Common Notions About Harley-Davidson Riders

The Great American Freedom Machine, this is what the riders of the Harley-Davidson call their bikes and motorcycles. For them, their bikes and motorcycles are the best way to show themselves and the world that they are free. After more than 100 years of Harley-Davidson services, followers with the passion for riding have increased in number. Along with the passion for riding comes the often-judged biker’s lifestyle.
Most of the people who see and hear these Harley riders get irritated. For them, Harley bikers are the worst of their kind. The common notion about these “bad-ass bikers” is their unruly and road-raged behavior. The 1960’s movie “Easy Rider” was perhaps the spark that began the notion for the wild biker’s lifestyle.

Traditional Harley riders, those who sport the long beards and leather outfits, are being replaced little by little by urban professionals and sophisticates. They say that these sophisticates make up the new breed of the Harley owners. But many agree that that this so-called 'new breeds' can’t be considered as real bikers because they lack the essential degree of commitment to what they call the biker’s lifestyle.

This lifestyle, according to them, revolves around nothing more than the 'grown up toys,' the Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Common notions of the people about Harley bikers and motorcyclists in general are of being crude and offensive that leads to a destructive and dangerous lifestyle. These bikers also use Harley products for 'machismo' purposes, as if telling the world what a real man should have.

Regardless of what the people are saying, riders say that Harley-Davidson bikes are just a symbol of freedom; freedom from enclosure and confinement. According to them, they feel like being imprisoned whenever they ride in an automobile. Cars, vans, trucks, buses and the like are cages for them. Also, the Harley releases the inner child hiding deep within the bikers. Bikes are therapeutic, and they make their riders rediscover the feeling of being an innocent child who always wants adventure and something new. They feel being one with the wind and one with the road whenever they travel on their adventures. They encounter the sun, rain, dust, dirt, sand and other physical elements that they will never feel inside a car.

Despite this freedom that the Harley riders feel, some as traditionalists dislike the appearance of the new and expensive bikes and their riders. These riders are of the new breed and are inconsistent with the well-established norms and personality of a real 'hard core' Harley rider. Also, these law-abiding new breeds that have the money to purchase Harley-Davidson motorcycles join the Harley owners group which resulted to the collection of dues, marginalization of women, separating them on an auxiliary organization, and encouraging riders to go on groups, and riding with a formation.

One traditionalist who sold his Harley said, “Yeah, guess the new ones are okay but I still don't like them. What's good about being a biker if it's just like being a regular citizen?” For him, being a real biker with no one to authorize him, still, is the freedom he knows.
“If you can't hear us, you can't see us,” this is what the Harley engine’s roaring sound seems to say to people. But despite this, its riders will never forget the freedom they experienced with their great freedom machine.