Like most Baby Boomers, I had relatively easy access to off-road riding areas as a child. Although I lived in a city (just outside of Los Angeles), I was riding mini-bikes and motorcycles before the age of 10 in the dirt near my home. Boomers who grew up in the country had it even better, of course.
Not only did I ride off-road, I rode my Kawasaki 125 enduro on the street before I had a license. I hear similar stories all the time from older riders who grew up in an era where on-road riding of dirt bikes was tolerated by their local law enforcement, as well as riding smaller displacement motorcycles before being old enough to have a street license.
As a result, many Boomers have had a life-long love affair with high performance motorcycles. If you learn to do something as a child, you gain skill and comfort that is very difficult to duplicate if you start that activity later in life. Many boomers who rode as young kids must know what I am talking about.
But what about today’s young people, who generally lack access to off-road riding areas, and also face an economy dictating that most families cannot afford a motorcycle to entertain their kids? As I read yet another article about older motorcyclists, the Baby Boomers, still creating the lion’s share of motorcycle demand here in the United States, I have to wonder what might kick-start (pun intended) our youth when it comes to motorcycle enthusiasm.
Electric motorcycles make almost no noise, and, of course, they emit no air pollutants. There has been talk for some time about the development of inner-city riding areas (both indoor and outdoor) to correspond with the increasing availability of e-motorcycles. KTM is introducing its production Freeride E (pictured above and below, and featured in the video below) into European markets as we speak. KTM is also promoting several e-motorcycle courses, both indoor and outdoor, some of which you can find on this KTM web page. I can only imagine how this effort might accelerate once other large manufacturers, such as Honda, get in on the act.
The Freeride E is a relatively expensive, high-performance, off-road bike, but less expensive beginner-friendly bikes are also becoming available. Young people have shown great interest in “extreme sports”, as evidenced by the popularity of the X-Games and similar competitions, so it is relatively easy to imagine that riding silent, non-polluting motorcycles in or near the city could really take off. Perhaps, this could be the source of a life-long passion for motorcycling, as well. Let us know your thoughts below.
Some areas have limited mountain biking facilities, which get first shot at local public funding, e.g. the Fresh Kills landfill space in Staten Island NY (part of NYC). The reason NYC is important is that so many ghetto kids have been spotted riding stolen dirt bikes on city streets (the dumb illegal antics are posted on youtube). Federal funding to develop parts of the Gateway Recreation Area or the old FLoyd Bennett field into moto tracks and dual sport trails might draw these kids away from gangsterism built around street riding dirt bikes, while giving adults have a place to test their skills or just tour around.
KTM MX Freeride E: green motorsport at AREA 47!
The brandnew AREA 47 Offroad AREA is the another highlight for freerider and offroad fans! The Austrian motorbike and bike maker KTM picked the AREA 47 from 52 competitors as the venue to test the brandnew KTM Electric Freeride Bikes. The indoor dirty track course with spectacular obstacles and steep terrain passages guarantees 0% emission but 100 % pure fun! All KTM bikes feature electric motors for motorbike fans to accelerate in an environmental-friendly way. Emissionfree, noiseless and absolutely bad-weather-proof! Special: The rental bikes of the AREA 47 are also provided by KTM.
I escaped from England and now live in New Zealand. Kiwis are very outdoors oriented and the E-bike parks will be a winner. Depends on the country and lobbying power of NIMBY’s, if present
Tips for your experiences in the Offroad AREA: Safety & Service
The Offroad Area and the sports facilities at AREA 47 are monitored and supervised by experienced guides. Please remember, the Offorad Area is a training ground. To ensure fun and safety, you need to respect the user regulations and safety instructions for the various attractions of the Offroad AREA.
I grew up in NYC and there was no place to offroad, and very limited areas within 100 miles. I wrote a year ago on a politician’s website that the Staten Island surfaced landfill called Fresh Kills be considered for an offroad park. There was no interest from the borough officials.
If a kid really wants to ride, he will find a way. It’s always been that way. Growing up in a large family with limited funds, I had to make the best use of my bicycle if I wanted to enjoy life on two wheels. When I got my first job at 16 years old I was able to execute my dream of riding both on and off-road because now I had a few bucks. Like I said, if someone has a desire to ride, he will find a way. That’s the way it’s always been.
