CONCLUSION

We’ve looked at the history of the British biker, and’ve asked the question – is this a culture or subculture? Do bikers in Britain share common values, and how’ve these values been influenced? There’s the American influence; the rock ‘n’ roll music the Rockers identified with; the 1960s image created by films such as Easy Rider; the enthusiasm for HarleyDavidsons and the spread of 1% ideology through Britain and the rise of numbers of its, and other clubs, members; and there’s the influence the media’ve had in the creation of an identity for the British biker, with magazines like Bike, Superbike, Easyriders, and Back Street Heroes all playing a pivotal role in presenting a lifestyle beyond just riding bikes. Then there’s the fact that the steps taken by the authorities to curb, or curtail, biking in Britain (legislation such as the ‘sixteener law’) which, paradoxically, in its own way created a wave of more young people entering biking than they may’ve done if the law hadn’t been introduced in the first place.

And what of the future? Biking in Britain’ll surely change again, and not necessarily for the better – there’re a number of things that’ll affect the future of bikers in Britain in the years to come, one of which being the considerable push by successive governments to reduce emissions from road vehicles to reduce the gases blamed for global warming, pushing the sale and use of electric vehicles. Bike manufacturers’re in a race to produce electric bikes that the public’ll actually want to buy, but they face an uphill struggle as there’s long been a love affair between bikers and the internal combustion engine, and it’ll take something special to effect serious change.

Then there’re the so-called ‘eco-warriors’, who used to climb trees to protest about roads, but’ve now grown up and got themselves elected to positions of power, narrow or close roads to make cycleways, and want us all to abandon powered vehicles for pushbikes. Their belief that, somehow, in doing so Britain alone can save the planet, while countries twenty times larger than ours still build fossil-fuel power station after fossil-fuel power station after fossil-fuel power station, is definitely a threat to bikers as politicians scramble to take the perceived moral high ground and be seen to be part of it.

There’s also the fact that America, Australia and Holland’ve all introduced legislation making some motorcycle clubs illegal, usually 1% outlaw clubs, following perceived criminal activity/ violence. This has potential serious repercussions, not just for outlaw clubs, but for ‘normal’ ones too – if they can use the legislation on one, why not for the other? It’s all too easy to tar all club members with one brush…

Add to that the increase in motorcycles being banned from certain roads in Europe (how long before that comes to these shores?), and the threat of ‘noise cameras’ that detect louder-thanstandard exhausts, and you can see why the future for the British biker isn’t looking as rosy as we’d like it to be.

The moral of these three articles? Whether you call what we have a culture or a subculture, embrace it and enjoy it while you can because when it’s gone, it’s gone, and the way of life we all love and’re part of’ll just be a side note in history.

TONY HADDEN