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Motorcycle driving is usually understood in terms of practicality, specific abilities/skills, and symbolism – associated with individualism, challenge and risk. This paper aims to explore this topic under the scope of emotions and feelings invested in the ownership of the motorcycle and in the driving experience in the context of the “real world” … Continue reading

Steven Alford and Suzanne Ferriss have been highly instrumental in promoting and establishing what is now looking like a consolidated academic area in the shape of motorcycle studies, and their previous book, Motorcycle (2007), set the bar very high indeed in terms of a wide-ranging study that shows how the motorcycle is permeated with cultural significance … Continue reading

Long-term ethnographic research is commonly conducted by a single investigator, a same-gender team, or a mixed-gender team of married or partnered individuals. The impact of gender in conducting qualitative research has been examined in the literature but little, if any, analysis of the experiences of a mixed gender, non-coupled, unrelated research team exists. Our goal in this article is to consider some of the benefits and pitfalls … Continue reading

Michael Grogan’s book, You Gotta Be Dirty: The Outlaws Motorcycle Club In & Around Wisconsin (2016) landed on my desk a few weeks back—and I’m glad it did. As the title suggests, it focuses on the Outlaws Motorcycle Club (MC) and adds another chapter to our historical understanding of the 1%er outlaw motorcycle clubs. In this review I’ll offer some brief contextualization, give an outline of its aims and contents … Continue reading

Who wouldn’t want a Harley? The brand is so ubiquitous in popular culture that the word “Harley” has become for many a loose synonym for any cruiser-style motorcycle. And the history of Harley-Davidson riders seems, in North America at least, identical with the history of motorcycle as a cultural icon: its success as a Second World War vehicle, promoted through war propaganda films … Continue reading

In this article, we analyze the mediated self-representation of Norwegian bikers in contrast to how they are represented through mainstream-media. Based on analysis of MC coverage in local, regional, and national Norwegian newspapers and postings and comments on the Facebook page of PayBack Norway, we compare an online counterpublic with coverage in mainstream media … Continue reading

Carl, a young black man, a motorcyclist, artist and womanizer, is caught between the expectations of his times and the possibilities of life. He is trapped in a railway worker’s pedestrian existence—a life from which his motorcycle (a BMW R69 named ‘Liz II’ in honor of Queen Elizabeth II), the open road and, most notably, his sexual exploits with numerous women, both black and white, provide freedom and happiness … Continue reading

“Every criminologist I know agrees that legislation is not the way to go. The answer is for the police to do their job and seize members of clubs threatening war and do not allow the clubs to reform until they can prove that they have purged the criminal elements and found effective measures for conflict resolution–apart from war.” The words of American motorbike enthusiast Arthur Veno, a student and specialist of motorbike culture … Continue reading

I first laid eyes on one in 1996 or 1997 in an unlikely setting, at the AMA-sanctioned Freemansburg Hill Climb which takes place twice each year near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tired of watching nitro-fueled hanger-framed machines trying to hurdle their way up a 500-foot incline, gouged with ruts and gulleys and lined by rocks and trees, I wandered into one of the fields used for spectators’ parking. A thousand or two bikes, most of them Harleys … Continue reading