Indeed. It is the “desire” part that has the industry shaking in their boots with respect to the next generation of potential motorcyclists.
But desire is shaped by the environment. A kid growing up in a big, NIMBYistic urban sprawl, won’t be surrounded with stimuli likely to create such a desire. Leaving him stuck on the couch with the videogame console, or in front of Facebook on the IPad.
Electric bikes, on miniature motoX tracks or, my fave, Supermoto/Cart tracks, may help put bikes more directly in people’s faces. Of course, the same pervasively degenerate mentaility and cultural traits that gave rise to NIMBY in the first place, has also given rise to lawyers, lawsuits, insurance requirements etc., so the kids may still be stuck without being able to ride, simply due to not being able to afford the requisite tribute to lawyers and other leeches. But then again, KTM is a premium brand. Perhaps access to riding will be another perk of living in one of those “better school district” neighborhoods. Where little daddy can afford to bribe big daddy law. And for the rest: quiet e-bikes are easier to run away from cops on…. 🙂
re: “If a kid really wants to ride, he will find a way.”
+1, some riders are born.
although a rare few, you could a make a “mobile” out of used cell phones (dangling it over their crib) and they still won’t be on about electronics.
“Will Inner-City E-Motorcycle Parks Spark Younger Generations?”
I think yes, but only if the (not inconsiderable) hurdles of liability insurance costs and health & safety compliance issues are dealt with. Private facilities? Perhaps. Public spaces? It’s hard enough to convince some local councils to install slippery dips in the community park.
Nah….working parents have not time or money for kids, and kids on computers, video games, homework, and organized sports have no time for motorcycles.
Agree if my step-kids didn’t spend every free moment on there stupid cellphones they might actually enjoy riding but since the only outdoors they see is walking from the car to the house I doubt it they would enjoy riding
When I was a kid learning to ride dirt bikes the world contained lots of space to ride in. Now it seems to have shrunken, leaving fewer places to ride, especially open spaces that are not controlled, managed, paid, patrolled. And the few open spaces are dangerous as heck due to over-crowding and alcohol/speed (often, not always, not everywhere, and definitely not at YOUR favorite riding spot. OK?). An e-bike urban “park” is a no-go except for those already geared up with the means to participate in expensive entertainment. A 10K bike, a truck/trailer, not to mention the entry fee for the park…we all know its expensive out there and we agree to pay the fee, but to wonder whether e-bikes will attract the next generation I think presumes the underlying social/enviromental context will support it. I don’t think it will. Som,e of us older guys can recall being let off with a warning once or twice by Officer Friendly. Well, IMO, Officer Friendly is D.O.A. Now it’s all Officer Soldaten and Max Punishment is the name of the game. Hard for kids to break-in to the motorcycling world in many cases. All of which leaves the activity to fewer and fewer and older and older dudes. Props for trying though. I think the next gen of riding has GOT to be cheaper though.
sorry to reply to self, but I had a thought: if they could make these e-bikes less motorcycle-y and more mountain-bike-y we MIGHT be able to get away with street-riding them, and as THAT, as a new type of vehicle, we MIGHT be able to create/enjoy something new (until the law-heads and their street-dogs figure out what we are trying to do (enjoy ourselves without their permission) and shut the whole thing down).
Check out the Kuberg, they have a bike similar to what your describing.
re: “a no-go except for those already geared up with the means to participate in expensive entertainment.”
hey this is just like FERRARIS, what are the odds…?! 🙂
re: “I think the next gen of riding has GOT to be cheaper though.”
think or want.
Q: if there’s some logical reason (beyond your control) that the next gen of riding CAN’T be cheaper…
what are you prepared to do…? (Sean Connery as Sam Malone)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKBUzADFVhg
Lawyers are behind this idea 100%. Anything that wil drum up new lawsuits with healthy settlements.
I think ebikes are a tough sell, but this KTM is bridging that skepticism. Too bad they aren’t coming here. But I think they realize that the liberal US meme dictates anything that a single or small group of individuals consider offensive requires it be shut down.
No exhaust-great, no noise-great. They will still use the dust or potential for injury to shut it down. particularly in urban areas.
