Author Topic: Be honest, do you project an image..?  (Read 11400 times)

Online Huzo

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Be honest, do you project an image..?
« on: January 07, 2019, 07:09:27 PM »
We all have a pretty good idea of what we look like on our bike of choice..
It'd be pointless saying that we don't try subconsciously or otherwise to appeal to a certain demographic that we've been attracted to over the journey, this changes inexorably as we get older and fashions morph from one style to the next.
If this were not so, we'd all look like we did in the 70's wearing flares and Army jackets with rubber boots in the rain in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to keep dry.
What are your observations regarding the various genres of biking sub groups ?
I'll be dangerously honest and offer my own impressions of where I think (hope) I sit.
Sometimes the impression that you most want to project is the one you outwardly look like you're trying to avoid and I like the look of a guy who's done a lot but does not try to promote it.
For instance, I have several stickers from European destinations on my panniers but not one on the bike.
Dr Phil would probably say that I'm promoting an image by looking like I'm trying not to do just that very thing.
There is a pecking order in every male gathering and we all need to know where we sit, I'm pretty sure we use our bikes as an ego extension, this forum has a pecking order and it's dictated by certain KPI's.
Raw knowlege
Humour
Travel history
Ability to dispense vitriol
Ability to quell potential conflict
If you look at these sub groups, you'll easily be able to pull out several names that fit each one, and some that probably span the boundaries a bit... :wink:
Damn interesting topics I reckon, for a bunch of complicated little boys who (mostly) grew up, we're basically pretty simple.
Can y'all be self analytical and describe where you think you've pulled up on the spectrum of biking culture ?
« Last Edit: January 08, 2019, 01:47:35 AM by Huzo »

Offline fotoguzzi

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2019, 07:20:31 PM »
You get dr Phil down under? Sorry about that.

Man,I really miss my leather chaps.

« Last Edit: January 07, 2019, 07:23:59 PM by fotoguzzi »
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Online Huzo

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2019, 07:24:49 PM »
You get dr Phil down under? Sorry about that.
Yeah, for a bloke who says to be proud of who you are..
He's spent a lot of money on his veneers and his Wife's..."work".... :wink:
But we digress FG.
We can talk about it at Cape York.. :clock: :bike-037:
« Last Edit: January 07, 2019, 07:26:17 PM by Huzo »

Online Turin

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2019, 07:27:56 PM »
I know I do. It's not intentional either. I'm 6'4 and 275 pounds with what my wife calls an angry resting face. I've heard the same thing again and again " those guys were such and such or we were in a tight spot, we wish you were there with us.."    Why the Fu** would I want to get hit in the face is my first thought. Fights suck and getting hit hurts.
As for motorcycle gear I'm more likely to get mistaken for a Power Ranger than a S&M Pirate.
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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2019, 07:27:56 PM »

Online Huzo

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2019, 07:39:24 PM »
I know I do. It's not intentional either. I'm 6'4 and 275 pounds with what my wife calls an angry resting face. I've heard the same thing again and again " those guys were such and such or we were in a tight spot, we wish you were there with us.."    Why the Fu** would I want to get hit in the face is my first thought. Fights suck and getting hit hurts.
As for motorcycle gear I'm more likely to get mistaken for a Power Ranger than a S&M Pirate.
Jeez mate.
Remind me not to cross you...
If we meet on the shores of Lake Como in 2021, allow me to apologise for everything in advance.. :shocked:

oldbike54

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2019, 07:50:48 PM »
 Remember the old Jackal ad posters with the guy in jeans , a T-shirt and an open face helmet ? Yeah , picture that guy about 40 years older , that's me . :grin:

 Dusty

Offline Lannis

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2019, 08:48:48 PM »
I pick bikes to ride that are comfortable for me and handle well.

I wear the most protective and practical things I can, which at the moment means a big bright yellow Darien jacket, gray AD-1 pants, and a white full helmet.

I wish I could project a different image; maybe sort of a Terminator II vibe, leather, a bad-ass look, ladder-laced jump boots ... but I don't know how to do it.

