Average biker age up nine years to 49 since 2001 - KOTA Territory News

Average biker age up nine years to 49 since 2001

A global research firm finds the biker population is, on average, almost over the hill. And that average is up almost 10 years in less than a decade.

The average age of a motorcycle owner at the end of 2010 was 49.
 
"I think it's getting younger, because there's more and more younger people getting into it," said Mike Kitzmiller, a 57-year-old Pennsylvania rider.
 
But according to J.D. Power and Associates, the firm that conducted the survey, the average biker is nine years older than in 2001.
 
"Back in the late '60s and through the '70s," said Black Hills Harley-Davidson general manager Terry Rymer, "there was a giant influx of people riding motorcycles."
 
Which is one reason he thinks he's seeing an older crowd now.
 
"What we do see is a lot of customers that are coming in that the kids are gone now out of college and it's more affordable to them," Rymer added.
 
To fellow riders, that can be a mixed bag safety-wise.
 
"The older you are," said 36-year-old Julie Allen, who rode in from Washington state, "the more wise you are, the more careful you are, the more life experience you have, smarter choices you make."
 
"Older biker if he has the experience, I think," 53-year-old Ohio biker Debbe Adgate said. "Not an old person trying new. I think I would be nervous."
 
And maybe with good reason.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds more than half of riders killed in accidents in 2010 were over age 40, double the rate fifteen years earlier.

But that also corresponds with a doubling in overall fatalities and a general increase in ridership.
 
"Anybody that starts something new is going to be inexperienced," Kitzmiller said.
 
That's exactly what bike companies are trying to do: get younger people to start riding to keep the sport alive as Boomers leave the roads.
 
"I think there's plenty of people taking a look at motorcycling," Rymer said, "but sure, it's important to get a younger rider to sustain the future of motorcycling"

Two years ago also marked a dramatic decline in the number of motorcycles sold in the U.S.

According to the Motorcycle Industry Council, just 650,000 bikes were purchased, down from 1.1 million two years before.