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Every Biker Has A Style (Even If He Doesn't Know It)

Style is part of the motorcycle equation for every rider. It comes up every time you buy a new bike or jacket, accessorize, study your reflection in a plate glass window, and when you pull into a crowd that scrutinizes every move you make. All this makes you think about the style you have or wish to create.

Maybe you just want to look cool. But you can get philosophical about it and make your style exhibit you - if you know who you are. What image do you want to project as a biker? What do you want to tell people about you? Style development begins with the bike you choose to ride. Most bikes will fall into one of the styles below, and your style will emerge from there. The bike and the style it inspires go together. You can change your style too. Cross over to another bike. But that can get costly.

I see six styles all around me. Find yours here or start defining yours by reading these characteristics. If you ride any of  these bikes in these categories, you are already inclining toward their styles.

Leisure Style

This person isn't the James Dean/Marlon Brando/Peter Fonda type. He enjoys the ride and the breeze and looking impressive in bermuda shorts and tennis/deck shoes without socks. He may despise the leather look and its image. He refuses to conform to any of the well-defined, rigid styles characterized below. He bops around town in a Hawaiian shirt and corduroy OP shorts or cruises down beach drive in 70-90 degree weather making everyone envious by announcing, "This is living." Forget safety. Wearing a helmet only gets in the way of his mane waving in the humid breeze. Shaving the nipples off of his chest with road rash, or rounding off his knee caps down to the nerves and marrow isn't going to happen. There is a little bit of the 60's beach movies in this style. You observe it in Florida, California, and other beach, resort, or retirement communities where life is slower. Teenagers who are not serious about riding, older adults, and people who are frightened by larger bikes do the leisure style. But you just as easily see it anywhere where a person just does errands, saves money on gas, or cruises to enjoy the experience. Those who do not ride that often or have a scooter or a smaller displacement bike adopt this style. It is relaxed and surrounded with an air of innocence and a money-saving attitude.

Honda GoldWing Style

Now we begin the major styles. GoldWinging is a unique style in motorcycling. GoldWingers are in their own world. Nobody but them does what they do. Check out any normal bike night you might frequent. Bikers will be everywhere wandering around and mixing, but off to the side someplace will be a contingent enclave of GoldWingers like a wallflower at a 50‘s Sock Hop. But it really doesn't make any difference because there are so many of them out there that they have an army of their own rallies just for them only. They have enough peer support that no matter how strange things may look to others, they think that everything they do is preferred. GoldWingers ride these behemoth, bus-like, half-ton bikes that they decorate and hold certain behaviors in common. But there is one thing alone that defines the GoldWinger above all others. Lights. The quintessential GoldWing will look like a rolling solar system at night. The entire bike and road will be bathed in luminescence. Lights flashing in the front, on the side, in the back, on the wheels, the helmets, everywhere. The reason is because a GoldWinger is hammered with the gospel of SAFETY. Safety is the by-word for this style more than any other. Hence, lights. They believe in being seen. And seen they will be for all kinds of reasons. Every conceivable doodad one can imagine hangs off a GoldWing. Helmet holders reflect lights off of the back like little sequins. Stuffed animals perch on top boxes. There will be CB's, helmet microphones with dangling cords, pin striping, GPS's, cup holders, wind wings, horns, chrome trim for every hole and vent, windshield etchings, detailed paintings of landscapes and Indians and wolves, hitches, coolers, sheep skin, beaded seats, speakers, arm rests, back rests, tissue holders, electrical outlets, XM radios, flags, antennas, plastic woodgrain trim, and every convenience of an automobile. If they can think it, it is on there. The last word for a GoldWinger is "minimalist". A GoldWinger maxes out. They are the most adorned and stocked in the motorcycle world, which is why they are liked by so many. They head out on the road with every convenience there is. Except for one thing. Leather. This is not normally included in the GoldWing style. You WILL see denim jackets with GWRRA emblems and pins, satin jackets, and screwy looking stuff at times, like striped clown pants, especially at their rallies. Another GoldWinger feature is the pressure to join GWRRA (Gold Wing Road Riders Association) with all its camaraderie, but it is not required. GoldWinging comes with the Couple of the Year Award (lots of emphasis on 2-up riding), couple's names painted on their bikes, evening rides, and restaurant stops galore. GoldWing people (not unlike many other motorcyclists) often add significantly to the overall weight of their bikes. Group rides are a phenomenon. Everyone saddles up with his CB and a rider who is the locomotive and another who is the caboose. This little train rides along at moderate speeds and is shepherded by the leader and end as they alert  riders of every move they should make with every potential hazard in the road. GoldWinging makes little sense to many bikers. For that matter, none of the other styles make any sense to the other styles either. But it takes a certain frame of mind to get into this. It has its own culture and lifestyle, just like a HOG Club. So who does this? Go to rallies and just look around a bit. You see a lot of older guys and their wives. The cost of the bikes probably has something to do with that. They are independent thinkers who are conforming to a certain philosophy about motorcycling that is legitimate if that is who you are and what you like and like to do. "Do" is another good word for the GoldWing style. These people have all sorts of chapters, officers, and things to do together. GWRRA is about doing.

