Hear hear! Nicely put to all . I for one do not subscribe to the idea of Pee Wee Herman ~ so therefore don't support his shows, whatever ~ freedom of choice. I respect the Constitutional right to bear arms, but respect a business owner's right to say 'No heat or colors in my establishment'. There are those I work with who ride, drink and carry their pistols with them. I will not ride with them as they pose a threat to themselves and others around them. My freedom of choice.
I respect my Brothers and Sisters, their choices and if I disagree, it's my choice not to participate.
Call a person what you want ~ a biker, a rider, a civilian. Our blood is still red and the reason we do what we do is a passion. Off my soapbox for now...

It is truly refreshing to know that we will always have something to talk about because some things will NEVER get put to rest! LOL So let me jump up on the bandwagon as it comes screaming , once again, out of turn four for another hammer-down attempt at rattling the proverbial cage.

What is this “Biker” persona that is so elusive and yet so revered and protected by those that claim to be it? On one side of the fence you must be honorable in all possible situations and the other side of the fence demands honor only to those who submit to the whatever. Wrenching on your own seems to be a caveat held sacred to some, along with riding (fill in the blank) ____ number of miles to get wherever your going to do whatever it is you think bikers should do while declaring nobody has a right to tell you what to do cause you're a biker damnit, and.....anyone who doesn't do it such and such...a...way is not(?) a biker. What happened to freedom and/or live free or die? Now it's live freely THIS way or stay the feck out of the biker culture?

You know what? Without the posers, wannabees, trailer jockeys, weekend warriors, those who ride “bitch”, those who like to “bitch” (like the creator of this thread), those who like to start sh*t, those who like to excite and/or offend the PC police and those who like to set and complain about how PC everyone else is or is not, Sturgis or any other function that attracts bikers, riders, or humans in general that like to ride on things that burn fuel and make noise would just be a gathering of those who wear or want to wear a patch, tote guns (which I always do), and drink beer. THAT would be a waste of time as it would invariably end in a turf war or war because this brother thought he had enough brothers wearing his patch to kick that brothers ass because he thought since they were on his theoretical turf he could go up and hang all over that brothers old lady with reckless impunity.

The rallies are the attraction for the vendors, the bars, the whatever-else-you-want to mention because hordes of people, patch and mostly no patch, show up and spend money. It's about money. It will always be about money. We are no more estranged to the exploitation, as a species, to the spoils and vices of money than when JC turned over the moneychangers tables in the temple. If you go start a new “Real Biker Only” rally, it will end up being a commercialized bastardization once the founding organizers decide they want to do it better and bigger and realize there is money in the appearance of being cool or a bad ass and all you have to do a create a legend, create a geographical focal point, create a product to sell that gives the attendee the ability to associate themselves with the legend and then pay your taxes so the gov't allows it to continue. If it is not to be commercialized and end in exploitation, then it should be a BYOB gathering in the middle of nowhwere. If it is truly hard core biker only, then don't rely on the commercial coolers to keep the beer cold, the commercial port-a-Johns to keep you from dropping the deuce with the Lions Tigers and Bears, OH MY!

Hell, feck the hotels/motels/campgrounds too with there fluffy showers, trash cans, restrooms, toilet paper, etc. Figure out who is the badass road captain, tell him to drive “that way” and pull over in the middle of the wilderness and have the damn rally right there in the middle of no modern ammenities. That is Badass! Lay your “IronButt” down on some slate or naturally occurring sandstone or clay deposits under the cathedral of Mother Nature's Stars after 2,345.0123 miles of riding and 237 steps with a full pack. Then do that for a week with no shower. OH!???? We're not talking “that” bad-ass.........

Then quit bitching, judging, labeling, sniveling, hi-browing, sneering and generally being in a state of discontent because someone has shown up at the same place you are and you feel you worked harder or endured more personal hardship to get there. IT”S not a FECKIN BIKER JIHAD. (This is a metaphoric reference to the personal struggle aspect of the word Jihad. As if the more you suffer the more you deserve to be there. Do you realize that saying you don't belong unless you endure as much personal discomfort and/or strife is the basis for Fascism?) It's a gathering to show off your bike, tit's, trailer, outfit, muscles, numbers, etc. and watch all the others showing off there's. If you do it right, you do it with friends and have great laughs and make great memories and just enjoy being free to enjoy being free.

Why do we go there? Because deep down we want to belong to something and say we were there? We want to have some purpose to get on the machine and go be seen at the rally? To be able to wear the T-shirt and not have to say “so-and-so” got it for me? To have those in your lives who don't ride, talk about how your such a “biker” cause you went? What did it prove about you personally?

