[taurag]

...and you guys thought Africa was all about starving kids and wild animals, lol... Read on...

The ritual of the ride: a Saturday in the Western Cape
Jacqui Scheepers (UWC)
Source: Wittenberg, Hermann; G. Baderoon; Y. Steenkamp (eds) 1998. Inter Action 6. Proceedings of the Fourth Postgraduate Conference. Bellville: UWC Press, pages 20-26.

Back to Archive This paper explores the nature of the relationship between the motorcycle and the biker. This interaction between body and machine answers to many queries around the kind of culture and language which develops in this environment. Of interest is the object of the bike and what it symbolises. For a better understanding of this culture, the following will also be explored: the biker culture as a `death culture', imperial nostalgia and the interplay between nature and technology, and the relationships between the biker and others. How these factors influence the biker's perception of the bike will also be considered. Popular biker literature, like editions of Bike SA, will also be examined.
This essay deals primarily with motorcyclists (hereafter referred to as bikers), who are members of motorcycle clubs in South Africa. We shall refer to motorbikes as bikes, as is the accepted norm in biker culture. Motorcycle clubs, with their predominantly white membership, are sometimes dependent on geographical location and financial agility. As whites represent a wealthy sector of the population, mostly Whites frequent the motorcycle rallies. There are few, if any, Black rally entrants. Although there may be cultural factors, which contribute to this disproportionate representation at the rallies, one wonders whether this is a reflection of our society. Although many bikers go to great lengths to appear battered and scruffy, this biker designer look is extremely costly. Together with the purchase of the latest in bike technology, one is looking at considerable expense.
Being part of the motorcycle club culture is buying into what could be called "death culture". There is almost a silent consensus between bikers that the act of dying must regain its position as part of public events, by bringing it onto the public roads. There appears to be a need to recreate the practices of the past, where death was part of life, instead of the modern tendency to veer towards phobic feelings regarding death and the dying. Walter Benjamin proposes that "Dying was once a public process in the life of the individual and a most exemplary one; think of the medieval pictures in which the deathbed has turned into a throne toward which the people press through the wide open doors of the deathhouse"(1970:93). A nostalgic longing for death to be witnessed is felt. Ironically, fame for the biker often lies in death. Everyone knows the name of a dead biker. The self-sacrificial act of the dying biker, killed by his machine and therefore by technology, enables the biker to become one with the machine. Flesh and machine become joined by death. Oil and blood mix; the lifeblood of both biker and bike become entwined. Biker and body parts are grotesquely entangled until it is difficult to discern where one begins and the other ends. The intercourse of death between biker and bike is an embrace on the public road, often witnessed by many. Technology can sometimes mend the mangled wrecks of both the biker's body and the body of the bike. Bodies are fixed, body parts replaced, until the biker and the bike resemble each other in the number of transplanted parts. Many seasoned bikers have steel plates, pins and prostheses to enable them to function as normal "human" beings.
Suicide runs are very popular in Cape Town: bikers meet at night and race down the mountain with their headlights off. Many gamble with death in an attempt to become the next hero of the evening or just for the adrenaline rush the biker experiences by living (or in some cases dying) on the edge. Bikers are always attending funerals. This is symbolic of a post-modern culture trying to hang onto rituals of old. The dead biker is always a hero, irrespective of the circumstances of death, the only prerequisite being that it occurred on the road. In an age where immortality in its religious context is strongly questioned, it appears that the death culture may be a neurotic response to this development. It is perhaps easier for a biker to deal face to face with death on a daily basis, than to believe that there is life after death. Better, it seems, to worship death which one can depend on than to believe that there is life after death. The satanic imagery on biker badges show a certain disillusionment with conventional religions like Christianity, although it must be kept in mind that there are practising Christian bike clubs. These are in the minority and will not be discussed here. Bike SA (Jan 97:34) displays badges of skulls, devils and club names such as, "Hell's Razor's and Devil's Outlaws".
The mourning biker not only mourns the loss of fellow bikers, but also the loss of what has been destroyed. Renato Rosaldo's description of "imperialist nostalgia" (1989:70) seems a fitting metaphor for the biker's relationship with nature: "people destroy their environment, and then they worship nature". In any of its versions, imperialist nostalgia uses a pose of 'innocent yearning'. This ironic relationship with nature is further played out in the bike rallies and runs which "serious" clubs indulge in. The irony lies in the fact that - it is those who litter the highways with beer cans and oil spills and stain the air with toxic exhaust fumes that go in search of nature. They worship the very thing, which they are destroying. Being a technological construct itself, the highway is the very path that the nature-loving biker must follow to see nature. In trying to escape the modern technological city, the biker ironically gets on the machine to travel back to nature. At this stage, one should note that there is hardly a part of nature along our public roads, which have been left untouched by technology. Fences, cultivated soil, ploughed fields, farmhouses all form part of nature today.
many parts of our "natural" environment, such as domesticated animals, agricultural crops, and hybrid plants, are the result of a long history of human intervention and design" (Channel, 1991:5).



