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So am I a real biker or not?.. I have seen so many websites that have a page for this... Frankly I never gave it a whole lot of thought.. I am not real big on labeling people..
What can I say?..As for my self I scrounged up enough money($300.00) when I was 14 to buy my first street Bike... Already had a dirt bike( which I rode on the road about as much as off)..
My first street bike was just an old 1972 Honda cb350.. metal flake purple..mind you this was back in 1980.. I come from a pretty meager background so $300.00 was damn hard to come up with.. It needed the carbs rebuilt and re-synced and the tranny fixed which I quickly learned to do on my own.. I rode it to school daily and got reprimanded by the principle for both riding illegally and taking up teacher parking so I parked it in the court yard instead.. after many threats including withholding my report card they finally realized I was a lost cause left me alone..
I was not necessarily a trouble maker yet trouble seemed to find me I guess because I lived by my own set of rules. My family had a reputation in that neighborhood for being a bit wild and being good at kicking some ass and being the young fool that I was I was damn determined to uphold the family tradition..
I spent several years training the 7 animal styles of the southern Shaolin under a Shaolin priest and world leader of the Moh temple..I spent many weekends at the bars testing both my manhood my latest techniques.. I have been on the wrong end of a gun and survived, although it wasn't just the two of them that went to the hospital I too went to have my scalp stapled back on my skull, so Bruce lee I am not..But at least I am still here..
Perhaps that means I am not tough enough to be considered a Real Biker..
Over the years I have owned many bikes
from Honda's to Suzukis my last purchase was a 1990 Sporster.. Wasn't my bike of choice I have always wanted a softail but that was out of my price range.. I did everything I could to make it look more like a softail, fat bob style tank forward controls etc.. Still has those ugly cast rims though..
My goal was always to make an up grade to a softail standard and to change the rake so I could chop it a bit..
When ever I had the money it seemed other priorities got into the way so I still ride my old sportster today..
So I guess riding a sporster and not a big twin may also make me less of a Biker in some peoples eyes..
I don't ride as often as I would like... living in and around Seattle and working construction for years in the pouring rain has made me more of a fair weathered rider... so perhaps that makes me less of a Biker too..

I don't ride to be cool or fashinable and I dont ride to try to impress.. I ride because I love the freedom I feel when I roll down the road, wind in my face exposed to my surroundings..
I ride because I like the way it can erase my tension, heighten my awareness and make me feel more alive.

I would love to do Sturgis and all the big rallies but never can seem to plan it and or more often than not be able to afford it either.. So perhaps putting my families needs first also make me less of a Biker..

I am always the first to lend a hand when I see it is needed and to give a Biker the right away when in my truck, but I don't think that makes me anything special. I just think it is the civilized thing to do..

I hate being dictated to and being told how to live my life or how I should be... I am who I am good or bad and although at times in my life I have conformed just to keep the peace or be accepted and found that those actions not only made me miserable but never gained me any respect or compassion either. No matter who I was trying to please never really seemd much happier for my efforts sacrifices and worse yet,my actions always left someone else that was important to me unhappy and feeling left out or feeling hurt..
I hate being judged for simply being myself and trying to live my own life as I see fit.. I hate being preached to and told that my way of life is wrong and I should be a lamb and follow someone else's ideals and path in life..
After all if you really believe in your God and the bible (which I know better than most Christians do) didn't your God give us free will?
I am the first to stick up for and even defend ones right to religion and their right to congregate with like minded people and not to judge them for doing so..
Yet I have never had not even one of them defend my right to be myself.. To live my way and to congregate with those who beilive as I do..
Those who insist they are good Christians and judge me, looking down on me and telling me my way of life is so wrong... Have you ever even read your Bible? or do you simply go by what your preacher tells you? Does it not tell you in your Bible not to judge others or is that page somehow missing?

I am not affiliated with any Outlaw clubs nor have I ever been, even though I have had acquaintances that were Baditos and ex Hells angels.. That doesn't make me one of them nor does it somehow make me cool....

I am not an outlaw although I have certainly broken the law.. For the most part I abide by most of the rules as long as they are fair and just and don't over step what I feel to be my inalienable rights not just as a "Biker" or an American but as a human being.

I am not a thief or a drug dealer nor do I traffic in human flesh...
So perhaps that means I am just not hardcore enough..

In my later years I no longer go looking for a fight I would much rather make friends than enemies and I no longer feel I have anything to prove to anyone other than myself...
But if I really feel it is necessary..If I feel the need to defend myself or someone that cannot defend themselves or you have crossed a forbidden line with me...well then you have me in the corner and I garauntee I will come out swinging..
These days I have learned to just look at a persons redeemable qualities and let you be the asshole you are being, chalking it up to you having a bad day like we all sometimes do..Everyone is an asshole sometimes...
I would rather buy you a beer or a whisky if you would let me and even lend you my ear so you can get it off your chest as opposed to stepping out in the parking lot... Maybe that means I have lost my edge.. or maybe it just means that I have grown up some...

I find it much easier now days to understand the human condition and to realize it is not my place to judge.. After all I have not lived your life.. As you have not lived mine..I do not know all of the elements in your past that culminated to make you the person you are today and I don't know what is troubling your mind and your heart and causing you to act as you are.. "If I judge you than let me too be judged".... I have learned to feel compassion for your pain as I have suffered greatly in my life too...

Perhaps all of these things makes me "less of Biker", less of a man or even less of a person.
However I feel like most things the question is completely subjective and open to the personal interpretation of the reader..

So judge me if you must...label me if you like at your own discretion.."Biker" or a "poser"

Accept me as I am and call me one of your kind or don't accept me at all...
Call me your freind or your foe..
Look down on me if you feel the need... Judge me how you like....
Only you can decide how you look at me based on your own belief system..
But however you label me... However you feel, will not change who I am or what I believe in my heart to be.. It wont change my beliefs or moral compass... And it won't change the road I am on..

I am just simply who I am and can be nothing more and nothing less..