Why does the Canadian Superbike Championship exist?
It is a simple question, but one that I have heard asked over and over for the past 10 years. I like the people who run the series, and I know how much hard work it is to keep it going. Anyone who has volunteered to marshal, or solicited sponsorship, or tried to organize a kids’ birthday party for that matter, appreciates the difficulty in successfully aligning so many people, venues and financial stakeholders together. It is a gargantuan task and one that the CSBK organization handles very well. But the question isn’t are CSBK capable of pulling it off, or litigating the quality of the series, but whether it is a series in search of an audience.
I will state now that this column is a personal opinion. I do not have enough supporting data to cast CSBK as viable or not, and I am not attempting to boil the blood of fans for the sake of provocation. I am asking the same question that I hear every time I talk to readers at a show, or fans at Shubenacadie and Mosport during CSBK events. I am airing what everyone has heard and thought. The series is weak.
Attendance is low. Energy is absent from the crowd. The competition trackside isn’t competitive. For the past five years I have gone to the Atlantic round and in all cases the venue was empty on Sunday. The Toronto round I attended wasn’t much better. Every year the number of competitors seems to diminish. The food vendors are on-par with what my local area high school offers during the fundraiser. I see the same fans year after year, in fewer number, and almost no women or children. In lulls between races, the quiet is depressing.
Motor racing is hurting all over the world. Even MotoGP is suffering from reduced viewership and many of the races in fringe markets like Qatar feature empty grandstands. But the case for CSBK has a second side, one which I and a limited number of people in the Canadian motorcycle community have been crowing about for a decade. It’s out of touch with the market.
In Cycle Canada, other motorcycle magazines and all over the shops and motorcycle shows across this country for decades, the market has been one tailored almost exclusively to men over 45. As a man who is just shy of that mark, I should rejoice but instead I recoil. I have my share of greying hair, and I do prefer the music of my time to most of the contemporary variety, but I do not want my industry, my hobby and my favourite sport to tune itself to my tastes. I want it to be a pluralistic, innovative place driven by youthful energy.
CSBK is painful to watch because it reminds me of my parents’ generation. I love them, but loathe the stubborn clawing at a past that will never return. The beer and tobacco sponsors are gone. The big-haired umbrella girls are gone. The public’s interest in a loud, smelly sport that is completely contrary to mainstream society’s environmental zeitgeist is zero.
You, readers of Cycle Canada, may not like that last statement, but it is true. Most Canadians live in cities, are literate in climate science, and nearly half of us are under 40. Those oft-maligned millennials make most of the consumer economy and they are not interested in driving out to some remote track to spend a hundred dollars and watch men in leather suits shuffle around a crumbling asphalt paddock and eat a cold hot dog.
CSBK is not helping sell motorcycles in Canada. Honda Come Ride With Us days does. The Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival does. And, if we speak about racing, flat track racing does. A Flat Track Canada event is loud and smelly too, and also off-the-beaten track. But the short events, intense competition, and low cost of entry make it fun. There is always music, and there are always children. There are even children riding, because unlike superbikes, you can let a kid play on a PW80 in a dirt field without risking serious injury or spending a fortune.
I grew up in the superbike era and I adore them. As I have stated many times, I find the fully-faired sport motorcycle to be the apex of the spieces. I watch MotoGP. I sketch sport bikes in my free time. And I love the noise and smell of a highly tuned Japanese superbike. But that culture was a product of its time, and we can’t go back.
No one is buying GSX-Rs and Panigales anymore because they are, and it pains me to admit this, stupid motorcycles. Dangerous, expensive and impractical, they are as silly as a stretched out chopper or flared disco pants. We are all allowed to love whatever we love, but let’s face facts: the superbike concept is dead. Watching CSBK is like watching a beloved dog on life support. We had some great times together and admire its tenacity, but secretly I want it to die quickly.
