Why Some Riders Quit: Exploring the Real Reasons Behind Hanging Up the Helmet

It's always too soon to quit. Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. In today's episode, I'll be looking at why some riders decide to hang up their helmet and stop Some may do it after riding for only a few months or years, and others might call it quits after a lifetime of riding. I'll look at several of the reasons and explore some options that might mitigate those and allow you to continue riding. So I'm going to start with something that is probably more common for riders who quit early in their riding career, rather than those who've been riding for an entire lifetime. And this is where they've had a negative experience. And all too often that negative experience is usually the wrong bike. Especially for a brand new rider, they might've gotten a bike that was too big or too heavy. They're intimidated by the weight and they felt that they couldn't manage it during parking. And quite frankly, it just psyched them They were convinced by that one friend that started on a street glide that it'd be fine. You can have that big bike, no big deal. But for most people, you need to work up your comfort with a bike. Jumping from a maybe 20 pound bicycle all the way up to an 800 pound dresser is an enormous change. And they likely would have been better served starting with something smaller and then moving up as their needs dictated it. Another reason that they might quit is too much power. There's a reason that there is graduated licenses in most of Europe. You start with something lower power and then you move up over time. A brand new rider with a 200 horsepower sport bike is not going to end well in most cases. Whiskey throttle is accentuated by all that power. So starting with a bike that has less than 50 horsepower and less than 650 cc's on the upper end is going to be more likely to ensure that you're going to have a good experience with a Another reason why some people will have gotten the wrong bike for them as their first bike is they got something that was too expensive. You dreamt of getting a Harley and you splurged $30, 000 for it, but now you're terrified to drop it. So you only ride it in perfect weather and on perfectly straight roads. You're never able to grow as a motorcyclist because of the worry. Now, a cheaper bike would have allowed you to try out more and not been so worried about doing something as inconsequential as scratching the paint. And it doesn't mean that you will have no care at all about a bike just because it was a cheaper bike. But there is less of a psychological barrier to worrying about having any of that damage occur, which means you're more likely to grow and learn with a bike that isn't so putting you into dire strutters on an expenditure where you're worried about how much money you have into that and any sort of impact on it. Now, the last category I'll say that for getting the wrong bike, and this is actually a pretty natural one and one that at first glance doesn't appear to a problem. but this is where you got the same kind of bike as your friends. And you hear that and you say, well, but that makes sense because then I have something to ride with. And that is a good thing. and riding with friends is a great experience. I'm not diminishing that in any way. But the thing is, you are the new rider. And while your friends might like that particular category of riding, that may not be the category of riding that you actually Enjoy. And one of the challenges is that there could be such an peer pressure saying, no, you have to ride this way. And this is the only style that you start to think that that's the only kind of writing that you can do. And so you give up because it just doesn't resonate with you. And it doesn't have to be that it's only one versus another. This can happen in whatever category your friends might be doing. And the beauty of motorcycling is that there are so many different categories that you can do. If you like a big-engined Harley and that's something that resonates for you in the style of riding, great! That's an awesome way to do it. If you prefer getting out onto some dirt roads every once in a while and riding an adventure bike, that's a great way to do it, too. It doesn't have to be one or the other. And, hey, if you prefer going to the track and using track days and sport bikes and stuff, that's another great one. So there's so much variability of the kind of bike and the riding that you can do that being stuck in a single category more likely than not going to make you get a little bored. you have all this external pressure pushing you to feel that that's the only kind of riding you can do. Now the reason why I bring this up as sort of the last grouping in here is I think one challenge that people run into is that this is often exacerbated by the fact that they bought a bike that was quite expensive. Because if you think of it, if you bought so much of an expensive bike, you're now really worried about losing a lot of money on the trade-in. And so then you feel even more pressure to say, oh, I'm going to stick with this particular style of bike because otherwise I'm just going to lose a fortune when I trade it in. And this is another reason why I really encourage riders to start with something less powerful and because you can try out that style, see if it resonates for you. And if it doesn't, you swap out for another kind, but you haven't invested a huge amount of money, the relative drop in value that you'll get with there is not going to be as high. So let's say you bought a $30, 