Page 28 - Riding On No.157 Summer 2022

Why Australian Riders Join Bike Clubs:

Part 2, Making Sense of the Data

YEAR AVERAGE KLMS
2010 3,700
2012 2,700
“The Ulysses Club Inc. did not commission this research; have done so already.
however, we consider its content interesting and may be of Ulysses went through 2014 2,800
benefit to the Membership. Ed.” a ‘Baby Boom’ growth
period, but the bust is 2016 2,600
Scott Koslow Professor, Macquarie University inevitable. And when that 2018 2,600
happens, it will look like a
In the last edition I wrote an article reviewing some data I have drop in membership. 2020 1,900
regarding Australian motorbike riders’ interest in motorbike
clubs. To set the four issues in that article in context, I also want We’ve seen a COVID
to review motorbike riding in general and suggest that what’s effect on bike sales and riding. When Australians couldn’t
happening to Ulysses is a function of the normal lifecycle of travel overseas, people were looking for domestic tourism
riding in general. opportunities and dirt-bike sales went way up. However,
dirt-bikes appeal to a younger target market, not so much
There’s no shortage of riders out there in Australia, with well to potential Ulysses members. COVID travel restrictions also
more than a million motorbike license holders, but the majority impacted riding for a while (dropping to 1,900 klms per year for
don’t own a bike. Over the last decade, bike riding is way down 2020 by ABS stats), so many older riders may have just given up
too. The Australian Bureau of Statistics keeps track of the riding early and not renewed their Ulysses memberships.
average number of kilometres riders do each year. Here are the
stats: Some opportunities for Ulysses are that there are more current
riders out there who want to join clubs than there are riders
Not only are people riding less, riders are also getting older, and who are already in clubs. However, this survey was not specific
once they get to a certain stage of health, they stop riding; even to Ulysses, so I don’t know whether Ulysses is viewed positively
though they may enjoy it. Although many young people are or not, how people choose what club to join, or even whether
learning to ride, they aren’t sticking with it much. About only a riders have ever heard of Ulysses.
quarter to one-third of all riders who get their “L” go on to their
“P”. Then they continue to drop out of the sport for a variety Although I suspect most active Ulysses members enjoy the
of reasons, and, as a marketing academic I spend a great deal company of their fellow members, there are other reasons to
of time trying to figure this out. Membership in bike clubs is join a club. One includes to “show-off”. Although, the knee-
associated with riding more, but is this cause or effect? Is it that down method of showing off doesn’t seem to fit Ulysses riders;
only “big riders” think about joining a club, or that being part of ‘showing off’ ones carefully restored classic Ducati/Harley/etc.
a club leads to people riding more? may be. A rally may be another good way to show-off. We need
to think about whether showing off is a good reason to be part
Of current riders, many have ridden all their life, but just as of our club and if so, how we can best provide that.
many have had a significant break from riding at some point in
their riding career. The movement in and out of riding is normal, Finally, WebPages are surprisingly important. When I asked
and a key situation is the initial decision to take up riding. For riders to list the clubs they were in, many were just Facebook
half of all riders just getting into bikes for the first time, their pages. Riders like to read forums and be part of groups to talk
motivation is to “look cool” on a bike, and often, they don’t seem about bikes on the web, that is, type bike not just speak bike.
to like riding much. Once they get riding out of their system, My Branch has an active Facebook group, but we need to think
they leave bikes never to return (interestingly they’ll never let about the role of WebPages and social media in our club.
go of their bike license). However, the other half of riders who
actually like riding still leave for various reasons. Most of these Although Ulysses’ decline in membership has multiple causes, I
folks do eventually want to return to riding; but do they do so? hope my articles provide some framework for further discussion.
Can Ulysses play a part in that process? It’s not realistic that we can (or should) get back to the level of
membership we had at our peak, but we can still serve members
There’s also a big ‘Baby Boom’ effect on who rides, and it’s had well for decades to come.
a big effect on Ulysses’ membership. ‘Baby Boomers’ are those
born between 1946 and 1964, and when the birth rate was over Scott Koslow #68722
twice what it was before that period and after. So there are a
lot of ‘Boomers’, and many ‘Boomer’ riders often stopped riding Email: scott.koslow@mq.edu.au
when they got married and had kids and a portion of them then
started again after the kids were grown. In fact, they made Webpage: https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/scott-
up a huge growth in active riders in the first decade of this koslow
century. However, ‘Boomers’ are now getting past riding age and
probably all of those ‘Boomers’ who will be returning to riding

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