Stop the Ignorance While pounding to S. Georgia this past weekend, I stopped in on an MC party that was happening in the area. I observed a great many things and I’m going to address in this article. When you know better, you do better. If you know better and refuse to change, youre no better than those who dont know better. I also always preach that people either don’t know, don’t show or frankly just don’t care about the right way to go about doing things. As we are rolling to the party, another rider pulls out of a side street and attempts to jump on the train. I’m in the center of the staggered formation like a tail gunner should do. This rider pulls up close to me in an attempt to interject himself into our formation. He’s revving his engines as we blaze down the streets to our destination. As a patched member riding in formation with other patched members, I wont allow just anyone to fall into our formation. He eventually got the hint and hung back. As our train arrived to the MC party, the first thing I noticed was the amount of cars in the parking lot. There wasn’t a single space left and cars were forced to park across the street and down the road. There were easily over a hundred cars there. The host club had reserved a small area for bike parking. We arrived with a train of 10 bikes. There were 8 bikes parked out front. Keep in mind that it wasn’t cold out, just S. Georgia cool. I just could not believe the lack of people riding bikes to a bikers party. I was appalled to see an ungodly amount of people casually getting out of their cages with rags on or casually putting them on as the exited the cage. That seemed to be the standard there as again, there with less than 20 bikes in the parking lot. We all entered the party looking to fellowship as out of town guest and check out the local scene. I made my way around the party shaking hands with bikers and I was taken back by the amount of bikers that want to pull you in close with the “home boy hug” and pat my back patch. I don’t “show love” in that way unless I’m familiar with you. The proper MC greeting is fairly simple. A firm handshake, eye contact, riding handle, position in the club, club name and that’s it. I caught a few rude looks as I pushed a few gentlemen back away from giving me the “home boy hug”. Also there was a fair amount of woman and men who thought it was standard to greet from the sitting down position. Understanding personal space and how it relates to a proper MC greeting is essential. As I sipped a brew and watched the scene, a woman from a social club came up to me and shoved a flier in my face. There was no introduction, no hello, no anything except a “here” as she extended the flyer to me. I took the flyer and looked it over as she stood there seemingly to answer any questions I may have had. I politely slung her flier across the room onto the floor and walked away. She gave me some choice words but I hope she learned a valuable lesson. I continued to watch the scene and I was in awe at the number of 3 piece patches that were in the building that night. I sat and wondered just how many of those 3 piece patches were sanctioned by the local jeweler and how many founders just thought it would look cool to do. Additionally, knowing the amount of cars that were outside, I was laughing to myself at the attire that many of these so-called bikers were wearing. I seen bikers with riding gloves on for a fashion statement, bandanas on for fashion, goggles around their heads for fashion and even seen a guy get out of his car and have on a shifter sock to protect his boot. I witnessed people still taking off their cut and turning it around for photos as well as I even seen a cut hanging over the back of a chair…unguarded. I witnessed prospects tossing back beers and fruity drinks as they were dancing and shaking hands with any and everyone they could. I was amazed at the amount of patches bikers had on the backs of their cuts also. After we’d seen enough, we prepared to roll out. By this time, there were a few bikers outside who were revving their engines really loud and drawing all types of attention. I could only shake my head at the total lack of respect to the host club as these glory hounds attempted to feed their fragile ego’s with the “everyone look at me” syndrome. A few people were “showing love” and again I was amazed at the lack of knowledge of the simple things in this MC culture like taking your gloves off and taking off your shades or lifting your visor when greeting another. All in all, I walked away from the experience with a final thought. The stewards of protocol spend countless hours upon hours in a collective effort to spread the gospel of protocol and tradition down to the lowest level. We use everything from social media to blogs to face-to-face interaction and some days we see progress, and other days it seems like the MC culture just digress. As a keeper of the standard, I’ll mount back up on my chariot and continue this journey of educating the masses but I know it’s a long and hard road ahead of me. This experience was just one where I’m reminded that there’s still a lot of work to be done out there. After having some conversations with folks in the event about correcting themselves and proper protocol, I can only hope that they heed my education and apply it. I can only hope. Stay Sucka Free. Prof. Emeritus SFMC Staff Editor
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 02:12:28 +0000
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