For me it’s a matter of who should take responsibility for those reckless idiots. Obviously, above all, it should be the government. They should have zero tolerance policy and fight it any way than can. Which they don’t do. The accidents and noise is mostly on them. But those idiots are also part of a bigger community. It’s not some separate group, there’s a lot of overlap. Where motorcyclist gather (all the meetings, weekend rides, bars and so on) you will see the “normal” kind and the loud idiots riding together. If the community is not trying to stop this sociopathic behavior then I’m not willing to make some exceptions and say “those bikers are ok, those bikers are not”. I see it simply as a toxic group. Some motorcyclist do dangerous and harmful things and others tolerate it and accept as part of the hobby. I don’t mind people commuting on motorbikes because it’s convenient but once we get to the “I ride because I like it” group they are all the same to me.
I genuinely feel you could replace “motorcyclists” with “car enthusiast” and it’d be the same sentiment, which implies you dislike a mentality that you’ve conflated with a group or subject. Which happens, but means you’re not seeing the forest for the trees.
100% car enthusiast are the same but people taking their cars to weekend meetups or some illegal races are tiny minority of all drivers. Where I see more extremely loud bikes than cars even though there are way more cars on the roads than motorbikes. I’ve seen stats form Europe saying that 70% of vehicles exceeding noise limits are motorcycles. I don’t know what % of motorcyclists are loud idiots but looking at the roads I can see that it’s way more common in this group that among car drivers. I’m sure this can vary by region thought.
I mean that’s true of cars too. But the people who drive cars as a hobby are such a small population that they’re irrelevant to the conversation.
Hell Ill take a 25 year old with a riced up Civic going double the speed limit over the average Suburban Assault Vehicle driver, at least the former are probably paying attention.
By sociopathic behavior I meat mainly the noise. There’s 0 need for most bikes to be as loud as they are. Bikers install loud exhausts because they like it and they don’t care about anyone else.
And it’s 100% a hobby for many many people. I’m sure it varies by region but were I live there’s plenty of mountain roads that fill up with motorbikes every weekend. Stats confirm it, most of motorbike accidents happen during the weekend. Those people are not traveling from point A to point B. They go on weekend rides. And those “fun” rides usually involve excessive speeds and noise. Maybe it’s different where you live but this is what I see on roads around me.
Well yeah, in America, the popular perception of motorcycles are toys instead of a valid type of transportation, and so dudes who drive a car to an office job 5 days a week buy a 30,000 dollar Harley to role-play Sons of Anarchy on the weekend. Here everyone from 14 year olds to grandmas ride.
Scooters/mopeds aren’t common in the US because for the price of a new scooter, you can get a used highway capable motorcycle. And the mopeds depreciation slower than the motorcycles so even the used ones are expensive. Meanwhile in asia you can get a new Honda Wave for 800 usd.
For me it’s a matter of who should take responsibility for those reckless idiots. Obviously, above all, it should be the government. They should have zero tolerance policy and fight it any way than can. Which they don’t do. The accidents and noise is mostly on them. But those idiots are also part of a bigger community. It’s not some separate group, there’s a lot of overlap. Where motorcyclist gather (all the meetings, weekend rides, bars and so on) you will see the “normal” kind and the loud idiots riding together. If the community is not trying to stop this sociopathic behavior then I’m not willing to make some exceptions and say “those bikers are ok, those bikers are not”. I see it simply as a toxic group. Some motorcyclist do dangerous and harmful things and others tolerate it and accept as part of the hobby. I don’t mind people commuting on motorbikes because it’s convenient but once we get to the “I ride because I like it” group they are all the same to me.
I genuinely feel you could replace “motorcyclists” with “car enthusiast” and it’d be the same sentiment, which implies you dislike a mentality that you’ve conflated with a group or subject. Which happens, but means you’re not seeing the forest for the trees.
100% car enthusiast are the same but people taking their cars to weekend meetups or some illegal races are tiny minority of all drivers. Where I see more extremely loud bikes than cars even though there are way more cars on the roads than motorbikes. I’ve seen stats form Europe saying that 70% of vehicles exceeding noise limits are motorcycles. I don’t know what % of motorcyclists are loud idiots but looking at the roads I can see that it’s way more common in this group that among car drivers. I’m sure this can vary by region thought.
Motorcyclists endangering themselves is entirely different to cars endangering literally everybody.
Motorcycle isn’t a hobby, its a mode of transport.
For some it is definitely a hobby. It can be both, to different people. Just like bicycling
I mean that’s true of cars too. But the people who drive cars as a hobby are such a small population that they’re irrelevant to the conversation.
Hell Ill take a 25 year old with a riced up Civic going double the speed limit over the average Suburban Assault Vehicle driver, at least the former are probably paying attention.
By sociopathic behavior I meat mainly the noise. There’s 0 need for most bikes to be as loud as they are. Bikers install loud exhausts because they like it and they don’t care about anyone else.
And it’s 100% a hobby for many many people. I’m sure it varies by region but were I live there’s plenty of mountain roads that fill up with motorbikes every weekend. Stats confirm it, most of motorbike accidents happen during the weekend. Those people are not traveling from point A to point B. They go on weekend rides. And those “fun” rides usually involve excessive speeds and noise. Maybe it’s different where you live but this is what I see on roads around me.
Well yeah, in America, the popular perception of motorcycles are toys instead of a valid type of transportation, and so dudes who drive a car to an office job 5 days a week buy a 30,000 dollar Harley to role-play Sons of Anarchy on the weekend. Here everyone from 14 year olds to grandmas ride.
I’m in Europe and it’s very similar. Many motorcyclist are cosplaying as bikers or Moto GP racers. Mopeds are different thing, even here.
Scooters/mopeds aren’t common in the US because for the price of a new scooter, you can get a used highway capable motorcycle. And the mopeds depreciation slower than the motorcycles so even the used ones are expensive. Meanwhile in asia you can get a new Honda Wave for 800 usd.