Amidst a rising spike in living costs comes a plea to keep motorcycles affordable – and given the recent ballooning of the bike community and two-wheeled taxi services, the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Association (FEMA)’s cry for affordable transit has made quite the stir.
FEMA general secretary Dolf Willigers, in particular, has made a solid argument for “keeping [vehicle] taxes reasonable, as well as taking other measures to encourage motorbike ridership as a viable form of everyday transport.”
It’s not just Europe that’s hurting, either; Southeast Asia has already been making headlines with their outlandish price for city-state 10-year motorcycle permits, now “up over 200% in four years and more than the cost of a new, entry-level bike” (via Bloomberg).
The argument from all of this is pretty straightforward; with skyrocketing price tags in the Motorsports industry, will public transit be the new go-to?
In the article FEMA used to address bike affordability, we also got the following slap in the face from the raw materials industry:
“…the price of lithium, a major component of batteries, has increased sevenfold. It also reports that mining and refining [the lithium] is mainly done by Chinese companies.”
“The same is the case with nickel…”
Electric motorcycles are making a big splash in our community, but they’ll have to hike up their price point more if raw materials continue the climb as they have in recent seasons…yet another deterrent, and one that may require a keen eye on the state of our country’s alliance with China.
Bottom line, FEMA wants “governmental and legislative bodies to do what they can to encourage ridership;” what do you think?
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