Interesting Statistics

[Thor]

We are seeing the same decline in the RC (remote control ) world as youngsters don't want to build something and have to learn to fly it..High tech equipment appeals to the younger crowd with instant gratification.When I was a kid we had to create our fun and I will never forget how mad my Old man was when he saw the mower engine sitting in a plywood Go cart I built.First motorcycle was a Wards Riverside 50 and man what fun I had on that street bike in the dirt.A kid today can put on a Virtual Reality headset and go for a ride anywhere they please.Heck by the time most of us here are dead and gone no one will be driving cars they will drive themselves.AHHH time marches on.

Wow! Another Wards Riverside rider! My first was my grandpa's old 125cc model. I'll never forget the day that 2-cycle engine decided to start-up in reverse. Nothing quite so alarming as dropping the clutch and finding yourself rocketing backwards into a bush.

[unsub]

I thought I read a motorcycle article that Honda came out with the F6B to appeal to younger riders thus the designation Flat 6 Bagger.

Younger riders are 50+ ....lol the first wave of Harley resurgence from the 80's is over 70 now.....I think Honda hit the mark as the average age on this board must be around 50.

[MisterB]

It falls on us parents to get modern kids interested in things that their peers aren't in to. My 14 yr daughter and 13 yr son are both pumped to take the basic riders course as soon as they're able.
I want them to learn to ride in a controlled environment before they even start driving cars. They're excited because MOTORCYCLE! I'm excited because they'll learn a lot about driving and riding and hopefully be better at both.

There are roadblocks for kids nowadays: modern cars are just not candidates for the kind of mods that were done when I was young in the 70s and 80s. I took 2 years of wood shop, 2 years of metal shop, 1 semester sheet metal, could've taken electronics and auto shop when I was in high school. We had kids making roll top desks, grandfather clocks, I made guitars and speaker cabinets, sterling engines in metal shop, locking guitar nuts, anything we could think of.
We had access to fantastic instruction and machinery, and this was public school. Those kinds of classes are mostly gone.
A friend works at a big school and lamented the razing of the wood shop building. They needed the money and land for football program and insurance concerns or whatever, blah blah.
The kids get pre-cut kits that they screw together with drywall screws now. not a joke.

I try to show my kids stuff like changing oil and rotating tires, using drills and hammers, got a couple clock kits (not housed in a creepy briefcase) and will teach them how to solder and understand a few electrical components, but I feel it's only going to help them minimally in this "no user serviceable parts inside" society. There's little incentive to learn enough to troubleshoot a motherboard, it'll require years and years of study and by then motherboards may be archaic.

I'm an older dad and feel like I'll never be able to teach my kids enough about the analog world before I'm gone. Gonna try to show them enough basic skills that they can learn on their own and focus on them being able to prosper in the new digital world.

Regarding snow: I haven't seen a snow drift like we used to have for 3 decades or more. We've got a great hill in town for sledding but didn't get hardly any snow this year. I don't miss it but the kids love it.