‘Myth and Reality in the Motorcycle Subculture’
Elaine Hardy PhD – Motorcycle Minds
I wrote a PhD thesis entitled “Fear of Crime and Vested Interests – a Case Study of Motorcyclists”. During my PhD research I came across Maz Harris’ thesis ‘‘Myth and Reality in the Motorcycle Subculture’ (he worked on his PhD in the same department at Warwick Univ. as me). Sadly he died in May 2000 as a result of a motorcycle crash.
Anyway, I took copious notes and from those, I looked at a couple of interesting issues in his thesis:
He compares the motorcycle outlaw subculture to the travelling community. (Outlaw Motorcycle Subculture (Vol II, pages 595 – 600)
More importantly with regards to motorcycle theft… (Vol II, pages 539 –542) he explains about the cost of motorcycle spare parts.
He wrote: “It is perhaps significant that while the sales of new motorcycles continue to plummet, breakers’ yards and the secondhand parts market in general are booming as never before.
The problem it appears, stem from the disproportionately high cost of replacement parts demanded by the manufacturers in the event of an accident or mechanical disaster.
Modern Japanese machines, whose sales go to make the vast bulk of the market, have developed technologically to such an extent that their sophistication and longevity has rebounded financially on their purveyors.
Competition in a contracting market is so keen that in order to sell more models, the older ones must somehow be put off the road, hence the scant availability of new parts and their artificially inflated cost.”
As he observed, the motorcycle manufacturers are an oligopoly and notes that they artificially hiked the price of spare parts which pushes people to buy stolen parts or steal them.
He continues: “It is at this point, where the victim of an expensive mechanised malfunction is faced with the inevitable option of paying more than the bike is worth in repairs or leaving the central plank of his subcultural identity rotting in the garage, that the less legitimate and considerably cheaper alternative sources of supply lose their stigma.
For some, the routine theft of machines for supply to ‘no questions asked’ breakers becomes a handy way of earning a living. The rewards of such ‘midnight deals’ are low, but the practice is well-orchestrated and payment guaranteed.
Late model bikes with a high spares value are ridden away or picked up in vans and delivered direct to ‘respectable’ dealers who strip them down and dispose of traceable identification numbers of sell them complete to less than scrupulous race competitors, where their presence on the track affords little suspicion”.
Little has changed since Maz Harris wrote his thesis in 1985 – yet here we are still discussing the problem, still with our heads in the sand, still whinging about scum thieves.
Still doing nothing to change the situation.
What comes around, goes around – or so they say.
For those interested in his book – it is available on Amazon in paperback entitled “Bikers: Birth of a Modern Day Outlaw” 5 Aug. 1985 – Publisher Faber & Faber.
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