Real bikers? (edited, twice)

I got my Bike magazine the other day (yes, I still read it and ooh and ahh over the latest models) and an old argument has cropped up again on the letters pages: what makes a "real" biker. This is a hoary old chestnut, and this time it comes in two forms. The magazine has been running a campaign to "claim back our track-days", and that is the cause of one of the arguments; but he other one is much more familiar: do you ride through winter or are you just a "fair-weather" biker?

The first argument centres around booking a day on a racing circuit so you can ride your bike fast, legally and in a relatively safe environment. Sports car drivers are known to do the same thing. What started off as an exercise in riding your bike to the circuit, adjusting your suspension and tyre pressures, and having a go, has evolved somewhat. There are now people that buy a separate bike to take to track-days, doing so in the back of vans kitted out like a MotoGP garage. The road-bike (and this type of rider will probably have more than one, given their evident wealth and arguable lack of sense about what to do with it) stays safely at home out of harm's way. This approach does make some sense, in all honesty, if you have the wherewithal to do it, but it has led to resentment on the part of the "twiddle the suspension and have a bash" contingent, mainly because their road-bikes are never going to be able to post a fastest lap time of the day against these, what are in essence, race-prepared machines, with their light-weight bodywork, trick suspension and non-road-legal super-sticky tyres. Hence Bike Magazine's campaign to have track days limited to those who ride their day-to-day road bikes to the circuit.

The other argument, about riding all year vs only riding as a leisure activity on warm dry days, obviously also has arguments for both sides. If you ride all winter, not only are you showing other bikers that you are a real hard nut, but you are developing  and maintaining control skills by riding on slippery surfaces, which will stand you in good stead when the warmer weather comes around. It also means that you haven't had a break of several months from riding which inevitably causes a deterioration in your riding skills. You will find that you are rusty, and the first few weeks of riding again after a break will show up that deterioration: concentration, observation and decision-making skills all need to be sharpened again, and it is in the first few weeks after winter that the fair-weather bikers have their accidents.

This is all very well, but a modern motorbike is quite an investment, and apart from what the ravages of winter's salty roads will do to a shiny new sportsbike, what would just be a skid in a car usually ends up in a tumble on a bike, resulting in, at best, damage to the bike; at worst, injury to yourself. The other thing is that the leisure-only riders tend to be riding very new, low-mileage sportbikes, whereas the all-year-rounders are on older machinery, that is also more suitable to riding in winter: off-roaders or lighter and types of bike with less breakable bodywork and parts that are expensive to replace or repair. I once rode from Liverpool to Warrington in a blizzard on a little 100cc bike and I wouldn't like to repeat the experience even on that very small, lightweight bike with skinny wheels that could cut through the snow to the road beneath, let alone on a relatively heavy sportsbike with its big fat tyres designed to give maximum grip on a dry road.

So why the argument? It seems to me that in both cases there is an element of envy. Both the fair-weather rider and guy with his track-day special in the back of a van are ostentatiously displaying superior wealth over their detractors: not deliberately so, perhaps, but they are able to go about things in a way that the all-year rounder couldn't hope to afford. For some of the hardy types it is a matter of choice and principle, but probably formed around a time in their lives when they had no choice. Been there, done that; and been glad to be able to retreat to four wheels in winter when I could afford to run both car and bike. Of course the alternative is to buy a small, cheap, lightweight bike for winter that you wouldn't mind if it developed rust-spots and furry nuts and bolts. You'd still have to struggle into waterproofs and fleeces to go anywhere, though, and who has time these days?