Thursday Thoughts: Keeping Our Sport Alive

I have a bit of a worry.  At this point in history, we have a lot of people on bicycles here in the United States of America.  On balance, that would seem to be a good thing.  (That is assuming that one believes cycling to be a good thing, and one worth sustaining.)  But there are a couple problems.  Let me lead you to this gradually.

Reflect for a moment.  Think about images.  See pictures of cyclists gathered, on or around their bikes.  Got it?  Now look at the details in those pictures.  What kind of bikes are they?  What do the riders look like?  How old are they?

Chances are you just called up one of four images.

• The dashing, happy, grungy, mountain bikers.  They’re fit and having fun.
• The intent tri-athlete, on the bike and hammering it out in a big (IronMan of course) event.
• The Urban Hipster, with designer messenger bag, astride the semi-custom fixie.
• The elite racer heroes, going wheel to wheel in a fiercely contested race.

Okay.  Now what are the ages of the riders in those images?  Are they mostly mid-twenties?

Now, close your eyes and call up another image.  Make this one a composite of the typical group rides you attend.  Got it?  What’s the average age of the rider in this last image?

Do you see the problem?  If I’m not mistaken, most of the folks in that last image are in their late forties to mid-fifties.  And therein lies the rub.  We are just not replacing ourselves.  The cycling population is aging.  We are almost at the “knee” in the demographic curve.  As older riders age, succumb to injury, or just retire form the sport, we’ll see fewer and fewer of these “old hands.”  And we are not recruiting nearly enough new younger riders to replace them.

The second part of the problem is hinted at by those images above.  Mountain biking, tri-athletics, and racing are recreational.  We in this wonderful country just do not see cycling as a utility or transportation activity.  There are exceptions to this, but they are few and scattered.

Now some of you are thinking,  “There he goes again.  The next part is that we should be using our bikes to get around on.  Yadda-yadda.”  Just stay with me a moment.

Those among us who use bikes solely for recreational pursuits, the majority of you do it on the road!  We could lose the road.  We could.

Let’s play the “Game of Perceptions” for a moment.  Remember, perception is reality.  What a person perceives is what is real to them.

Now, for this round of the game, place yourself in the driver’s seat of an average local motorist.  That motorist is going about some normal (to them) pursuit.  The motorist encounters you upon the road.  What goes through the motorists mind?  Most likely something nebulous, but equivalent to,  “Grrr.  Bicycle.  Slow.  In the way.  Problem.”  And, at a deeper level, “Those guys shouldn’t be allowed out here on the road with their toys.  Me?  I’m driving.  I’m going somewhere!”

And you know what?  That motorist may be just driving a lazy three miles to a soccer game.  Or to go to Bubba’s to knock back a six, while they watch the game.  It doesn’t matter how important or frivolous the motorist’s actual purpose.  To them it’s real and important, and we are the problem.

I only see two possible solutions to these issues.  (By that I mean solutions that do not result in our losing access to the road.  1)  We have to find ways to bring younger riders into the sport and pastime of cycling.  2)  We have to get more folks using bikes for all reasons, utility, transportation, and recreation.

How do we do this?