Agree with you Peter. We are all scattered about and unless there is an opportunity to get to the CR in June everyone is what they chat up on the email. Nice to see the diversity in age and the commonality in the love of classic bikes and some of the modern bikes as well (sorry Dale just skirted the realm of "off topic). Personalities do shine through in the commentary and we seem to be a opinionated lot...glad we steer clear of politics!!!! I am at the leading edge of the Boomer (may be pre boomer since I think the boomer gen started after WWII by the returning vets). This was worthwhile information. Thanks for the good job Duncan.
-- Don Keenan Boulder, CO 303-530-4033
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Peter Naiman <hetchinspete1@yahoo.com>
> Duncan; My first thought is that the CR List, much the Dale's credit is growing
> consistantly. If 10% is 141, we must have about 1400 member, and the last time
> I'd been quoted a number was a year or so back at about 11-1200. I've heard from
> a few nay-sayers that our hobby is shrinking, folks are leaving and very few are
> joining. If the lists growth is a true indicator, our hobby is doing just the
> opposite. Last pole done showed the average list age of I believe about 52, so
> we're also getting younger, meaning younger folks are joining us.
>
> Great work !!
>
> Peter Naiman
> Glendale, WI
>
>
> dgranger@comcast.net wrote:
> Well, the results are in (at least, no one has sent me their age since Friday,
> so I'm gonna go with what I got).
>
> My original hypothesis was that CR membership was younger, on average, than many
> of you might think. I kept the hypothesis to myself so as not to influence the
> replies (i.e. who chose to reply).
>
> I received 141 replies. That makes for about 10% of the CR list membership. So
> generalize at your own risk!
>
> Here are the stats:
>
> youngest member: 14 (hi Samuel)
>
> oldest member: 73 (two replies with this age)
>
> mean (sum of all responses devided by number of responses): 48.85
>
> median (the number [age] in the exact middle of the range when sorted from
> lowest to highest): 49
>
> mode (the most common response): 48 (twelve people of this age replied)
>
> Standard deviation (a measure of dispersion): 10.01 years
>
> number of responses in the following age brackets:
> 0-25: 2
> 26-35: 12
> 36-45: 32
> 46-55: 58
> 56-65: 29
> 66-75: 8
> 76+: 0
>
> Or by generation:
> Veterans (born 1901-1924): none
> Silents (born 1925 - 1942): 8
> Boomers (born 1943 - 1961): 92
> Xers (born 1962 - 1977): 39
> Gen Y (aka Millenials) (born 1978 - present): 2
>
> So we're definitely "Boomer-heavy" but have a pretty good number of gen Xers as
> well.
>
> Just out of curiousity, I re-ran the averages after removing the youngest two
> members who replied (14 and 23 years of age):
> mean: 49.46
> median: 50
> mode: 48
> standard dev.: 9.54
>
> So not that much changes - we still have a group that's younger than some of you
> thought (at least for this sample). Many of you guessed at the averages when you
> emailed me your age. The most common guess as to our average age was 58. We're
> way below that, at least according to this sample...
>
> We could spend all day debating the potential confounds (certain age groups may
> have been less likely to respond, for example), but this was never intended to
> be rigorously scientific, just fun. Again, generalize at your own risk, and take
> my conclusions with a grain of salt...
>
> If anyone wants the excel file (with accompanying graph of replies by age) let
> me know and I'll happily email it to you.
>
> There is definitely a group of 30-40 year olds out there with a passionate
> interest in collecting vintage lightweights
>
> Michael Kahrl was kind enough to send me the same stats for a recent survey of
> the iBOB list:
> Mean: 45.5
> Median: 45
> Mode: 42
>
> Generation GI: 0
> Silent Generation: 8
> Boomers: 64
> Gen X: 30
> Gen Y: 1
>
> Pretty similar distribution...
>
> So, any thoughts?
>
> Duncan Granger
> Mountville, PA