Yeah and I heard when he bends over............ .

LOL. I mean, look for yourself. Look at that nice shirt and that V-Rod. If that doesn't spread fear of his office and get him to polish your derby cover, I don't know what will!

(BTW, look at that parade picture! Yikes, it looks like those V-Rod guys have handled more packages than the TSA...)

Boy you guys were busy yesterday! How did you get that pic of me and my crew!

Easy. BI63 just googled "gay pride, Harley ride" and the picture popped up.

Actually, after the day we had, we got silly last night. As a biker I would have never done that, but as a suburbanite I live for things like that. Once a clown prince...

Okay, my first real post and I may be way off base but it is just my opinion. When I was a kid back in the late 60's, early seventies, it seemed to me there was a pretty clear distinction between bikers and motorcyclists. The bikers seemed to be living a lifestyle we all recognized as "I'll live my life as I choose and you live yours but don't tell me how to live mine." My friends and I (the motorcyclists) recognized that and respected it. We rode Hondas and Kawasakis (mine was a KZ1000) at the time and some dirt bikes even though we lived in the city.

We stopped to help any bike we saw broken down never giving a thought to what brand it was. In keeping with that practice, as a rookie police officer I once stopped to help a broken down bike. The rider was a member of a well known 1% Club (he was wearing his colors) that had run out of gas. I took him to buy gas, we had some conversation and had a few laughs while doing it. I didn't feel any dislike from him and, in fact, never did in any contact I ever had with any of them. He got out, thanked me and told me he would buy me a beer some day.

Eventually most of us migrated over to boats and spent a decade or two there. When my kids wanted to ride four-wheelers we got into that. I realized then how much I enjoyed riding and wanted to ride again so a few years ago I found myself a nice used HD. Part of the enjoyment I get from my bike is working on it. I could probably afford having a dealer do all the work but would much rather spend my winter days in my garage working on it myself. It is also my way of learning about the bike so if I have a problem I am not clueless.

I don't own any Harley clothing of any kind. My jacket right now is a Carhartt jacket I bought because it keeps me warm even though I work in an office. I wear a helmet but wouldn't wear a do rag anyway. I wear gloves with fingers, jeans and boots.

I never really cared how I was labeled by anyone else. I don't call anyone brother except my real one though I have friends that I am probably closer to. When I am around other riders, I like to drink a few beers, talk about the bikes and any other b.s. we come up with.

I know I am not a biker as I define it from my younger days but that's not an issue for me. When people learn I have a bike and comment "you're a biker " it doesn't elicit any reaction from me at all. I don't speculate on the 1% world as that is not for me to do since it is basically none of my business. When I meet a member of a 1% club, I say hello as I would to any person I meet. They have always responded in kind.

So I guess my point is, I know I am not a biker but some of the attributes of the biker community are a part of my world too. I hope I will always stop for a broken down bike and I hope my kids will some day too. I think that most bikers still believe in personal freedom as I do which includes not caring what the other riders are doing or wearing as long as we respect each other when we meet. I do not venture into the 1% world. If I had to guess they probably get tired of people asking about their club which is something I'm sure they would never talk about anyway.

I am not trying to be disrespectful of anyone. I just think that there are some aspects of a biker in most motorcyclists.

Very well put! I think that is the missing part that some people don't understand "there are some aspects of a biker in most motorcyclist". I feel that it goes a little deeper. Most motorcyclist have most of the aspects of a "biker" except for the colors. My thought is that if you are part of that 1% biker community you certainly don't want anyone else called a "biker" as you feel that is defining who you are.

Reality about it is people are going to do and have the right to do as they please regarding this matter. I defend that right. And in the grand scale of world issues the biker or not debate is insignificant.

In the case of biker or not its semantics. To some a biker is someone who lives life with a code,values and rock solid definition of brotherhood, one that does not casually throw the word around. Others feel a biker is someone who rides a bike,wears azzless chaps, fingerless gloves, a do rag and throwns around the word brother because he thinks it sounds cool and doesn't mind screwing somneone over as long as they end up on top. And every combination in between. It comes down to an individuals constitution, conscience and personally established criteria of quality of life as he/she goes through life.

To some a shortcut is merely being able to fool whomever and I suppose when you are around others doing the same thing it seems right. To others its important that they know they did the right thing even if nobody else knows.

I agree with you that doing the right thing because you know it's right is important. I think that is a basic belief for many of us including those who were in the military. There are people that I want nothing to do with and won't because they will do anything they think they can get away with. My friends and I believed in friendship when we were young. We didn't stay friends with a guy who only cared about himself, lied to us or didn't have our backs. We got into plenty of bad spots but no matter how bad it ended for you, the only thing that you didn't do was look for the door. Last summer, some of them were back in town for our 40th reunion. We spent a night just the old group getting drunk which is pretty rare for me now and laughing about the old days.

I guess I may be missing the point but still believe that even though I consider myself a motorcyclist and not a biker, I do have the ability to understand what being a biker means to some. I just learned some of the same values in another way. If that means my comments are not worth reading by some, then I will happily keep them to myself.

Then you are way ahead of about 90% of the guys who ride.

You mentioned the military. Could a guy buy a uniform at Goodwill, and then festoon it with medals he bought on eBay? Oh, I know the answer, and I can guess what would happen if you and a couple of buddies caught him.

I feel the same about a twenty-something wearing his grandfather's clothes and spouting 1960s slang. He calls me 'bro' at the bike shop, and tells me he "lives the lifestyle." Frak, the only thing he knows about my life is what he googles.

A fraud is a fraud. I feel very strongly about this. I was a biker, I no longer live the life. I am a tourist now. Oh, I still ride more than the posers, but if you value the ideal, you don't even violate the concept yourself.

O.K. Tourist, I'm trying to understand, are you against the pirates that act like they are MC, or the fact that they use the term biker to describe themselves or both? As I've said before I think the masquerade is silly but the term "Biker" in itself has a much broader meaning, and isn't reserved for MC. It concerns the brotherhood and honor that we have for one another.