interesting thread . What comes to mind when i think Biker is' Hogs'  that might be old school thinking, but that's my two pennies worth                                                                                                                                                                             

You know you are a biker when you don't have to answer the question.                                                                                                                                                                             

think you hit the nail on the head with that one XK                                                                                                                                                                              

me                                                                                                                                                                              

A biker is someone with an open mind to others . A person who has a bit of resilience and can take the bad with the good . A biker wont inhibit other minority groups . A motorcycle and a tent do not a biker make although that appears to be the illusion in here .

Did you get that opinion from reading stories? Or are you exemplifying yourself as the role model for what a biker is?All the attributes you describe don't necessarily describe a biker, a biker plain and simple is someone that rides a bike end of.If you begin to narrow down and define what a biker is then you are saying to many thousands that they are not bikers, which is absurd.                                                                                                                                                                             

Bang on markie I am exemplifiing .. O yes my ego easily allows it . If the question can be asked .. What is a biker then it must be containable its not like asking what is a human .                                                                                                                                                                              

This has to be one of the most asked questions, after "How fast does it go mate?"
Defining exactly what a 'biker' is, is probably an impossible task, everyone has a different opinion and to try and lump them together to make a stab at what a biker really is could be very difficult.

Bikers or motorcyclists have quite a few diverse groups that you could belong to, everything from Rocker to Scooterist (different from Mods I'm told) to commuter, I know there are a lot more but I'm not going to list them, these are just examples to give us a feel for how we perceive ourselves. The way each of us sees each other is crucial to this debate, humans are notorious for fitting themselves into categories, different groups that either bind together or are constantly at war, human conflict has been going on since we discovered that bashing someone's brains in with a rock was fun and we have not really stopped since. We all like to belong to group of some kind, even the self proclaimed 'lone wolves' amongst us still like to be classified as bikers which therefore put them into a 'group', there is a kind of camaraderie and comfort to be found in belonging to like-minded group, you can observe this in other groups as well. Anti-vivisectionists, football supporters and Freemasons for example all work together for a common cause which they believe in, we are not any different, most of us ride bikes because we enjoy it, even the most hardened commuter will get some pleasure out of riding a bike and when push comes to shove people from the same group stick together and help each other.

Belonging to a group defines our boundaries which show where we stand, we wear the uniform of our tribe to show where our loyalties lie, to show other tribes or groups that we are one of a particular band of brothers.
Bikers are one type of tribe that has within it various groups, just like football supporters are the main group that can be broken down into sub groups of the teams they support, bikers can also be categorised further into various sub-groups. The word 'biker' can mean different things to different people, ask any typical man in the street what a 'biker' is and you will probably get an answer that is not far off from describing the average persons vision of a 'Hells Angel', ask a motorcyclist the same question and be prepared for a completely different answer depending on what he may ride. One will tell you that a biker is someone who rides everyday whatever the weather; another that it is someone who belongs to a club, maybe another view is that a biker should only ride British bikes. The viewpoints are many and varied, leading me to suspect that this question will never be answered to the satisfaction of all.

Very nice . . well written . I would have I stab at some further examples of it . . but I am struggling with a very small touch screen grrs and would not give I a half arse reply to an epic post like that :-)                                                                                                                                                                              

Well said and there endeth the coversation.                                                                                                                                                                             

Wait a min did you just try and out ego me Markie .? End of conversation you say . . . We shall see about that .                                                                                                                                                                              

I didn't say that                                                                                                                                                                             

Ummm what did you mean then ? "Here endeth the conversation" .sounds like a full stop to me .                                                                                                                                                                              

Look closely - markie said 'coversation', something completely different.   I don't know what exactly, just different!                                                                                                                                                                             

oooh  the pendantic gits convention...whoopee!                                                                                                                                                                             

Something's missing...                                                                                                                                                                             

the 'n'   but I know what you mean.                                                                                                                                                                             

somebody with a bike.........derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr                                                                                                                                                                              

Oh you mean a bikeder?   Is that a new classification then?                                                                                                                                                                             

theres enough on the road lol