A New Service Trying to Disrupt Motorcycle Rentals

I read recently about a service that is called Twisted Road.
Their idea is to disrupt the motorcycle rental business by having people like you and I be willing to rent our motorcycles out to others.

I decided I had to check them out and spent some time reading all of their rental FAQ's.

I am unsure of how you would feel about renting out your motorcycle to someone you don't know.
There are lots of people that I know that ride, very few that I will throw my keys to, and I am sure you are probably equally as protective.

There are a lot of things on and not on their website that concern me.

If you read their FAQ's, they constantly say "we intend to".

Begin Quote" If someone rents out my bike and drops it, will I be paid for the damages
Yes. Twisted Road intends to cover the damages up to the value of the motorcycle, or $15,000, whichever is lower. For example, if your bike’s value is $4,500, and the bike is totaled, we intend to pay you for the value of the bike, or $4,500." End Quote

Those words, intend to, mean that I would be out. Promises that are vague like this do not instil any confidence in me.

Let's look at some of the other challenges that this concept has from the owner's side:

#1 - Many people don't treat their own bikes with the care and concern I treat mine with. Do you really want someone with a different riding style from yours riding your motorcycle? That's an emotional decision only you can make, but remember, unlike a rental bike that never gets used to one rider (by that I mean the wearing patterns on the drive train that are caused by how you get on the throttle etc.) your motorcycle probably is conditioned to your riding style and an alternate riding style can affect the way your bike runs long term.

#2 - Yes you are gaining some money, but does the rental money you would gain actually cover the real costs of riding like wear and tear on tires, brakes etc. They have no limit on mileage and don't mention a mileage fee that I can see anywhere.

#3 - Breakdowns, what happens when a stator goes, or some other part while it's being rented? Who pays for the repairs and what guarantee about quality of parts is there?

#4 - Services. So your bike is rented for two weeks and buddy puts on 5K, is he responsible for the oil change, brakes if they need replacing etc?

#5 - You make 70% of the rental fee and don't get paid for a week AFTER the rider is done. I don't like that, do you?

#6 - I know when I rented a bike in Ireland, my insurance did not cover me on the rental bike when I crashed, so I'd have a real concern with this company relying so heavily on rider's individual insurance.

#7 - I doubt that if YOUR insurance company found out you were making money by renting out your bike, that your insurance wouldn't be cancelled. I will almost guarantee that it will be cancelled or you will be forced to get commercial insurance. No where on their website do they suggest that you talk to your insurance company before you join.

#8 - What if I decide to cancel the rental because I don't like the rider?
Will I be sued? That's not addressed on their site.

# 9 - What if they crash and sue me for providing a bike that is not up to par?
That's not addressed on their site.

# 10 - They allow you to take someone's motorcycle out of country (US - Canada) - REALLY? Have they checked with the border?  I doubt that would fly...

Let's look at some of the challenges from the renter's point of view:

#1 - How well maintained is the bike I am going to rent? Am I going to get stuck renting something that needs neck bearings or other repairs? Am I on the hook?

#2 - If the owner can cancel up to 24 hours before hand, who protects me and my vacation?

I am not a fan of this idea. There are just too many issues that can arise.

I like the idea of renting from companies like EagleRider Calgary.
They maintain their fleet. I only have to deal with their company, they can protect my vacation because if something happened to their ride, they have resources that Twisted Road would not have.

EagleRider Rentals are available world wide and I don't have to worry about insurance issues.

Those are my thoughts, what say you?

Have a fantastic day,
Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider

PS - Remember to nominate your favourite community at www.riderfreindlycontest.ca

Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest - Supporting our Community!

We are awful excited that in its third year, Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest has seen an explosion in nominations.

Thanks to our relationship with Community Futures, this contest is beginning to really gain traction and we are so grateful to them for their support and love of small towns, small business and entrepreneurs!

Riders it seems are catching on!
So are communities and community leaders.

