[landcruiser123]

reasons:
1. Car is the more aspirational product (in India) and is expensive; Most owners of commuter motorcycles/scooters aren’t DIY guys and the maintenance is very cheap due to mechanical simplicity
2. Those who own performance machines aren’t bothered about spending the little extra $$$ for maintenance
3. Doubt even USA/EU have too many of them as motorcycles are toys in those regions, but cars are daily drivers
4. Less people do touring on motorcycles compared to cars. Motorcyclists can participate in car forums, but car owners won’t really sign up for a motorcycling forum

[Kosfactor]

I cant think of anything else apart from - Interest.

When we are kids, we are most likely to have a car as a toy than anything else - the interest is created from childhood towards something with 4 wheels. This fascination continues as we grow up (or do we?).

Bottom line - Interest. There are many things like cars that catches our eyes, not all can be discussed, openly - cars? Sure!

[RiderZone]

As someone who made a half-hearted attempt at running a small, weird moto website (not a forum) and failed spectacularly, here's what I found:

1. Running a site is a lot of hard work. Your main source of traffic is always Google, and Google wants lots of new content on a consistent basis, an article a day would be the minimum, I believe most auto sites actually put out 5 or even more. You can't do that without a bunch of writers. Writers take money, even the worst of them who just copy paste stuff.

2. In most cases, clickbait articles attract far more traffic as compared to genuine works, so if you want to make your site financially viable, there's no option but to pander to "upcoming bikes in india" or write controversial stuff.

3. There's no way to make money from a site except direct ads from brands. Google Adsense is almost dead in my opinion, you need millions of views to earn a few dollars. You are now attempting to write honest, thoughtful articles about a product whose owner is directly or indirectly keeping you afloat. Hence the epidemic of sleep inducing drivel that you see everywhere.

In short, running a moto site is difficult both financially and creatively. If you want to be financially stable, you may have to kill any semblance of creativity in your work. If you want to remain relatively independent, you gotta forget about making money.

[neil.jericho]

Though the number of two wheelers sold in India is very high, the number of enthusiasts (however they may be defined) and their corresponding percentage of the total two wheeler buyers are both extremely low. If you do a sample check of the demographics across the different cross sections of enthusiasts, most of them are in the 18-25 age group which is firmly KTM and Bajaj territory. They usually prefer the whatsapp / Facebook groups to participate and learn and they use Instagram / Youtube routes to consume. A website with a 2 minute read type article will typically cater to this large base.

As you move to the older demographics that might prefer longer reads and more in depth articles and analysis, you will find the number of two wheeler enthusiasts starts dropping drastically, since life catches up with them, and they have to focus on work, cars, kids and other priorities in life (not necessarily in that order!). The prevailing assumption is that the low numbers dont justify having a stand alone site to cater to this very small audience, though I would loved to be proved wrong on this front.

One more thing that comes to mind is that a lot of international motorcycle magazines employ ex racers as correspondents and the motorcycling scene (for lack of a better word) is already very mature in those markets which has in turn bred a strong interest leading to magazine sales (for decades though it is probably dipping in 2020), written online reviews and Youtube videos. Our market is definitely lagging behind in that front by a fair margin.

[shyamg28]

Meanwhile, a Google search indicates that Team-BHP title should also be updated if possible.
It is misleading and a bit ironical considering what we're discussing here:

[Mik]

Companies today care more about your youtube channel subscribers and instagram followers. So you won't get a bike to review or any paid promotion till you have those followers. Content is almost purely visual. No-one has time for 'reading'. Atleast not in that demographic.
Jio fundamentally changed content consumption in our country and the more basal stuff gets hits compared to sound journalism.
I have found motohive to be very thorough and one of the few automotive websites who actually put in effort to churn out high quality reviews. However, the lack of 'youtube views' and big hits due to listicles ensures that the site doesn't get the love it deserves.

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by GTO

2-wheelers outsell 4-wheelers by SIX to EIGHT times. And if we go by the sales numbers of enthusiast bikes - be it the cheap ones or the expensive ones - there are clearly lakhs of motorcycle enthusiasts in India.

