What's a Biker?

[m143]

I've never called myself or considered myself to be a Biker.
I've always had a motorcycle, starting with a Yamaha DT enduro as a teenager. Got a '67 Triumph T120 in a hardtail frame some time in my mid-20's.
There has been a motorcycle of some sort mostly British in my life.
I went through a BMW phase, and I still have 3 of them.
Bultaco dirt bikes are everywhere around here, along with some old Trials bikes. Oh yeah a Guzzi with a sidecar.
No HD's.
I have ridden with many that called themselves Bikers. I just don't think of myself as one.
Any "Bikers" here?
What makes you one?

[grado]

m143 wrote

I've never called myself or considered myself to be a Biker.
I've always had a motorcycle, starting with a Yamaha DT enduro as a teenager. Got a '67 Triumph T120 in a hardtail frame some time in my mid-20's.
There has been a motorcycle of some sort mostly British in my life.
I went through a BMW phase, and I still have 3 of them.
Bultaco dirt bikes are everywhere around here, along with some old Trials bikes. Oh yeah a Guzzi with a sidecar.
No HD's.
I have ridden with many that called themselves Bikers. I just don't think of myself as one.
Any "Bikers" here?
What makes you one?

I kinda carry that weight also.

I just like bikes.
All bikes.  

Imho, there are 2 main tribes.
That bleed, overlap, whatever you wanna call it,from one end of a spectrum to the other.
From a mod on a Vespa to a 1 percenter.

Thing is, motorcycling is so diverse, it’s sometimes hard, hell, even if you’re in it, to classify what you are.

Am I a Mod, or am I a Rocker?

Actually, I consider myself a motorcyclist.

But, among the outsiders, many of them, have had a bad experience with motorcycles and those that ride them.
The sport bike guy doing 140 blasting by them on the highway.  The dirt bike guy tearing up the pristine path in the woods they hike on. The obnoxious guy with straight pipes waking everyone up at 6am on his way to work.

It’s a derogatory term in my view.

But, to the washed, it doesn’t matter what we ride, it’s just too easy to lump us all together if they don’t like or agree with any of us.  

To many, we are all just bikers.

[hacksaw]

I shouldn't even reply this  thread because it's all Buell shit.
biker is a west coast thing that was pushed by easy rider magazine and became what it is.i don't recall anyone using the term here in the east. we were Bike Riders as that book showed in the early 60's. I was a kid. but buy the mid 70's I was pretty much an out law rider by AAA standards. and ER magazine was the bible of sorts to guys like me on the edge. Biker became a term of convenience. more people thought i was a biker more than I thought I was. I did all the biker stuff. lol. but never felt defined. then motorcycling got kinder and gentler and everybody thought they were bikers by , idk, say the mid 90's at least. most were wannabe nerds bitching that more hardcore types didn't recognize their Yamaha special as a biker thing .

I can't get any pictures to load here anymore . they just won't come up on choose an image. damn web site.

I ran with a ruff crowd years ago, but we weren't thieves and most had jobs. you could call us bikers I guess.

[m143]

hacksaw wrote

I shouldn't even reply this  thread because it's all Buell shit.

Thanks for the information.
I never really understood the whole scene.
I ride and have great people to ride with, and that's good enough for me.

[Fatfatboy]

m143 wrote

I ride and have great people to ride with, and that's good enough for me.

That there is the perfect world for a motorcyclist.

In my 20's folks called me a biker because I lived that live style by the cloths I wore, the bike I rode and the people I hung out with. Life was nothing but bikes, party's and work. I jokingly call myself biker trash.
l just see myself as a guy that likes bikes.

I did ride with some 1 percenters for a bit but never joined their tribes. They had rules. I never understood it. It took some of the freedom out of it and I had seen that their brotherhood went far until they could point the finger to someone else.

I did join the CMA for a few years but stepped out because of more rules.