Helping smaller communities that don't usually get a whole lot of fanfare for what they do right in the game of tourism is a really gratifying thing for our whole team.

In all we and our media partners giveaway over $60K in marketing to the winning communities and provide a way for all communities that consider themselves Rider Friendly to get some attention and notice!

Belt Drive Betty Media is made up of contractors who live a motorcycle life.

We are so thrilled to support our sport on so many levels, helping to promote the CMDRA, helping to promote every charity and non profit ride that we can, every small business event, riding club event...for free in most cases - it's part of our mandate, our mission if you will!  We give back into the community we make our living from.

We promote adventure riding, motocross and anything else that our readers submit to us, and that they find interesting and engaging.  Through our events calendars, our newspaper, our contest and the Rider Friendly Business Association Community & Directory ....the community news and information we disseminate really is "Rider Powered News!"

We have some wonderful new media partners that we are now working with as well and this will only help raise Canada's visibility as a motorcycling destination of note!

Our New Media Partners:
Man Wants in the UK, the brand new Colorado Rider News and World of Motorcycling Pod Cast!
AND, our stalwart partners:
Northern Horizon Newspaper and Kick Stands Up on Reality Radio 101 with Lou DeVouono

We are working hard to spread the news and word about our great country and the amazing, unique and inspiring riding we have to offer, not just to international visitors, but to those in Canada too!

Visit our websites and see what we offer:
www.beltdrivebetty.com - International News

www.bustedknucklenews.com - Canadian News

www.canadianmotorcycleevents.com - EVENTS

www.riderfriendly.com  - A directory of businesses who are a part of the Rider Friendly Business Association, that want to serve riders and a community to connect with them.

www.riderfriendlycontest.ca - A contest to celebrate the communities that love riders.

www.motorcycletourism.ca - an Alberta registered non profit on its way to charitable status in Alberta and then looking forward to the two - three year journey to CRA status.
"We promote motorcycle tourism in Canada, the preservation/promotion of our rich military history & great customer service."

Our TV Show:
Ride Like a Local on EastLink TV and YouTube

Hope you'll check out Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest and our current champion - Port Alberni - Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community from the 2016 riding season.

#RiderFriendlyContest

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

Fundraising, Accountability & Becoming a Registered Charity

There has been a lot of talk going around regarding a man named Myles MacDonald and his fundraising endeavours. Myles has a private foundation called ourwoundedwarriors.org he funds it from items he sells that he creates from art he has created. He also accepts donations from the general public.

Because his is a private foundation, there is no real accountability.
It's not illegal what he's doing, but it is questionable. The Legion is looking into his use of the poppy and there are many who are going after the man viscously because they believe him to be a user.
I spoke with the man, I was curious and wary because of the whole ourwoundedwarriors.org thing.

I'm not so sure the man is a con, or that he's doing anything wrong, but there's no way to prove that he's doing the good things he states unless you want to spend hours on the phone. It's easy to surmise he's doing something wrong just based on the name he chose to use. His way of doing things makes accountability tough and in the non profit and charity world, accountability is everything.

I've experienced people complaining about me and where do the funds I/we raise go, our non profit has never made a ton of money but when it has raised anything, the donations were given very publicly to ensure people knew we were helping out in our community.  Like the over $4K we raised for Kate MacEachern, we donated it to her at the Royal Canadian Legion in Leduc - in cash the day after our event at a public presentation and had pictures to prove it.  Some of the people we helped, like a man in southern Alberta 18 months ago or so, whose wife just recently passed - we were donated an electric scooter, she had need of it, we did the driving from Kamloops to Calgary to deliver it. We never made anything out of it, because he and his wife are private people, it just felt good to make a difference.