So, I have been genuinely thinking about this = Why so?

Very simply put, bikes purchase in India is a low engagement purchase. Period!

Look at a person buying an Activa or Passion. He doesnt research the product, just goes to the showroom and says, humko ek Activa leni hai.
2-wheelers in India is purchased like a commodity, except the 200 cc and above segment.

Also the product line-up of 2-wheelers is simple. No variants, no confusion. The most a commuter bike has, is a variant with disc brake and without disc brake variant.

Its a classic case of - No consumer need, launching a product in such a space is bound to fail.

[omzworld]

Although 2 wheelers sell many times more than 4 wheelers, the market has not moved up the value chain like cars. Although for a car, your neighbor may ask, about additional features, gadgets, engine size; apart from the "kitna deti hai", for a 2 wheeler, that may be the only question on which your new bike gets judged.
If we look at the top 20 bikes in Dec 20 vs Top 20 Cars, the glaring difference is 16/20 bikes are 100 - 125cc commuter bikes whose only USP is mileage. They look similar, ride similar, give similar mileage and cost similar. Only differentiation is if the vehicle is a scooter or a bike. Out of the other 4, 2 are Pulsar and Apache (commuter bike for T2 cities) and other 2 are RE.
In the car analysis, 6-8L Baleno beats Alto, while Dzire bears Swift, Brezza sells more than Wagon R and S Presso. We have 10L+ Creta, Seltos in top 20.
4 Wheeler buyers are looking at value, 2 wheeler buyers are looking at utility.
Now what about the miniscule biker enthusiasts, we have couple of major historical issues:

1. 2 wheeler's for enthusisats came way too late to India. We had our share of Palio, OHC, Lancer, Cedia, Punto, Polo catering to us while after the RD 350, RX100 phase, the 2 wheeler enthusiast market was barren. Enfield was a doodhwala or policewala bike
2. Manufacturers did not cater to the core audience (1L - 2L range) for a very long time. Scene changed a bit after reentry of Yamaha with R15 and RE classic series, but the options were so miniscule for about a decade, that, you were either part of RE groups or you were not

There are enough biking enthusiasts, unfortunately due to lack of choices they are all RE enthusiasts, and a few rebels are KTM enthusiasts. They have closed group discussions, Whatsapp, Telegram to connect and discuss.
Although, scene is changing with few options, >250cc biking community is still mostly RE monopoly and unless there are enough viable options to discuss about and enough people buying these, the Forum scene will be mostly non-starter.

[Samarth 619]

I think a lot of platforms are dual mode- they focus on bikes, but cars overshadow them.

Whether its Overdrive, Autocar, Bike/Car India, Zigwheels, etc. A lot of them have bikes on the focus, but in secondary position.
Also, there are few bikes-first-cars-next platforms today, like Motoroids, Powerdrift, Bcmtouring, Xkmph, Xbhp, etc.


I agree that its more about attraction and premium value of cars that generate viewers.
But, we would need more concrete statistics to comment on the actual reason...

[rajshenoy]

Perhaps it boils down to the price point !!
Also how many of us discuss the Omni, alto, Eeco in our forum ?

Majority of our motorcycle sales are also under 1Lakh category and for that segment, people may not need websites for buying utility vehicles.

We do have decent information around the premium motorcycles today similar to cars costing north of 5-6Lakhs.

Another important trend is that majority consume internet in the form of videos(youtube, TikTok etc) since it is much easier to watch a 10 min video over reading detailed blog.

Honestly the Motorcycles section of Team-bhp is totally dwarfed by the car related sections.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

I also think that the amount of research which goes into buying a mundane machine of at least 5 lakhs is much higher than that which goes into buying the similar class of machine worth 80k. Hence you find the simplest of cars -alto etc having their reviews which attracts different personas- the commuter- the rich commuter - the D segment guy- the SUV guys and so on

It reflects on my own buying process for Activa for ~45 k 15 years ago circa 2006- Road pe dikhta hai, noting essentially wrong with it - honda brand - serves purpose of point a to b commmute
A couple of years earlier then when we got the Indica circa 2004 for ~5 lakhs, i had practically got all the auto magzines from the raddi wala which had reviews of zen cateye, indica, wagon r, alto. The stakes were much higher. Not that indica was a grand car, but we wanted to be absolutely sure of what we are getting into. Also the long though to purchase process makes all of this relevant. For no reason i am tracking the endeavour thread as currently it is the car I would buy sometime - personally I don't see it happening in the next 2 years But still I am tracking it.

