Motorcycling In These Hard Times

I'm not sure what exactly is going to happen with Motorcycling as this economy continues to worsen. On one end, people are spending less money on luxuries, but on the other end, motorcycles and scooters are still very inexpensive to operate.

So maybe while people won't be buying up new motorcycles, or new chrome, they'll still find riding a motorcycle very economical.

One of my good friends and I were chatting last night at Happy Hour and commented how the bar was so sparse with customers. "At this time, there would be a line to get into this place", he said. But instead, there were plenty of seats and tables open.

That seems to be on par with a lot of establishments around here. I've noticed that The Hideout, Hells Kitchen, and Cook's Corner, all well known biker bars around here, have low turn outs lately.

I don't know if it's that people are not riding their motorcycles, or if people are only riding them when necessary, like commuting to work, or running errands.

As for my friend, he's trying to supplement his income with another job. He hasn't found one, but is looking. There are just no jobs around here. He knows that I publish websites and blogs for a living, and asked me to help him launch one. I agreed, but he said he'd like to write about his travels by motorcycle, the roads he rides, the bars and restaurants he goes to. I thought to myself, "Hmmm, there's hundreds of those blogs out there already".

But I suppose there's room for another one.

Both he and I have managed to pare our lifestyles down, making them more simple. For myself, I work, and then I ride. I've dumped the other hobbies and committments that took up more of my money. My friend has grandkids however. He has to buy them birthday gifts, and take them out to places. Of course, being a grandpa will take precedence over riding a motorcycle, so it might be that this economy will have him riding less. And if he gets himself another job, he'll have even less time to ride.

As a side note, I finally posted a new article on my motorcycle blogging site. I have to admit that I've found myself rather uninspired to keep it up to date. But I am feeling the pinch of this economy, and maybe, just maybe, there's more bikers out there thinking of starting a blog.