Anyone know of a progressive minded motorcycle club...

[Union Thug]

in the Seattle area? Does such a thing even exist? If not, should we make it exist?

Thoughts?

[billyoc]

1. I've been riding for 20 years, most of the bikers I meet

are pretty conservative. :shrug:

[Union Thug]

3. That's the craziest thing...

I have run into a real split with bikers. You are either way the hell over on one side of the fence, or you're way the hell over on the other. I've been pretty lucky in that my friends/fellow riders have been pretty liberal. However, there is also that very conservative element. They tend to be hard core "harley's the best, fuck the rest' riders and they tend to come from military backgrounds.

Now, the military bg isn't surprising...the first real biker clubs here in the states were made up of WWII vets, alientated from the mainstream on their return home. The question is, were these guys politically conservative? I don't know. The next wave of military bikers seems to have peaked at the end of the Vietnam war. But even here, the two guys I know.. one a former Ghost Rider and the other, a guy who never flew any colors, are both politically pretty liberal. The guy who never flew colors was PISSED at those twix commercials that said, 2 for me, none for you, so socially conscious was he!

So, yeah, it's really a tough one. But this is why I ask. =)

[Matariki]

2. The Bavarian Illuminati Motorcycle Club !!!

google them, they have a website. they're fabulous

[Union Thug]

4. wow,,, with a name like that...

how could I NOT look 'em up? I wonder if Adam Weishaupt was the founder of the club (while he was impersonating Washington)? =)

[ForrestGump]

5. Always surpises me, too, how many motorcyclists are rabid right-wingers

And it's not just the neo-Harley drones, either.

I agitated a fair bit, before the election, on boards focused more toward those who ride Japanese and European bikes and was shocked at how insane/hateful some of those people are. Fruitcakes. The sport-bike boards, for example, tend to be dominated by obnoxious Americans whose xenophobia and total ignorance about the rest of the world is immediatelty apparent...tough for board participants who are from more enlightened countries.

This is, I hasten to add, something that my experience overseas suggests is a strongly American phenomenon. At the very least, I'd have expected serious motorcylists to be socially libertarian to some degree, given the qualities and experiences that go along with riding, especially long-distance riding and sport-touring. Crazy.

[Union Thug]

8. How different it is from Brit biker culture of the 60's...

Rockers, Greasers, etc... Rebels, outside the status quo, some of which gave rise to the punk movement of the 70's... Even in this country, where my old bros were weed smoking, despisers of 'the man'.

Now, I guess they love 'the man'. Didn't these guys see Easy Rider? The Wild One? Or, from a brit source.. The Leather Boys? WTF happened?

What a bizarre change of events. Still, there are a number of us that remain firmly planted in our evil, counterculture ways!

[Name removed]

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[Susang]

7. Here's the thing about motorcycle clubs

The members aren't necessarily conservative. Unfortunately, the officers (the people who run things) usually are. Couldn't tell you why this is, but it seems to be pretty true, even in the minority groups that I deal with.

I have a feeling it's for the same reason that the parents who are really active in the PTA are often conservative (no offense to progressive in the PTA), they have a strong motivation for keeping things the way they like them.

The bikers I speak to daily are not really that conservative. On certain subjects, yes, but across the board I would say that bikers are more liberal than most people give them credit for.

Oh, I work for Harley Davidson, so I kind of know of what I speak. ;-)

[Union Thug]

9. Wow, interesting perspective...

But do you think that people buying new Harleys are necessarily representative of club culture?

I suppose we would need to define our terms. AMA clubs? Outlaw clubs? 1 percenters? Are there political differences between these divisions?

[Susang]

10. I'm not necessarily talking about new HD owners

I would actually classify them as more conservative as older HD owners. A great deal of them are stock brokers and investment bankers. You have to be to afford the price. Unfortunately, to keep from going bankrupt, Harley had to price itself out of the range of the people who kept it alive until that point. Tough situation.

The thing about clubs is that they tend to be all-inclusive. Sure, there are outlaw clubs. But the social clubs include the previously mentioned stock brokers as well as janitors, teachers, lawyers, mechanics, etc.. As long as you ride and show up to the events and meetings, you are usually welcome. I have a friend who is the whitest guy in the world who is a member of the Chicago chapter of the LAMAs. They don't care that he's not hispanic, they're just glad he rides and pays his dues.

[Union Thug]

11. Gotcha... but isn't it interesting...

and maybe you know the low down on this, that Triumph can produce a bike of very high quality, fit and finish for little more than half the price of an average Harley (well, excluding that unbelievable Rocket they've just released.. man 17/18K). Is it really that Harley had to set such a high baseline to stay alive, or did they see that they COULD set a high baseline and ran with it? And why, if sales are up (I've read over the past few years that they are), do the prices not come down a little? I'm not trying to be confrontational about HDs (I really do, in my heart of hearts, love old HDs.), I'm really just curious. Personally, I think HD goes wayyyyy overboard with the shiny objects. I wonder how much those mountains of chrome contribute to the price? Anyone that's ever restored an old bike knows that rechroming parts is one of the most EXPENSIVE tasks you'll undertake! Now, if I saw HD offering something that looked like an old shovelhead.. a stout-hearted, low on show, high on cool, black frame with big welds, reasonable block of internal combustion steel (doesn't need to be more than around 900cc, honestly) and a solo seat, old school cruiser, for a reasonable price (~10K), I'd be all over it. I don't like all the glitter and glam, personally.

I can tell you, and again, this is just my perspective and my experience, that it's because of the new reputation...the bike of bankers and stock brokers, that there's a lot of us old schoolers that aren't interested in Harley anymore *because* of that RUB reputation... even lucky bastards like me that might be able to afford something a little higher up the chain than the Sportster.

Anyway, I've totally digressed. Thank you for your perspective. I do think that there is a critical divide between bikers that is being overlooked here. I can see the sportbike/crotch rocket crowd being ridiculously right wing (I never liked them much anyway =) )... I can see the new harley crowd being more conservative (by virtue of the average salary of these guys), but for the rest of us, I can't see how there would be that many conservatives. The bikers (a limited few, I admit) that I hang out with are liberal/progressive/labor oriented guys.