I think the culture in the US is far too toxic for anyhtong like this take hold, not to mention the cost of entry. The KTM is a $10K+ bike which is in line with top end MTB’s today but Still a wealthy kids toy, which makes it a target in todays urban culture of punishing anybody who has made something of themselves and acquired money.
Ok, I’ll bite. You poor little rich boys can ride whatever you want and afford to rent any land you want to use. I LMAO at your twist that it’s the “Liberal” meme that this bike won’t be brought here. How about the rich landowner who doesn’t want any bikes on his land or wants to be paid to use it? Cops used to let me ride my 69′ Mini Trail on the streets and not say a thing. Think in our intolerant society of today, that they’d do that now? Zero tolerance enforcement has abated the exuberance of youth to explore the wonders of 2 wheels. Fat cat Lawyers have become a leech on societies arse suing everything in sight just so they can get richer. Riding areas have been closed because of abuse and disrespect to the environment. Both political idioms were behind those laws, so don’t push your fear mongering that it was some boogieman liberal scheme perpetrated to disembowel the rich.
I think Jeremy has got it right. It’s cost that will keep ebikes and ebike parks from flourishing. The lucky kid is the one who lives in a small town or the edge of suburbia. Those kids can take off and ride ditches, stream beds or trails and leave the snickery political agenda to the narrow minded grown ups. I hope when the Cop notices that kid banging over a approach, or through a ditch, they remember their youth and silently wish them well as he looks the other way.
Re: “Fat cat Lawyers have become a leech on societies arse suing everything in sight just so they can get richer.”
Lawyers are kinda’ like guns- they don’t do anything that citizens don’t tell/pay them to. They exist to fill a need or demand, just like any other business.
You Sir, are correct.
Obviously you never watch lawyers on tv commercials soliciting people to join lawsuits
That’s the legal industry equivalent of Vince selling Sham-wow.
Sorry- 30 years of Land use litigation and offroad activism enables me to lable it properly.
You’re comments about abuse and environment shows your lack of knowledge and experience. MSNBC is another site.You might want to get your info correct.
Dave- Lawyers like guns? not exactly. Guns don’t reproduce themselves and setup businesses just to file phony lawsuits on spec to collect government funding. It is a rigged system that is encouraging the gunplay and rewarding the shooting of people.
Re: “It is a rigged system that is encouraging the gunplay and rewarding the shooting of people.”
It is also the best (only?) resource that private citizens have to protect themselves and claim damages from corporate and government entities. It’s a take the bad with the good situation. For every “slimy lawyer” you hear about, there are 100’s helping people and companies get fair treatment in the world.
Would be great to see AMA sponsor an exhibition class in Supercross with electric bikes. Imagine see triple jumps and berm roosting without any noise. Could be the future of our sport (motorcycle riding).
re: “Imagine see triple jumps and berm roosting without any noise.”
well I can’t imagine and that’s the problem, the NOISE is part of the spectacle.
that being said, those marquee events WOULD be the place to showcase the technology. it would be a tough sell, but a 1% conversion on the lot seen filling the stands in Anaheim or Oracle arena would be no mean feat.
wait, just got some visuals… one is of Verne Troyer and friends “pickin’ peaches”, the other is of “barrel fishing”.
Anybody ever heard of Ray’s MTB parks? These are indoor mountain biking parks built in abandoned big-box stores. There’s only a couple of these now, but it can grow since when a Wal-Mart moves, the empty box they leave behind isn’t useful to anybody else. There’s a bunch of empty, distressed property out there.
Kentucky is also working on an underground bike park in an abandoned mine.
I went to one in CT near Doug Henry’s (and few other AMA pros) stomping grounds about 7 years ago (back when AMA briefly had Supermoto). it was nice too. purpose built, high ceilings, but closed down. got pics somewhere. later heard there was another that was “supposed to open somewheres in MA…? I think near the old Southwick 338. is that place closed or innit…?
this just in, the place in CT reopened, but later succumbed to the elements, but may have been fixed and reopened…? who knows…?
snow, she kick like a mutha…
http://tinyurl.com/odchpgf
The facility in CT was Mototown USA and the building did collapse due to an extreme snow load on the roof a few years ago. The indoor riding business was never really successful, closing and reopening a few times. I do not know the exact reasons that they were not profitable, but my guesses would be 1. liability insurance costs (there were two fatal accidents) 2. high costs to ride 3. the facility was built with two levels of retail space, which I never saw more than 33% filled.
