Bike Lust: Harleys, Women, And American Society

Preface

Preface Bikers talk straight. Since this book is about bikers, the preface is fittingly short and straight. Bike Lust can be read from either end. Or, you can rumble right into the middle. For those who need order, start with the introduction, “The Love Run,” and work your way through the book. Read all of part 1 first. Part 1 covers history and structure. The introduction and chapters 1 through 4 allow an easy entry into the community and provide both background and history. For those who want cultural analysis right from the beginning, start with chapter 5, “Enter the Culture,” and read all of part 2 first. Part 2 provides analysis of issues of gender, race, and class, as well as of traditional lifestyles and rites of passage. For those who crave the armchair experience of jamming the wind (without bugs in your teeth), start with chapter 13, “An Intimate Account of the Redwood Run: Our First Year,” and read all of part 3 first. Part 3 gives an up-close and very personal account of one of the most famous Harley runs in California. For those of you who secretly desire polemics, try cruising through chapter 17, “Bikers’ Dirty Little Open Secret: The Racism Rap,” and join me in an exploration of racism, sexism, homophobia, and antiSemitism within the motorcycle community. This chapter, which makes up part 4, explores biker myths as well as myths about bikers, in a summation of biker philosophy. If you are reading this as an ethnographic account of a very American subculture, start with the glossary. If you are reading this out of curiosity, to get a glimpse of a different world, start with the pictures and have fun. xi ...