The Motorcycle World Is Turning Beautiful: More and More Women Ride Motorcycles
Posted by Mike Werner on Dec 27th 2016
| The motorcycle world in the USA is turning more and more female, and that’s a good thing; traditionally the motorcycle world has been a male dominated world, but there have always been well-documented exceptions. Female riders have been seen riding bikes since the beginning of motorcycle-time as well, often better than men (just like aviators). |
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| But it’s only in recent years that the number of female riders has increased. Back in 1998, 8% of motorcycle owners were female. This year, the percentage of female motorcycle owners has dramatically increased to 14%! |
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| As for female riders (so not owners, but riders), that’s an even more dramatic increased; in 2014, of the 30 million people who rode a motorcycle at least once, 25% of them were female. |
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| If we look at the age groups, it’s the younger female generations that are more into motorcycles; 17% of the Gen X generation (born 1960 to 1980), and 17.6% of the Gen Y generation (born 1980 to the 2000’s) own their own rides. The Boomer generations (born 1946 to 1964) hold only 9%. |
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| Over all age groups, the majority of women prefer cruisers, 34% while 33% prefer scooters. Still, 10% prefer sportsbikes. |
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| You can see that it’s good that more and more women are taking up motorcycles in the USA; 60% of them went to a motorcycle safety course, while only 42% of guys took one. It’s also a younger group; the median age of the female motorcyclist is 39 years, while it’s 48 for men. |
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| It’s the likes of female racers who are hammering their way into glory that make other women want to take up motorcycles; female sportsbike racers like Shelina Moreda or Katja Poensgen, Isle of Man racer Maria Costello, Moto3 MotoGP racer Ana Carrasco, Dakar racer Laia Sanz and many female Round The World riders. |
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| So all these female bikers are making a big dent in the testosterone-filled world of motorcycles, and that’s a good thing. |
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| Now - - - on to the 50% |
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| Source: Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) |
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