Each of us, whether we know it or like it or not, is the image of
motorcycling for every non-motorcyclist we encounter. What we do
and say, how we ride and how we treat others on the road is what
motorcyclists do as far as that citizen is concerned.
And its even more skewed than that---each negative thing we do or
say has many hundreds of times more staying power than any collection
of positive things. You can please and thank you, throw your coat
over the puddle and help Gramps across the street, but it's the loud
pipe or the too-close pass they'll remember when the subject of two-wheelers
comes up at the next cocktail hour or out on the links.
I belong to two groups that suffer from an image problem--motorcyclists
and lawyers. Each is composed of a large group of decent, hardworking
people with their hearts in the right place, trying daily to do the
right thing and yet are blasted regularly by those who know only
the image, not the reality. And unfortunately, for both groups, the
image is perpetuated by just a very few who insist on conforming
to the stereotype, revel in it, foster it, just enough so that the
others in society can point.readily to an example to prove their
point. "See, that's the way they act".
I was recently at a social gathering where, when the topic turned
to leisure activities, I told a professional acquaintance that I
rode motorcycles. She asked me if I'd ever been on a Poker Run, and
when I replied that yes, I had tried it once, she said "It gets
pretty crazy doesn't it, racing from bar to bar like that?" She
was from a central Ohio town and a local group there had such "runs" periodically
and their drunken antics were all she knew of "bikers".
When I tried to explain to her that this was the exception, not the
rule, she went on to ask me if I rode in groups of 40 or 50 bikes.
I told her that I didn't, seldom even having one or two together,
but I could see that I was losing her...she just couldn't comprehend.
Even though this woman knows me professionally and (until this exchange)
viewed me as a rather stodgy old suit-and-tie type guy in a straight-laced
profession, she had to put me in this awful box labelled "motorcycle" because
that's all she knew that could be in there--if I rode one of those,
I must be one of them.
Each of us must act to change this if we don't like it...and I sincerely
hope we don't like it.
Make an effort to be on your best behavior when you're on your bike,
that's the easy part (Though I'm not always as good as I'd like to
be at this). But do more. Ride your bike when you can to work, to
the grocery, to the hardware store, the bakery, when you go to vote.
Carry your helmet inside and be the nicest guy/girl in the place.
Smile a lot. Tip big.
Let people know you ride, at parties, social groups, church and business
meetings. Take the time to explain what you do and why (as near as
any of us can articulate that to those who don't) without being patronizing
(a little smug is ok...and just about unavoidable!). Let them know
that someone they see everyday, who is a part of their life and community,
rides and is still a good (even exceptional) person. Make it a part
of everyday life, not something only "they" (and you know
how "they" are!) do.
When you run into the stereotypical misunderstanding, correct it
as best you can without being pedantic. My wife Brenda has come up
with a good approach, I think, to answer the "you don't seem
like the type to do that " incredulity she encounters when a
casual or work acquaintance learns that she rides. She says " Tell
me what you think it is I do." That lets the person articulate
what they think the image requires and as they are doing it, they
tend to realize that this can't be the reality. The responsibility
for the conversation has now shifted to them and they can't fade
out quite as quickly as when we try to breach the wall of their preconceived
notion.
If you have any connection to the media, use it. If you know a reporter,
let him or her know of your passion for these machines and, as best
you can, why it exists...that it isn't because you want to be Marlon
Brando in the "Wild One" or a clone from "Mad Max"--you're
a real person with all the rich complications that entails, not a
stereotype, and you just happen to love the way this marvelous activity
feels. I want to see a story about motorcyclists that does not even
once use the words "roar" or "choppers" and that
does not have a general theme of "he/she's a biker but even
so, has some redeeming social value."
I want the story to be about the person and that motorcycling, the
experience we share, not the image foisted on us, is a part of their
being, part of what makes them what they are.
Brenda bought for me a copy of "Tom Swift and his MotorCycle" at
an antique store a few years ago. In that book, from 1910 (and in
a later 1913 series "Motorcycle Chums") the motorcycle
is described as a good thing (Tom acquires it from a man whose physician
prescribed it as an activity good for his health!) and the adventures
it provides are in a positive light. Sometime after World War II,
the "outlaw" image crept in and took over and now we .
But maybe i seem to be stuck with it. I don't imagine that I'm going
to change 50 years of history with this article t's a start.
