Unable to do the overnight socialising thing today I left home an hour before dawn with temp showing 4c, rode 200 mostly motorway miles north in order to spend the day in the company of similar lunatics. I left to return home an hour after sunset (9c): 200 mostly motorway miles, including 70 miles of rain. Good times.
I know several riders outside of IBAUK and it would not have occurred to any of them to do what I've just described. 200 miles is a full day's riding, on holiday, in France or Spain, in summer. It's not what anyone would do on an English motorway, twice in one day, in November.
If we want to attract new members we need to be talking to those people, not looking for people like us.
Rather than scare such people with tales of riding HOW FAR??? in a day, I think we need to present a much gentler "pitch" and it occurred to me on the way home tonight what that pitch might be. We are all motorcycling experts:
Tied in with genuinely local ride-to-eats.
I know several riders outside of IBAUK and it would not have occurred to any of them to do what I've just described. 200 miles is a full day's riding, on holiday, in France or Spain, in summer. It's not what anyone would do on an English motorway, twice in one day, in November.
If we want to attract new members we need to be talking to those people, not looking for people like us.
Rather than scare such people with tales of riding HOW FAR??? in a day, I think we need to present a much gentler "pitch" and it occurred to me on the way home tonight what that pitch might be. We are all motorcycling experts:
- I was warm and dry when I got home tonight. I'm sure I'm not the only one of us to have spent money on kit that didn't achieve that before learning what does and does not work.
- I've had to learn how to keep my bike, my mind and my body going over long distances and in all kinds of weather. That knowledge didn't come easily.
- Many (most?) of us are qualified advanced riders. We're all certainly competent and experienced.
- Some at least have mastered the art of puncture and other roadside repairs.
- We know about vehicle documentation, insurance, breakdown services.
Tied in with genuinely local ride-to-eats.