ty all for getting the point i was trying to get at i'll be in bg ky and cant wait to meet all that shows

Hey, re-read my last post...I'm not saying I don't like you Loner, it's just I don't like you the same way I like Hawk seeing as he's my husband and all

I concur, nothing against you personally, just don't agree with some of your points.

My stink with this is that he is talking out of both sides of his mouth.  He has every right to. But I have every right to take issue with an opinion that is dichotomous with it's very own point. If the bike don't make you a biker, then saying some other right of passage or suffering to finish the "ride" is a prerequisite to getting to claim to being a biker, well that's hypocrisy. And to denegrate someone else because of the choices they make with their ride, chrome or lack thereof, fashion, or whatever else is considered an afront to those who are "bikers" is pure in it's hypocrisy.  I thought the draw to ride, at least for me, was the freedom of being yourself.  The yourself that you are is made up of your actions, choice of words, character, etc.  If putting on leather chaps and pullling your bike off a trailor is who you are, then what the hell is wrong with that?

Loners first paragraph states the mandate of living life his way.  Well if I have to give up my trailer, my chrome, my skullcap, my whatever the hell else I shouldn't be wearing/riding/not wrenching on because I'm not a real biker, then I sure as hell ain't livin my way. It's the way someone else thinks I should be.  Should I don a pair of Timberlands, Tommy Hilfiger jeans, an Izod golf shirt and a tennis visor?  Or am I allowed to cut my sleeves off after a predetermined amount of sacrifice.  How do you live your way under someone elses illusionary and elusive template? AND if you don't know them personally, how the hell you gonna decide if they meet your template. I thought judging a book by it's cover was the number one peeve of most greasy jeaned bikers. Again the hypocrisy

How about anyone who gets on a motorcycle, rides it without being a hazard to themselves or someone else, and enjoys it gets to be a biker?  And if acting like they are someone else makes them happy, then why not? Does it hurt anyone for them to feel a little brazen release that they don't or can't live out everyday?  And how do you know that they are'nt posing when they don the suit and tie and go to work in that office and go home in the burbs to the cookie cutter box of a house in the sub-subdivision, that deep down they are a dyed in the wool, greasy fingernailed wrench just waiting for the one or five times a year they get to be themselves and get back to what they feel free doing. 

Loner, I'd drink a beer with you, but don't expect me not to call bullshit when you say "YOUR NOT BEING YOURSELF THE 'RIGHT' WAY"........

And thank you guys for the compliments on my writing. It's funny what little things like that can do for your mood....

I guess i will remain a poser. I've never built one ground up, didn't have time for that shit. I had to work all my life, except for the year i was down, after i lost a leg in a crash. I still ride though, even if i'm not a BIKER by Loner's standards. I've ridden for two days solid in the rain, trying to get home. I 've ridden in the snow. I saw your ride Loner, it is a sweet lookin bike. You should be proud, if you built it g-up. I don't now nor have i ever belonged to a club. But i will tell you one thing. If i did ride with a club it sure as hell wouldn't be a 1% club. Oh, I'm not in to sleepin on the ground either, too old for that crap. I think i have had about 20 bikes, big and small. I used to race bikes a couple of decades or so ago. I pay somebody to work on my Harley, because i can . I'll say one last thing, and shut up. I am too old and stubborn to live up to those expectations of a BIKER, so i'll remain a POSER.

Loner ? ya'll sure opened up a can o worms that time....  Thanks for waking us all up to a very active subject and I'm proud to say that everyone that took a turn at bat hit a homer....Yeppers !  sure did.....
RandyJoe...Ride Strong...

I think this whole "BIKER" debate comes down to this. There are a LOT of people that buy HD's & get tattoos, because they "think" it makes them a bad ass. The term biker has unfortunately become a generic term. I believe a true biker is a 1%-er or rider that has the personality, life experiences and/or maturity to be accepted around 1%-ers. If it's not a lifestyle, the term biker should not apply. I have no desire to patch into a 1% club, but I ride with 1% clubs occassionally and am proud to be asked to do so. I live by the code of conduct expected of a true biker.
These guys that buy their first harley at the same time they get their first tattoo, then duck-walk their bikes because they can't properly ride, consantly racking off their pipes to see who's looking are the ones that give true bikers a bad name. Usually the guy riding in docker shorts and flip flops. These immature riders that need a bike to make them feel like somebody are generally the ones that don't know how to act in public. They pop off about someone's wife or girlfriend, are dis-repectful to others, brag, and generally are the guys you see getting their ass kicked by a true biker. These are also the guys that will swear up & down they used to have a 46 panhead. I just ignore them. They are seen for what they are by the true bikers that have a brotherhood that can never be understood by the wannabee

