If I were to start my radio station, this one would be on the playlist. A short song like most of the ones I listened to on WLS back in the day. They had to be short to get the song to fit on a 45rpm record. Lots of good music on those records, though.
I stumbled across this while looking for the Ducati video. It's an in-depth look at the shrinking number of motorcycles on the road. I didn't listen to all of it, but I heard the most obvious things I'd already thought about - cost, older riders aging out, and young people not willing to put their phones down long enough to learn to ride.
Since I didn't listen to the whole thing, I don't know if he addressed the issue of motorcycle dealers who don't want to deal. When I was shopping for a bike when I bought my Himalayan, I went to a couple of shops to see what was out there. I had read about the Honda NC700 and it looked like something I would be happy with. The dealer had one on the floor that was two years old but he wasn't willing to deal at all. Likewise, I looked at a Ducati Scrambler that was a year old and that guy didn't want to budge any on the price either. He called me up a couple of days later and said he'd knock off a few bucks but then he quoted me a price that added back in a $1,500 setup and dealer fee of some sort. I settled on the Himalayan at Speed City Cycle in Indy. He was willing to talk and make a deal like grown-ups used to do.
Royal Enfield has a nice line of bikes at very reasonable prices, by the way. Bikes that would be good for people just starting out, commuters and old farts like me who don't need the fastest thing on the street or that weighs 900 pounds. Mine's a little gutless for high-speed highways, but Itchy Boots rode hers halfway around the world.
If you want to get new riders on bikes, you should be willing to bend a bit on the price of the bike, especially if you've got one that's been gathering dust sitting on the showroom floor for a year or two. You can make your profit on accessories - helmet, jacket, gloves, Tee shirt - and service. Or you can go out of business like a lot of dealers have in the last few years.
I spent some more of my Soc. Sec. check on a new welding helmet and some replacement parts. My eye never fully recovered after surgery in January so I bit the bullet and got an auto-darkening helmet. I see double at certain distances and my depth perception is not what it once was. The new auto-darkening helmets have a much bigger viewing area, and better clarity when viewing the arc. This one has a button on the outside of the helmet you push when switching to grinding mode, so you don't have to lift your helmet to change modes. The shades run from 5 to 13, and it's a Chip Foose model, which won't help my welding ability one bit, but I like the HD color scheme.
The other items are a replacement cutting shield. It's a Jackson acetate #5. It's hard to find the acetate shields. Most of the ones you come across are polycarbonate which scratch easily. The high school kids would lay the shield down on the bench face down so the part you looked through would always get scratched up. The acetate ones last much longer. In my case, probably a lifetime.
I also bought some replacement clear lenses for my Miller helmet that take an oddball size plastic. The new helmet came with spares, so like the cutting shield, probably a lifetime supply.
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