Motorcycles

I've never ridden a motorcycle.  I've seen the biker movie Easy Rider, which is pretty dated, though Jack Nicholson has a good role.  I remember the scene where Dennis Hopper said "We did it!" but Peter Fonda says "We blew it." That's how I felt when I completed my Ph.D. thesis.

I've also seen the biker movie The Wild One.  The movie itself is dorky in a '50s way, but Marlon Brando is way cool!  There's a famous bit where someone asks "What are you rebelling against?" and he says "Whaddya got?" (It was actually banned in Britain for over ten years.)

Twenty years ago my sister Moira was teaching English in the Czech Republic and was trying to explain to the kids what a "biker" was, so I mailed her a photo of Brando in that movie.  If you ever see the Gene Kelly musical Les Girls, it climaxes with a ballet version of The Wild One! (In the '50s there was a fashion for movie musicals to climax in a ballet number.)

I read somewhere that in engineering terms, Harley Davidson can't hold a candle to its Japanese competitors.  But that brand has the advantage of badass lifestyle marketing.  The Hell's Angels are so conformist that every member has to ride a Harley!