000 Harley and you trade it in and you get $23, 000, $24, 000 for it. That's a huge amount of money. Whereas if you bought a$5, 000 or $6, 000 bike and now you get $4, 000, $4, 500, it's not going to be as big of a deal of how much you're losing on the value of that bike. I really do encourage people to start with something smaller, cheaper and lighter because it give them the chance to sort of try it out, see what they kind of like with riding. Maybe you only like to do day rides. Maybe you only like to do long distance and You don't know that when you're first getting started. And in spite of what your friends may they may have a certain style they like, and it may not be the same as you. So try it for yourself. Now, another reason why a motorcyclist may have had a bad experience is they may have, quite frankly, too little training. Some riders only did enough training to get their license. especially when you think about here in the United to be frank, level of testing to get a license is pretty minimalistic. It's not really a very difficult test. there's more skills that are involved in getting a license in Europe, I'll say, as opposed to in the United States. And the problem is, is if you didn't even have to go through that much complexity to get your license to begin you really haven't learned a lot. then there's riders who will develop these bad habits might have created issues overconfidence or even a lack of confidence and even crashes that can make them give up riding because they just haven't continued to learn. Just because you got that first license doesn't mean that you know everything there is to know about motorcycling. This is something that you will continue to learn new things for many, many, many years to come. There's always new facets to be able dig in deep and understand, and this is why I think for people don't take advantage of additional training or don't take advantage trying out new situations, they could find that this is going to hinder their ability to grow and might also make it a little boring for them. And then they give up riding. Now, the last one that I'll mention as a reason why some riders do give up because of a negative experience bike culture can be a bit caustic to them. And if you think of it, there can be a lot of tribalism in motorcycling. If you're riding the wrong category or the wrong brand of bike, some riders will be dismissive if not nasty. Others will go hard into needing a big or powerful bike if you have something more reasonable to learn And they might insult you as having baby bike. So what does that do for the rider? basically being attacked because they got a bike that was a little bit more practical for them to begin they're hearing this from a rider who's been riding for 20 years who, yeah, after 20 years you're gonna have more confidence to handle a big bike, a powerful bike. But this person's just getting started. Why do you to attack them? And that creates a negative experience for that rider? Or you'll see with the two finger salute. When we're riding past a rider scooters often don't even get a wave at all. And people will be saying, Oh, but that's not a motorcycle. Hey, you're on two wheels. So why would you not wave to them? In fact, it even happens for those riders who are on three wheels, whether they're on trike or on can-am of some sort, or even a sidecar, some riders will say, Oh, oh, if it's you know, two wheels, then they don't get anything. And if it's a scooter, they don't get And sort of push towards having differentiation and push towards having tribalism can be a negative experience to the person who is facing almost And this is why some people might stop driving. You'll see this to happen with, Hey, maybe you're not on a Harley. So some Harley riders won't wave at you. Likewise, if you're not on a Harley, you may wave at a Harley rider because you have some negative perspective of them. this doesn't really help. It's just going to rather than a camaraderie as a motorcycling community, we're just trying to create differentiation and it can make people really just feel they don't want to do it. I think us making these attempts to sort of create differentiation within the motorcycle community is going to make some riders just stop riding. They don't want to do it. And even if you take a lot of pride, let's say in owning a BMW or a Ducati or a Harley or whatever brand, remember that the rider who's just starting out on their Honda Rebel 300 might eventually want to move on to your preferred brand. But if you treat them badly, they might avoid your brand like the plague or even give up on riding because they say, "I don't want to be associated with people who act like that." And I would say we have to really think of ourselves as being ambassadors to motorcycling. And the more that we can welcome others, the more likely they will stick And the brands will keep making for us. All right, so let's switch gears. We're now going to talk about a few different categories of reasons some people might give up riding after they've been riding for maybe a little bit longer. A lot of the things we just covered are really going to be more centered on the, maybe the earlier tenure riders that haven't really of a time to really figure out what they want to do. And these experiences can be so negative that they don't even continue with it. But for those of us who have been doing for a while sometimes our priorities change. so one of the biggest priorities that you'll see people talk about for why they gave up riding is time. You might not commute on your bike. It's only on the weekends