Motorcycles
Only a Biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.
Bikers’ saying
1. Introduction.
The motorcycle, since its inception, has always been more than transportation. Because it takes place in public space, and because, in developed nations, it’s no longer essential as an economic form of transportation, it’s become a sport as well. As a result, it’s always been iconic, even over-encoded, so the mere fact of riding is at once an activity and a performance.
Its essence is speed in a world in which time itself seems to have increased its velocity. In riding, the motorcyclist becomes one with his/her machine, an image of a cyborgian unity that can only become more central to our daily existence as we walk about with machines embedded in our bodies, from pacemakers to insulin dispensers. It’s an economical internal combustion machine, embodying the contradiction between love of engines and the recognition that our profligate use of them is destroying the planet.
The motorcycle embodies a double nostalgia, a looking-backward toward the American West, and a looking-forward toward a time when all people can unite in a brotherhood modeled on the motorcycle club. It exemplifies modern engineering excellence, yet an owner can’t wait to modify it to make it his/her own. Its birth is coincident with the modern world, and in late modernity it came to symbolize the psychic fruits of modernism: alienation and opposition to authority. The motorcycle allows riders to flaunt a lack of concern with the constraints of society, while adhering to a de rigueur code of dress and behavior.
The sensation of being on a motorcycle embodies what we’re all seeking in life. Freedom. a. Who is a motorcyclist? Why motorcycle?
In 2000, a little network called the Discovery Channel produced a show that aired right between shark attacks and the secrets of the pyramids called Motorcycle Mania and starred a guy named Jesse James. This was the great
Bikers’ saying
1. Introduction.
The motorcycle, since its inception, has always been more than transportation. Because it takes place in public space, and because, in developed nations, it’s no longer essential as an economic form of transportation, it’s become a sport as well. As a result, it’s always been iconic, even over-encoded, so the mere fact of riding is at once an activity and a performance.
Its essence is speed in a world in which time itself seems to have increased its velocity. In riding, the motorcyclist becomes one with his/her machine, an image of a cyborgian unity that can only become more central to our daily existence as we walk about with machines embedded in our bodies, from pacemakers to insulin dispensers. It’s an economical internal combustion machine, embodying the contradiction between love of engines and the recognition that our profligate use of them is destroying the planet.
The motorcycle embodies a double nostalgia, a looking-backward toward the American West, and a looking-forward toward a time when all people can unite in a brotherhood modeled on the motorcycle club. It exemplifies modern engineering excellence, yet an owner can’t wait to modify it to make it his/her own. Its birth is coincident with the modern world, and in late modernity it came to symbolize the psychic fruits of modernism: alienation and opposition to authority. The motorcycle allows riders to flaunt a lack of concern with the constraints of society, while adhering to a de rigueur code of dress and behavior.
The sensation of being on a motorcycle embodies what we’re all seeking in life. Freedom. a. Who is a motorcyclist? Why motorcycle?
In 2000, a little network called the Discovery Channel produced a show that aired right between shark attacks and the secrets of the pyramids called Motorcycle Mania and starred a guy named Jesse James. This was the great
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