Jake aka Pyro
A 
personal view. and a bit of rambling…
by Pyro.
by Pyro.
This is my page for waffling on about anything and everything bike related, or maybe not, I have a bit of a reputation for going on a bit and at my age I don't give a shit, so sit back and enjoy the rambling of a certified lunatic.
(It's hard to be honest..)
I never thought about how disabled people are perceived by bikers before because I have never seen them as 'disabled' just people with a different set of problems to me. But something at the last NABD rally made me think, mainly it was a comment made by someone watching a guy in a wheelchair struggling in the rain. I wont repeat the comment, it wasn't derogatory or made in malice, just ignorant and that made me think about the way the rest of us perceive the disabled in general.
We don't see people as 'different' in the same way others do, we don't see 'disabled' we see just another geezer that's not as quick to the bar (well that's Yoda's excuse) as the rest of us, the PC brigade could learn a lot from bikers, bikers don't see them as needing help they see them as mates. A Biker wouldn't tell a disabled person that he 'needs' special help, he would tell him to get a round in, we make allowances for people with problems (that's most of us if you think about it) but we don't see them as different.
Jamie mentioned this in his intro, but I am not sure about why we do it, is it because we feel that it could all too easily be us next? I don't know, so I thought about why I do it. And I was stumped, I cant really give a good reason for why I like to help out, expect for the fact it makes me feel good about myself and that seems selfish, is that wrong? I tried to find a reason that would sound good on here, but every one made me sound like I wanted people to think 'what a nice bloke!' is that really what I wanted? Perhaps it is. I will have to think about that a bit more.
Bikers are quite happy to help out the disabled regardless if they are were/are bikers or not, witness the amount of charity work they do, not only for the disabled but just about every kind of charity has had a biker event to help raise money, mostly bikers don't pity or treat the disabled any different from anyone else.
Some years ago my club offered to do a toy run to raise money for a local hospital, at first they were reluctant and I found out that the fund raisers were not sure if they wanted the hospital to be associated with a biker gang (SIC) eventually sense prevailed and it was a great success. When I first heard about the 'biker gang' remark I was really pissed off that they thought that way, then I thought about it a little more, I am not a big hard biker but like to project a sense of menace, it is part of the image (I'm old school, denim cut‑off matt black bike etc) that people used to accept as the biker image. Now, do I want to be seen as a flufty wufty nice guy that helps old ladies across the road? Nope! I may do it but I don't want people to know! I want people to see me as I think I should be perceived, A Rebel, I don't want to be seen the same as the rest of the sheep, we all need a little fantasy in our lives and some of us were not content with it being just fantasy.
Riding a motorbike is an affordable thing to do for most people, it makes you feel a little bit better than the cager who has no plans or future, most of them are content to do as they are told and watch the soaps on the tele, smoke a bit of gear and talk about rebellion in the pub, me I love the smell of adrenaline in the mornings!
Why are there no good TV programs for bikers? There are supposed to be 6 million of us in the UK, that's a massive potential audience! Take a look at the viewing figures for Superbikes, yet other than a few bits on men & motors there is nothing. Come on TV companies find something for us! And don't tell me about OCC it's a soap opera with a few bikes in it, what about the UK bike scene!
Some of this may not make sense or seem rational, but I hope some of it made you think.
Jake
We don't see people as 'different' in the same way others do, we don't see 'disabled' we see just another geezer that's not as quick to the bar (well that's Yoda's excuse) as the rest of us, the PC brigade could learn a lot from bikers, bikers don't see them as needing help they see them as mates. A Biker wouldn't tell a disabled person that he 'needs' special help, he would tell him to get a round in, we make allowances for people with problems (that's most of us if you think about it) but we don't see them as different.
Jamie mentioned this in his intro, but I am not sure about why we do it, is it because we feel that it could all too easily be us next? I don't know, so I thought about why I do it. And I was stumped, I cant really give a good reason for why I like to help out, expect for the fact it makes me feel good about myself and that seems selfish, is that wrong? I tried to find a reason that would sound good on here, but every one made me sound like I wanted people to think 'what a nice bloke!' is that really what I wanted? Perhaps it is. I will have to think about that a bit more.
Bikers are quite happy to help out the disabled regardless if they are were/are bikers or not, witness the amount of charity work they do, not only for the disabled but just about every kind of charity has had a biker event to help raise money, mostly bikers don't pity or treat the disabled any different from anyone else.
Some years ago my club offered to do a toy run to raise money for a local hospital, at first they were reluctant and I found out that the fund raisers were not sure if they wanted the hospital to be associated with a biker gang (SIC) eventually sense prevailed and it was a great success. When I first heard about the 'biker gang' remark I was really pissed off that they thought that way, then I thought about it a little more, I am not a big hard biker but like to project a sense of menace, it is part of the image (I'm old school, denim cut‑off matt black bike etc) that people used to accept as the biker image. Now, do I want to be seen as a flufty wufty nice guy that helps old ladies across the road? Nope! I may do it but I don't want people to know! I want people to see me as I think I should be perceived, A Rebel, I don't want to be seen the same as the rest of the sheep, we all need a little fantasy in our lives and some of us were not content with it being just fantasy.
Riding a motorbike is an affordable thing to do for most people, it makes you feel a little bit better than the cager who has no plans or future, most of them are content to do as they are told and watch the soaps on the tele, smoke a bit of gear and talk about rebellion in the pub, me I love the smell of adrenaline in the mornings!
Why are there no good TV programs for bikers? There are supposed to be 6 million of us in the UK, that's a massive potential audience! Take a look at the viewing figures for Superbikes, yet other than a few bits on men & motors there is nothing. Come on TV companies find something for us! And don't tell me about OCC it's a soap opera with a few bikes in it, what about the UK bike scene!
Some of this may not make sense or seem rational, but I hope some of it made you think.
Jake