These rallies may be seen as an extension of the colonial need to explore. This need is fulfilled when bikers "conquer" a treacherous hill or road or difficult landscape. In the time-honoured tradition of awarding effort, and applauding heroes, winners
at these rallies are given prizes.
Biker iconography like chains, medals and badges act as a substitute for the jewellery, trophies and crests of a bygone age. Like the imperialist accumulation of wealth, bikers collect these items and display them as a sign of success and prestige. "The return to nature thus appears as the antidote to consumption conspicuous in body and nation both" (Seltzer 95:43). Incidentally, the stereotypical beer-hungry figure of the biker expands as his consumption increases. Photographic evidence proves how some bikers openly exhibit their swollen abdomens, commonly called "boepe". Even this is an area of competition for the bikers as they pose, expose, and argue about whom has the biggest abdomen. Here one is reminded that the imperial inclination to accumulate wealth is being extended to the body, which becomes an object and symbol of the biker's identity. Later, the bike as a symbol and extension of the phallus together with other related symbolic identifications will also be discussed.
A captivating T-shirt slogan: "RE-CYCLED RIDERS" (Bike SA, 1997:42), perhaps shows that riders of today are recycled and indeed reconstructed images of the past. The technologically advanced motorcycle has replaced the living, breathing horse and soldier. The biker, a rider on an iron horse, is caught time, but somehow more vulnerable than before. Helmet, leathers, kneepads, gloves and boots replace the suit of armour, meant to protect. But against who or what does the biker fight? Where is the battle? The fight is against death.The biker dices with death; the battlefield is the road, the highways and the byways.
The bike, as a machine, plays many roles in the life of a biker; that of mother (soothing, humming, pacifying and transporting the biker around); God and King (worshipped by the biker, and is religiously washed and anointed); companion (interaction with the bike prevents time spent in a human relationship); sexual partner (is caressed, rubbed, ridden, squeezed and for which gifts are bought); child (cared for, fed and pampered) and phallus of the biker (acts as a prosthesis, as an extension of the phallus of the biker, the bigger the bike, the sexier he is, the bigger his phallus is).
T - shirt graphics in Bike SA (Jan 97:19), display a suspenders - clad woman astride a bike accompanied by the following slogans: "Exhilaration is a bike between your legs…the bigger the better". Regarding the bike as replacing the conventional sexual partner, it is necessary at this point to refer to an extract from an article by Charlie Cooper:
Usually, these relationships end after the first breakfast run. By the time the chick gets home, she's so the moer in about all the oil on her shoes and the exhaust - pipe burn on her ankle that she never sees you again and the next time you hear about her is when she gets married to some other oke who owns a car. (Bike SA May 97:77)



