Students! Young People!
 

Hello All,
Just curious how many younger riders there are on here, students especially?

I've seen a few inspiring tales and not meaning to generalise too much, but I've met loads of younger riders that are lacking in ambition. This is made worse by the bike licensing laws in Europe, but it's still possible to ride abroad with either of the two lower categories of license (A1 and A2).

I've also spoken to people my age (23) who aspire to motorcycle travel but are nervous of going alone and don't have any peers to go as a group.

Is something needed to encourage/promote adv riding?

Best regards

An interesting question. Both of my children (in their 20's and one still a student) travel extensively but just not by motorcycle (or car come to that). They go everywhere by various forms of public transport.

Those of us in what I suppose is the mainstream age for motorcycle travel (at a guess 50's or even (like me) 60's may well have had our preferences formed at a time when cheap air fights didn't exist and motorcycles were in that brief 'high tech' boom time (70's mainly) where they seemed like the future. That niche seems to have passed on to electronics in its various forms these days while road transport is increasingly seen as some kind of pariah.

Whether there's any truth in that is something I want to try and investigate later this year. I'm redoing a trip I originally did in 1970 using the same model bike and I want to see what's changed / what's easier / more difficult etc. As you say I doubt I'll meet my 1970 student self out exploring anywhere on the trip.

Just to divert the thread for a moment I look forward to reading a report on this if you decide to do one, it will be a little like Smith and Son who did the same in the 1980's on a pair of Triumph Tiger Cubs through Africa.

I'm 26 and while I find it easy to do short-term travel, through the Mid-Atlantic United States, it's pretty difficult to do huge international trips - we do at least have the MABDR route trailhead within a day's ride of my own home

at least in the USA, it's quite difficult for many younger people to save large amounts of money and travel due to our absolutely messed-up student debt system. fortunately I am free of that, but it's still going to take me years to save up for my dream trip! especially because our jobs here do not guarantee you can take long breaks, so I will have to save extra to return home and not starve in the process

Seems to me that there are a lot of young people posting their adventure bike trips on YouTube - by young I mean 20s and 30s.
When I was your age I wanted to do the ‘travelling’ thing and had a hankering to ride my bike to Australia. Well nobody I knew had even been to Europe on their bikes at that time - mid 1980s, so like most young men I thought it was too much hassle, sold my bike and bought a plane ticket. In my defence it was way before the likes of Mondo Enduro and LWR, no internet or adv mags - I’d yet to be introduced to Ted Simon.
When I started to go to Europe with my wife (1994) there’d be a handful of bikes on the ferry, nearly all older guys. Now you can’t even count them on the UK - Spain routes and a mixture of ages.
Two things if I may be so bold:
Apathy - you encounter that in all forms of society, biking is no different - don’t let it affect you.
Age - ignore it. I’ve been on European bike trips with 19 year olds who’ve been out ridden and drunk under the table by 65 year olds :D
Happy biking my friend - I wish I was 23 again.
bier