A variety of influences and experiences bring me to this post. I’ve written about packaging, which is why this post has both a marketing and motorcycles categorization. My friend Val has written about it. An interview with Mirabai Bush from Krista Tippett’s On Being this morning prompted more thoughts. But there’s one experience in particular that sparked this initial question.
Who am I?
I’m not speaking in the navel-gazing sense of finding yourself. I tend to be more pragmatic. If you haven’t figured out who you are by the time you hit my age, you’re not likely to ever do so.
The experience of which I speak happened yesterday at the beginning of a long multi-state motorcycle ride. I was buzzing along when I was passed by a near-perfect stereotype squid. Too much bike, loud pipe, no gear, weaving in and out of what little traffic there was, riding at the very edge of his abilities at double the speed limit. Just to show out, he blipped the throttle and hit the rev limiter as he went by me.
All I could think of was the guy in the small pickup looking at me in his rear-view, thinking that I was just like the kid who just passed us both. There are parts of me that are. I love to go fast. I’ve always ridden sportbikes, and I have thousands of racetrack miles behind me.
Not much later in the same day, I passed a stereotype that’s even easier to find – a couple “of a certain age,” on a Harley: pudding-bowl lids, loud pipes, ape-hanger bars, no gear, dressed like outlaw bikers. I realized that to the cage drivers, we were the same. Maybe I have some of that in me, too. I love the open road. I know enough of myself to know one of the reasons I started riding motorcycles was for the cool factor.
So I’m not the squid… or am I? I’m not appropriating the biker stereotype to look cool… or am I?
So who am I?
When the uneducated see motorcyclists, the two stereotypes above are all they see. What they miss are the invisible majority, the thousands of motorcyclists who ride lots of different bikes, who ride with higher levels of responsibility, and who take more precautions with their personal safety. If you’re a motorcyclist, you might already know this. If you’re not, try this exercise: the next time you see a motorcyclist, take notice of the details. How are they dressed? What sort of machine are they riding? (Brand is less important than type for most of us.) How are they behaving in traffic?
Get to know us. We’re not what you might think.