Following is a post from Rusty B. on
B&R's Forum and my response. You may think I'm joking. Not.
I have been thinking lately a lot about the evolution of american motorcyclists.
In the 60's and 70's when I became attracted to, and then involved in, and ultimately a part of the american biker scene the majority of us were different than the majority of bikers now. Even the rice riders, and Beemer crowds were more like us on a gut level than bikers now. Seems like everything started going to hell around the time the EVO was introduced by HD. Once you could go to the garage, start your "Harley" and ride a couple thousand miles and come home and park your bike in the garage while still having clean fingernails and no grease or oil on your jeans things began to change. Not necessarily a bad thing as far as the bike goes, but it changed a lot about the attractiveness of riding a motorcycle for many, many people.
Has motorcycling evolved to the point that folks who 30 years ago would have had nothing to do with it, are now the VAST majority owning, riding, and representing motorcyclists?
Is it now to easy, to comfortable, and to common? Has it become mainly a recreational pastime, a hobby, a retirement activity, for so many people?
It used to be a commitment, that involved a lot of effort, time, passion, love and risk. Still is for some.
United States Americans have lost their way it seems to me. Like sheep, they have been led down the primrose lane by corporate pirates. They are willing to abide by the "Machine"s little but ever increasing rules as long as it feels good and they have fun. Ultimately we all end up like hamsters running on the treadmill inside a cage most won't even notice the bars of.
Just like any other industry that involves a lot of money to be made, we are seeing the placement of individuals who best further the interests of the industry in key positions in the Motorcycle community. How better to beat or cajole us into submission than to take over our organizations? They don't have to please everyone, just the majority, and if they are careful, and calculated while handing out a well spun rationale for say.......wearing helmets, the majority will buy into it.
And if there is a profitable collusion between the motorcycle industry and say......... the telecommunications industry, whereby they put alot of "fun" and "useful" electronic junk at the front of motorcyclists heads while their riding, ......... Sighhhhhhh.
Sure, now and then one of the hamsters will get smucked in the new playpen, but do many of the other hamsters really care? Do many of them really feel like it was a brother or sister? Are they outraged, or do they think the dead one must have been a bad rider, or unlucky, or just another one of those idiots being careless. Maybe they think they deserved it for not following the rules?
A brotherhood requires brothers, requisite with the bond, the anger, fight, and wherewithal thats intrinsic with brothers/sisters.
I had hopes that the popularity of motorcycling would be short lived. I had visions of lots of low mileage harleys for sale at ridiculously low prices when the "fad" passed. And a surplus of stock to keep us dirt bags rolling on the cheap for years to come. I don't think its going to pass.
The biker has evolved.
The dirt bag biker is going the way of the cowboy. Yep, theres still lots of dudes wearing cowboy hats, and boots, and big buckles, trying to look the part, but how many have ever ridden a horse, let alone broke one or spent 80 hours a week on the back of one?
Unless we change the way we do business with government run by corporate America I am afraid the only option we have left as biker brothers and sisters is to somehow make motorcycling taboo again. Separate the chaff from the wheat you might say. Either that or enamor the motorcycling masses to support our bikers rights agendas. I guess we know how thats working out.
Makes you wonder where we will be 30 years from now. Rusty Bonegard
RESPONSEDamn Rusty, I like you had visions of a market glutted with low milage MC's on the cheap. Maybe if we pray for recession some of those who can afford to buy em and trailer them more than ride em will have to let lose of a few so as to put gas in their boats.Almost like the the "Barbie" that gets her one fashionable rose tattooed on her tit and never gets another. But she will have that one the rest of her life.Money and cause has corrupted the "brotherhood" thing.Today you are asked to write a check to join a "brotherhood" to ostensibly "fight" for the cause.In the past you paid your dues and then fought to be a part of the brotherhood. Respect was earned and not purchased. And if your belief's dictated that you stand alone you did so with enthusiasm.So as a gesture of support for your frustration (my depression) I for one shall proudly and loudly lay claim to the title of "DIRT BAG" (though there are some who may feel I shan't have to do so loudly).I shall preach the "dirt Bag" mantra of "do not fuck with my freedom"I shall encourage others to convert to "dirt baggism" and hold no council with dirt bag wanna be's.I pledge to stand by my fellow dirt bags and whack em one should they deviate from the path of righteousness and lust after pretty blue lights.I shall come to the aid of fellow dirt bags and expect the same.I will not worship at the alters of the false Gods of HD and their latest line of fashionable leathers, chrome angels and prophesied (by marketing demons) factory custom paint jobs.Bring us your rejected street bikers who cherish adrenaline over order, your lost beemer riders who know how to go their own way even if GPS enabled. Your young, poor and pure who ride only by virtue of tie wire and duct tape, your love bug splattered, your torn, broken and leathered who ride with no thought of destination. But for the ride.DIRT BAGS UNITE must be our cry and if they can't hear our cry let em hear our pipes or the sound of RPMS maxed out.And should any one person declare themselves king of dirt bags or betray a dirt bag let them suffer from a plague of hot pipe enema's. For we are brothers and not servants.Add to Technorati Favorites