BMW Style

Beemer people are among the most independent thinkers in motorcycling. That is because, by comparison, there are few BMW's out there even though they are among the most technologically sophisticated bikes there are. But they are expensive. To buy a Beemer, you will force yourself to think outside the herd. They look different than the most popular bikes out there, the most peculiar being the GS. If you buy one and are not a loner, you will become a loner because you will be riding solo most of the time. Why? Nobody will be able to keep up with you for one. These things fly. But BMW riders prefer to ride alone anyway. They don't ride in packs. You won't see them laden with useless ornaments. Only what is essential for the job of LONG DISTANCE RIDES at high rates of speed for hundreds of thousands of miles over the life of the bike, far ahead of the conforming mob behind them. The Beemer rider is confident, self-assured, and swimming up stream against the current. He doesn't need any kind of approval from the majority. Because all this goes together, the Beemer crowd has a style as peculiar as the bikes upon which they ride. Leather is not the BMW style. Textile is. With armor and heated clothing. And full riding suits so you look like the Michelin Tire Man. Thus, weather is irrelevant. Beemer people are ready for anything. He'll be in a full-face helmet. With gloves and GPS's and XM radios and panniers and weather-proof boots and rear end black tape on his bags that reflects light like the sun at night. He is likely a camper too. Completely self-contained and self-sufficient. A 2-wheel RV with camping gear loaded wide and high, including tires, sleeping bags, tents, chairs, stoves, and coolers. A BMW rider stands alone. His conformity is non-conformity. He is pretty much ignored. But he is like a Marine and thinks he rides the best. All other bikes are inferior, and the riders who ride them have been deceived or are ignorant.

Wanna talk about motorcycles? What biker doesn't? The Beemer guy takes it to the next level. Most people talk about new ones coming out next year or some of the late models around. Beemer men love history. They love to ride history too. Bikes from the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's. The are more interested in the greatest than the latest. Simplicity rather than complexity.

Some of the most unlikely people in the world ride Beemers. If there is such a person who does not think of style at all, it would be a BMW rider. Lots of farmers in the Midwest sit on these things and roll up at rallies as if they just came out of the barn. Their rallies are benign. I went to a Beemer rally in Iowa one Spring. Every registrant was given a mug. It entitled him to unlimited alcohol for the weekend. Parked on the rally grounds was a beer wagon open 24 hours a day for three days. It was the biggest bong you could think of with a beer Niagara Falls pouring through it. All beer and meals were in the rally fee, and the beer wagon was drained non-stop every hour on the clock. The event was uneventful. No one got drunk or naked. Think innocent for the Leisure style, gaudy for GoldWing, and plain for BMW.

