Worldwide Motorcycle Culture

[JohnBM01]

Another thread on perspective is here. This is just a thread where you can chat about any motorcycle culture anywhere in the world.

Part of this inspiration came along when I saw a few YouTube videos on Vietnam. I've seen a good number of scooters as the most popular form of travel in Vietnam. I never realized how much of an important market Vietnam is in regards to motorbikes. You can read more about Vietnam and motorcycles here: < http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20081008a2.html >. Prior ot this, I know China is pretty popular with motorcycles. Didn't know that Indonesia and India were such big motorcycle markets.

This is just a thread to talk about motorcycle culture in various nations and cities. Perhaps you may ask how my own Texans like their motorcycles. Really, we're known (especially in Galveston) for our Galveston Bike Rally where you'll hear lots of Harleys screaming down the highway from Houston to Galveston. I think it will still go on this year even after Hurricane Ike. So this is just your chance to share motorcycle culture around the world.

 

[mustangGT90210]

The culture around my house varies pretty vastly. You go 7 miles south and it's all Harley's, 5 north and it's all crotch rockets.

 

[homeforsummer]

Just little snippets of things I've heard regarding motorcycle culture:

- Apparently, Honda sells more motorcycles in California than they do in the whole of Europe put together. It's part of the reason AMA Superbike riders are paid vast amounts, because the market for the bikes they sell off the back of racing is massive. Definitely a case of "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday".

- If you ride a Harley in the States you're officially cool, if you ride one in the UK you're officially a posing gorilla.

- In many far Eastern countries, the maximum displacement they can have in a motorcycle is 150cc, so small bikes are a massive market out there.

- A year or two ago a certain province of China banned motorcycles because of pollution. This resulted in two things: Piles of rusting motorcycles, and a spate of bicycle thefts, as pedal power had become the major source of transport again.

- From what I'm aware, you need special dispensation to ride a motorcycle of more than 400cc in Japan. So there, the market for 400cc bikes is quite large, and all the manufacturers make some pretty tasty 400cc bikes, like the Honda CB400 SS and the Yamaha SR400, and has resulted in some absolute performance classics like the V4-engined Honda NC30.

- Apparently, one in every ten vehicles in the centre of London is a motorcycle or scooter.

- Mopeds are big business in Europe, as kids of 14 are legally allowed to ride anything up to 50cc.

 

[wfooshee]

- If you ride a Harley in the States you're officially a posing gorilla, if you ride one in the UK you're officially a posing gorilla.

Made a small correction to your post. . .


Edit: OK, OK, I might have used a stereotype. So sue me.

I don't know what the problem is with most cruiser guys. I think it's because they (95%) are the motorcycle equivalent of soccer moms in SUVs. Soccer moms get down the road OK, they get where they're going, they get home OK, sometimes they're lost, but they don't really know all that much about driving, do they? They have their SUV because it's what they think they're supposed to have, not really because they actually like it. They can't think of anything else that would suit their purpose. Or that they'd want to be seen in.

 

[homeforsummer]

Maybe the cruiser guys are like that in the US, I don't have enough experience with them so I can't really comment, but cruisers certainly make so much more sense in much of the US than they do over here. I'd happily ride a Harley in the States but I wouldn't touch one with a bargepole in the UK.

 

[wfooshee]

I admit I'm generalizing, but most of the Harley guys that you think of as the prototypical "biker" are actually rather poor riders. These are the guys who think the front brake is dangerous, that helmets can break your neck, and that tooth-rattling vibration equals power. They have a huge inferiority complex and absolutely hate other types of bikes.

That being said, there's another group causing a problem here, too, and that's the squids who think the public roads are there for stunting. Wheelies in traffic, groups blocking lanes so the guys up front can do stoppies, that sort of thing. As of October 1 this year, Florida has severe penalties for:

a) wheel losing contact with the ground
b) tag improperly affixed, and
c) speed in excess of 50 over posted limit.

Penalties for each are as follows:

First offense: $1000 fine over and above normal moving violation costs
Second offense: $2500 fine over and above normal moving violation costs, plus license revoked for one year.
Third offense: $5000 fine over and above normal moving violation costs, plus license revoked for ten years.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Don't know much about "worldwide motorcycle culture", but I travelled in a bike in Europe a lot (biggest trip was from Portugal to Scotland and back) and definitely bikers, even if they have different "clans", have a strong sense of brotherhood. While on open road we compliment each other, if we see a stopped bike we stop and ask if everything is ok, that sort of behaviour.

