CLUBS AND ORGANISATIONS
Through the identities of various groups, Biker culture can be divided along various axes. Rather than creating alien worlds, they trace the nodal frame-work that binds Bikerdom.
For a club to exist, there are four major components: enthusiastic members, a shared interest, motorcycles and money. That latter has been the downfall of some outfits, usually caused by a lack in another department. Some of the looser social gatherings are recognised as clubs but don’t function that way; they simply have a shared meeting place and are just biking or drinking friends. This is a happy medium if you like the company of other Bikers but don’t feel driven to any commitment.
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The British Motorcycle Preservation Society (BMPS) are based in Sheffield. They hold meetings throughout the year, and many of those attending are not members. The attraction of the BMPS allures the genuinely curious, who come to view machines that line up like a living museum in the car park. Membership to this club often reflects the insurance needs of many Bikers: Some insurance companies offer reduced cover to members of specified clubs, some even insist on a similar membership. This eventually caused some disquiet among the core membership, who felt that paying a subscription wasn’t commitment enough. They waived the fee, and instead insisted that members attend a minimum number of meetings per year. There will doubtless be some refugees seeking other clubs as a result. However, until this mutual exclusion rose, the BMPS was free and easy. They enjoyed a sense of pride because of what they stand for, and because they are a no-nonsense motorcycle appreciation society, whose members can speak of other things besides bikes. Founder member Phil Holden sums up their persuasions, that act as a rule of thumb to delineate causal factors in many similar clubs. Phil said:
“The club started with an advertisement in the Sheffield Star around August 1977, put in by a member of the Ariel Owner’s Club, Chris Strawford. He thought it was time to end the rivalry between the current owners clubs. It attracted around thirty people, including seven or eight from an M.C. type club. When they realised that most of the others wanted to form a more conventional club, they left, only to cause mayhem at the bar, including attacking the landlord. This left the rest with the problem of what to call the club, as most of us were of the ‘hairy, leather jacket’ type persuasion.”
The appearance of people into something other than just biking has caused many clubs to add a clause to their event advertisements. Some insist on Back-Patches by appointment only. Yet it isn’t always some superior exclusion. The BMPS share their present venue with various bike clubs, from the Triumph owners club to MC patch types. Phil continued: “Someone then suggested tongue-in-cheek that we should be called a ‘Preservation Society’. This became the club name, changing slightly five years ago to encourage owners of foreign classics to join us. The image of the club has changed over the years, from the early days of people with young families and sidecars, through times of rallying, with sometimes thirty or more members attending rallies the length and breadth of the country (and abroad).”
“We now concentrate more on events such as the concours night, club nights and evening/weekend runs. To sum up, the club has kept going longer than most other local clubs in the area, possibly due to the common interest which we all have - a love of Classic bikes.”
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The UK’s National Association of Disabled Bikers (NABD) put an angle on membership that makes an obvious suggestion. Disability is the great leveler of humanity. Whatever your beliefs are, your condition, whether congenital or otherwise can put you into a pigeon-hole. Being physically non-conformist gets you noticed, derided, scorned, ignored, depressed, patronised - you’re a second class citizen. The more formal organisations created (by able and disabled people) for the disabled in ordinary society often feel contrived. NABD has no edge, because it has a natural atmosphere.
Its functions as a registered charity include the provision of grants for adapting motorcycles into trikes and information on insurance. Although Bikers usually accept disability and the ability to ride either a bike or trike as normal, the general public’s attitude is that disabled people cannot (should not) ride. NADB work on changing this through a variety of events. They are a well organised network whose efficiency is only matched by their warm-heartedness.
Many members are actually able-bodied - often the partners of disabled members. One such person is Sara Russell, who expressed her views in prose. One of her works describes an encounter with prejudiced bystanders and traffic wardens, in a town where parking is regularly made difficult by fans attending football matches.
PRECONCEIVED OPINIONS
A trip to Wolverhampton, we must venture there today,
we have but one advantage, not a football game in play.
Whilst parking up on Cheapside, the disabled driver’s plot,
scowls and stern expressions were the greetings that we got.
Proudly our combination, chugged slowly to a halt,
our faithful vintage BSA, we parked, but not at fault.
Cruel eyes of opposition, instantly did glare,
Jumping to conclusions that, “No way should they be there.”
“A motorbike and sidecar, in a disabled bay?”
Motorcycle prejudice, is typical today.
Quite used to this reaction, it had been this way for years,
purposefully we took our time, no need was there for fear.
Despite the fact that wardens, checked each car along the line,
fidgeting their fingers, in hope to write a fine.
Written in their faces, menacing eyes did gleam,
straight in at the deep end, not at glance at the windscreen.
It was there within the sidecar, most obvious to view,
the privilege card, enabling us to park just where we do.
Sarcastically our smiles exchanged, turned deep inside to laughs,
certainly the time had come, to make those two feel daft!
Sheer habit brought the walking stick to wield on Gren’s left shin,
with smiles of sheer enjoyment, as it pounded on the tin.
