LAM ‘CENSUS’ 2021

LAM ‘CENSUS’ 2021

The results are in! Part 2

To coincide with the National Census in March, LAM invited all Full Members and Associates to take part in our own ‘census’ using a Mailchimp campaign. Invitations were sent out to all 413 members and we received 156 responses. Questions varied from “What do your ride?” to “How often do you do POWDER checks?”. The results from the respondents produced an interesting insight into our membership.

Did you buy it new or second-hand?

• 37% of the respondents bought their bike new
• 63% bought second hand

How long have you owned it?

• 40% had owned their bike for up to two years
• 30% up to five years
• 20% up to ten year
• 10% more than ten years.

How many miles a year do you ride?

• 36% rode their bikes less than 5,000 miles in a year
• 46% rode up to 10,000 miles
• 13% up to 15,000 miles
• 5% more than 15,000 miles in a year.

Have you ridden abroad?

• A big majority, 71%, had ridden their bike abroad
• 29% still had that experience to come!

Do you service your bike yourself or take it to a dealer/garage?

It appears that most of us do not wield a spanner on our bike or bikes. Is there a relationship here with whether or not the bike has been purchased new and how long it has been owned?

• 57% take their bike to a dealer or garage for repairs and maintenance
• 38% do that as well as a bit of maintenance themselves
• 5% do all of their own maintenance

How often do you do a POWDER check?

Another big majority carry out a POWDER check regularly.

• 39% before every ride and 28% every week
• 21% carry out a check every couple of weeks
• 10% carry out a check once a month. All credit to their honesty, or maybe it’s a ‘wind-up’
• 2% wait for something to fail! 

Do you use a SatNav?

This was an interesting one that showed how things have changed and are changing. Mostly gone are the days of navigating by maps and directions.

• 10% don’t use a SatNav
• Of the vast majority that do use a SatNav, 25% used TomTom
• 24% used Garmin
• 9% used a BMW device
• 29% used their Smartphone to navigate
• 3% used another type of device.

Is this the shape of things to come? Even more reliance on our Smartphones rather than use dedicated devices?

If you have any observations or comments to these results, drop the Editor an email for inclusion in a future issue of Progress. 

Trevor Ambrose, Secretary. LAM