Yea if someone told me they use to have a 46 panhead I'm calling Bull Shit. The Panhead didn't come out until 1948 and were made up to 1965
Dragon

  I believe a true biker is a 1%-er or rider that has the personality, life experiences and/or maturity to be accepted around 1%-ers.  Now I don't smoke anything, do any drugs but sometimes I make poor choices when i drink then ride ----working on that one----
 but  the whole thing behind the statement I quoted you is this.....1%ers and or outlaw bikers worte the book on biker brotherhood n if a person cannot wrap their head around this concept then well ? don't call yourself a biker...U are a motorcycle eintheuiest...the other day I stopped on I-205 to assist a biker that had a flat and of all the bikes that rored past only 1 group stopped...it was 5 members of the outsiders club---------enough said ?

RandyJoe...Ride Strong...

I guess im just a Wanna Be because I have my leathers and tattoos but I dont have a bike as of yet.  But o' well there are some "Bikers" I dont care to know because of there additudes,  and there are some I do because of there Additudes.  As for building my own bike I would love to but i would not be safe enough on my own to do it and then ride not ever having the chance to do it as of yet.

And as for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle I have wanted one since I was about 3 years old when I Sat on the first bike ever.  Was it a Harley-Davidson?  No it was a Honda but at 3 years old it was a Harley to me.  To me a HD (To Some: Hondas, Kawi's, exc.) is like a Defined Woman they get better with age.  But this is my opinion and we all know what opinions are like A$$hole$ every one has one (or is one in my case).  

Call me a Wanna Be if it makes you feel better I never liked the "Biker" title anyways. 

Randy Joe, you in Oregon? I lived in Dundee until Oct 2008.

I, like anyone else posting on this subject mean no disrespect to Loner or anyone else. I've ridden motorcycles for 40 some years, off and on, and I've enjoyed it all. I will ride till i cant sit up on one anymore, and will love every minute the Good Lord allows me. I will respect the ways of the "True Biker", as long as they respect mine.

Thanks it's not me it was a search for funny bike pictures.

This is me.

Yeah, nothing against you Loner. I respect you for your accomplishments and the life you live, but not so much for your broad judgement of other people who aren't like you. Like Defcon said, there was a fair amount of hypocrisy in your post, so living the life you've described is really not possible for an adult with responsibilities. Sorry, I don't think that makes someone any less of a biker. I guess I'll take a second and grag up on my old man a little....

He started the first Christian motorcycle club in the country that was specifically aimed at reaching the 1% clubs; his first bike, and first cross-country trip, was done on a Honda 150 Dream, his second on a 305 Dream... he later DID get a Harley, and did most all of his own work to that, too. It was stolen in Nashville before I was born, and was replaced by a Yamaha 650 XS with some upgrades done by the previous owner. His club's Road Captain gave him a Harley trike, which he rode for a while and then gave to a Vet with an amputated leg, so the guy could still ride.... And then, from the time I was about a year old, until about 7-8 years ago, he didn't have a working bike at all, or the money to buy or fix one up, not until he finally got on another Yamaha 650 XS. His old one is in my garage, torn down, where I'm trying to rebuild it into a nicer ride than what he's on now; He does most of his own work, but he's a bit old-school, and the metrics from the 80's are a little more complicated than the American touring bikes from the 70's, and the Hondas from the 60's, so there's a few things that he's had to give someone else to do.... point is, you can't tell someone like that that they're not a biker and expect them to take it laying down. There's a lot more folks like that here...

Like I said, hat's off to you for your accomplishments, I'd say I'd have a beer with you, but I don't drink, so mine will be a water or a coke.... I'd still buy you one, though, and I'd sure wanna hear everything you can tell me about building bikes, 'cause I sure don't know what the heck I'm doing yet lol. (I'll figure it out, though!)

I ve rode with the clubs and rode with the posers and if ya like to ride LETS RIDE i dont care what kind of bike ya have the road dont care who ya are PEACE

Well put Hollywood