for you. But then your weekend is filled with family events or movies, or if the weather's terrible on the weekend, but it was clear all during the week, you just never got to ride. And you find you just never have that time to ride more. So why am I holding onto this bike? It doesn't make a lot of sense if you're just never finding the time to actually go and ride. And especially if you were one of those riders who said, I'm only willing to ride when it is perfect weather conditions, you're creating more barriers that will keep you from And therefore that time window, which you feel is the right one for you to feels like it shrinks year after year. and you've heard me say this on the podcast a few times, but I'm definitely a proponent of proper safety gear. Uh, you know, some people call it ATGATT all the gear all the and whatever it is, I do feel that wearing good safety gear is a protection. We are exposed as motorcyclists and having just firsthand seen so many accidents where either got severely injured or died. It's one of those things where they would've survived or had far fewer injuries with gear. I think it's an important thing to do, but I do also acknowledge that there can be times where suiting up can feel like a burden. I think it's fine when I have a lot of those things that are going to be, but I don't like to be able to do that and switching from street clothes into a full riding suit, will feel like, ah man, I don't want to go and do that. I don't want to go and put on all that gear just to go out and ride for 20 minutes. And it just feels like it's another barrier keeping you from getting out on the bike. And if you're already limited in time, spending 15, 20 minutes suiting to go for that 15, 20, 30 minute ride might just feel like, yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to bother with it. So now this is where I'll say like, you know, part of the thing is how you choose your riding gear. Now, one of the reasons why commuting riders, you'll see very many of them end up using a specific piece of riding gear is because it effectively eliminates this time burden from the equation. And this is why you see that those people who ride a lot using things like an AeroStitch Road Crafter. It's not the prettiest suit out there. just full, full stop. It's not a pretty, pretty little but commuters use it all the time. And the reason is it takes you about 30 seconds to put it on over your regular street clothes. It really doesn't get any easier. So if you do want to ride, but you're finding that suiting up becomes a pain, look at getting a Road Crafter because it just, it eliminates that as a problem. I used this to commute into the office every day. I'd wear it over a suit. no problem. It didn't matter. I'm not going to ride in my suit directly on the bike, but if I put the Road Crafter over it, I'm totally fine. And so it is a way to take that suiting up being a burden out of the equation for you. All right, the next one that I'll say from a priority perspective is expense. And this is probably a big one for a lot of people. A bike needs maintenance regularly. And it's not only on miles, it's also on time. And it can start to feel really expensive if you have to pay for an annual service on a bike that you're only riding a thousand miles a year, maybe even less. Add in annual registrations, inspections. Tires need to be replaced every six to 10,000 miles for most bikes. And it can feel like I just replaced the tires on that bike. I have to do it again. when people start to look at this from a cost per mile, this really adds up, even though our fuel costs are typically lower than other vehicles. And for many people, a motorcycle is a secondary vehicle. if it's not used a lot, the cost per mile goes up. If I have to pay, let's say, $500 a year for an annual service, but I'm only riding 500 miles a year, well, that's a dollar a mile just for the maintenance. Plus the gas, plus whatever else I have to do of other wear items, it adds up really extensively. Whereas if I'm riding 6,000 miles a year, that $500 expense feels a lot cheaper per mile than it would otherwise. And this is the reason why I think especially for people who aren't riding as much expense can feel like a big deal for them. now closely related to priorities would be really about family changes. You know, you might've found the love of your life. You got married, but they don't ride and they don't want you to ride anymore. And this is a real pressure that some people feel and it could make them give up an activity that they absolutely love because they feel that pressure. And likewise, and it's almost, I'd say cliche, but how many times does someone comment on your bike at a gas station and say, Oh, I used to ride, but I gave it up when I had kids. The feeling that they have is that this elevated risk of riding could mean that they orphan your And it's something that many riders do face. And they promise themselves that they'll get back to riding once the kids are out of the house. But then life gets in the way and they never really get back into it. And that regret is something that they hold onto for many, many, many years. And then by the time they're ready to do it, they're not physically able to anymore. And they've lost out on that entire window, they could have been enjoying something. look, everyone has to make their own decision as to whether continuing to ride once they have children is the right decision for them. But I don't want to ignore the fact that some people may have a tremendous amount of regret from it. And the balance of that is something