Dutch 30-Somethings Born to Be Wild

With dead-straight roads and hardly a hill in sight, the rain-swept Netherlands is hardly classic motorcycling terrain.

Yet beneath the stolid exterior of the Dutch beats a wild yearning to ditch the traditional bicycle for the escapism of big, powerful motorbikes.

And men and women in their 30s are opening their wallets to this passion in unprecedented numbers.

“It is the sense of adventure. The freedom of the open road,” said Wendy van Mourik of the RAI motor trade association.

“The image has changed a lot. People no longer think of motorcyclists as Hell’s Angels,” said Adriaan Huigen, editor of the biking magazine ProMotor.

RAI figures show there were 232,000 motorcycles on Dutch roads as of Aug. 1, up 41,000 on a year earlier. About half of these were second-hand imports, among them American “chopper” style bikes and Harley-Davidsons.

Nearly all the new owners are between 30 and 40, and a quarter of them are women.

Many of them used to ride motorbikes as a cheap form of transport. “Now they are prosperous enough to own the bike of their dreams,” said van Mourik.

Eighty percent of new bike owners own at least one car, RAI reports. They can afford plenty of horsepower--the most popular machines are between 400 and 750cc and cost on average $6,600 to $7,700.

The upward trend in bike sales is a phenomenon across Europe with the notable exception of Britain.

America’s Harley-Davidson is the machine of the moment and a common sight from Amsterdam’s cafe terraces.

At the bike show at Amsterdam’s RAI congress center last month, the Harley stall was surrounded by hordes of people gazing at bikes selling for up to $22,000.

“The orders are flooding in,” said a Harley salesman.

Many onlookers commented, “You could buy a car for that money!” but missed the point. People are buying bikes for the excitement value, not just transport.

Do they mind being scoffed at as “fair-weather bikers” by stalwarts who ride their bike every day come hell or high water? Not really, because now the fun-lovers are in the majority.

“Only a tiny percentage of people buy a bike because they are fed up with traffic jams,” Huigen said. “For most it’s a leisure and pleasure thing.”

In winter, it is rare to see a motorbike on Dutch roads. But in the summer they are plentiful, especially on weekends.

Many are loaded down with spare tires and luggage as they head off for that “big tour” of Europe--a passion shared with their neighbors in Germany.

They can be seen trundling into many a beach resort, sweating profusely in their leathers in the midday sun, but happy to be still in one piece after days on southern European roads.

It’s the big bikes the Dutch like. Those multi-cylinder jobs with flashy fairings and lots of headlights. Color-coordinated leathers are all the rage, too.

British bikes are part of the scene. Not the rattling, oily contraptions of yesteryear but a new range of Triumphs every bit as fast, flashy and technically advanced as the Japanese models that dominate the market.

The new British models also sold well at the bike show, in spite of an $11,090 price tag.

“We have sold every bike on the stand and cannot supply Dutch dealers fast enough,” a Triumph sales assistant said.

But the big four Japanese manufacturers have the lion’s share of the Dutch market--around 80%.

Will the upward trend continue? ProMotor’s Huigen thinks so, saying biking is more than just a fad.