So, while the roof collapse was the final nail in the coffin, I do not think the business was going anywhere do to the same reasons that urban riding parks would face, facility operating costs (including insurance) and costs to the customer such as bike, gear and fees.
re: “1. liability insurance costs (there were two fatal accidents)”
damn that’s right, totally forgot about that. at least 1 of those fatalities happened a week or so after I visited.
Making great ideas like these financially sustainable is the trick. This seems to happen with go-karting down under – they attract patronage for a few months, then go bust.
MTB parks around here tend to be sustained only through partnerships with public (crown) land, volunteer groups, and community advocacy.
Any land that is close enough to urbanites wishing to enjoy an outdoorsy activity is also likely to be worth a lot to property developers. Yes a funky e-bike park in Hipsterville sounds cool, but you’ll make a lot more money building apartments there. The only option left is to create it (1) on public land or (2) use property in Dumpsville.
re: “The only option left is to create it (1) on public land or (2) use property in Dumpsville.”
or (3) undesirable property in and around the vicinity of active runways.
what’s that you said…? my bike’s too loud…? you’re going to bring this up at the next town council…?
sorry, CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF THAT 737 ON APPROACH…!!! (brraappp)
great idea…zip noise and pollution, charge them up from solar panels…NIMBY’s cant bitch and you can still play and have fun. I’m 62 so electric may not fully own the market by the time I cash in my chips but its the future and a bright one.
I’ve been seeing the Oset E trials bikes for kids for a few years at our trials meets. They’re fairly affordable, pretty well built, and I’ve been recommending them to some of the single mothers whose children want to learn to ride. It would be nice if they could upsize a little for larger kids. Ebikes can be hauled in just about anything as there’s no fuel to leak, less maintenance (no air/oil/fuel filter),usually no tranny or resultant oil. Even without a dedicated park, urban kids can get by with riding in so many more places just because of the quiet factor.
I rode a demo Oset a wee while back and it was great even with an adult me on it. (70kg) My thoughts were we could ride in city parks without pissing anyone off.
I spent an hour chasing my son around our property (1 acre) on electric bikes tonight.
This wouldn’t be possible on gas. These are not great machines, but I didn’t pay much for them. They have two wheels and are fun.
A company out of Czech named Kuberg makes some pretty cool electric stuff. I am seriously considering some of their products. There is a lot of open space around us, but if we were to take IC bikes out there, we would be told nicely to “cease operation of our vehicles”. I’d like to see more electric off road options for sure.
Being most likely a little more senior than some here (61) my first taste of riding a motorcycle was a Yamaha 80. I was hooked and it was onto Honda 50’s, 90’s, 100’s, 125’s and so on plus a few friends on a two-stroke here and there. We rode around and around vacant lots, along power line roads, old logging roads, etc. Just to hear an engine running and to smell exhaust and oil smells was intoxicating. Taught us all a lot about controlling and caring for motorcycles. Kept us occupied every hour of the day!
The areas we rode in are all but gone and small inexpensive motorcycles are a rarity. A motor park could work but costs would have to be low enough to attract anyone, not just those with parents with money to burn. Not sure it can be done.
re: “A motor park could work but costs would have to be low enough to attract anyone, not just those with parents with money to burn.”
how ’bout answer C, those with valuing mentalities…?
I mean this is entertainment, if one doesn’t want to pay…? one can always go fishing. I hear that’s cost effective innit.
re: “Not sure it can be done”
oh but it can pal. (comical Bruce Willis voice) behold beholders, a field of BEAMS…
http://tinyurl.com/kl97mgr
in a “virtual reality” world, it would have to be marketed in a new way, to get the youngsters off their touchscreen devices, and on to a bike..
Maybe show the e-bikes as the “better than virtual reality… The Ultimate in virtual reality.. reality!!”
