USA Northeast » Aging Out

My local community of 6000 people has its annual Father's Day Weekend Car show. MCs are welcome and the only real vehicle criteria is ........ they must come in under their own power. Anyhow, about 12-15 small town blocks worth of cars and about 3 blocks of MCs.

On average, the age of the car owners was 10 or 15 older than me. That's not a good sign......

Look on the bright side...the fewer vehicle buyers among young people means fewer of them on the road, which makes motorcycling more enjoyable.

However, there are more vehicles on the road here than ever, as people flee urban centers and head to states with a more "rural" status. This, of course, means that states like Montana, Idaho and Utah are being over-run by Californians, etc., who think being polite on the road is giving you the finger before they cut you off, not after.

Chances are that octogenarian isn't going to run through a stop sign while checking texts on his/her phone. More likely it's a Millennial, texting a friend about something truly idiotic, or accessing their "smart home" to turn on the latest influencer posts on the home computer, so they're immediatly available when the Tesla is safely parked in the garage.

I've got a retired couple on one side of me here, and a Millennial couple on the other side of my home. Guess which couple lets their dog poop in my yard, or which couple bangs their trash cans outside our bedroom window at 1 AM. Which couple can actually have a conversation with me that has some substance, and which couple's attention span is so short that a normal full sentence consists of no more than 3 one-syllable words.

I assume you mean the Honda Jazz which used to be sold as the Fit in the US. In the US, that "older folk" would be driving a 3/4-ton 4x4 Crew Cab pick-up, if they can crawl up the running boards into the cab.

But, if Honda does sell a car called the Jizz, I'm pretty sure I don't want to see it.

I have a friend who's a restaurateur. I asked the other day how business was. He said getting good help among young people was a challenge. I asked, what do young people do, if they don't want to actually "work"? He said they'd all left real work to become Tik Tok influencers, Door Dash drivers and YouTube "stars".

I'll make a prediction about the one career guaranteed to be continuously successful over the coming years - chiropractors. Why? Think about the "smart phone generation", then think about their necks.

It will be on face book

Zitat von BEARR im Beitrag #5

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Chances are that octogenarian isn't going to run through a stop sign while checking texts on his/her phone. More likely it's a Millennial, texting a friend about something truly idiotic, or accessing their "smart home" to turn on the latest influencer posts on the home computer, so they're immediatly available when the Tesla is safely parked in the garage.

I've got a retired couple on one side of me here, and a Millennial couple on the other side of my home. Guess which couple lets their dog poop in my yard, or which couple bangs their trash cans outside our bedroom window at 1 AM. Which couple can actually have a conversation with me that has some substance, and which couple's attention span is so short that a normal full sentence consists of no more than 3 one-syllable words.

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I live about 3 miles from hundreds of twisty mountain canyon roads. I'm retired. That means I can ride during the week when those young folks are working (or should be). I don't need, or want, to fly all the way to Europe to get what I have here for the price of a few gallons of gasoline.

"Clapped-out Gixxers"...that's a good one. We have all kinds here, and we all (for the most part) co-exist nicely. I get the low-wave from tough guys on Harley's, squidly guys on Gixxers, R1's, you name it...and from Can Am folks with their "plus-sized" significant others on the back. Screw it...I wave to all of them.

What's a stoplight?

Zitat von Valks im Beitrag #10

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Zitat von BEARR im Beitrag #5

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Chances are that octogenarian isn't going to run through a stop sign while checking texts on his/her phone. More likely it's a Millennial, texting a friend about something truly idiotic, or accessing their "smart home" to turn on the latest influencer posts on the home computer, so they're immediatly available when the Tesla is safely parked in the garage.

I've got a retired couple on one side of me here, and a Millennial couple on the other side of my home. Guess which couple lets their dog poop in my yard, or which couple bangs their trash cans outside our bedroom window at 1 AM. Which couple can actually have a conversation with me that has some substance, and which couple's attention span is so short that a normal full sentence consists of no more than 3 one-syllable words.

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Bear what you need is a motorcycle vacation in Europe - take the months besides July/August to avoid the worst. Things are not much different here in terms of being outright unable to afford a house/apartment in the city without a top 15% job and a 30 year mortgage with a partner but the motorcycle scene is better. Plenty of young folks going into bikes of various shapes and sizes - cruisers, tourers, track toys and doing serious milage beyond a weekend coffee shop show off and beyond the "bros"/"squids" that never really go beyond rev-bouncing clapped out Gixxers between stop lights the roads in Central Europe would be a welcome sight :)

Blurred the pic for privacy but the average age in that picture is about 25 me being the outlier just cracking 30 - 400 mile B-road day and runs on the abandoned airfield with everyone regardless of the bike they have.

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Zitat von Paul911 im Beitrag #12

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Zitat von Valks im Beitrag #10

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Zitat von BEARR im Beitrag #5

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Chances are that octogenarian isn't going to run through a stop sign while checking texts on his/her phone. More likely it's a Millennial, texting a friend about something truly idiotic, or accessing their "smart home" to turn on the latest influencer posts on the home computer, so they're immediatly available when the Tesla is safely parked in the garage.

I've got a retired couple on one side of me here, and a Millennial couple on the other side of my home. Guess which couple lets their dog poop in my yard, or which couple bangs their trash cans outside our bedroom window at 1 AM. Which couple can actually have a conversation with me that has some substance, and which couple's attention span is so short that a normal full sentence consists of no more than 3 one-syllable words.

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Bear what you need is a motorcycle vacation in Europe - take the months besides July/August to avoid the worst. Things are not much different here in terms of being outright unable to afford a house/apartment in the city without a top 15% job and a 30 year mortgage with a partner but the motorcycle scene is better. Plenty of young folks going into bikes of various shapes and sizes - cruisers, tourers, track toys and doing serious milage beyond a weekend coffee shop show off and beyond the "bros"/"squids" that never really go beyond rev-bouncing clapped out Gixxers between stop lights the roads in Central Europe would be a welcome sight :)

Blurred the pic for privacy but the average age in that picture is about 25 me being the outlier just cracking 30 - 400 mile B-road day and runs on the abandoned airfield with everyone regardless of the bike they have.

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I'd say the reciprocal is true also. You should come to the US for vacation. The majority of people in their 20-30s on bikes are not squidly gixxers. Like with other age groups, they seem to like modern classics and ADVs more.

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Zitat von Valks im Beitrag #13

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ahh unfortunately here comes into play the disparity between purchasing power USA vs SE Europe. Relative to local costs of course.
California minimum wage for example is more than double what I make in a year with a masters degree and good career here - but vice versa - North-Europeans, Australians, US visitors can locally enjoy just about anything at extremely low prices compared to what they're used to.

I'm afraid if I ever do decide for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the US it would be a couple of weeks and most likely a plane/car combo to visit a few states and locales that are of interest to me - namely the western seaboard and the Rockies. It's something I'd very much enjoy via any form of transportation but to do it responsibly you have to take care of the important bits first (house, family, savings) My RS as such was the one major thing I chose to invest for the time being and so far the smiles-per-mile (SPM/$) return on investment is excellent

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There may be wage disparity between the US and Europe, but healthcare costs and health insurance go a long way toward negating that US advantage. My wife is 1 1/2 years from Medicare eligibility, and is retired. Her health insurance cost? Almost $900 per month. Fortunately she is extremely healthy. Live in the US, get an illness, make a claim on your medical insurance and the next thing you know, that $900 per month becomes $1500 per month.

If you come to the US, skip the tourist "attractions". If you want to see the real US, go where the people are not. Disneyland is not the real US.