jefnvk

Could that be because older people are more likely to be retired, or more senior in their careers with kids out of the home and have more free time and more easily able to take off for extended periods of time?

Happy Feet

In Merritt I met a group of 50 from the Vernon outdoor club, all seniors, who were doing a week long series of in and out day trips from the hotel. Biking, hiking and wine tours. Lively bunch!

robow

I'm sure you're correct, yes to all of the above but........
I do believe the younger generation is not as interested in non-virtual analog bike touring

alan s 

The younger generation? Meaning people in their 50s?

robow

Watch your mouth sonny and oh yea, get off my yard

MassiveD

No. If the age has been increasing by a year a go then they were younger once. And there are tons of reasons why old people would not be out, not least of all they are old. Most people 61 are not in as good shape as normal 21 year olds.

One thing that is overlooked is that sports go out of style. Windsurfing was huge at one point. Sailing Hobie cats was enormous with races with hundreds in them. Clubs with 1000 boats. Things come and go. Conditions for touring get worse every day. Rural world around here (canada) is getting totally built out Both sides of the st Lawrence river are non stop houses, same with most rural areas.

MassiveD

And those are the people, I saw this thing that looked like an Igloo cooler with a scooter motor attached to it out for a trial. It motors along sidewalks to deliver groceries. Potentially every retail outlet will develop some kind of shopping delivery system, Amazon is serious about their drones, but maybe they won't fly. Up here we have 600 lbs electric scooters in the bike lanes. When you go to many towns here in Canada, it is preposterous the number of bike lanes there are tying up the downtown streets, with virtually no users on them. Maybe they will be choked with electric delivery vehicles.

Happy Feet

Curious.

Sometimes the flip side happens and the younger generation rejects the path of the one before. We tend to be heading towards a more advanced, expensive platform in touring but perhaps the next batch will go back to basics by choice or necessity. Housing is like that. The boomers and their inheritors pushing for more size and with more affluence want houses with 5 bedrooms, six baths and two story garages for the RV and Harley (hyperbole I know). The next generation (my kids) can't afford the economic reality the previous ones have created and flip to the tiny house phenom where they maybe regain choice, design and location control.

Maybe the kids will just want to tour on a bike and not spend half their Starbucks barista annual income to do so while battling housing and student loan debts. Sort of how I wanted to go have an adventure on my 10speed with the money I earned from working in a garden center.

skookum

Last year I was Glacier Cyclery in Whitefish Montana, which is at the intersection of a couple of Adventure Cycling routes. They said they have seen an increase in cycle tourists in the last few years, both on pavement and off pavement cyclists. Does anybody actually have any statistics on cycle tourists? Is the number increasing?

The last couple of summers I've been doing the Great Divide (its a long term project). It seems to be fairly popular, I have no idea of the numbers, but there are enough that small businesses in these little towns have sprung up to cater to them. As to age most of them are much younger than me, (I'm in my fifties), so the young people are getting out there and riding. A lot of them using bike packing gear, but still lots of rack and pannier people.

I think the biggest equipment trend that has affected cycle touring is not new sexy frame materials, or components but wider tires. In the last few years, gravel cycling, off pavement tours, bike packing have become much more popular.There have always been those, especially outside North America and Europe, who rode the gravel and dirt back roads, but now there is so much choice in tire and wheel sizes, that I am sure that is what is driving the off pavement touring increase.

I think we're going to see more off pavement touring, and many more electric assist bikes, that will maybe allow the seniors to keep going for a few more years. I don't think fancy new frame materials or electronic shifting are going to make much difference.

saddlesores

you failed to mention that the only rideworthy frames will be made of 100% cotton lint.
pretty to look at, but oh so deadly!

the one artisan cotton lint frame shop will go bankrupt due to lawsuits when half the
tour de doping riders die of hypothermia after riding half a stage in a light drizzle.

Squeezebox

You really should try to not be insulting so much of the time. I know you said you try, but any of your attempts just do not show.

indyfabz

I find his comment was amusing.