Is it Biker Mecca? Or have you just created it as that in your mind. You want to be a Jolly Green Giant, clad in leather, sportin iron and lead, straddling a giant party-favor noise-maker that you twist a grip to sound off instead of blowing. You want to see naked women, grab at tits and ass, drink profusely, howl at the moon, rev the carbon off the exhaust valves, pop 'em in the burnout pit, talk about how you'd bang the sweat off some drunk chic's nose or yell and raise a beer, maybe engage in some congratulatory “high-five's” at the spectacle of public sex and then reel and swoon when PEE-WEE gets his icon status and sells T-shirts? I think the guy is sh*t and should be left for dead, covered in sugar, burried to his neck in the dirt in the Amazon. But, I have seen behavior at rallies by so-called bikers that would even the score of his transgressions, alleged or not. You want anarchy to prevail but then complain when you are on the wrong end of it's consequences? You want law and order unless it cramps your style? What was unjustly mandated upon you previously? Every traffic law I know of is pretty straight forward, except for the varying states' helmet laws, and fairly easy to comply with with little effort. Do you expect a cop to cut you some slack if you ignore a law because you don't agree?

Ever thought maybe it's you that is the responsible party for you previous tenure in their jails? I've been married four times now, I'm sure the problem has been me in the past. Denial will rob you of a lot of living. Whether it's denial about the decaying state of our societal quagmire or simply of thinking that the rallies are still rallies and not a monetary exploitation of EVERY attendee's desire to have fun (regardless of the personal definition), you are in denial. Any rally large enough to have a draw such as Sturgis, long after the legendary debauchery that caused it's notoriety has ended because of regulation and police presence, is a commercial event designed to draw crowds and empty their pockets..

The hollowness of the soul that seeks the Pee-Wee t-shirt has ancestry intertwined in the soul searching that draws one to travel thousands of miles just to say “I did it”. They want that T-shirt to be connected to something. I built my bike in a way that connected me to something. I use my words in a way that connects me to something as do you. What is it that you are connected to, that you hold sacred, that these things you have written to condemn, offends and encroaches upon?

The essence of freedom dictates that any couple can cross state lines in their Escalade/RV/VW Thing, pulling a trailor full of chromecycles with their 1.2 kids in the back seat and their Blackberries, BeBe Eyewear, Made-in-China chaps stuffed into their Louie Viton luggage on the roof and have just as much right to be there as the lone biker with a 1911 on his hip, a bedroll tied to the handlebars and his e-tool strapped to the frame to dig a latrine at his campsite.

Do it your way and quit complaining about how it gets done another way. Respect the rights of others as you want your rights respected and if your paying this much attention to everyone else, your probably in the wrong place and denial is blinding you to the fact of the matter. Start your own rally, put up a fence with a sign that says “bikes with armed riders only” charge an extra fee for non-patch holders and another tariff for tattoos worn by “non-bikers”and sell the beer at COST.

That sounds like just what your looking for, RIGHT?

DEFCON AMEN!

Everything DEFCON said, and added from me ....Hell Yea!
DEFCON you da Man!
Dragon

That was a rant worth reading:-)

As I just read from TattooMan....Life is about the journey not the destination.I'm with ya there brother! Of course I do like to have a little fun at the destination too!

BEER AT COST! Hell Yeah..............ok i mighta missed the rest of the point but..................BEER AT COST!

I would gladly pay you Tuesday, for a beer at COST today....:}

I knew there was a reason I really liked this place... High Five Defcon!!..!!..!!..!!..!!..!!..!!

 

Well, I see that it's been three months since the last comment by Mdm Traccie... I really enjoyed reading all the posts and all the opinions, both good and bad. This is what the site is for, as many pointed out. The only statement I have an opinion on is the "$20,000 and 20 miles don't make you a biker" statement. And to that I will only ask one question: Where did everyone else start????

Seems to me that EVERY "biker" everywhere started out with XXX dollars and 20 miles did they not? I have never met a rider that began with 0 dollars and 50,000 miles. Hell, what is the starting price of a new bike lately? I looked at a new HD and it was stickered at $23K +!

So, I guess that statement dosen't really hold water. I consider myself a "biker" because I RIDE A MOTORCYCLE and I tend to treat everyone else that rides (and even those that don't) as I expect to be treated. It dosen't matter what you ride, if you wear colors, have a patch or a thousand patches. If you respect others, and treat them as you want to be treated, 99.999% of the time there are no problems. And if that .01% of times comes up.....Hell, you just deal with it!

