Here We Go Again... Dick Reflects on the State of Motorcycling
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- Опубликовано: 12 ноя 2023
- Dick gathers together both houses of the government, and broadcasts his State of the Union of Motorcycling to the couple of dozen motorcycling enthusiasts who benefit him with their time.
Music:
The Great One Step by Victor Dance Orchestra Copyright Public Domain Mark 1.0 License - Source Free Music Archive
Title: The Great One Step
Author: Victor Dance Orchestra
Source: freemusicarchive.org/music/Vic...
License: creativecommons.org/publicdoma... 
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I completely hear you. It's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks this way.
Discontent UNITE!
WooHoo Dick, well said! That was quite a diatribe but hit the nail on the head for me.
Last year I went to a small gathering of motorcyclists, camping in a field, listening to talks from sometimes weird and sometimes foul-mouthed ‘ambassadors’ of travel on motorcycles. It was OK. Not outstanding, but OK.
I went again this year. Much bigger, hundreds more punters, many more speakers, lots more weather(!), and it felt flat, flaccid and lacking in life. I did not want to be part of that. And after a short while I wasn’t. I came home after a few hours instead of the full weekend I’d paid for.
I ride a motorcycle. I am also building a second motorcycle to be what I want it to be. And I don’t really want to be with others whilst doing it. I want to just enjoy my moments of two wheel fun on my own, free from what others think, free from what market researchers, stylists, ‘investors’, mates down the road, and all the other people think I should do, be, or act like. Motorcycling can give me that. On my own. So that’s how I’ll take it, thanks. And you expressed it for me. Thank You. Les (I live quite near where you are, I think. Might see you around!)
Thanks for your comment Les. I have stopped going to "gatherings". I've never been to the high profile ones, but even the smaller "cooler" ones have become bloated and uninteresting. It's better to build in isolation, as you let the bike guide your choices, not the internet. It's like the third London DGR - a guide to how NOT to "customise" your bike. The number of "STOP" tail lights would make you guffaw.
London or Wales? I appreciate you like to ride alone, but perhaps two seperate rides to a coffee...?
@@DickWhistles Nice reply, thanks. Yup, ‘stop’ rear lights say it all, and it’s not for me🤣. Err, Wales, I live in Chester. “Ponderosa” is easy from here (I often pass it, sometimes go in). Les
Ah. The Ponderosa! Simon is doing his best to keep the place running! Perhaps sometime in the new year or spring.
Best
@@DickWhistles sounds good to me - thanks. Les
Well said Dick. I'm disillusioned with the RUclips and marketing of motorcycles. Amateurs that I once found interesting, due to their authenticity, are now professional influencers. But, the joy I feel when riding on my own, just me and the bike, cant be taken away. Ride on.
Don't get me started on RUclipsrs and "Influencers"!
I wish I could write like you...
Practice makes perfect. Thanks for your comment. If you haven't already, please condsider subscribing.
@@DickWhistles I am....
Deep, like the minds of Minolta.
Nice. That's a deep cut.
What a wonderful and unexpected, if somewhat disheartening, video commentary. Kudos and thank you.
Thank you kindly.
Subscribed on the sheer strength of the use of the English language and the love of two wheels - I wish I were half as capable and eloquent.
Thank you, that’s very kind.
Well said Sir.
Cheers.
'monotonous hamster wheel existence' - that line cut deep. Great video man, spoken from the heart and I can't really disagree with any of what you said.
Thank you sir for your comment.
Broadly agree, Dick. Nick
Eloquent as ever sir. Never watched either of those films and agree about “that” jump.
You’re spot on about the backward thinking and cynical manufacturing. But the market has allowed it. The past 30 years has seen the product develop as Willy waving toys rather than genuinely useful machines. I fear it might be too late for the future of the motorcycle as we know it….
Didn't understand a word of that Dick but enjoyed the pictures🙂
Library cards are free...
🤣🤣🤣@@DickWhistles
@@DickWhistles Commerce is the only thing driving manufacturers, the dreams have to come from the rider🙂
Bloody hell, Dick! This was certainly worth waiting for, but I think I will have to watch again the understand the full message. The visual input was superb and, as a man whose words are his living, may I compliment you on being such a lively and superb wordsmith 👍.
Thanks Chris. High praise. I hope you are well.
I am almost lost for words, your words have made my day. Keep that motor runnin.
Vroom vroom!
It is content like this - and the irony of using marketing imagery to support the screed - that differentiates Dick Whistles from other marketing monkeys. As someone who rides motorcycles vicariously, thanks for these 16 minutes of escapism.
Anytime. Ride safe (vicariously…). Thanks for your comment.
Slick video and I get what you are saying, but...there advancements in motorcycles on par with cars. Just look at BMW for example. As for advertising and imagery, motorcycles sell themselves just as you inadvertently said. I too became bored of the same old stereotype image of biking so I expanded my interest into motocamping! Thanks.
Motocamping is a bit challenging and limited here in the UK. Glad you found someting you enjoy on your bike. Thanks for your comment.
Wow, Duran Duran & not EZ Rider? What are you, some kinda FREE THINKER....