Right now we have a donation that just came in, the Jouse 2 controller one of those tools that allows people to use their breath to do many things for them when they are paralyzed and we have a lift for a handi-van that can be used for converting a van into a wheel chair accessible van to donate.
The veteran we had intended to support with it did not want it. We were $25,000 short in our fundraising efforts to build him a wheelchair accessible scooter and instead acquired this lift that is in amazing shape. Sadly, the veteran felt so deflated that he's all but quit talking to us.  It's a hard bitter pill to swallow when you can't make something a reality. That doesn't happen to me often, especially when I am working to help someone else.

We have made one huge project a reality and because of our hard work, the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association has just taken over the Afghanistan War Monument & Veterans Memorial Gardens Project here in Grande Prairie officially.

Our Peace Arch, memorials, monument and concrete pad and solar street lights are ALL 100% PAID FOR!  As project lead that is something I am very proud of.  Phase 1 of this enormous project is in the ground and paid for, on time and on budget!

Now that Veterans Affairs has accepted the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association as keeper of the project, we have registered and are waiting on approvals to become an Alberta Registered Charity. It does not give us CRA status, but what it does do is: ensure our board goes through a criminal record checks and helps the public feel better about supporting us because they will be able to find us on the Service Alberta Website as a Charity.  It means that our fundraising materials have been vetted and that we are "cleared" essentially to ask for people to donate.

It also helps us learn about governance and charitable reporting and helps us grow as we work towards CRA status.

It's not hard to register, but many organizations don't know that if they plan on hitting $25,000+ in donations that they need to be a registered charity business in Alberta.

It's $60 for the fee, some paperwork and you mail in the application. It takes about 3 weeks for the process.

We hope that our registered charitable status in Alberta is finalized around the end of the first week in February.

Raising money for charitable causes/projects is a big responsibility.

You need to make sure you do the reporting the way people want you to - like the donations we got from the Legion's Poppy Fund (several Legions contributed).  We were given $16,500 towards our monument project that needed to be paid to the monument maker in one lump sum to ensure that the Legion's knew their money went to the right place.

It is very important that one takes care of those things the way the donors ask and so...

This photo proves that we made one payment of $16,500 to Sunset Monument & Stone in Calgary.

Our donor, the Royal Canadian Legion's of northern Alberta (District 1) are happy, and so is our monument maker!

Our project has grown to involve more than gardens and points of interest, it will involve a small museum, a gift shop etc...

It will hopefully be completed by 2020-2021 and then we intend to enter the Communities in Bloom Contest for Memorial Gardens.  We are going to put our gardens and monument on the map and ensure that every veteran who rides WANTS to come to Grande Prairie to experience our little piece of sacred ground.

www.motorcycletourism.ca is our new website.
You can watch there for all kinds of things our organization has decided to become part of!

In the meantime, Community Futures, the Rider friendly Business Association and the  Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association are proud to present Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Contest - we are looking to find the community that treated the riding community the best last year. (2017)

Nominate your favourite community to ride to, to live in as a rider...

Have a great day everyone...
Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider


Here is the Powerpoint for our Project - Veteran's Memorial Gardens

The 2018 Calgary Motorcycle Show

The 2018 version of the Calgary Motorcycle Show is now in the history books.

In all it was a well-attended show but the ravages of the economy over the last few years in our industry sure showed.

Harley-Davidson

Businesses that one expected to see there like Torch Motorcycles, no longer exist and businesses that have been present in the past just can’t afford them at the moment.

Attending a tradeshow is a VERY expensive proposition and while it is vital that the business community market itself, many just can’t afford it thanks to the economy.

Harley-Davidson

The Motorcycle Show really doesn’t have many choices as to potential locations they could move to in an attempt to bring down pricing.  There simply are no buildings in the Calgary region that are large enough or provide the equipment that is needed to host it.

Its disappointing really because the community has so many businesses and groups that really need and deserve the exposure that being out in front of 25,000+ eyeballs can offer.

The show itself was well run as always. Laurie and Brittany do a fantastic job and had lots of media of all kinds, which brought the consumers out, but there were a number of members of the Calgary Stampede show staff that let them down.

