Bikers Are All Enthusiasts

"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54) 06/30/2016 at 15:31 • Filed to: right wrist twist, two wheels good

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Riding up Mt. Washington on my Honda Silverwing GL500i

With Opponauts being a notable exception, most people who drive cars don’t give a crap about driving. We see them all the time - the people who can’t stay in their own lane, or don’t know that they need to change their oil more than every 15,000 miles. There are numerous drivers on the road, but only a small portion of them are car enthusiasts.

But it’s a completely different story when it comes to motorcycles. Whether you’re scraping a knee in the twisties, commuting to work on your 1980 GS550E, or polishing your Harley’s chrome, you’re an enthusiast. You don’t just ride a bike - you’re into them. You understand the appeal of riding. You accept the higher level of risk involved in not being surrounded by a cage. It’s worth it to you. Many of us wave to each other when we pass by for no reason other than we’re both on bikes, and the other person obviously “gets it.” Not many wrench on their own cars anymore, but most riders do at least a little basic work on their own bikes. There are far fewer riders than drivers, but all of those riders are enthusiasts.

This point was driven home to me recently on a new web site I’ve taken charge of, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It’s a sister site to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - basically, a mashup of RFD and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . We’re not quite there yet. We’re looking for more writers (if you’re interested !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), and we need to get into the loop for more reviews and such. We’ve been trying to pre-load the site with content for an official launch so it wouldn’t look empty when you looked at it. My friend Kate Murphy (she’s not on Oppo) wrote a rant debunking the “I had to lay ‘er down” myth.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

After auto-posting to Facebook, it reached over 11,000 people. Between that and a Reddit link, it’s been viewed over 32,000 times and counting. That’s more than twice as many as Danny Korecki’s RFD piece about !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the most popular story EVER in RFD ’s nine year history. And we hadn’t even officially launched. The cat’s out of the bag now, so welcome to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Getting back to my original point... Like I said, car enthusiasts make up a small proportion of all drivers. But look at how many car enthusiast web sites are out there. Everyone wants to be the next Top Gear or Jalopnik (and I admit RFD is no exception to that). But there aren’t nearly as many web sites of that type for motorcycles. For a while we had Lanesplitter , until we didn’t. In his article, Wes Siler bemoaned the lack of interesting content on existing sites. I don’t understand why. There’s at least as much interesting, entertaining, and stupid stories to write about bikes as there is for cars, if not more. So where are they?

I don’t know if !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! will be the next great motorcycle blog or not. But I do know there are tons of bikers out there on the interwebs looking for something interesting to read - possibly more bikers than auto enthusiasts.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 15:36

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I’ve seen the masses of Harleys that cost more than most cars in Florida being ridden by retired lawyers and doctors pretending to be Peter Fonda. They’re image enthusiasts, not bike enthusiasts.

-this space for rent- > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 06/30/2016 at 15:39

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Real talk

Justin Hughes > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 06/30/2016 at 15:42

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True that. But they’re still into their own particular thing - loud pipes, keeping their chrome shiny, and cruising to wherever retired lawyers and doctors pretending to be Peter Fonda cruise.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 15:44

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Generally to the passing lane where they will ride under the speed limit until being overtaken at which point the will gun it to deafen everyone and show how manly they are.

McLarry > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 16:06

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Probably true. I wonder if that’s cultural, though - here in the US of A you have to sort of go out of your way to find yourself on a bike, so it’s very much a conscious choice to do so. Not sure entirely why that is... In other countries, particularly in crowded cities, scooters and small bikes abound; doubtful that they’re all enthusiasts - more likely they ride as a matter of convenience and economy.

Mmmmm > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 16:18

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No, half the people that ride do it for the image which is no different than someone buying a fancy car just for the status symbol it represents.

Justin Hughes > McLarry 06/30/2016 at 16:31

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I think you’re right, culture has a lot to do with it. In the rest of the civilized world, lane splitting is legal, It saves a ton of time in traffic, and some people ride for that reason alone. Bikes are also less expensive than cars, and as we saw in the Top Gear Vietnam special, everybody rides there, and uses their bikes for everything, because few can afford cars.

HammerheadFistpunch > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 16:39

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my theory is that for road vehicles the more you can live WITHOUT is directly proportional to enthusiasm towards cars. Bikes are just the next level of that paradigm

JEM > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 16:42

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Man, I love those old Vetter style fairing bikes.

That reminds me, I keep having this desire to own an original Goldwing sans fairing as a 2nd bike, just to commute, tool around on, modify a bit (not full cafe racer but maybe some aesthetics from that).

DynamicWeight > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 16:46

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I think it’s tough to write for bike culture compared to car culture. Motorcycle is an experience that is hard to relate to other people. It’s really fun, but it’s hard to talk about. For instance, the other day I was cruising down highway 1, wind in my helmet, feeling the rumble of the engine through my handlebars, staring out at the mix of cliff and ocean, smelling the salt in the air. Stopping at shops and bars with live music. A couple turns I really got my lean on. It was wonderful. But do you care? Most likely not. Do I care about your ride? Nah.

Also, what I like is so different from what you will like. I am a different size. I probably want my engine to pull differently. I ride in a different place. I have different luggage requirements. Motorcycle reviews tend to be next to worthless for these reasons. More to the point, I can’t test ride new bikes. So I can’t go to different dealers and try out the competition like I can with cars. This is part of why I only buy used bikes, because at least I can test them out first. So when I look for reviews, I’m looking for five year old reviews. I don’t give a fart about some new bike anyway.

Yeah, I don’t have solutions. But these are the problems I have with trying to find anything to read about motorcycles.

Decay buys too many beaters > Justin Hughes 06/30/2016 at 16:52

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I’d agree for the most part, of course there exist a good number of people who buy certain brands for the look (here in the NW it’s Ducati moreso than HD), but they are generally far outnumbered by the folks who I’d consider enthusiasts.

*Edit: then again you’d be hard pressed to find ANY biker who couldn’t tell you bit about their chosen ride, so that already puts them worlds ahead of the average Prius humper.

Nauraushaun > Justin Hughes 07/02/2016 at 09:17

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I think a lot of motorcyclists just like going faster than anyone else, evidenced by the fact that they speed all the time everywhere for no good reason.

Many “car enthusiasts” are the same, at least in Australia. They drive a shitty Commodore with a V8, in terrible condition, uncared for. They just like going faster than anyone else - the car itself is a means to an end.