Get some Red Bull sponsorship, and Giddy-yup!
it’s kind of an interesting mix. we’ve got obsessions “with all things virtual” in one hand…? but then the love affair with “all things extreme” in the other…? ie. as dirck points out.
there’s a 1080 reference in skateboard “trickery” (is that a word…?) just like there’s a 1080 reference to the video shot by the cell phone in the pocket of their skinny jeans… or whatever it is they try to pass for clothing these days…?
hey you damn kids, GET OFF OF MY LAWNS…!!! (shaking fist in air)
A friend of mine had a farm along the river. He had a sand bar that was about 100 yards wide and several times as long. We would throw three or more tires out to mark turns. As we rode berms developed and we raced endlessly learning how to shift, brake, accelerate and turn. We would crash occasionally and get right back up and go with no injury to ourselves or the bikes. I think this type of riding is a lot better entry into motorcycling than is X-Games style parks.
Of course that would be better than an urban park. But an urban park is all that some people will have access to.
Wouldn’t an urban park be better than nowhere to ride?
Yes, but does it have to be X-Gamey? The dimensions I mentioned are small, but the style of riding translates more into riding later on public roadways or public lands. Electric aerial bikes will become so specialized and develop such specialized riding, skills, culture, tricks, slang, etc. that little feeding will happen to the adult motorcycle world. Two wheels will end up being the only commonality.
I didn’t think the article was about X-Game only urban riding.
As a BB I am 52 started riding at 4 on a little Italian 50cc bike and was racing a 250cc Bultaco by 5th grade. Still ride off road all the time.
Rode from trails to trails on the road side saddle never any drama from the law and this was in northern NJ.
Fast forward to todays lack of open ridable land in so many cites, E bikes parks would be a boom for a new younger crowd of riders. Take this concept with some city planning with planners without there heads up their arse and even the e bike manufactures having a dealer set up on site they could really have a win win win situation!!!!
I learned to ride off-road (free access) on a cheap and simple, Yamaha RT180. So did lots of other people I know on machines ranging from ratty to state-of-the-art. Very low cost of entry if you needed it to be.
For this concept, you need an expensive e-bike, and expensive riding park and in most cases a way to get that expensive e-bike to the expensive riding park. How many e-bike owners per square mile would you need to justify the investment of such a riding area to be able to offer an affordable entry fee? I don’t know the answer to that, but I would imagine it will take a few decades to have that many e-bike owners as potential customers for a given area unless we start outlawing ICEs in off-road motorcycles altogether.
I love the concept, but I predict a failure to launch.
The part of having places for city kids to ride is important. KCMO had two public riding areas that have long closed (due to being Superfund sites).
Dirt bikes & ATVs are a problem in cities now where there are no places to ride even in the outskirts unless you belong to a club.
The Philadelphia police confiscated 34 bikes and ATVs over the last week. Owners will not get them back.
The future for electric vehicles is probably not our lifetime.
re: “The future for electric vehicles is probably not our lifetime.”
depends.
depends on what Norm G…?
it depends on one’s willingness to make concessions. when we sober up and dial back the fantasies regarding electric power, then would we see quite A LOT lot can be accomplished.
it’s all about “managing expectations”…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N77x4yTNQQo
UNlike most here, I actually own and drive an all-electric vehicle. I can say this about that – compromise compromise compromise. It is a perfect commuter/grocery-getter, and NOTHING ELSE. No changing your mnind and going to visit grandma. No way. Also, big.freaking.dollars. Electric vehicles are a NOGO for now. Money and range. Money and range. UNtil the aliens gift us some zero-point batteries, e-bikes simply are not supported by physics. Managing expectations in this context means accepting a near-useless vehicle at a premium price point. It’s like me selling a sandwich made of only bread, mayo, and mustard and telling you that it is only your improper expectations of meat and lettuce that makes it unacceptable.
Re: “It is a perfect commuter/grocery-getter”
That ^ is all most drivers need. The average daily driving distance for Americans is 30 miles. The majority of Americans live in urban areas. Battery tech is not the only opportunity for improvement. A gallon of gasoline has the same amount of BTU/energy in it as it did when we first started using it to power cars.