The bike culture does not look on partners, who are unable to assimilate, very kindly. In fact, a long-term relationship with the "Other" is virtually impossible as the culture excludes anyone who cannot conform. Many women have to drink, behave, speak and dress like the male bikers to be accepted. Many women become part of biker clubs but only a few compete. Cooper rounds off his article by bringing the biker back to the biker fold. The bike as an object of lust or love can be experienced when the scene of the biker washing, cleaning and shining up his bike is conjured. The intimacy of this touching picture is reminiscent of the sexual relationship. Roland Barthes (73:90) aptly notes in his depiction of the Citroen car show:
The bodywork, the lines of union are touched, the upholstery palpated, the seats tried, the doors caressed, the cushions fondled; before the wheel, one pretends to drive with one's whole body. The object here is totally prostituted, appropriated.
When the bike is seen as the child or offspring of the biker, then women are even more excluded and alienated from this machine-man relationship. The inclination of the male to indulge in paternalism is evident in Bike SA (1997:25,30-32). We first see a man in leathers cradling a small bike with one hand and "feeding" it oil from a baby's bottle. The caption reads, "ONLY THE BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE ONE YOU LOVE". Then, to further cement this viewpoint, three pages are devoted to what could be called "the birth''. When the 1997 "Harley's" arrived in South Africa, it was like witnessing a birth.
Two brothers had each bought a bike but the one brother was in Durban, but kept in touch by cellphone throughout the uncrating proceedings, with a rugby-type commentary from his brother helping with the uncrating - "The top of the crate is coming off now, yes, I can see it, it's blue and it's beautiful, boet, yes, yes, it's a Fat Boy, hang on we're taking off the plastic, yes, yes, wow, you've got to see it..."
Bike SA (1997:30-32).
The birth imagery here is unmistakable as men become mothers and consequently push women outside the biking perimeter as man replaces the maternal figure.
Some in the biking culture condemn literacy. . Mechanical knowledge is worshipped above other forms of knowledge. There is almost a conscious effort to reject the written language by disfiguring the norm and then creating a language familiar to them alone. One can attribute this phenomenon to the submerged desire to recapture the oral traditions of past society and to revitalise a lost culture in an age when humans increasingly relate more to machines than to other human beings. Craving to relate orally, the bikers can appease themselves by meeting at rallies and other events where they engage in a verbal exchange of heroic feats, accidents, treachery and "boep" comparisons. These exchanges are similar to the intimate narrative settings of a bygone age. James Clifford argues that, "bringing a culture into writing, rather like sacrifice, simultaneously creates the culture as book and destroys it as oral life"(1989:81-82). The nostalgic biker who longs for an oral past purposefully deconstructs the accepted norm of their language. The ironic significance is that it is technology in the form of the bike and the road, which takes the biker back to the past. A new scheme has to be developed to categorise this experience of the past and present intertwined and inseparable.In our gender-sensitive environment today, biker literature like Bike SA, makes a concerted effort to be as sexist as possible. Many bikers consciously adopt these sexist terms as a way of deconstructing accepted norms and values prevalent in society. In a group, many bikers may behave differently than when alone, but some feel it necessary to maintain these sexist and patriarchal attitudes towards women as a means of staying in touch with the past. In Bike SA (May 1997:29), Mat Durrans describes the BM range in the following way:
The seat height can be dropped even further for really short chicks, and there's a pretty Orlando reddy, pastally, homely, safe to show your mum colour too...a lipstick - To capitalise on this bullish market, the Bavarian bikers have brought us matching traffic turner. It is virtually impossible today to claim ignorance about current changing attitudes regarding gender issues and the political incorrectness and inappropriateness of using such derogatory terms. Yet here clearly is an example of sexism, paternalism and degradation towards women.

An integral part of the biker culture therefore resides in words, not only as part of daily conversation but also in the areas of the naming of bikes, clubs and rallies. The names have many themes, which reflect the diverse facets of the biker community. Let us focus on the clubs in South Africa. Some of these are rooted in alternative forms of religion: "Satan Saints", The Shaman, Worship Riders; some exhibit strong death imagery: "Death Squad", "Undertakers"; some names depict definite traces of war nostalgia: "War Birds", "Victory Riders", "Knights". Imperial nostalgia is reflected in names like: "Royal Arms", "Monarchs", and "King's Brigade". Some names combine the themes of nature and technology like the club named "Steel Wings" and yet others are indicative of the atmosphere of advanced technological progress-"Mean Machine", "Cape Heavy Iron Extreme Faction" and "Cyberites". Bike SA (April 1997:105).
This essay should contribute towards a better understanding of the biker sub-culture in South Africa. It is important to note though that many bikers do not identify with the "deviant" biker sub-culture discussed in this work. Minorities of practising Christian bikers, who do not embrace socially deviant behaviour, have formed their own clubs. For some people biking is only a casual affair that takes place on weekends, or on sunny days. A small number of bikers prefer the term "motorcyclist" as they feel that the term "biker" has negative and deviant connotations. Nevertheless, it is imperative to realise that even in the sub-culture of bikers there are those that deviate from the norm.



WORKS CITED
Barthes, R. 1973 Mythologies. Granada Publishers Limited. Great Britain.
Benjamin, W. 1970 Illuminations.
Channel, D. F. 1991 The Vital Machine: A Study of Technology and Organic Life. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
Clifford, J. 1989. The Predicament of Culture.
Rosaldo, R. 1989. Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Routledge. London.
Seltzer, M. 1995. The Lovemaster.
Bike SA. Jan 1997. Bike SA (PTY) LTD. South Africa. Staff Reporter.
Bike SA. May 1997. Bike SA (PTY) LTD. South Africa. Charley Cooper. Mat Durrans.
Bike SA. April 1997. Bike SA (PTY) LTD. South Africa. Staff reporter.
Back to Archive

[LoopyLee]

Am I to presume the bird who wrote this drives a car... bet she has never been on a bike, or possibly just the once.. and burned her leg on the exhaust.. ..

[MCR001]

all I read here is my husband left me for a hot chick on a bike. . she actually dont know a damm thing except from reading her ex hubies magazines. The christian club is posibly one of the largest here, and the black clubs are growing - they just dont attend all the bike ralleys.