be. Traffic
around schools is insane�even though most
students
could walk or ride a
bike, they are driven, and sometimes it's only one
block.


I'm not really talking about "kids" riding bikes during
elementary, middle, or high school.Â* I mean young
adults.
Or "kids" as I think of them, unfortunately.Â* Younger
people.Â* Is bicycling, recreational, fun bicycling,
becoming an older and older person activity?Â* Are fewer
and fewer young people doing the activity?Â* Thus making
the average age of the cyclist older and older.

I think that's the case, sadly. I think a huge chunk of
American's dedicated cyclists are still the ones that took
it up during the early 1970s "bike boom" when it was
trendy.
(Fashion is powerful.) Those people are now in their 60s,
perhaps 70s.

It's not 100%, of course. We have a new young couple
living
next door and they've got some very nice road bikes. OTOH,
they have a new little kid, so they won't be doing a
lot of
riding for a while.



So bicycles are basically skateboards for old people?

Maybe.

What do you see in your shop? Is business up or down,
long term? What
are the customer demographics?

As I recall, when I was in my 20s and 30s and hanging
around bike shops,
there were no 60+ customers buying nice bikes. In fact,
when one good
friend about 40 years old (a marathoner) bought a really
nice bike, we
thought he was really something.

Folks born around the turn of the century didn't view
bicycling as an adult activity. In the 60s, you were more
likely to see the 60+ crowd at a Moose Lodge. Success was
a Coupe Deville and not a Colnago.

True. But I think now, success is a really great phone and
lots of skin ink.



Unlike a telephone, irezumi last a lifetime.

Well, sorta...

https://www.boredpanda.com/tattoo-ag...aign =organic

And those are just a few years old.

One friend of mine got a tattoo on his forearm when he was in the navy
during the 1970s. At this point, I can't even tell what the picture is
supposed to be. I looks like an elongated bluish-black blob.


--
- Frank Krygowski