After riding motorcycles for 45 years, I've come to the realization that I am not a biker. Even though I wear a leather vest and am a member of a three-piece patch motorcycle club, I am not a biker. I don't spend my time barhopping, trying to impress everyone else with how many Harley T-shirts I have, or showing off the latest Harley logoed item on my bike. I don't refer to my bike as "my Harley". My idea of what a motorcycle is about is getting out and riding it. No bars, no keeping up with the Joneses, no fashion shows or motorcycle shows, no "ride to drink, drink to ride". I'd rather get my hands dirty, change my own oil and design and fabricate my own parts rather than send my bike to the dealer. While other people sit in the bar sipping their beer or gin and tonic, I want to be sampling the taste of bugs at 70 mph. I want to wake up in the morning with a sunburn on my face, not a hangover. I want to tell the stories about how I dodged a rainstorm, not how I dodged a sobriety checkpoint. I'd rather sit around a campfire with a guitar and some close friends than sit in a bar with with eighty people I don't know, being assaulted by a band playing so loudly you can't hear yourself think. It's not that I have disdain for those who choose to do this, but it's not who I am. My idea of what a motorcycle is for is different.

So I accept that I am not a biker. I'm just a guy who likes to ride.

 

Alrighty then.

 

At least you tried.

 

You're not alone. Except I don't want anything to do with a club that would have me as a member :-)

 

I'm not sure what that meant, but there are a lot of things in life I'm not sure of.

 

 

You have some very strange ideas of what makes someone a " biker "

 

Cool story bro.

 

I'm just curious why you felt you had to explain that to us? Ride your ride and we'll ride ours. You ride to make yourself happy, not us. To each his own.

 

~snicker~