that you have to choose for yourself, but it's also a real driver for why a lot of people do give up riding. while there are riders who are giving up riding for kids because they worry about the potential. There's also the aspect of real fear that can cause a rider to give up riding. You know, they got spooked by something and that made them give up riding. Maybe they know someone that was in an accident and that makes them reflect on their own mortality or their own physicality of worrying, hey, what if I get injured? And that can be a real factor for them. Or maybe even worse, they witnessed an accident. I had this happen where I was actually at a place that I've gone on the motorcycle many, many times. And it's a German restaurant up in the up in the Catskills, a really fun place. And I went there with my my wife and my kids. And we were there. We were sitting outside. We were, you know, getting some food and witnessed a car turn right in front of a motorcyclist. And the motorcyclist just smacked straight into the car. Unfortunately, the motorcyclist was killed. And my kids are watching this. you know, it was not just me witnessing the accident, but it was my whole family witnessing that accident. And that can be a big impact on to whether someone feels that continuing to ride is right for them because they've seen that accident that occurred. Or maybe they themselves have had a close call. They almost got into an accident and it really scared them. That made them think like, oh my God, well, what if it really turned into something? And then you have people who actually were in an accident. And because of that, they've given up either where they walked away with no injuries or they walked away with injuries that prevented them from being realistically able to ride or they need a significant amount of time to recuperate. These are all reasons that fear or that injury or what not can keep someone from riding in the future and makes them give it up. Now, one that you'll probably hear quite often of why people have given up riding. So we all get there at some point. Some might stop earlier than others. I was at a rally once where they gave out awards for the oldest and the youngest riders. And the oldest at that rally was 82 years old. And they'd ridden like 500 miles to get to the rally. So it can be done. You can be an older person who is riding well into retirement. But the thing is is that all of us will have to probably give up riding at some point. And some of us might do it because maybe we have some decreased mobility and strength. Maybe you can't move as easily or you're not as strong. So handling that heavy bike just makes it feel impossible. And you say, oh man, I got to give up riding. I can't do this anymore. It's just, it's too much. Or maybe you still have the strength, your balance is a little bit off. And that combined with the mobility is why some riders decide to use trikes or side cars with bikes like the Ural or even snowmobiles with wheels like the Can-Ams. Each of these allows riders to continue to do what they understanding and acknowledging some of the limitations that they may have. And we should be glad that those options are out there and allow people to continue to ride even when their bodies are saying, Hey, it's not as easy as it once was. Another big one is visual acuity. You know, your eyesight always gets worse as you age and keeping an eye out for wildlife or turning vehicles becomes harder when your eyesight isn't as sharp as it once was. And this might cause someone to say, Hey, I didn't even see that person who pulled out in front of me and I was looking. Maybe I have to hang up my helmet. And the last one that I'll say for why some people may do it, that's kind of an age related issue is mental acuity. Riding a bike takes a lot of focus. We evaluate constantly evolving conditions. We pick our riding line. We read the road. We interpret the feedback from the bike. But if we aren't quite as sharp as we were before, might not be able to handle the strain of riding anymore. And we feel that we have to stop riding. All right, let's wrap up. We covered a lot of different reasons why some riders might give up riding. And these would be even from having a negative experience. Maybe they ended up having the wrong bike, too little training. Maybe bike culture was not exactly welcoming to them. We also have where their priorities may have evolved. Maybe they didn't have the time anymore. Maybe suiting up felt like a burden. Maybe it got to feel like it was too expensive to continue riding. Or maybe they had family changes. Maybe they got married. Maybe they had kids. And that was creating a reason why they could not continue to ride. And maybe they just got scared from something. Maybe they witnessed an accident. Maybe they were in an accident. And they just say, it's too much. I can't continue to ride anymore. And of course, the one that all of us will have to face at some point, we're going to age out of this activity at some point. We're not going to be able to continue riding all the time. going to get to a point where we have to say, yeah, I can't really realistically do this anymore. And that's the reason why a lot of people giving up riding as they continue to age out. So my question for you this week is, have you ever thought about giving up on riding? And what were the reasons that were pushing you in that direction? Share your thoughts through the text to show link in the show notes or leave a voicemail at throttle and roast dot com slash voicemail. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week.