As echoes swirled around their ears, they sank onto their knees,
embarrassed to a scarlet red, constant apologies.
Due to such embarrassment, we’re now remembered well,
exchanging nods of recognition, as they recall their day of hell.
Quite easy to remember, is our motorbike of black,
the Wolverhampton combo, that backfires with such a crack.
Traffic Wardens have declined, pedestrians remain,
motorcycle prejudice, gives us a bad name!
Getting back at the authorities, is delightful to be done,
they shouldn’t jump to such conclusions; just the same as everyone.
Sara Russell - NABD
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There are some clubs who have been criticised for less-than-friendly behaviour. Standing around in large groups at events run by others has been interpreted as malingering with intent. Yet just as friends do, they stick together to form their individual and collective opinions concerning their social environment. This gathering within a gathering is more commonly acknowledged for what it is; the mild apprehension experienced before any half-stranger is subsumed into the whole.
Many club members proclaim that they have made their best friends in life through club affiliations. This is a reflection of the life quality within most biking organisations. The intensity of interpersonal relationships is infused with individuality as well as communality, and is matched in elation only by trust, and often love.
There are many women’s bike clubs and they vary just as mixed ones do; from Women on Wheels (WOW) to the Buxom Sisters. The main theme is that they are Bikers, and are just as crazy, resourceful and friendly as any other Biker. They do get accused of being overtly if not aggressively feminist, but the present moral climate in the West is enough to shock anyone of either gender into being supportive rather than critical. Women’s clubs are not just girlies on bikes. However, they also resist the stereotype butch or dike image. They consider themselves to be among the strong women of the world - able to formulate a life for themselves beyond the secondary roles endured by other females. Rather than being the hard women of biking in a thuggish sense, they regard themselves as hardened - by all that life has thrown at them.
Club membership and biking for them are not part of a phase, but something you get into for life. The wish to join such a club has to come from within; seldom does any club, except a newly-forming one, go touting for members. Yet neither are they closed shops; they assume an approachable attitude. Prospective members usually enter a probationary period, simply to assess their own liking for the life, as well as the club’s desire not to commit without being committed to. They are tight but relaxed and happy units.
Exclusively male clubs exist, but often more by accident than design. The interests they share and circles the members move in are more predominant than any exclusivity in club formulation. The same applies in cases of race, except that those considered to be minorities might feel a social rather than biking need to be mutually exclusive. The underlying Biker culture remains the same. Whilst they are usually open and friendly, it is some single-make clubs, rather than those with rebellious images, that sometimes behave oddly. Typical stories include people’s joining applications being ignored, and even when an existing members get zero response when they seek help. Accusations have been made against some clubs, who take people’s joining fees and use them for whatever purposes the central clique pleases. When the need for club membership arises, whether it be practical or social, some personal contact is a preferable courtship before any committal is made - any club with values would expect at least some interaction, even if the invite is ‘open’.
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The Christian Bikers Association in England had to change its name eventually, to the Christian Motorcycle Association, because they were being approached regularly by cyclists. Whilst they recognise the Christian bond, it is hardly practicable for anyone on a push-bike to keep up on runs, let alone share the specific motorcycle aspect. The Christians do not exclude themselves from the company of those who blaspheme and cuss, even though they feel that they have a special moral standpoint. They get stereotyped, as wet or morally superior, but the courage of their convictions would prove them to be otherwise. They meet hostility with politeness, and are active evangelists, spreading the word wherever they can (there are factions of Christian Bikers in several countries) - but without imposing it on the unwilling. A biking disciple is nearer to their prospective members than a nun or priest would be, and is a refreshing and more convincing vehicle for their one binding tenet, Jesus Christ. They believe, as some other clubs do, that wherever you go, and whatever you do, you have to be the best.
Latter day CMA members compare their outfit with vehicular rescue services. Whatever your problem, they will come to you and help you out. Jesus is always there for you, and he will never let you down. They wear back and other patches, reading (among other things) Repent for Eternity and Sons Squad to convey their message. As with any club built on a cultural ideal, there is an admix of machinery, from Ducati race replicas to trikes to choppers.
People’s reasons for finding religion (and joining a club like the CMA) vary from having no direction, being suicidal, to a criminal past and even a flash of enlightenment. The CMA feel that Bikers in general are an insecure, untrusting society. The belief is that God is going to help such people to become stable and round out their lives. It does however go against the assertion that this research found, which exhorts that Bikers are a self-content, self-contained, confident and extraordinary people. Finding recruitment through peoples’ weakness is a major criticism of religion. Those with more self-esteem see it as preying on the defenseless, but the CMA purport that while they tout for membership, it is left to the individual whether to join. The deeper objection concerns the subliminal insertion of ideas concerning a saviour (from hell’s fire), without which, an individual would not contemplate religion as a solution to worldly problems. If you believe in heaven (and hell), then saving souls is a compulsion that cannot be ignored. By not wearing suits and acting holier-than-thou, the CMA at least adhere to the down-to-earth ideals that Jesus started out with. It is purer than what some modern Christian religions have formulated and distorted in their founding of churches.