To those who like comic books (BD), bike culture in Europe is very well portrayed in the "Joe Bar Team" books. A must read for anyone that loves bikes and the so-called "bike culture".

A sample (notice the green nose on the non-harley guy. That means fear-close-to-panic )

 

[homeforsummer]

If you want biker cartoons in the UK, there's only one way to go - Ogri:

Been around since 1972 and still going strong, has a cartoon in the back of every issue of BIKE magazine. Ogri's kind of the stereotypical British biker from yesteryear, out in any weather, runs rings around the Police, has a girlfriend with massive boobs, etc

 

[Dragonistic]

One thing I've noticed about UK bike culture, is that it is like the exact opposite to car culture here. Car drivers treat almost everyone else as anonymous, as if it's just them driving through drones of traffic to reach the destination.

Whereas bikers always greet one another, I always give an approving nod to fellow bikers I pass and 99 times out of 100 I get one back, even if it's a stereotypically young unsocialable student type (like I am often mistaken as which is just normal to be seen as at my age), but to normal human beings with a brain we would be refered to as young adults with less road experience some very little.

In my first 2 years or motoring on my 50CC moped, even the guys on huge bikes would show respect for me or others like me, find an experienced driver near an inexperienced driver and it's often a good job they're in their own cars and not sharing a room or a fight would break out!

 

[Hun200kmh]

That's one of the greatest things about being a biker, and if you ever pick your bike and get out of the UK, you won't notice any difference. I travelled a lot, mostly in Spain (coming out of Portugal there's no other way ), France and the UK. Everywhere I went, I always felt friendliness from fellow bikers. Once in Bordeaux, at night, one french biker signaled me to stop and stoped himself just to tell me I was missing one of my tail lights (my bike back then - the FJ1200 - had two). In Scotland, I stoped by the side of the road to strenghen the rear suspension and immediately a group of bikers passing by stoped also just to ask if I had any problem and to offer their assistance.

Here in Portugal, I had one accident (only serious one, a long, long time ago) and soon after I had dozens of bikers (and I didn't know any of them) keeping surveillance over my almost destroyed bike, even after I was sent to the hospital and until a member of my family arrived at the scene and took over.

It's a great european family, the one of the bikers

 

[JohnBM01]

A note I found completely hard to believe is that Honda sells more motorcycles in California than in all of Europe (Post #3 by homeforsummer). I'm not sure if it's that closer link to Japan that California has over Europe, or what. I respect Honda motorcycles. Even for a continent like Europe with so many roads to tickle the fancy of a performance driver, strange that a company like Honda has better motorcycle sales in California than all of Europe.

 

[wfooshee]

California's weather is generally better, and there are an awful lot of people there. (Or is that a lot of awful people? I always mix that up.)

 

[Dragonistic]

A note I found completely hard to believe is that Honda sells more motorcycles in California than in all of Europe (Post #3 by homeforsummer). I'm not sure if it's that closer link to Japan that California has over Europe, or what. I respect Honda motorcycles. Even for a continent like Europe with so many roads to tickle the fancy of a performance driver, strange that a company like Honda has better motorcycle sales in California than all of Europe.

Well if it's something to do with performance, Honda generally make more tame machines then Kawasaki or Yamaha. Take the 1000CC sportsbikes, the CBR1000, GSXR1000, YZF-R1, and ZX10R. They pretty much go in that order from most tame to most insane, left to right.

 

[homeforsummer]

A note I found completely hard to believe is that Honda sells more motorcycles in California than in all of Europe (Post #3 by homeforsummer). I'm not sure if it's that closer link to Japan that California has over Europe, or what. I respect Honda motorcycles. Even for a continent like Europe with so many roads to tickle the fancy of a performance driver, strange that a company like Honda has better motorcycle sales in California than all of Europe.

When I get access to my magazines back home again, I'll try and provide you with a word-for-word quote, but I think my paraphrasing was fairly accurate 👍 The article was talking about the differences between the Japanese, British and American superbike championships, and explaining that the AMA riders get huge salaries because it's warranted by the huge number of sales the companies make, and it gave Cali as an example.