So I settle for what I got.   How people interpret it, or what they think is under all that Cordura, is up to them.  I've never found that it makes much of a difference in my life, unless I've missed something and never knew it .... !

Lannis
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Online Huzo

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2019, 09:32:06 PM »
Hmmm..
I guess there are two fundamental subsets.
Those that knowingly manufacture an image and those that just inherit one.
I'd wager that of all the responses that this thread will garner, there'll be bugger all respondents that will outwardly admit to manufacturing and displaying that image knowingly.
It just seems uncool to do so, yet the 1% ers go to great lengths to do exactly that.
I had occasion to come across a bunch of them on a major Australian freeway recently on my way back to Victoria from NSW. They were the archetypical incarnation of exactly what image fabrication is.
I've posted this before but in case you missed it...
<br /
Yep...
That certainly was an image..!
« Last Edit: January 07, 2019, 09:36:05 PM by Huzo »

Online Turin

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2019, 09:45:36 PM »
That's funny  :grin:
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1991 LeMans 1000
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Offline Kiwi Dave

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2019, 11:56:54 PM »
Remember the old Jackal ad posters with the guy in jeans , a T-shirt and an open face helmet ? Yeah , picture that guy about 40 years older , that's me . :grin:

 Dusty

Hang on Dusty, the Jackal featured around the turn of the century, I recall.  Less than twenty years ago.

So how have you really accelerated age wise?   :evil:

Offline Shorty

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2019, 12:15:42 AM »
I think I look like an escapee from the geriatric center who stopped at the Goodwill store to buy a motorcycle and some clothes.





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oldbike54

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2019, 12:20:40 AM »
Hang on Dusty, the Jackal featured around the turn of the century, I recall.  Less than twenty years ago.

So how have you really accelerated age wise?   :evil:

 No , I already looked old in 2001  :sad:

 Dusty

Online xackley

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2019, 12:36:10 AM »
I guess I project a Walt Whitman, according to a woman who sat to talk after watching me for an hour. Left her to dance with my wife when the band started up Albert Collins "Frosty".
I think  I project old curmudgeon.
1958 R69 BMW, 1972 R75/5, 1980 yamaha XS650, 1982 GL1100, 2003 EV, 2007 Triumph America and 2017 V7!!!
All on the road, going nowhere in particular.

Offline harry h

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2019, 01:25:54 AM »
I'm thinking about getting a new image - Adriano Celentano - need to be more Italian for my Guzzi's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8
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Offline earemike

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2019, 02:40:32 AM »
If I’m taking the woman for a feed on the motorcycle I try and look tidy - I suppose I like my belstaff jacket...

Out with the lads it’s full leathers - thing is I look like a twerp on the T3 or lemans but that doesn’t bother me. Not sure what impression people get, don’t really care.
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Online reidy

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #15 on: January 08, 2019, 03:23:20 AM »
I stood up at the movies the other day.  :boozing:
Does that count?

Steve

pete roper

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #16 on: January 08, 2019, 05:07:29 AM »
No.

Offline s1120

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #17 on: January 08, 2019, 05:54:11 AM »
I guess I do, but its normally subdued. The wild multi color leathers wont do..    Nor the black, fringe, patches look...  I do like a nice brown or tan leather...  Nice solid color on the helmet..  more then likely to have jeans and workboots on...  So I guess im kinda a normal jeans and Tshirt guy
Paul B

Offline Aaron D.

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #18 on: January 08, 2019, 06:10:27 AM »
We all do. The question is do we actually manage it.

Offline Gappy

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #19 on: January 08, 2019, 06:20:38 AM »
I dress for the weather and the crash, what does that say?
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Offline Aaron D.

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #20 on: January 08, 2019, 06:29:56 AM »
Ask your wife.

Online lucian

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #21 on: January 08, 2019, 06:33:11 AM »
Unfortunately just being out on a MC projects an image to a lot of people. Especially those who don't get it.  Risk taker,,,Idiot,,,,Outlaw,,,,Moron,,,Immature dirt bag

I'll go with those.

