A biker’s blood runs true

There are various factions in the global tribe of petrolheads, who are united in their love for speed, cars, bikes, adrenalin, engineering and competition. Their allegiances are many: there are those that adore the classics, those who drool over supercars, and the Nascar, F1 and drag racing junkies. Then there is the two wheel brigade, the folks we call bikers, who straddle gleaming machines that have a fair dollop of horse-power to get them from A to B.

This faction of the petrolhead clan is unique, in that the ‘members’ having biking in their blood. My best friend Joao Silva is an avid biker, and has been since his teens. Stories about his exploits on bikes are legendary.

A couple of years ago he lost both his legs in a landmine explosion while he was on assignment in Afghanistan for New York Times. A friend of his recalls: “When Joao first got to Walter Reed Hospital, he was barely conscious. I walked in and he saw my helmet and cycle jacket. ‘What are you riding?’ he whispered.” Enough said.

Despite a lengthy recovery, it did not take long for Joao to start plotting his comeback on two wheels, and as I write he has a machine being prepared so that he can once again indulge in his passion.

Bikes and biking is in Joao’s blood. Although I have a long standing association with bikes and bike racing, and deep admiration for the biker brigade - alas - I do not have it in my blood.

True blue blooded bikers - be it a Harley posse, the Ducati clan, the Japanese sport bike aficionados or the motocross mavericks – are united by an unwritten bonds that stretch across the globe.

As a journalist who has covered motorsport and motoring around the world over the past three decades I have met biker ‘clans’ across the world. And remarkably they are the same, whether in California, New York, Sydney, Johannesburg, Berlin, Manchester or Dubai.

What is ‘the same’ you may ask? Well only they know. Even as an outsider, who tried really hard to be an insider, I cannot pinpoint it. If I look at my mate Joao, I can only conclude that it is a variety of elements that ‘make’ a biker: fearlessness, a sense of adventure, a need for freedom that only speed can unleash, a touch of selfishness, and perhaps most of all, an unwavering generosity.

The first two elements are obvious because to ride like a true biker, tackling those twisty roads on whatever machine, needs a certain amount of guts and, of course, a spirit of adventure. Wake up early on a weekend and take a drive, wherever you are in the world, and you are likely to encounter a herd of bikers heading out on a run. Most bikers struggle to get up to go to work, but when it comes to a sunrise wake-up call for a breakfast run, none of them are ever late. Adventure lies ahead, don’t be late mate.

The speed and freedom element is almost a cliché, but it is the soul of a biker. They need to get out there and be pushing the limits. I am told that the exhilaration at this point is the epitome of being free. I take their word for it.

To be selfish, yet generous, is a paradox. Bikers need that ‘me, myself, I’ attitude to tackle the limits each time they get on a bike in earnest. Roads with disrespectful car drivers are perilous and speed kills far too many bikers. But, true blue blooded bikers are not averse to speed, quite the opposite actually. That is their way and will always be part and parcel of the culture

Lastly, but perhaps herein lies the key to the biker’s soul, is their genuine generosity. True bikers always stick together, always help one another, an injury to one is an injury to all.

Don’t be fooled in to thinking that every person who has a bike is a biker. Buying a potent sports machine, or a cool cruiser, does not automatically make you a biker. In fact there are many poseurs who look the part but are not. It has to be in the blood.

Ultimately bikers are not a club or a society, they are a band of brothers and sisters who have biking in their blood. If it is not in your blood, you can be part of them, but you can never be one of them.

The writer is communications manager at Dubai Autodrome