Honda

There is a new policy the BMO Centre has in place regarding entrance at doorways.  Only one doorway is open in the back hallways where vendors come in and every vendor, regardless of where their booth is located must enter through door 6 – in the dead centre of the hallway/building. Talk about inconvenient if your booth is in a far corner of the building.

The same policy is in effect for the public.

Everyone must come in through the main doors – ONLY.

The policy is not very friendly to either consumer or vendor. Bottle necks & plugged aisle ways means it takes vendors a long time to get back to their booth if they use the vendors lounge for a meal. It’s really a silly policy and as I said before, it’s one more reason why vendors are not returning to the shows. I provided the show staff with the feedback and I hope others have as well.

The show itself had a lot of variety of marques on hand with lots of new products and new models.

A new motorcycle shop in Calgary, Ill Fated Kustoms had a great display on hand and Kenny, the engineer/builder reminded me a lot of Chika. The same unassuming, humble personality that comes to life the minute he starts talking motorcycles.

As always the Ground ‘N’ Gravity Show enthralled all show goers who attended. While watching these athletes perform you will find yourself holding your breath.

Ground 'N' Gravity Show

SHE Rides Night on Friday had 451 women who took provided by Canadian Kawasaki. Betty Jo of Edmonton was the lucky winner.  There were over 1000 entries to the new Kawasaki Double Take draw and a very large excited crowd gathered at 4:00pm on Saturday to hear if their names were called.  Andy from Crowsnest Pass and Chad from Calgary were the 2 lucky winners of the Kawasaki Z125 motorcycles.

The Motorcycle Shows are a much-needed break from winter and the manufacturers and major parts and clothing wholesalers did a really good job of making their booths inviting and having lots on hand to see.

Oh and MINI DONUTS arrived to the Motorcycle Show in Calgary and for some, that is reason enough to get off the couch and come out!

From my desk to yours, my home to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Holidays.

As we get ready to celebrate the winter solstice and all of the holidays around the world like Las Posadas, Saint Stephen’s Day and Holy Innocents day I reflect on the year gone by and the year ahead.

As I look back at 2017, I realize that I have been going through a painful rebirthing, envisioning of who I am, who could I be?

I experienced a ton of change in 2017, after 45 years of smoking cigarettes I am almost 1-year cigarette free. (January 2^nd is the anniversary.)

My good friend Blair died earlier this year. He was the road captain on that fateful day when I hit a road boil and crashed and had another bike hit mine from behind. 

I am not looking forward to discovery in February. It will bring up the memories of Blair, the sadness I feel at his departure from this side of the grass.  It will also bring up the frustration I feel over being sued by someone who hit me from behind, who was following too close.  

The frustration I feel over a police officer that did not do his job and never sent me a subpoena so I had no idea what date, time or city court was in.  The fact that I have a letter of apology from the RCMP officer offers little comfort, as I now have to relive that day and that whole horrid affair all over again. ARGH….

In May of 2017, PTSD started kicking my ass again, HARD. I did all of the survival things that I know to do to keep it at bay, under control, under wraps, I succeeded most of the time and failed miserably a couple of times. 

And that brings me to some people that I am hugely grateful for.

My contractors.  Yes, my family too, but today it’s the people who work with me I want to talk about…I am grateful to them and for them for so many reasons.

I have an injury that no one else can see, and sometimes I come across pretty impatient, harsh and intolerant with my tone of voice.  Sometimes my volume goes up and the aggression comes out and then the tears start to flow – tears of frustration at not being able to let nice Renee out.

For these people to keep hanging in there with me, through the ups and downs, well a girl can’t feel much more gratitude than I do right now.  I have come so close to losing everything I have worked all my life for, including my sanity, thanks to PTSD.

PTSD is hard to explain because no two people truly experience it the same way.

My triggers are someone spitting in my face while they are talking/yelling at me, the color orange when I feel threatened or vulnerable, someone coming at me from behind, unsecured loads, fire…there are a few others but these are the most important, the most hurtful of all of the triggers because they can spiral me into a pit of despair so fast.  These are my least controllable triggers.