Long may the private track day and organized club racing live. I am not wishing any ill fortune or loss of livelihood to anyone. I just feel that all that talent and resources would be more profitably spent re-imagining motorcycle competition in Canada in a way that is in-step with the times. I remain hopeful that it will happen. And even more hopeful that by some fluke the superbikes will come back some day. . . .
No One likes the Truth…
Your comments on the slow demise of the Superbike is correct, unfortunately. It is a demographic issue more than a danger issue. Generally, older ‘people’ simply won’t ride these race bikes with lights on a tour anymore. The ADV is the new do everything bike segment, for obvious reasons. Yes, ADV’s are ugly, but go ask opinions of a couple riders after an 8 hour canyon ride in Central California heading to Laguna Seca , one on a 1290 Super Adventure, one on a Panigale, see which one is prefered.
The CSBK series is another issue all together. IMO, a series that asserts that it represents an entire country, when it offers it’s “product” only to the eastern 1/2 of said country, is not a national series. I’m sure there are reasons that prevent this, lack of track, etc, but it still remains that all the bike enthusiasts in the western provinces generally don’t give a shit anymore what goes on in racing in 3 eastern provinces. Like,,,,a long time ago didn’t give a shit.
Motorcycling in general is perhaps on the other side of the bell curve these days. Magazine’s,small shops,sales ,race tracks everything has been in slow downward trend…..it’s enevitable that the upper echelon of motorcycles is under the microscope first …..but it’s not stupid sport machines in all forms are still the flagship for any company be it GM or Ferrari or Honda I doubt that will change it’s not the machines that are unrealistic. The buyers are electronically engaged these days and dare I say there are less “real men” and that’s not just effecting motorcycles …the entire power sport industry sleds etc I think we still need to look forward and not hope the past comes back
The Octo MotoGP San Marino 2019 was well attended and a good show. 40 yr old VR46 the local hero came 4th!
The ebike race lasted 8 laps, a snoozefest.
I think there are enough of us dinosaur fuel loving fans left to support motorcycle racing for a good while to come, just not here.
Canada never has had the fan base, nor the climate.
Motorcycling in general is perhaps on the other side of the bell curve these days. Magazine’s,small shops,sales ,race tracks everything has been in slow downward trend…..it’s enevitable that the upper echelon of motorcycles is under the microscope first …..but it’s not stupid sport machines in all forms are still the flagship for any company be it GM or Ferrari or Honda I doubt that will change it’s not the machines that are unrealistic..far from it they are a purists dream in fact..it’s a lack of purists thats the problem. The buyers are electronically engaged these days and dare I say there are less “real men” and that’s not just effecting motorcycles …the entire power sport industry… quads mx bikes sleds etc your not the first journalist I’ve come across that looks around for a explanation for lack of interest in our sport…..but it’s a much bigger complex problem
I left CC when Neil did because I read it for his editorials, not the cruiser reviews. I’m on my second 650 Vstrom since 2005 and have little interest in the latest cylinder coatings for the liter bikes or which metric cruiser sounds like the Milwakee beast. I liked Micheal then and I really like this editorial. If this is the future of CC, I may be interested…
I first started going to the CSBK races at Mosport in 2010 and there’s no mistaking that every year the paddock and the stands are smaller than the year before. BMW cancelling Motorrad Days a few years ago only accerlated this decline. By contrast, the Vintage Road Racing Assn event that generally runs within a week of the superbikes has a completely different vibe. There’s plenty of grey beards but some younger city hipsters too. It’s the one event I never miss and every year I tell myself I have to get out there…next year. Anyone that you talk to is extremely welcoming and encouraging. While there’s more they could do…like adding more classes for bikes from the 90s for example…there’s something authentic about the whole series that’s lacking in CBSK. And similar vintage events in the US…Mid Ohio, Elkhart and Barber…have one thing in common with Mosport…a beautiful track for a race…a setting that actually makes you want to spend a weekend there. Shannonville, Schubenachadie, St Eustache…are dumps. I don’t know if there’s any series of steps that could be taken to stop the bleeding…but you’re absolutely right Michael, it’s become depressing and something needs to be done.