Never bought another two wheeler after that so cant comment much.

The people who want to invest into good bikes are fairly connected to riding clubs etc. Only the big bike starters have to go about asking for what bike? Again most of them go to the biggest bike of the desi stables - Karizma, bullet, KTMs, Pulsars and then make the jump to the higher end depending on the inclination.

These are just feelings and thought on my own experience. And no offence to bikers. If anyone puts up detailed unbiased reviews like Team BHP, i would make an effort to join the troop!

[RMN]

Mostly because the 2 main category of motorcycle owners are casual commuters & passing enthusiasts.

By passing enthusiasts, I mean most of the motorcyclists are young people who have been provided the motorcycle by their parents just as a means of transport. After the initial excitement, its just a 2 wheeler for them. Also, they soon upgrade to a 4 wheeler. Similarly, many super bike owners too, after the initial excitement and the show-off period their excitement dies down. These 2 category of people don't really contribute much to the community.

[Mynameis]

I think one of the main reasons for lesser bike websites is the low demand of FUN bikes in the country.

People who buy commuter bikes mainly go by word of mouth, advise of friends and relatives. Also they don't have enough interest or time to read a bike review/ comparison.

Then there are people who buy slightly higher end bikes like Pulsar 180/220, KTM 200/390 and the likes. Even they account for not a large number and mainly concentrated in cities like Bangalore and Pune. I have no idea about Hyderabad.

Then there are people who are really enthusiastic about biking and buy bikes like Harley, Ducati, high end Yamaha/Honda etc. But that number is very low.

I have lived in Delhi and Mumbai for short durations and bike culture among young people there is not much. Quite less compared to cities like Bangalore and Pune (not counting economy bikes like Splendour, Platina etc.). I myself am not much into bikes. But that is more due to fear of crash than riding thrill. I believe FUN part is more in riding than driving. Coming back to topic, If I see the car culture (across all segments), it is there in all big cities and slowly catching up in tier 2/3 cities too.

In the last 10 years disposable income has increased for many people. There is no dearth of choice of cars across the segments. Loan is sanctioned for almost 90% of on-road price of a car. Also, people today are more aware of accidents on roads. I guess all these reasons convince a lot of youngsters to go for a Swift or Polo on EMI rather than a P220 or KTM.

I might be missing some info/ stats but these are what i think are reasons.

By the way, its a really nice thread, GTO sir. This thought never crossed my mind. Thanks for bringing it up!

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by GTO

So, I have been genuinely thinking about this = Why so?

Is this an Indian phenomenon or is it also true internationally?

[parambyte]

@GTO you are right about getting little traction in the time of social media and large corporate blogs prevalence. Search algorithms themselves don’t help discover individual blogs or websites. If I search for let’s say “Kawasaki z650 review” most of the search results in the first few pages will be large established websites. The common searcher won’t go bother digging deep. How does a new blog get discovered? I have always felt search engines should have a tab on “indie/personal blogs” or something like that (just like image/video search). When indie sites start getting some traction they will be motivated to invest more effort and time. Cash seeking search algorithms kind of killed indie blogs.

Even within FB or Twitter or Instagram, it was far easier to get follows 7 years ago than today. Now the algorithms prevent reach of your posts (unless you pay). I have tried paid reach but it doesn’t work even 1/25th as well as natural organic reach to you, your friends and friend’s friends, their friends and so on.

@mynameis you are right, India doesn’t have too many fun bikes. But we still are in a better position than 10 years ago. There have been some instances of personal bike blogs, like OnAVersys or Dilip Menezes’ blogs but as you can see they don’t get much traction, as they don’t come up in search results. I myself would like to maintain a blog of my own car’s experience but struggling to get discovered is a pain.