By Tom Dean

Alot has been said lately about the baby boomers and millennials, and how the market is shaking out to produce motorcycles for these diverse generations.

As a Gen Xer, I look on with a certain curiosity. I believe both groups bring important elements to modern and future motorcycling.

Let’s face it, we wouldn’t be where we are today in motorcycle technology without the influence of the baby boomers. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, baby boomers led the charge in terms of sales, especially in dirt bikes.

When the baby boomers got a little older, many of them turned to street bikes. The Big 4 companies from Japan worked hard to deliver the goods. The first shot was the Honda CB750. Not to be outdone, Kawasaki came out with the DOHC Z1. Suzuki decided it could play the four-stroke game and introduced the fine-handling GS750 and 1000. Yamaha had the “giant killer” RD line of two-strokes and covered its four-stroke bets with the XS line.

Most of these bikes fell under the banner of “Universal Japanese Motorcycle.” They were big, bold and fast. The boomers snapped them up through the mid-1980s. Even though I am a Gen Xer, I must admit to falling under the spell of the UJMs.

When I first started reading Cycle World magazine in 1980, I instantly fell in love with the blue-and-silver Honda CB750 and the red-on-red Suzuki GS1100. Such was their hold that, when I came of age, I owned several UJMs, including a Suzuki Bandit 600, a Honda 599 and a Honda 919. Upright, comfortable and fast enough to get you in trouble, these modern UJMs were thoroughly enjoyable.

While the UJMs were setting the world on fire in the late ’70s and early ’80s, BMW threw the whole industry a curve ball with the original 1980 R 80 G/S.

While the UJMs were born to burn up the street, the R80 G/S was born to ride on the street and the trail. While the G/S was no motocrosser, you could take it lightly off road and still have a good time.

Today, bikes like the G/S are called adventure touring bikes, or ADV. Nearly all motorcycle manufacturers make an ADV bike of some sort.

Some have called ADV bikes the sport utility vehicle of the motorcycle world. Some ADV bikes are weighted toward the off-road side of riding, and others are more street biased. Whether their focus is hammering through the dirt or piling up freeway miles, most ADV bikes are comfortable over long distances, with neutral UJM-like seating positions and plenty of luggage options.

So, if UJMs are the long-held traditional option and ADV bikes are the current hot thing, what does the future hold?

Many millennial riders I know seem to like the simplicity of those UJMs from the 1970s and ’80s. There is a certain appeal to taking an older UJM and rebuilding it to make it your own. Scramblers, which look like retro dirt bikes from the 1960s and ’70s, have also found their place with millennial riders.

A curious thing is happening here. If millennials are said to be so tuned-in to technology, how do you explain the appeal of these simple retros? Some would say these simpler bikes come with simpler price tags and, to a certain extent, they may be right. Simplicity sells.

Millennials will take the passing of the motorcycling torch from the boomers and Gen-Xers. Maybe we’ll see UJM-like bikes with superchargers or turbos.

Electric bikes? They are already here. And market forces and technological advances will make them cheaper and better as time passes.

Whatever happens, motorcycling will carry on. The simple freedom of being on two wheels will prevail, no matter if you’re a boomer, GenXer, millennial or from the latest group to come of age: Generation Z. In the end, motorcyclists are defined by their love of riding, and not their generational affiliation.