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The initial wave of bike gang violence is mostly spent, however a few pockets remain. According to media reports in Europe, some patch club members now wear Armani suits and use mobile phones, making deals involving huge amounts of money. The Danish Police had noted many of them living beyond their means, with flash, expensive custom bikes. This had aroused their suspicions, and raids were productive. But the deaths and injuries are claimed by the gangs to involve issues of honour. As a result, the police have banned Biker gatherings and closed down meeting houses.
The media concerned themselves with the fact that Scandinavian jail means two-roomed units with colour TV and double beds. Stories were reminiscent of the 60s and 70s, when tattoos like FTW (Fuck The World) and mottoes like: We are the people our parents warned us about added shock if not gravity to the reportage. Yet the same groups have raised money for charities. Cynics say this is just a smoke-screen to cover their aggressive intent. In answer to this, the Angels in particular note how when you do bad, everyone takes notice, but if you do good, no-one even remembers. The lives of many such people are a duality. The have the greatest love of human kind, whilst also being fanatical about bike club matters - to the point where violence seems the only defense.
Some outfits have a saying: Cut one, we all bleed. This demonstrates a loyalty that may seem claustrophobic to some. But it demonstrates a tribal oneness, as do the patches worn by some clubs. This is comparable with the thinking behind the dress of one tribe in Africa, who don the feathers of the crested crane - these birds fly and court almost as one in a dance. Act alike, think alike. It is the kind of loyalty that allowed Genghis Kahn to rule several countries, and allowed explorers to make impossible journeys of discovery. But some such bonds cut both ways. The vengeance factor goes over the top, while the support for a friend in need is bottomless. Where vengeance outside the club is concerned, these gangs feel that it is their own business, whatever they perpetrate on each other. But the law sees their acts as illegal, and reacts accordingly. The code of silence - not divulging information about anything to anybody except club members, is meant to be a protective device within clubs who have experienced difficulties with the rest of society. Unfortunately, where the outside world is concerned, this can lead to protracted court proceedings.
Depending on the degree of any transgression, there is a structure of self-discipline within such clubs. A member might be ordered to remove certain patches from their clothes, even to remove the actual sign bearing the outfit name. Their enthusiasm for bikes is reflected by laws that allow a maximum period for a member to be without a bike on the road. Protracted or repetitive offenses could lead to expulsion from the outfit, which is an unthinkable disgrace. To them, the bike itself is the seat of their culture.
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It is not known what percentage of Bikers make up club numbers, nor of how many are loners or independents as some clubs call them. Just what degree of other biking company they enjoy is dictated by their own predisposition. Among the majority of Bikers at large, the framework of ideals is as mixed as the various machines seen among any such group. Their allegiance is malleable, and you don’t pay a subscription. You just enjoy the friendship, help or support - whichever is appropriate at the time of your meeting.
People who’ve been involved with biking organisations often express an elation with membership. They have a feeling of belonging to something greater. There can be tension when groups splinter, but even in that remoteness, there is a sorrow for departed companions, which in time will extend the hand of welcome across the divide. The cement that binds Bikers, like familial blood, is far stronger than any disagreement.
The association of Bikers with War-Lord type figures isn’t applicable to all biking types. Many opt for this appearance through their beliefs, choice of clothing and artistic design. They even feel somewhat Saxon, Viking or Celt-like. As we’ve already noted, the cultural (motorcycling) position, and the attachment among many riders has tribal connotations. In AWoL magazine, Frank Delaney’s words from his book on Celts were used to describe a view of biking communities. He said: “They have been called one of the great barbarian peoples of the world. An impression of the Celts persists which portrays them as wild, warlike, ferocious and uncivilised; in latter manifestations much given to drink, song and entertainment. In truth, despite their numerical smallness, they made a major and exciting contribution to Western civilisation.”
Just as other individualistic minorities have been broken down and misconstrued in the past, so too, contemporary groups undergo measures leading to extinction - yet they leave their mark, which can be seen echoed both in surviving factions and new ones. They also have a resolve to defend themselves.
From 1985 onwards, the UK governmental system turned against new-age travelers and Druids, who were denied permission to visit ancient sites during the seasonal equinoxes (like the famous Bean field Battle for Stone Henge). This typified the governmental excuse: “You’re adding to the decay of an ancient monument.” Which misses the point of the monument’s existence - will Christians be barred from churches when they start to wear out? Over a period of years, the nature worshippers were also driven from other sites (in much the same way as Romanies and other travellers were and still are expelled), their only recourse being to disband or emigrate if they wanted peace. Bell asked hypothetically whether there might be future historical accounts of Biker tribes, and whether they will show how Bikers were either smashed - or survived the steady onslaught. He follows this with a plea to support biking organisations who have some clout in the political arena. Such organisations are more akin to joining a political party than actual clubbing, and many clubs take out affiliations with them. Bikers support the Bikers who act on their behalf. In this sense, Bikerdom has transcended a subculture of leisure and become a society.