Robert C

I think both of these are right. We will probably see more e-assist as charging points become more common. I suspect that rapid customization will also allow for bikes that actual fit.

shipwreck

Yes. How dare he point out that my Nostradamusnessness is flawed. I know that there is much that I have missed in pinpointing the future so accurately, but to rub my nose in it so... It just proves that he has no sense of humor, and more importantly no sense of right or wrong, right or left, right now or later, right angles vrs loose curves. He's a very bad man who made me feel sad.

jefnvk

Meh, depends on how much it has been increasing every year. If it has been increasing by exactly one every years, all that tells me is you have pretty much the same 250 people that come back every year, and are not adding to the event at all. Then again, the average age could have increased a tenth of a year every year, which would tell us a completely different story.

I could flip those stats, too, and say that most 61 year old's bank accounts are much healthier and amenable to extended vacationing than most folks in their 20s.

I honestly find it silly to assume what a generation as a whole does. I'd really believe that as a whole the older generations aren't all that interested in bike touring, either

saddlesores

the future?

i see the future cyclist going into a local fitting clinic,
having posterior and hands 3D-computer scanned,
then having custom-fit saddle and grips 3D-printed
using cloned cell material from said cyclist supported
on a free-range vegan dryer-lint-resin skeleton,
with of course integrated wifi-enabled monitoring
chips embedded within the matrix.

skookum

In the mean time, I am going to corner the market in dryer lint. I already have a good start.

gauvins

I am not aware of any data source on the demographics of bike touring.

Just wanted to point to data on US marathons, though. It shows that the median age of finishers did increase over the years, but not by much (34 to 40yo, between 1980 and 2016), which would be consistent with the idea that older people are, on average, in better shape than a generation ago.

Casual observation suggests that touring is indeed dominated by the retired crowd. I doubt that the economics of touring plays that big of a role (a decent bike is not much more expensive than a smartphone). Youth is attracted to more extreme activities, so you are probably more likely to see under 30s day riding mountain trails while their parents are on rail-to-trail tours.

BigAura

You may be right but only for a segment of the population, but not the average from what I see:

• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Hypertension

Plus I think your analysis is flawed because of the increase in the numbers of older people in the population.

gauvins

I looked at your link. If I understand correctly, you say that general health is declining, right?

I am not an expert in the field. Two observations. First, life expectancy at birth has increased significantly. (there are reports of plateau, maybe even a reduction for some demographics, but nothing major, yet).

wrt the to diabetes, it is not clear to me whether the sharp increase in incidence is due to poor health hygiene vs more aggressive diagnosis. I am type II despite not being overweight and having an "active" lifestyle. A generation ago I wouldn't have figured in the diabetes stats simply because there are no obvious signs that I have issues with processing sugar.

But you are certainly right that for a fairly large segment of the population, a diet rich in sugar and fats has wreaked havoc.

This being said, the bike tourers / commuters that I encounter tend to look quite fit. The commuter crowd tends to look younger than the tourers.

BigAura

The increase in longevity is related to better healthcare not better health. Here's what expert's do say:

cyccommute 

Sniff!...My name is Stuart...This is so hard....I'm addicted to...Oh God, how do I tell my family...Hostess products

It started innocently enough. Just a stop at the convenience store for a little pick me up...you know, just something to get me down the road. At first it was mostly healthy but the chips were the gateway.



Soon I was doing pie but "healthy" pie...you know, with fruit in it



Even bananas and coconut



But then I found pecan pie...



it's like "Wow!" what a rush! The energy! The power! But pie is hard to find. And then I spotted the Hostess products! Cup cakes! Ding Dongs! Even "pie".





And Twinkies! Oh, God, wonderful Twinkies. I ate them so fast I couldn't even take a picture. Soon I was doing two or three a day...maybe more. But at least I could tell myself that it was quality stuff.

But then I even sank so far as to get into Little Debbie's.



That's just rock bottom. When you sink to the level of Little Debbie's and you find yourself in a ditch somewhere covered in Little Debbie's wrappers and plastic frosting, there isn't any lower you can go...but you gotta have another. Just one more to get you down the road.

Please. Please help me before I sink as far as TastyKake!

gauvins

thanks for the link.

(not entirely clear to me what to conclude, though, as risk factors have changed (ex: fewer smokers) and other studies have painted a more nuanced picture. Interesting )

indyfabz

Watch it, pal. I am from Philly. TastyKake lemon pies ROCK!

robow

Stuart that is funny.
But at least you're not down at the trail head trying to sell some of those Lil' Debbie Banana Twins as substitutes for real bananas to all the unsuspecting riders.