Source: American Rider –
[[{“value”:”If Taco and Bonanza – not to mention a score of other minibike brands – ring any bells with you, then you had great childhood. It also means you’re approaching or have reached retirement age.
The 1960s and ’70s were boom decades for minibikes. Most were simple and often crude, featuring bent‑tube steel frames, minimal brakes (rear only), centrifugal clutches, and 3- or 4-hp motors. But if you were a kid – regardless of your age – they were dream machines and the next step up from the trusty Schwinn bicycle.
These minibikes opened up a whole new world of speed, thrills, and tinkering. Before long, kids were stuffing bigger motors in the frames, giving them faster speeds and bigger thrills.
Assuming those kids survived the inevitable crashes and the wrath of their parents, the minibike vets started eyeing the wide range of small-displacement Japanese motorcycles that were flooding the country. The skills they learned from riding and tinkering with their minis served them well with bigger bikes. The die was cast.
I live in a mountainous area close to a middle-class, kid-heavy community. There’s a large skateboard park, a decent pump track for bikes, and a wealth of dirt trails leading to off‑road adventure. I keep an eye on the kids, looking for hints of where the next generation of riders is coming from. Skateboards dominate their wheeled culture, bicycles are a close second, and electric bikes are coming on strong. But there’s not an internal combustion minibike in sight.
I see little evidence of any interest in motorcycles among the kids, even the older ones with driver’s licenses. The motorbikes I see are most often ridden by fellow graybeards. A drive past the local high school reinforces this impression – no motorcycles and nothing representing a hot‑rod mentality, just a bunch of 4-cylinder transportation modules and a handful of lifted pickups.
Harley-Davidson began in in-house e-bike operation in 2018, then spun it off in 2020 as Serial 1. The electric bicycle company was sold to LEV Manufacturing in 2023. Pictured here is its MOSH/CIITY model that retails for $2,499.
Does all this add up to the death of motorcycling? No. While the interest in suck‑squeeze-bang-blow powerplants may be at a low point, there is one element to riding that remains strong within the current kidhood: the need for speed.
This is evident with the popularity of e-bikes. In most places, electric bicycles are mainly free of restrictive legislation. Neither the riders nor the bikes require licensing. The only restriction is a 28-mph top speed. That may not sound like much, but ripping a dirt trail or keeping up with in-town traffic at those speeds is easy.
That this fun comes from a battery rather than an internal combustion engine matters not; they are experiencing the same fun that put us in the saddle years ago. I hear a lot of whining from older riders regarding electric cars and motorcycles. Get over it. Your ICE bias is understandable, but the kids couldn’t care less about the form of motive power.
Rubber-Side Down: The Next Generation
My point is that the experiences the newest generation are having on e-bikes can provide a direct route to the motorcycle showroom. In many ways, electric bikes are today’s version of the minibikes we fondly remember.
Harley-Davidson formerly offered e-bikes via its Serial 1 brand, but the MoCo recently divested itself from bicycles, although it still markets rebranded Stacyc electric balance bikes for young kids. Indian is better positioned for larger riders, as it sells a rebranded Super73 e-bike with 20-inch wheels, the eFTR Hooligan. Harley has its LiveWire brand of electric motorcycles, but – and this is not a surprise – it charges premium prices for them.
Indian eFTR Hooligan E-bike review
Will any of these electric offerings help bring new riders into the fold? Perhaps the successful path forward will be electrified.
Find more Unrepentant Curmudgeon columns here.
The post Unrepentant Curmudgeon: Current Events appeared first on American Rider.”}]]