In May I had a disagreement with someone who reminds me a lot of my mother.

My mother is a huge contributor to my hidden injury called PTSD.

Anyway, the relationship I had with my mother was love/hate.

It was stormy, and at times violent.

This happened on May 4^th, the anniversary of Fort Mac, I was already fragile, but I knew if I got away from the TV and radio and all of the accounts and documentaries and threw myself into something I am wildly passionate about I’d be OK.

Once at the monument site, I had this person that was yelling at me about something she knew nothing about, she was doing it in front of a crew of construction workers, many in orange safety vests as she was spitting in my face while yelling.  I triggered hard. I was vibrating from head to toe, shaking like a leaf, and I asked this person 3 times to “PLEASE get out of my personal space”. The fourth time I didn’t ask, I yelled at her calling her some very choice, un-lady like names and ran to my car.   I drove out of the parking lot too fast, to a safe place about 2 blocks away and stopped the car. The waterworks were just flowing.

My heart was hammering, my mouth was dry, my ears were ringing, and my palms were wet. It took me a good half hour to get a grip on myself.  I went back to the job site and thankfully she and her vehicle were gone.  The rest of the day went uninterrupted, but I felt my embarrassment and I also felt the embarrassment of these men who were volunteering their time to help me at the monument site, having to witness this altercation, it was truly mortifying.

All summer long I battled the dark thoughts, the self-destruction, the pulling back from life and finally I sought out a business coach I know.  With her help, I started re-carving a path forward for my business and me.  The PTSD still weighs heavy on my brain, but having her to talk to and guide me, motivate me, understand and support me – WHEW – HUGE. So Holly Sorgen of EmPower Up, thank you for being such a kick assed business coach and holding my feet to the fire to perform and show up.

Susan Healey – for 12 years of the 15 I’ve been running this business, this gal has become my friend, my sister, and my anchor.  It’s so funny – this quiet, unassuming human being can whip my ass into shape over my tone or the way I say something or react to something like no one else can.  I almost need to be paying her fees for therapy because she sure helps me. I know there are times that if she didn’t need this job she’d have left me, but I am so grateful she’s stuck it out.

Grateful that today we have the kind of relationship where she is helping to prepare me to be a boss, a manager of people. That thought alone used to terrify me, that’s why I had a hard time growing this thing.

Her patience, perseverance and quiet unassuming way coupled with the knowledge that she is always there for me to bounce things off of, to vent to, so that I can think clearer…yes, without Suzie I am not sure where I’d be, but it wouldn’t be as the editor of a newspaper for motorcyclists that’s for sure. I’d have given up a long time ago.

Then there’s Dave T.  Dave has been with us three years now and his passion and dedication for helping all of the charity events, big & small across the nation get added to our calendars and promoted on Facebook is nothing short of a blessing.

Dave also has the patience to deal with my invisible injury.  He is not afraid to let me know if I cross a line, he’s kind but firm about it!

And last but not least there is Rhonda, my one and only sales rep; Rhonda is the president of RAGE in Saskatchewan and also has PTSD.  She was run over by a drunk driver in an SUV and was pinned under that SUV - ON HER MOTORCYCLE. Along side her many physical injuries, PTSD is one of her most painful and challenging to manage injuries too.

Rhonda’s PTSD reacts different from mine – where I knee jerk and generally become hurtful with my mouth, Rhonda turtles, pulls inside her self.

She drives me crazy, challenges the hell out of me, and forces both of us to be more compassionate with one another. Hidden injuries are hard to deal with in others, even when you yourself suffer from a hidden injury. Ask any veteran.

We are a team, as dysfunctional as any family can be, but as tight as any family can be.   As I sit back and reflect on a year filled with ups and downs, smiles and tears, I can see the perfect balance these people bring to my life, my business and me.

My only hope is that I bring value to theirs as well.

