I still ride and but stopped riding street because it wasn’t fun being in traffic due to the reasons you mentioned. I still like the occasional back road ride

I still ride and but stopped riding street because it wasn’t fun being in traffic due to the reasons you mentioned. I still like the occasional back road ride but don’t own a street bike anymore. I ride exclusively off-road now. While I might risk an injury, I’m probably not going to be killed. Off-road riding and particularly motocross has vastly improved my skill level when I do ride on the road. I credit my dirt skills with saving my life on the freeway when someone pulled into my suddenly lane and I locked up the rear wheel (mistake!) on an oily patch of road. Since I was familiar with the rear wheel sliding and being locked up, my reflexes took over and I didn’t panic, at least not until after. I’m not saying that I didn’t have to change my underwear afterwards but I didn’t end up getting run over by the car behind me. The drop in sales you point out is the recession and crash of the housing market in 2008.