Demographic Profiles
History has a way of repeating itself...
Not that I have a choice about the matter, but I'm old enough to remember the early days of road racer motorcycles being taken onto the streets. I was one of those guys that took an RD400 and tricked it out with full fairings and aftermarket carb and pipes. That was one fun ride.
...what I saw evolve was a demographic and cultural shift where people divided themselves between the Harley Davidson "Outlaw" crowd and the mostly Japanese made "Road Racer" crowd. These two demographics are so completely alien to each other that they really needed to get separated.
The
"Outlaw" crowd wanted to be without limits and liked the way the Harley Davidson bikes powerband worked because it had lots of low end torque which means it was a "rush" off the line. The Harleys handled terrible at speed and made awful racebikes in their stock form... but "Outlaws" are not racers anyway, so they didn't care. Throw in movies that glamorized the outlaw biker lifestyle and you have a completed demographic.
The
"Road Racer" crowd emerged out of an addiction to speed and performance. Racing is not a sport about freedom of expression or rebellion, it's a sport about competition and discipline. People are attracted to racing because they like to win races and gain some kind of reward or recognition. The people that are attracted to road racing could just as easily be corporate sharks because the competitive urge is the same in both places. "Road Racer" culture parted ways with the "Outlaws" and went on a quest to be legitimate in the larger society. (which it's only had a partial success in doing)
----------------------------
Fast forward to the ebike and we seem to be repeating those demographic patterns. You can even see it in the designs of the bikes being made. People that are building monster powered ebikes but then make no effort to improve the high speed handling of the machine are repeating the "Outlaw" mindset of the Harley Davidson. In some cases these people even mimick the visual shape of choppers.
The "Road Racer" ebike as a category is so new as a concept that it's not even fully realized yet, but the eventual evolutionary path will be the same... whatever rules evolve will not be to the liking of the "Outlaws" because they hate rules of ANY kind.
"Racers" and "Outlaws"... like oil and water it seems...
-----------------------------
The third and largest demographic is the
general public. The majority of people will never have a passion about ebikes even if they become commodity items. So for the two passions of "Outlaws" and "Racers" the general public will never really understand what it's about. The ebike laws are typically designed to PROTECT this demographic.
http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/
"Outlaws" tend to despise the general public for being sheep and so it's the "Outlaw" lifestyle to want to break laws and be without limits. Provoking law enforcement fits into the "Outlaw" mindset because it's a way to try to declare one's personal freedom. "Outlaws" would think the Burning Man get togethers in the desert are where the world should migrate towards.
"Racers" are on good terms with the general public and just want to be able to pursue their addiction to speed. (going to a racetrack just means you get to satisfy your addiction and not get into trouble doing it) "Racers" do not want to provoke a response from law enforcement. Other than their addiction to speed the racer is largely a conformist by nature, but also has a competitive streak in them. So from the "Racers" perspective every time an "Outlaw" gets into the news it's a bad day because that bad behavior falls upon the entire sport. Racers aren't going to be attracted to the Burning Man culture... "what's the point?" they might say.
So in general "Racers" are in harmony with the sheep, while the "Outlaws" want to be separate from the sheep.