 

[Dragonistic]

I was wondering today as I rode home from college, do we think there are any major divides amongst bikers? Like would a guy riding a superbike be likely to show less respect to someone on a supermoto/mx like me? It seems once you're on anything larger then a 50CC moped/scooter here (UK), you're accepted by all, but moped riders are shunned so much just for being on a 'ped (I had 2 years of it!) which divides it up into those and everyone else although perhaps the age difference is the cause as most 50CC riders are 16-18 males who go as fast as possible all the time on their little bikes.

What's it like in other countries?

 

[wfooshee]

We don't give "the wave" to a scooter, even the big 400s or 650s. Not rude, just a different level of existence. I hate it when a big scooter comes up and looks like a faired bike, and I wave. Can't pull it back, and I know they're laughing at me, because they don't return the wave!

Some Harley guys don't wave to non-Harleys, which is rude. . .

I don't wave to kids on sportbikes wearing shorts, sandals, and tank top. Again, a different level of existence, but for a different reason. And my existence will very likely outlast theirs.

 

[Dragonistic]

I think we get much less of the shirt-wearing type over here, they're all in the scooter department mainly. Infact I don't remember the last time I saw a rider without a proper jacket accept myself when I took a less then a mile trip to the local store for my friend. Normally I wear it but for such a small journey it didn't seem worth it, I was especially careful for the short trip.

 

[wfooshee]

Normally I wear it but for such a small journey it didn't seem worth it, I was especially careful for the short trip.

The ambulance driver hears that a lot.

Just kidding. I'm guilty of it myself, but not often.

I cheated once at lunch a few weeks ago, helmet was the only gear, and sure enough, a car pulled out of a parallel-parking space going against traffic and almost took me out. You just never know!

 

[Dragonistic]

At the time I went traffic is so thin (10PM) and the road leaves everything visible in terms of junctions, no blind turns or anything like that so I was more then sure. I stayed under 30 as well so all was well.

 

[niky]

I was wondering today as I rode home from college, do we think there are any major divides amongst bikers? Like would a guy riding a superbike be likely to show less respect to someone on a supermoto/mx like me? It seems once you're on anything larger then a 50CC moped/scooter here (UK), you're accepted by all, but moped riders are shunned so much just for being on a 'ped (I had 2 years of it!) which divides it up into those and everyone else although perhaps the age difference is the cause as most 50CC riders are 16-18 males who go as fast as possible all the time on their little bikes.

What's it like in other countries?

Here in Asia, the ground is so thick with mopeds and various underbones (bikes with the same general construction... but with bigger engines, up to 200cc, I believe) that there's no biker's wave or thumbs-up... you're just commuters like everyone else.

Bikers... guys with sportsbikes or cruisers or whatever, are a tight-knit bunch, because there aren't really that many of them... for the price of a good sports-bike, you're already getting a pretty good car, so that limits the number of bikers who buy nice bikes to commute. Honestly, with third-world air-pollution, homicidal bus and taxi drivers and the chance of someone knocking you off your bike with a lead pipe (just for the hell of it, mind you), would you really want to? Most people who buy bikes to commute go for an automatic 125cc scooter and call it a day.

That said, there's a big movement of younger riders who drive 125cc and 150cc underbones for sport. The underbone around here is the Honda Civic of the impoverished class... buy em' cheap, modify them cheaply and you've got something that'll go from zero to mortuary in less than eight seconds. We used to get a lot of riders in the hospital emergency room before police started clamping down on the draggers.

There's a quite a few race events in South East Asia for underbones. Sure, they may be slower than 250cc sportsbikes, but the competition is fierce, the field is quite varied, and the price of entry is cheap. Under $2000 for a brand-new, competitive bike, and maybe $10,000 (or less) to build a front-runner. Competitive shifter-karts cost more, and events (and tracks) for those are limited out here.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Here we don't usually wave at each other in urban traffic, just on the road. In urban traffic we compliment each other if we stop side by side at a red light, or something like that (it goes from a simple head movement to a "Hi there!")

No real difference between large and smaller bikes, or even scooters. In fact, scooters here are most usually driven by girls, so it's (almost) always nice to show some courtesy towards them