"but I can see why they'd want to make a statement against conformity"

but's that's just it ... they are conforming to the new middle class values ... it's all about "look at me", their material gains in life, the big expensive harley, the expensive harley apparell ... much like the upper class investment banker in his BMW, or Mercedes and the Lacosta golf shirts on a weekend ride to Newport Rhode Island or Bar harbor Maine.

The days of the biker and his Harley being the symbol of non-conformity and rebelling against the norms of society are long gone ... the Harley has become a big status symbol of the middle aged lower and upper middle class who stick to their pack en-masse on weekend rides ... making as much noise as they can ... all and all so they can be noticed. They are certainly not lifting their noses from the brown, they are lifting their noses to all who don't own a Harley. As Ebbie says, 'and they think we really care'.


biLL