My team of contractors balances me out; they hold me accountable while understanding that PTSD is not always “controllable”.

Sometimes you have to ride it out. 

The fact that they get it makes me feel blessed and special.

I am not sure why I deserve their loyalty and friendship, but I am grateful for it and hope they know I have their six and that they are part of my extended family, and are loved and appreciated even when it doesn’t seem so.

I hope that as you reflect back on your year that you can count many blessings and I’ll bet as you examine all of those blessings, a person is attached to them somewhere!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all the best to you and yours in 2018!

Belt Drive Betty,

Editor & Rider

You Live in the Land of the Zombies and yet YOU Want to Lane-Split?

The Zombie Apocalypse is here just incase you missed it. No there wasn't a horrific invasion, there was no violence or bloodshed either.

In fact, the people who have become zombies, it would appear, did so willingly.

Texting while you walk, while you drive, while you have meetings and right after you have sex.

Looking down, oblivious to the world around you, yes, you are a part of the biggest invasion in the world today, the Zombie Apocalypse.

There is a movement that began here in Canada a little over a year ago, wherein some motorcyclists are calling for the legalization of lane splitting.

I have ONE, only ONE huge objection to that....

NO ONE FOLLOWS THE RULES OF THE ROADS AS THEY EXIST NOW.

You know, without a doubt that your city has the stupidest drivers ever. You encounter them daily.

You know without a doubt that there are immigrants to this country who have gotten a license that should not have one, even in a smaller city like Grande Prairie we have them.
It's as if someone gets tired of doing their job and just gives these people licenses.

There are drivers both professional and unprofessional that are texting, reading, disciplining their kids, putting on make up, fighting with their spouses and closing business deals, all while driving

People don't just drive in their vehicles these days, they are too busy living their lives inside their cars, trucks, SUV's and vans to care about you and your life or your legal right to lane split.

Let's take a look at a few hard facts about the Canadian end of the human race:

#1 - People know drinking and driving kills and yet, they catch an average of how many drunks each year driving?  The stats from MADD here in Alberta? 1 in 5 people involved in a crash had been drinking. In 5 years 8,600 Albertans have been charged with impaired driving.

#2 - People have known that texting and driving is dangerous for a good number of years now, and yet according to Rate.ca: Distracted Driving is now the number one risk on Canadian roads contributing to 8 in 10 collisions.

#3 - We live in a country where we have a TV show called CANADA's WORST DRIVER - does that not tell you anything?

And you want to risk your life Lane Splitting, on your Motorcycle? Seriously?

I hope your ICE card is up to date and that you have your affairs in order. Let me ask you something....

Do you really think that you could educate enough drivers out there to make the risk worth it?
Do you really think that the guy who is stuck in traffic is gonna let your bike through?

Go drive down on the lower mainland of BC during rush hour and tell me if you really think that you want to risk your life that way.

The hot heads and road-ragers out there will tune you in in short order and they won't care if there is a law that would allow you to do that.

The video below is from Los Angeles, where Lane Splitting has been legal for years:

The rider in this video does not help his cause and is just as much of a hot head as the guy in the car and puts himself needlessly at risk.

And that my friends is the human race and you really want to risk your life to lane splitting?

Whatever floats your boat, but knowing the quality of people driving that I have encountered on the roadways of Canada, you won't be catching this gal lane splitting, legally or otherwise any time soon.

And that's what's on my mind today...

Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider

Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest:
You the riding community and our partners from the Rider Friendly Business Association and Community Futures of Canada help us find that community that made riders feel the most welcome during the 2017 riding season! Join us January 2nd, 2018 as the hunt begins.

The war is on!

There is a war heating up in Canada that has already been active in the US for a while and that is the war for your recreational dollars, especially if you are aged 25-39.

There are those in the motorsports industry that think that the market has shrunk because millennials aren't buying motorcycles, some who think this is just a Harley-Davidson problem and that other marks are doing well...

But what is really going on here?