  Very well put Stan.  I am confused as to when it became necessary to be a sterotype "biker" just because you want to enjoy riding a motorcycle.  I ride probably as much, if not more than most (around 30,000 miles this year).  Except when taking the family out, if I am on the road I am on my bike.  But does that mean I have to enjoy the same type of rally or same type of entertainment as everyone else who rides a motorcycle..

It's funny that most of the people who write stuff like this origanal post are the ones who jump up and down about their rights being stomped on.  But yet they forget that my neighbor has the right to buy a $30,000 dollar amchine and only ride it on the weekend if that is what he wants to do.  I ride with a friend who's wife rides with us occassionally, and she is a retired and rides a BMW.  She doesn't ride a lot, mabe just 2,000 miles a year.  She doen't want to be a "biker", so should we make fun of her and tell her she shouldn't be riding?

It's funny that this is the only activity that people make you live up to some sort of standard in.  I can go fishing twice a year, and my buddies who are real fisherman don't make fun of me (ok, maybe they do, but it's in fun), and tell me I can't fish where they do... my neighbor can golf one day a month and still be allowed on the golf course without ridicule.  So why does someone have to ride 20,000 miles a year on a bike they built themselves to want to go enjoy riding on the weekends, or even a week in Sturgis.

Ok, rant over, because my break is over...back to work for now.

And yes, I bow to DEFCONs verbosity (is that a word???). Well said, and well written, as usual DEFCON.

Why does anyone care about who or who isn't a biker? Really stupid in my opinion! I ride for fun and go places with other riders for that reason only. I have personally never given a shit whether or not someone thinks i'm a biker. I stopped worrying about stuff like that back in jr. high school. I have long term friends who are 1%ers and others who are new to riding and look like a Harley clothing ad when they get on their bikes. The one thing we all have in common is were riding down the hwy with the wind in our faces and were all having alot more fun than the other people driving down the same road in their mini-vans.

Stan, am I a biker?

** grin **

You betcha' Traccie. You ride, and you respect others, and in turn you are respected.

I must be an inorant outlander but why would the organizers of an event like Sturgis ever get an identity like Pee Wee Herman to be there? Weird. To an outsider it just doesn't seem to stack up but somebody must have thought so ... now Mr Dylan ... that's a different matter,,, hopefully red carpet treatmewnt whereever he appeared....with sustained loud clapping and shouting. I write this while listening to Janis J....

I myself would'nt walk across the street to see Bob Dylan Or Pervert PeeWee Herman. Having said that, i'm sure there are a lot of people that would and that's there right. I just feel sorry for the guys that rode all those thousands of miles and listened to they're buddy whine ! If I wanted to hear all that bitching I would have stay married to X !

Wow, lots of different opinions here, which is great. So now I'll throw mine in...

With an event the size of Sturgis, who cares what individual entertainers are there or how one specific place has set their rules, there is something there for EVERYONE. I believe I read somewhere there are 7 million motorcycles in the United States, so I hope I am not shocking anyone when I say that not everyone of them will dress the same, like the same music or entertainment, the same type of bar, or even have the same attitude...but I can say that almost every one of them loves owning and riding a motorcycle. So here is a trick I learned for when I go to a rally and someone I don't like is playing...I don't watch them. And if there is a bar or other business that I don't like for whatever reason... I go elsewhere. Who am I to bitch at them for deciding how they want to run their business?

I am just getting so tired of hearing all these qualifications are to call yourself a biker anymore. And the funny thing about it is the ones who are running around saying Live Free, Ride Free, are usually the ones saying "but don't call yourself a biker unless you believe everything I do, dress just like me, and like the same stuff I do".

  Lets all just ride and stop worrying about the next guys "qualifications" to become a biker. Who cares anyway really? Ride safe everyone and don't forget to stop in and have a cold one if you get out to So. California Wheels

WOW !!!...LOL..what a load of &*^%^..just read a similiar post from a rapper who was decrying the "pussification & blatant commercial rip offs of todays rap crowd..LOL..what goes around comes around I guess?..this puts me in the mind for a new topic..

the poster had some valid concerns,yet he ruins the intent by injecting statements that are incendiary,
I could care less who the heck is appearing where,or what silly ass celebrioty they roll out for the sheeples,its a freaking rally!!! Git your ass's out n ride make some new friends, share a few cold ones,then git out n ride some more..the last rally I went to was fairly tame,too many police & not enough wimins..!