I even shaved my eyebrows... (not really).
Far superior to Spandau Ballet….
where have you been. you are a writer, this is my first video and had to send it to my friend. as you are a writer. You spent a lot of time video editing, but the words are ..... well spoken. thank you, you made me subscribe and need to see more and explore. my friend hates the view of my videos and all others, showing the dash of a motorcycle and talking. he states, when i talk, i should be in view. but this video does not show you at all, just a voice with mostly other peoples videos. nice job combining them.
Thanks for your comment and subscription. Have a look at my other videos and let me know your thoughts.
I sort of agree with you though (To miss quote Brando) "I dont know what I am for,But I sure Knoiw what I am against"......Motor bikes,My Life,My religion ,MY family nearly all gone "Ride Free" while we can ..........
Hmmm, there's a lot to digest here Mr Whistles. Taking your later point first, I think the issue with motorcycling in the UK and Europe is that's it's no longer necessary (i.e. as cheap personal transport), or particularly useful. Add in parking restrictions/ costs and risk aversion (faffing around with protective gear before every ride) and cars become more attractive to most. Hence bikes in the 'western world' become more of a hobby than a tool, so advertising recognises and is targeted at that. Western culture (and to an extent global culture) has become less linear, less driven by what is necessary. I think of it as an 'estuary-isation' of culture, where the directional flow; a consensus derived from a few necessary choices; breaks down into a proliferation of choices. This inevitably feels less meaningful, hence I think your sense of ennui.
like your style 🙂 good video, u got a new subscriber
Cheers for that.
Very deep. You should send that in to the Reader's Digest. They've got a page for people like you.
Sadly, I've let my subscription lapse.
A beautiful poetic motorcycle rant.
Cheers.
The average age of a rider is 50. Young people would rather be on their phones in a car. I know, I get run out of my lane of traffic by them at least once a week. 😮
👏🏽 hats off for quite rightly raging against the marketing shills. On the motirbike film subject-have you seen The Place Beyond the Pines? I enjoyed the use of motorbikes in that film.
I'm going to say something that might be ill received:
I believe that the coolest bike you can ride is one that is patched together with tape and bad welds that is used every day as the owner's only means of staying alive in this brutally competitive world.
That's what the royal enfields, triumphs and BSAs of the past were in most cases. If you could afford a car in the 50s and 60s you'd buy one.
There's probably a fascinating sociology thesis in plotting over time when motorcycling moved from being mainly an economic necessity to a lifestyle choice.
The unbelievable temerity of marketing executives to hijack the aesthetics of automotive poverty to sell prestigious toys to a demographic that increasingly can't remember or even imagine a time when they or their parents had to fight to survive is absolutely galling.
I submit that the innovation and forward thinking in the two wheeled vehicle market will never again be found in the west but rather in south east asia or africa where motorcycling is still closer to an economic necessity than a lifestyle choice. Hybrid scooters and cargo underbones that will never be sold to BMW GS aspirants.
Not ill received. Well spoken and taken. Thanks for your comment.
Boy that was a pretty cynical take. As someone who has over 50 years of riding under my belt I like the retro bikes but I can appreciate the transformer styling of sports bikes. I can only refer you to the soliloquy of James Earl Jone's character when he explains to Costner's character why a baseball field in an Iowa cornfield would be successful.... Terence Mann :" Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." Maybe that speech can provide a little bit of insight. Oh by the way the New Beatles song is Number 1 on the charts. Stay well my friend.
Thanks for the comment. I would take your point more to heart if Field of Dreams was a recent release and not released in 1989 - which further makes my point. Nostalgia can only be poignant when it recalls authentic experience. “The Game” (read: motorcycling) is now a caricature of its once authentic past. We have been visiting the field for 30 years now. Our memories are not of the original game, but of visiting the re-creation. There is no familiar seat along the baseline. And what of the generation of people who have grown up during this generation-long nostalgia trip? A lost generation I guess. They will look back on this time remembering those old sods who couldn’t let go of the petrol age - like the old cowboys who refused to let go of their horses.
Ride safe.
I dunno..... I like the modern classic motorbikes 👍👍
It’s not the bikes I’m critiquing, it’s the visual language selling us the bikes. It doesn’t matter the style of bike, the language of motorcycling has stagnated.
You don’t like motorbike movies? What about ‘Dumb and Dumber’.
I like that movie (wouldn’t classify it as a “motorcycle movie” though…)
Sorry Dick, your just getting old the same as the rest of us.
My "what" is getting old?
Motorcycle nuts are born not made.
Maybe we live at the arse end of many things, music ,films, tv,,books, fashion all seem derivative and constantly chew over an idealised past .
Is it the media that envelops us and stifles self expression and new creativity?
If I see another interceptor with cheap loud megaphones and exhaust bandage I will either puke or just nod off to sleep.
I worry about this narrow minded conformity as recently my kids have started yelling at me to turn the music down!!!.
"I`M SUPPOSED TO TELL YOU THAT!!! " I yell back .. "WHAT`S WRONG WITH YOU???"