Riding Will Always Be Bad-Ass and Fun

Both...and forever

My brother Ken recently sent me a link to a devastating story about the recent decline of Harley Davidson. It described something more than a decline, a catastrophic collapse-in-progress of one of the worlds most well-known brands.  

Another old riding friend of mine recently sent me a link (Thanks, Mark D!) to a popular vlogger’s video about how motorcycling is ending:

Bikes not selling, dealers closing, riders aging out, fewer young people getting into riding, etc. All the usual observations and laments. It is a well-done video which I scanned/watched with knowing interest. Aerostich is smaller than it was ten years ago, too, and we have a front row seat, but…

Although the vlogger who made this video is correct about how the motorcycling ‘cultures’ we lived and enjoyed is currently in a moderately rapid decline, which there are many reasons for, what it misses is that over the next fifty years another motorcycle culture will very likely arise in its place. It probably won’t look much like the one most of us have experienced and enjoyed, though. 

Predicting the shape of any future moto-culture isn’t something I’m any good at, but some clues are surrounding us already, including (but not limited to):

• Honda’s best-selling bike here in America last year and this year is the 300cc model which comes in three or four variations:  A not Street legal dual sport play bike, and also as a fully street legal version.
• Kawasaki is selling more bikes in America than Honda this year. First time EVER. Hopeful Honda still has a bit of Mr. Honda’s famous ultra-competitive bad-ass DNA and this development will motivate the heck out the crew at Honda. Maybe even to the point of American Honda bringing back some kind of riff on the well-remembered “You Meet the Nicest People…” ad campaigns from the 1960s. The times we are living in today might be right for that kind of message, again. What was once old might become new again. Today’s version of their pioneering Cub is a truly wonderful machine.
• All the world’s motorcycle manufacturers are making and selling all-new models with very strong globally compliant ICE exhaust emission controls, anti-lock brake systems, etc. Even the smallest engine sizes and lowest-priced models like the Cub are being (or have already been) entirely redesigned to incorporate these technologies. Motorcycle makers would not be spending the large amounts of money to do all the re-engineering of even their lowest-end bikes for a future they don’t think will exist. They have what most people would call lots of real ‘skin in the game’.
• Automatic gearboxes, lighted control buttons on the handlebars, high-tech dashboards, easily rider-controllable performance features, and better engine management controls and amazing fuel economy are all coming on fast. Everywhere. Not to even mention electric powered motorcycles. The American electric bike specialist Zero just relocated their company’s HQ from Santa Cruiz California to somewhere in Europe because that’s now where the majority of their sales are.
• Suzuki just entirely redesigned their long-time best-selling DRZ 400cc models (there are two versions of this model) because this bike is: A) one of their most important core products, and B) it needs to be legally sellable in all markets world-wide. The top-to-bottom re-do involved meeting much stricter standards that what we have here in America. It meant fuel injection and a catalyst in the exhaust, and more. The new DRZ has the same HP as before, weighs a few lbs. (kg’s) more, and now can be sold worldwide. They would not have done all this, spending big money to do it, if they thought motorcycling was ever going away.
• Ebikes (electric-assist bicycles) are selling very well. They are not motorcycles, but they are important because they are an easy entry “gateway drug” for all riding, and more specifically for motorcycles. They are as beneficially-addictive as any motorcycle. Their plusses = lower cost, no licensing test, and no registration and insurance needed. Minuses = lower speeds, not being super compatible with auto traffic and range limited. After seven years my fairly crappy ebike has accumulated about 8,000 commuting and errand miles, five to ten miles at a time. If I wasn’t already a motorcyclist, I’d have become one by now.

Summary: There is a good future for motorcycling, in America and world-wide, and the very smartest people with the largest stakes in this future are betting serious money this will be so. I agree with them. They are the biggest stakeholders in motorcycling’s future. Selfishly, I also suspect this future may be slightly more in alignment with some core things we have always prioritized in Aerostich products and marketing narratives: Utility, usefulness, function, comfort, safety, long-term durability…

The future of motorcycling-in-general is brighter than ever. There are some very bright lights at the other end of the tunnel we are currently riding through. The celebrations of long-distance testosterone-fueled endurance riding and (similarly) the wonderfully popular sanitized simulations of ‘biker’ styles many of us have enjoyed for decades are super cool, but these moto-subcultures will probably continue to weaken because many younger potential-riders don’t find them as compelling as we did. The same can probably be said for the luxe touring segment and the high-tech ADV bike worlds. These areas of motorcycling will continue, of course, and I love them as much as anyone, but they may end up as smaller niches within a much larger expanding moto-culture universe, one which is just now on the cusp of being created by younger riders looking for coolness and relief from the omnipresent dullness and boringness of screens and sealed cars.

The mainstream of the future of motorcycling will not look like the past, stylistically, but riding and motorcycles are likely to continue being popular, so long as there are people and roads. And if I could snap my fingers, make a wish, and suddenly 90% of all single-person car drivers would actively be riding motorcycles, bicycle and scooters, instead of passively sitting inside their cars, almost everything about how humanity works would soon be a lot better. Less Alzheimer’s and dementia, less psychological and emotional problems, a lighter environmental and energy footprint on the planet, calmer, more alert, more happier and more co-operative people. Everywhere. 

The historical accident of having 90% of the people across most of eastern Asia riding small motos, bicycles and scooters everywhere they needed to go in the decades after WW2 was the secret ingredient to how societies there functioned so well and grew so successful so rapidly, and how all this occurred under such a wide range of differing types of governments. After any society becomes wealthier, and you put everyone inside sealed cars and behind screens, with everyone thus being more generally alone and isolated from one another, and (importantly) more isolated from ‘nature’ (human and otherwise), that is when societies start to fall apart.   
 
Riding is good for you. It is well worth its risks and minor discomforts. 

Motorcycles, scooters and bicycles will always be bad-ass, and will always be tremendous fun, and will always be worth the challenges and risks, no matter what the styles and forms are. So six seven y’all and stay out of trouble.

- Mr. Subjective, Oct 2025