Things sure have changed in the motorcycle business since Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson cemented the image of the biker as counter-cultural in Easy Rider.

"The demographics of the customers have changed dramatically, " said Robert Galbraith, managing director of Honda Distributors Ireland. A large proportion of Honda's Irish customers are well-heeled executives; the proud owners of high-end touring bikes.

Like their cousins in the car industry, motorcycle dealers have seen a healthy interest in their more expensive models during the boom times as a wealthier populace looks for status symbols on which to dispose of their disposable income.

For many of these new motorcycle owners an added advantage to owning a trophy bike is that it helps to free them from the constraints of city traffic.

Galbraith said in most cases the motorcycle is not their exclusive mode of transport.

"I'd say 70%, at least, of motorcyclists now have at least one or more cars, " he said.

Lenny Burns, principal of Ireland's only Harley Davidson dealership, in Waterford, said 2006 sales are up 15% on last year's numbers. "We're getting a lot of professionals now buying Harleys. We're not just selling to biker types now, we're selling to doctors, lawyers, dentists, " he said.

The Honda MD himself swears by his bike as the only mode of transport he would choose to whisk him from his offices in an industrial park in west Dublin to meetings in the city centre. It's a message Honda is keen to impart to corporate customers.

"Motorcycles have a huge part to play in the traffic situation. Anybody who has a service business should be thinking in terms of 'can I put that person on a bike?'" Unfortunately for Honda, and rivals Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki . . . to say nothing of 'hog' merchants Harley-Davidson . . . there is another good reason why they don't and which also explains why today's motorcycle owner is more pin-striped suit than jacket and jeans: insurance costs.