We at Belt Drive Betty are on a mission to find out what Millennials are really thinking about motorcycles.

What are millennials riding and why?
If they aren't riding - why?

In doing the online research as to what the challenge seems to be for the manufacturers as to why young folk don't appear to be riding, I came across some interesting survey stats on millennial and the kinds and volume of vacations they take!

The American Society of Travel Agents recently did a survey of 1,500 travellers in the US between 25 and 39 years old. According to an article on the survey that appeared in the Boston Globe, they learned that 80 percent of those surveyed had taken a leisure trip in the past year.  In fact, millennial took more vacations in 2016 than any other generation! The numbers break down like this:
Gen x - those aged 40 to 51 took 1.8 vacations last year.  Baby boomers, ages 52-70 took 1.65 vacations per year and millennial?

2.38  vacations in 2016

Perhaps millennials have it right, the work life balance thing that is! Maybe from watching their parents and families stress and make themselves ill over things, they decided that vacations were vital, who knows, but it sure is interesting!

The millennial's reason for travel according to the article was to relax and connect.   "It matters who you go with, even more than where you are going."

At a recent Travel Alberta conference I attended, we learned that millennial want experiences.
They want different, off the beaten path, out of the norm kinds of experiences.

A very odd statistic that came out of the survey - millennial love cruising. ON CRUISE SHIPS.

Something else that is proving interesting, Millennials tend to use travel agents far more than their counterparts in other generations, and they are using them to enriched their experience, not just to handle the logistics.

Also in doing the research for future articles I learned that when things are measured through the eyes of insurance agents doing quotes, that millennials are in fact buying motorcycles but the kinds of motorcycles they are buying are 5-750 CC's because anything more in the power department ends up being a huge hike in insurance costs.

Yet another viewpoint of this discussion comes from Harley-Davidson themselves. In an interview with TheStreet newspaper, Harley-Davidson's CEO, Matt Levatich was quoted as saying:

Q. It's said that millennials aren't riding motorcycles, but I see them everywhere on bikes. Why are people wrong?

A. Number one, the ability to research this is difficult. There was an analyst report that referenced millennial ownership trends in new bike sales. You can't just look at new bikes. 
The used bike marketplace has 2 1/2 times the turnover of the new bike marketplace.
There are plenty of millennials riding motorcycles. It's up to us to inspire them to ride and engage with Harley-Davidson. As we look at an increased level of sophistication of our outreach, we look at psychological, life-stage and demographic trends to surgically grow riders, and Harley riders. We have to understand and meet customers where they are, whether they are millennials, Gen X, Gen Y, or baby boomers or generations yet to come. We have to shift from we build bikes to we build riders. End Quote

Revzilla had a very engaging article on attracting the millennial into the riding world, the big take away?

Millennials value experience over possession.

Yet another article, this one at motorcycle.com claims it is because Millennials are broke, but if that's true, why are they taking so many vacations?

Armed with this information, I can't wait to start interviewing younger riders and find out what makes them tick...are we old codgers  in for any surprises or will they still love the wind? The experiences that your motorcycle takes you to and through? The community the motorcycle creates, will they still embrace it and what about the charitable aspect?  Are they still going to love rallies or will they be riding for purely transportation purposes?

I have a lot of burning questions as we look for the answers to burning questions like, what will motorcycling look like in 10 years? 20 years?

If you have a millennial in your life, please invite them to answer some questions for me....I will be holding TV Interviews at the Western Motorcycle Shows - times and information for each show below.

And that's what's on my mind this fine day.

If you are blessed enough to be riding today because you live somewhere warm, with no snow, please send me a plane ticket....

Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider

To register to be interviewed at the Calgary Motorcycle Show:  http://goo.gl/7do5M9

To register to be interviewed at the Edmonton Motorcycle Show: http://goo.gl/bmJkjF

To register to be interviewed at the Vancouver Motorcycle Show: http://goo.gl/tzFQ4c

Looking forward to what we learn!!!!!!