Page 22 - RidingOn156 SPRING 2022
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Why Australian Riders Join Bike Clubs:


        Part 1, Some Survey Results




         “The Ulysses Club Inc. did not commission this research, however, we consider its content interesting and may be of benefit to the
         Membership. Ed.”
         Scott Koslow
         Professor, Macquarie University
         Ulysses is unfortunately faced with declining membership. Some might wonder if we may not be delivering what riders need. There
         is, however, an assumption that growing membership numbers are always good and falling numbers must be reversed. Yet to
         understand the problem—if indeed there is one—depends on what riders want in a club and that’s where some research I’ve done
         lately fits in.
         To better understand motorbike club membership, I went back to a survey I developed a couple years ago. I’m a professor at
         Macquarie University and in Q3 2020 I collected data from 878 Australian motorbike riders. I’ve used this data to inform a teaching
         simulation that I developed for Macquarie University, where I teach marketing strategy. Students are allocated to various major
         motorbike brands and have to figure out how to sell more bikes—and a computer model allocates sales numbers. However, I also
         included in the survey questions on motorbike club membership. There were four main themes which I’ll explain and then next
         edition I’ll discussion those themes.
         The first theme is that being member of a bike club is associated with being an active rider. In my data, about two thirds of the
         respondents were current active riders, 19% had full bike licenses but didn’t ride anymore and 15% had gotten a motorbike “L” but
         chose not to get their “P”. I asked about their club membership status and active riders are more interested in bike clubs:



                                              ACTIVE     NON-ACTIVE RIDERS          DID L’S BUT CHOSE NOT
           CLUB MEMBERSHIP STATUS             RIDERS        WITH FULL BIKE               TO GET THEIR P
                                                                LICENSE
         Member of a bike club                 22.5%
         Used to be a member                   18.7%              10.6%                        3.9%
         Not a member but would like to be     24.2%              13.1%                        20.8%
         one
         Not interested in a bike club         34.6%              76.3%                        75.4%

                                               100%               100%                         100%


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