Motorcycling
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Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. Motorcycling can done as an economical and effective mode of transportation, because motorcycles are cheaper to purchase, maintain and use than cars. As well, a variety of subcultures and lifestyles have been built up around motorcycling in developed countries, such as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Due to their smaller size, motorcycles are not as readily seen in traffic, and so the fatality rate among motorcyclists is significantly higher than among the drivers of larger automobiles. Motorcycle safety training and equipment is important for motorcyclists' survival on the road, and mandated in several U.S. states and counties.
Subcultures
There is range of subcultures in motorcycling, ranging from mainstream motorcycle clubs, which include long-distance riding clubs, amateur racers, and trail riders to those involved with motorcycling's "extreme sports" motocross riding, drag racing, and trick stunt enthusiasts. Whether a rider prefers riding alone or in a long parade, there is still often a social aspect to motorcycling. People join motorcycle clubs, online forums and emailing lists.
Although outlaw motorcycle subcultures are a comparatively small part of the entire motorcycle subculture, they often garner a great deal of media attention. The tamest variety of "outlaw" subcultures are illegal street racers, who violate driving rules by racing on public roads or highways. At the furthest end of the "outlaw" spectrum are "One percenter" biker clubs, which are criminal gangs that are involved in narcotics trafficking, prostitution, extortion, and other illegal activities.
Women are very much in the minority in motorcycling and, even in western countries, the majority of women in motorcycling participate as passengers, riding pillion on the back seat. This minority status of women is painfully apparent in the dearth of riding gear tailored for them. Erika Lopez urges women motorcyclists not to be afraid of travelling alone on a motorbike; she suggests that women learn to be more confident in their comportment, and thus command respect from strangers that they encounter [1]
Benefits
Robert M. Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) was a paean to the joys of motorcycling. Pirsig contrasted the sense of connection experienced by motorcyclists with the isolation of drivers who are "always in a compartment", passively observing the passing landscape. In contrast, Pirsig argues that a motorcyclist is "completely in contact with it all... in the scene." [2] The process and experience of motorcycling forces the rider into the present. The environment of the road engulfs the senses, and the need for constant awareness fills the mind. The total involvement in motorcycling leaves little room for worrying about tomorrow, or second-guessing yesterday.
Many motorcyclists ride as a way to relieve stress, to "clear the mind." Despite the fact that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance speaks very little about motorcycle maintenance, or Zen, it was really inevitable that the two would be linked. Zen is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism which strongly emphasizes the practice of moment-by-moment awareness and of "seeing deeply into the nature of things by direct experience." Motorcycling demands moment-by-moment awareness and, unlike driving, rewards the rider with direct experience.
Hunter S. Thompson's book Hell's Angels includes an ode to the joys of pushing a motorcycle to its limits on the open road: he states that "with the throttle screwed on there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes... that's when the strange music starts, [and]... fear becomes exhilaration [and the]... only sounds are the wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. [3] Similarly, T. E. Lawrence wrote of the "lustfulness of moving swiftly" and the "pleasure of speeding on the road" on a motorcycle, which he compared to the sensation of "feel[ing] the earth moulding herself under me", coming alive, and "heaving and tossing on each side like a sea." [4]
Milan Kundera also noted that "speed is the form of ecstasy the technical revolution has bestowed on man"; unlike a runner, "when man delegates the faculty of speed to a machine" such as a motorbike, "from then on, his own body is outside the process, and he gives over to a speed that is noncorporeal, nonmaterial, pure speed, speed itself, ecstasy speed." Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). Not all motorcyclists have a "need for speed", but many do. Speed draws many people to motorcycling, because the power-to-weight ratios of even low-power motorcycles rivals that of an expensive sports car. The power-to-weight ratio of high power sport bikes is well beyond any mass-production automobile. All for a fraction of the price of those automobiles.
High speeds on a motorcycle can also be more exhilarating than high speeds in an automobile. Not only is the sensation of speed greater since the rider is not separated from the environment of the road, but motorcycles negotiate turns by leaning. And the greater the speed, the greater the lean, sometimes to the point of scraping parts of the motorcycle on the road. Some riders will point proudly to the worn-away parts of their motorcycle, proof that they take turns so fast that they must lean the motorcycle over to the limits of its capabilities.
Repairing
Motorcyclists will refer to maintenance or repair of a motorcycle as wrenching, as in "turning a wrench." UK motorcyclists refer to a wrench as a "spanner", and the activity of working on the bike is similarly known as "spannering". Melissa Holbrook Pierson points out that the do-it-yourself self sufficiency is "part of [motor]bikes' allure in an increasingly monolithic, unfixable world." She also claims that motorcyclists "become a member of a community, linked first and foremost to anyone who rides; when another [motor]bike passes, you...[w]ave, and perhaps [give] a thumbs-up."[5]
Historically, wrenching was a necessary skill for riders, since the materials and technology used in motorcycles often meant that repairs had to be done on the road-side miles from home. Modern motorcycles are as reliable as automobiles, but the feeling that many riders have that their motorcycle is more than just a means of transportation leads them to want to do any wrenching on the bike themselves. This drive to wrench reaches its zenith with rat bikes. Riders of rats eschew paying anyone else to work on their motorcycles on principle, and therefore do all their own wrenching.
References
- ^ Erika Lopez, Flaming Iguanas, 1997, Simon & Schuster, New York
- ^ Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York
- ^ Hunter S. Thompson]], Hell's Angels, 1967, Random House, New York
- ^ T. E. Lawrence, T. E. Lawrence to his Biographers Robert Graves and Liddell Hart, (edited by Robert Graves and B. H. Liddell Hart), 1963, Casell, London
- ^ Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Perfect Vehicle: What It is about Motorcycles, 1997, W.W. Norton & Company, New York
External links
- Season of the Bike "The difference between driving a car and climbing onto a motorcycle is the difference between watching TV and actually living your life."
- Mailing List Roundup Comprehensive listing of motorcycle-related email lists.
- IHIE Guidelines for Motorcycling - these authoritative Guidelines are the first in the UK, setting out comprehensive, practical guidance for highway engineers, traffic engineers, road safety officers and transport planners on providing a safer transport environment for motorcycles, mopeds and scooters.