14 Comments:

• Good on ya - this hits it right on the nose. I just bailed on a web site where a handful have a "club" mentality, and take it as their right to harass and insult "guests" for not being members. And what does membership entail? Fifteen bucks. What's the bonus for being a member? Access to the members only area, which members will tell you is "currently under construction."
  
  So, it's $15 to support the web site - that's ok - but they pretend that it means something - that sucks.

  By  Gregory, at 7/29/2007 10:35:00 AM  

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• Great Blog. So few understand what it takes to make a club work.
  If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

  By  Anonymous, at 7/31/2007 07:00:00 AM  

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• Here is a link that will help educate riders.
  
  http://home.earthlink.net/~rcvsmc-edu/index.html

  By  Anonymous, at 7/31/2007 10:07:00 AM  

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• Since the showing of "Biker Boys", the number of clubs in Cincy Ohio has gone from 5 clubs with 15+ years to 36 clubs with 3 years or less. And some of them are making an impact on the motorcycle club scene. When the movie actors said that "it takes 3 to be official" every three guys with a bike started a club. Our club doesn't recognize their colors and don't attend their events. But this is what happened to the motorcycling club scene. But this is a free country and they have a right, but we discourage their efforts, and don't support their clubs.

  By  Sefu, at 8/03/2007 12:07:00 PM  

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• Great post!! I am a member of a "riding group," in Women on Wheels. We keep getting people referring to us as a club and we keep correcting them that we are a "riding group," we do not earn our patch and that anyone can join. We are very quick to correct people on their misconception of our group and explain the differences between the two.

  By  Biker Betty, at 8/08/2007 09:31:00 AM  

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• I am not the member of any motorcycle club or group. Perhaps that's why I don't get it (the difference). If you look up Merriam-Websters, a club is defined as "an association of persons for some common object usually jointly supported and meeting periodically; also : a group identified by some common characteristic...".
  A group is defined as "1 : two or more figures forming a complete unit in a composition
  2 a : a number of individuals assembled together or having some unifying relationship"
  The same friggin thing, really.
  Why worry about what other people do or don't do? If you do, you'll always find someone/some group that's annoying. Make your club special with added requirements and leave it at that.

  By  Dave G., at 8/13/2007 12:49:00 PM  

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• Dave said it right. Who gives a flying f@$#. Real bikers just ride and don't care what others do. If they want to call something a club, it's a free country.

  By  d, at 8/15/2007 12:46:00 PM  

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• Well d. Thanks for enlightening me on what a real biker is and/or does. Maybe - just maybe - a "Real" biker doesn't run around the internet telling everyone how to be a Real Biker! But I wouldn't know, cause I'm not a Real Biker, I just play one in real life!

  By  Anonymous, at 8/16/2007 05:51:00 PM  

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• Well said mate, I am the President of the ROADWIZARDS MC in SA, and I have been building our club for the last 3 years, I moved provinces and have started on the East Coast in Durban, we now have 20 members whereby 7 are still prospects, we work by a constitution that states one has to attend a certain number of meetings, rallies and biker bashes known as "jols" in SA, and that member has to prove to the commitee that he/she is worthy of wearing your colours.
  You cant have anyone walk off the street and wear a patch and then go around disrespecting other clubs or throwing your clubs name away, once our prospects have been scrutinised and have shown respect and loyalty they are then granted the privelage of wearing our colours.
  Check out www.freewebs.com/roadwizards

  By  INXUS, at 9/28/2007 08:39:00 PM  

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• Those of you who don't get it never will. It takes a special breed to pay the price that it takes to wear the patch of a real club. And after paying that price it is an insult when some wobblehead decides to sew a three piece patch on and minimize the sacrifice that real clubbers make to wear their colors!

  By  Clubber, at 10/08/2007 07:18:00 PM  

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• I have a riders club and have for some time, Off season we meet to plan rides for the next season. On season we meet once a week @ a bike night and plan weekend runs. We don't let any old fool in but if your a staight shooter and hang around enough and it seems like your gonna stay around,you might get offered a 1 piece patch. We know the difference between MC and rc and respect that. Our patch reflects who we are and its our right to wear one!

  By  Anonymous, at 11/29/2007 01:45:00 PM  

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• Some of you forget that we live in a free Country (Thank God)and let people live life of their own free will as long as they dont infringe on your basic rights in the persuit of happyness.Show respect for others as we are shown respect. And remember one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel.

  By  Anonymous, at 7/10/2008 08:10:00 PM  

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• I did belong to a motorcycle association and currently belong to The Sacred Bones Lone Riders Society motorcycle Club. This is one of those clubs that isn't a club which is OK by me as I prefer to ride alone or with a couple of others. This Organization has been in existence since 1947 and has gone international. Our patch is a one piece patch. There are those of us in the biking world that need groups and then there are the ones that need solitude. I don't put anyone down that rides on two or three wheels. That includes those on bicycles. To finish I say ride like there is no tomorrow...

  By  Slingshot, at 10/20/2008 02:06:00 PM  

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• Steve accidentally gave himself away when he said "make it exclusive, make it special, make it tough to join, make other people wish they could join but can't."
  
  When there are long-established clubs already out there with the prestige of exclusivity and a history of earned respect, but you start your own club rather than put in the time and make the effort to join what's already out there... And you want to make YOUR club "tough to join" -- except for you and your pals because you're automatically in because you formed it... When you make up your own cute little patch and sew it on and want to pretend it's equal to "real" clubs' patches that have to be earned, not designed...
  
  You're nothing but a poser.

  By  Chuck, at 11/01/2008 12:34:00 PM  

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