I went on my local Toy Run today. Had a great ride with a lot of bikes, ranging from a vintage Matchless outfit, through a TX 500 Yamaha, to all the Hardly Driveables and modern Trumpies. It also included three ST1100s and my 1300. The 1100s were interesting in themselves, as one was the grey original that we think was a test bike, and one of the others was a police special first registered in 2005. It apparently got left crated up in the back corner of a shed somewhere and forgotten for a while by the Victorian Police.
While wondering around looking at bikes and talking to riders, it occured to me that when I did a Toy Run or other mass ride thirty years ago, most of the riders were in our twenties and thirties. Today 95% were in their fifties, sixties, and seventies.
It is the same riders who were riding thirty years ago! There is very little new blood coming in because instead of being the cheap alternative bikes are now too expensive for young people, and I think licenses are now so hard to get that most don't bother. It is easier and cheaper to just get a car.
Enjoy your bikes for as long as you can- we may well be the last generation of riders.