Online Kev m

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #22 on: January 08, 2019, 06:45:23 AM »
On half our bikes I look like a monkey humping a football.
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Online Gliderjohn

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #23 on: January 08, 2019, 06:55:58 AM »
Guess i am changing my image now due to getting older. For the most part I have rode with a black leather jacket, jeans and some sort of boots along with leather gloves and either a red or white helmet. Just bought the Olympia textile armored jacket and pants with the yellow reflective areas, dedicated riding boots, armored gloves and Schuberth helmet. Going from Fonzi to a Power Ranger but hopefully better protected.
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oldbike54

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #24 on: January 08, 2019, 07:31:40 AM »
 I like to project an image of complete incompetency .

 Dusty

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #25 on: January 08, 2019, 07:46:26 AM »

   Image shmimage, when weather permits a clean motorcycle related tee shirt, board shorts and a new pair of flip flops :evil:

         Paul B :boozing:
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Offline larrys

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #26 on: January 08, 2019, 07:56:13 AM »
I think that we all project an image, consciously or unconsciously. I wear the the same outfit that I have for the last thirty years or so. Black leather, old jeans, old Herman Survivors. Still only wear a skid lid when it's cold, or running in another state where lids are required. I have acquired a somewhat curmudgeonly look, gray hair, weathered face...

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Offline vstevens

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #27 on: January 08, 2019, 08:06:10 AM »
There is the image I'd like to project... sleek black leather and rugged boots, worn and weathered 'most interesting man in the world' - then I look in the mirror and I think, "l'm not foolin' anyone!"

Offline poorBob

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #28 on: January 08, 2019, 08:14:17 AM »
Image is in the eye of the beholder.

I'm an ATGATT type.

My du-rag wearing friends always ask why I'm wearing so much gear and/or if I'm planning to crash. So to them, I guess I project an image of scaredy-cat. I don't really care.

My phone addicted co-workers think I'm from Mars if I come clomping in wearing boots carrying a helmet. I don't really care.

My wife thinks I'm going to die every time I get on a bike and acts amazed when I don't. She and "her family" regard me as a risk-taker. I don't really care.

I like to think I project an image not of a guy who has been there and done that but who is on his way there to do that and has enough scars that he doesn't really want to collect any more on the way. I'm obviously missing the mark but...I don't really care. 


Offline Toecutter

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Re: Be honest, do you project an image..?
« Reply #29 on: January 08, 2019, 08:37:35 AM »
Of course I do... we all project an image, carefully cultivated over the years, even if that image is "I haven't carefully cultivated an image over all these years, see? See how little I care about my image?"

 I don't care much to "stand out", on the bike or off. I wear protective gear, but forego the dayglo safety colours, and have instead opted for earth tones and muted colours (just like my day to day clothing), which some may say "make me invisible". I wear an old armoured waxed canvas jacket (needs to  be replaced, it's done) , old, faded armoured riding jeans (new pair for this spring), brown leather boots, a black "Gringo" helmet and brown gloves.. everything I own doesn't really look like "biker gear" on first glance. I was "that age" when "Grunge" was king, and traces of it remain. Riding a bike is something I do, not someone I am. I can't see myself dressing or acting differently just because I get on the bike.

At biker gatherings, I tend to listen more than I talk... same as everywhere else in my life. My riding circle tends to be wide in age range, but leans towards the custom/garage set and crusty old classic bikers. My first impressions of bikes was in the 70s... so choppers and rat-custom Japanese bikes were everywhere, and the original Mad Max film kinda "set" the image of what a "cool bike" looked like, and it stuck. Toecutter's gang is still the coolest bunch of bikes I've ever seen to this day.

I tend to ride alone, or with my wife, largely. Not a big fan of groups of riders. Not a fan of overly planned outings and lots of rules. Prefer tents and sleeping bags to hotels. Prefer rough rides with crappy weather and great stories to fair weather yawners.

Young angry punks grow up to be old slightly less angry hippies... I guess that's pretty much where i've ended up. A giant mish mash of everything I've found cool over my life, just... older and mellower. To some, I'm probably "childish", to others, "young at heart"... I just figure I only get one run at this, so I might as well be as true to myself as I can.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2019, 08:39:02 AM by Toecutter »
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