Harley Style

This is the majority style. It is not plain. Most conceptions of bikers are in this category. 99% of most riders at most rallies model this version. It is marked by four features. CHROME. Not plastic. It is a signature item that gleams on every spot where it can be fitted. BLACK. For almost everything. BLUE. As in jeans. LEATHER. Add doo rags, beer gushing like a fire hydrant, beards, mustaches, long hair, patches, and expensive rides weighed down with sparkling silver. Throw in muscles and tattoos, chains. pack riding. Vests worn outside the jackets. Thunderous racket. Each rider tries to raise the dead before the Day of Judgment and get cagers to curse. Lack of self-assurance or over-confidence with constant throttling at a stop light that says to everyone around them, "Look at me." Sexy women. Skulls. Club names. Revelry. Black and orange and Harley-Davidson written on everything from the boots to underwear. T-shirts from every Harley shop on the planet. Vendors by the thousands. Charity rides. Poker runs. $100 minimum for all things Harley. The omnipresent, stocked Harley-Davidson dealership at every exit on the interstate. The H-D style is emulated by every age group from children to old men. The ultimate rebel and independent conforms to the majority. The bikes are cruisers or metric cruisers. Leather is the de rigueur outfit, the uniform of long-standing tradition that looks right. It fits the soldiers who ride them to a tee. And it's practical because leather provides the best protection when evil visits. Textile is loathed like a GoldWing. This style can be worn everyday of the year, even if you are not riding or have never ridden a motorcycle in your miserable life, because it is a fashion statement worn by movie stars to teeny boppers to infants. It is THE style. Black leather begs to adorn the classic loner.

Sport Biker Style

The sport biker style gains momentum every year. Sit on a beach boulevard. What bikes are coming down the pike? Sport bikes outnumber cruisers sometimes seven to one. The reasons are: PRICE. It is half or less to get into a sport bike compared to a Harley. SPEED. The cops give up if you fly down the street at 100 mph. They turn around and radio ahead, hoping that you are not already outside the range of their frequency. You can wheelie 10 miles across the Howard Frankland bridge on Tampa Bay and still pass everyone. Adrenaline will fire down your veins like cocaine as you cut between cars and blast past them like F-15's. Cagers almost fly off the road when you sneak upon them with that high-pitched whine in the left lane just before they were about to enter it.  IMAGE. Cruisers are for old men. Sport bikes reflect youthful egotism and unabashed, daredevil courage that takes unnecessary risks. YOUTH. They can bend over like a rubber band on those things. The cruiser guy sits in his Lazy Boy seat and picks up his own leg to get on. This calls for a different style. Not leather. Unless it looks like it came from a racetrack and is rated for 200 mph. Textile is the costume. And exo-skeletal armor strapped to the back. In fact, armor everywhere. With a pack. And racing boots with colorful full-face helmets. Often strapped to the side. The most pronounced and unimaginable decoration to everyone over 30 though is the hood ornament on the BACK. The girl. Knees on both sides of her face, back bent like a hinge, her thong straps painted on her bare back, she sails by at 100 miles an hour in short shorts and hangs on to the moron's waist while she both exults in the speed rush and thinks about her eternal destiny if something goes haywire. The Harley style is macho or classic; the Sport Bike style is just plain crazy.

Your Own Man Style

Other than the Beemer rider, this is the cruiser rider who refuses to imprint everything he owns with the words Harley-Davidson. He's not a pack rider and doesn't conform to their lifestyle. He watches the crowd and enjoys the rallies, but "watch" is the key word, not do. If something makes sense to him, he will borrow a useful feature from another style whether anyone else (more likely, no one else) does so or not. These people are few.

So there you are. Motorcycle style. You have one, and it is probably one of these. You style is either innocent, gaudy, plain, insane, classic/macho, or maverick. In your mind or with your bike and all things related to it, you are in one of these camps.

About the Author

Dale is a resident of Florida and has ridden motorcycles for over 30 years. He writes primarily humorous articles and caricatures.

http://www.born2razehell.com and http://dalehavencox.weebly.com/

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