Category: Volume 22 | 2026

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Too Much Sand in My Data: How Inadequate Motorcycles and Complete Participation Reveal Authentic Adventure

Jason Wragg

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Motorcycles in a comic cell excerpt

During a seven-day motorcycle journey across Morocco on 50cc monkey bikes, my carefully planned observational stance collapsed under the material demands of desert travel with sandstorms, mechanical failures, and the relentless physical reality of riding underpowered machines through hostile terrain. Continue reading

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Assemblage and Temporary Transhumanism in Motorcycle Riding: The Evolution of the Human?

Andrew Thomson

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cyborg motorcycle

Combining human and machine is more than creating a sense of freedom or oneness with the road. The motorcycle represents Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage theory that creates a theoretical temporary transhumanism where the motorcycle enables an advancement of humanity to achieve an evolved state of function and happiness when connected with our motorcycle. Continue reading

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Registration for the 2026 IJMS Conference

Motorcycle Studies

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decorative image for registration 2026

IJMS Conference 2026 will be held at the exciting Ridge Motorsports Park. Scholars, Writers, Artists, Motorcycle Enthusiasts will come together with the Pacific Northwest backdrop and the sounds and smells of racing machines to present the 2026 annual conference. Register now! Continue reading

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At the Boundary of Beauty and Truth: The Motorcycle as Aesthetic/Ontologic Vehicle

Steven Burr

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motorcycle drawing

I will argue that motorcycling may perhaps be a paradigmatic experience which lends itself to both aesthetic and ontologic realizations: although there are a myriad of ways in which riding potentiates a wide range of experiences of beauty, the act of riding is simultaneously, and fundamentally, a particular way of objectively being in the world; these seemingly distinct and independent experiences are in fact inexorably related, each synergistically amplifying the other. Motorcycling is thus precisely the kind of experience which enables a reconciliation of the aesthetic and the ontologic in a unified, and unifying, experience of harmony.
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Save the Date – 13th IJMS Conference

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For 2026 the IJMS conference will be held in Washington State at The Ridge Motorsports Park. July 16th-19th, 2026:  IJMS will venture to Shelton, Washington which is  40 miles southwest of Seattle and 20 miles northwest of Olympia, Washington’s state capitol. Shelton is known as the “Gateway to the Olympics” and “Christmastown USA” because of the large Christmas tree farming industry. Continue reading

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Blind Spot on the Road to Sustainability: Motorcycles in UK Transport Planning

Robert Stanley and Gemma Bridge

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UK transport policy has prioritised car driving, active travel, and public transport, while motorcycles remain systematically excluded from planning and policy debates. This viewpoint argues that such omission is driven less by evidence and more by persistent cultural bias and safety anxieties surrounding motorcycling. Drawing on international and UK-based literature, the authors critically examine the potential role of motorcycles in addressing congestion, car dependency, and accessibility challenges, while acknowledging legitimate concerns relating to safety, emissions, and induced demand. Continue reading

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Book Review: The Ambiguities of European Comic Book Bikers by David Walton

Jason Wragg, PhD

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book on comic agri background

David Walton’s The Ambiguities of European Comic Book Bikers makes an important contribution to motorcycle studies by turning scholarly attention towards a previously overlooked cultural artefact: the European comic-book biker publications. This study demonstrates convincingly that these comics merit serious critical analysis as complex cultural texts that both reflect and shape motorcycling identities across Europe. Continue reading

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Film Review: The Taming of the Biker, Ad Nauseam

Sarah Hoiland

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feature film still

The Bikeriders, which roared into theaters June 21 2024, is a film that seeks to depict “outlaw” biker culture for a popular audience immersing viewers in the world of the “Vandals” a Motorcycle Club” (MC), founded in the 1960s. The story is primarily told through Kathy’s (Jodie Comer) nasally Midwestern twang, as it is relayed to Danny Lyon (Mike Faist), a photographer. Continue reading