What Is The Biker Lifestyle?

Christine, who blogs on "Christine's Corner", is thinking about selling her Harley, feeling as if she needs to find a greater calling in life.

She mentioned to her friends about quitting her riding hobby, and then one of them responded that it's not a hobby, but a lifestyle. And this is what Christine wrote in response...

Deciding to ride or not ride doesn't change me or my values or the way I will choose to live my life. Riding is not my life...I work in an industry--as like the majority of the folks that do motorcycle--that has nothing to do with motorcycling. The folks that do work in the motorcycling industry--well, they are the lucky ones--if they are indeed doing what they love.

I think Christine is correct.

Of all the riders that I personally know, not a single one of them live the "biker lifestyle". Some of them might think they do, but in fact they don't. And for the record, I don't live the lifestyle either.

A lot of people talk about the "lifestyle", but probably 1% of 1% of these people ever actually achieve the lifestyle. It's that hard to achieve.

You've heard the term, "Live to ride, ride to live". That pretty much sums up the biker lifestyle. But it's rare to find someone can who actually live up to that creed. There are some that exist, but very rare. Most of us live for other things as well, most of us have other things that depend on us, and most of us are governed by other things.

Whether its our spouses, our kids, our jobs, our businesses, or even Uncle Sam, most of us are tied down. Someone who lives the biker lifestyle doesn't get tied down. The biker lifestyle is about freedom, the freedom of the road, and being free to go whereever.

Living the biker lifestyle is like being a vagabond on two-wheels, travelling around the country, and never really staying in one place. It about making friends, and letting them go. It's about waking up one morning and not knowing where you'll be sleeping. There are some people that do this, but it's very rare.

Some people think that being a member of a 1%er club, or 3-piece patch club, means living the biker lifestyle. Wrong. That just makes you a club member. Others think that going to rallies and runs and partying with bikers means living the lifestyle. Wrong. That just makes you a partier.

The biker lifestyle is not about socializing. It's about being free. "Live to ride, ride to live": how many of us have the balls to let go of everything that chains us down, and live up to that creed?

Posted:   Sunday, January 06, 2008