Is MCN relevant any more?

[BBROWN1664]

There used to be 7 main dealers in my City up until just a few years ago selling all the brands. Every single one has closed down. Says it all :\

35 years ago when I started riding, in Crawley we had 4 bike dealerships. One did Kawasaki, one did Suzuki, one did motor cross stuff and one did all sorts. The next town to the west (Horsham) had one bike shop, the one to the east (East Grinstead) had 2 or three and the town to the north (Horley) had one. Today, we have P&H and Crawley having now taken over all the brands locally and T.Northeast in Horley. The next nearest bike shops are bout Triumph dealers which are about 40 mins away.

35 years ago, every 16 year old had a moped or wanted a moped and many went on to ride bigger bikes. Today, barely any mopeds are on the road and not many of those are ridden by people who want to go onto bigger bikes.

35 years ago, or thereabouts, the 2-part test was introduced with part one being in the car park dodging cones and part 2 was on the road riding around the block with an examiner jumping out from behind a tree to see you do an emergency stop. Once you took that test at 17 you could ride anything. Today, you need to do the CBT before you can even think about going on the road, then the hazard perception (which is really aimed at car drivers) then the theory then the cone avoidance and finally a long complicated road test with an examiner who may or may not be following you in a car because it goes against their H&S to let them ride a motorbike :pokefun

Is it any wonder less people are interested in bikes these days?