Fortunately, there is much more to come. Volume will continue to climb, prices will continue to fall.
re: “Managing expectations in this context means accepting a near-useless vehicle at a premium price point. It’s like me selling a sandwich made of only bread, mayo, and mustard and telling you that it is only your improper expectations of meat and lettuce that makes it unacceptable.”
I know right…? sobering.
So, when is the auction going to be held?
auction smauction, they’ve prolly been fitted with light bars and “sireens”.
It is likely that a good percentage of the bikes and ATVs confiscated in Philadelphia were not being ridden by the legal owners. In that case, hopefully the legal owners will get their property back.
@50, I can also relate as my cousins and I rode a lot in rural Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Access is an issue, but so is the capability of today’s bikes. Heck, it almost took adding rockets to get the 1974 to 1975 DT125’s we rode airborne. If you were off-road and a bit coordinated, you almost needed to run into something solid to get really hurt on that type of bike.
As a young baby boomer, @ 53 years old, I can relate to this.
Growing up in rural central Wisconsin, my friends and I rode the
heck out of our dirt bikes. We rode them in the fields, we rode them
in the woods. We rode them in the ditches, on homemade motocross
tracks, and yes, occasionally down the road. The Portage County Cops
weren’t likely to allow dirt bikes on the street, but we never got caught.
Many of my friends still ride today. We mostly ride street bikes now, but
I still feel a bit of that same excitement after 40 years of riding!
Its to much money. The reason we rode when we were young was because we could do it cheaply. This will be the rich kids mini bike, along with his helicopter and yacht.
This KTM is but as the site points out, there are other less well known brands out there and bikes are coming to market. Like anything, volume drives price down.If it gets to within a couple thousand $$ of a gas bike then it’s pretty viable since there’s no fuel and so much less maintenance to deal with.
The access that bikes like this can offer is pretty exciting. Lots of opportunity but it needs to be navigated carefully, MX bikes have been worked off lots of property based on noise complaints but it’s a different world these days. Lots of liability concerns will come up too.
I agree.
The young people I know……those who would be riding motorcycles off road are instead riding mountain bikes. This is not due to a lack of riding areas (I live in a state that maintains over a thousand miles of ORV/motorcycle trails) but instead due to a lack of disposable income. It’s also due to a lack of leisure time as most of them work six days a week just to avoid having to live in their parent’s basements.
It’s an interesting question, but there are some real hurdles. This kind of park would require a lot more room and expense to develop than skating parks. The speed, mass, and capability of these bike’s would bring along far more danger, insurance liability, and need for supervision. The cost will be high for getting the bike, the protective gear, and then park fees.
Any thing to get young blood involved in off road riding and in motorcycles in general is a great thing. Great job KTM.
Sorry, should have said there were several local ‘scrambles’ tracks
I grew up in the 60’s in rural England. There were several ‘scrambles’ tracks hosting National or International events, notably Beenham near Newbury. Beenham was only used for these events a few times a year. Despite this, the NIMBY’s (Not in My Back Yard affluent killjoys) got them all banned within 10 years. The headline reason was noise, but I suspect the real reason was hostility to hordes of lower-class types on their horrible motorcycles, and effect on property prices – this was England after all. With the advent of electric motocross bikes the NIMBY’s will still be gnashing their teeth at the lower orders invading their turf, but will have to wear it as they haven’t got the excuse of noise to get them banned. Bring it on. Payback!…
I live in a very affluent suburb in Norcal and they tried to get a BMX/Flow track built(a series of dirt mounds, not a concrete monster). Absolutley no f-in way. All the NIMBY’s came out and you would have thought they were proposing a Jihad training ground.
This was on vacant undeveloped land adjacent to a baseball diamond (which they come out en mass to support that monster).
Bottom line is adrenaline sports are considered 2nd/3rd class sports which their kids are discouraged or banned from participating in. There is ZERO chance you could ever get anything approved for ebikes, MTB’s, BMX in the liberal cesspools here in the West coast and suspect East coast as well. Maybe in the Midwest and South where there are more reasonable people,possibly.
The Continentals (non-British Europeans) are showing the way. They haven’t inherited the Anglo-Saxon class system and already have E-bike parks across Europe. They have an indoor track in Austria with E-motocross hire at 75 Euros for an hour.