Hells Angels, look out! The rapidly aging and affluent US baby boomers are wiping out the violent rebellious image of yesterday's bikers.
Owners over 50 years old now account for one-quarter of the country's estimated 25 million registered motorcycles.
Many of the aging bikers cut their teeth on Fonda's 1969 classic film, Easy Rider, where he played a biker-hippie who encounters death in an intolerant rural America.
PHOTO: AFP
But now rural America is singing a different song from Easy Rider.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in South Dakota, where every year in August, the small state population nearly doubles with the roaring influx of some 600,000 bikers.
A major reason the bikers come is for the chance to hang out with other bikers. Bare-armed bikers sporting tattoos, beards and skull symbols mingle with doctors and lawyers, drinking beer and trading tips about their bikes and travels.
Tanya Bradley, 37, a real estate manager, said her idea of someone who rides a motorcycle has changed since she started going to mass rallies about six years ago.
"Once you're in a group like that, you have something in common; it crosses all those other cultural things," she said in a telephone interview after the rally. "You really get to meet a lot of people you may not otherwise."
Despite the melting-pot image, resentment simmers among old-fashioned road rebels.
"Where's your cycle?" one old-school biker from Utah said, kidding this reporter. "You takin' pictures for the FBI?"
But even this gray-bearded rebel sported a token of biking's broadening mass appeal. His son, daughter and son-in-law were riding with him, each on their own bike.
Not a bad sign for the motorcycle business.(DPA)
「地獄天使幫」注意了!快速熟齡化且富裕的美國戰後嬰兒潮世代,正努力抹去昔日重型機車騎士暴力叛逆的形象。
目前,五十歲以上的重型機車車主佔全國估計約二千五百萬輛掛牌摩托車的四分之一。
其中許多熟齡車主對摩托車的啟蒙,都來自於一九六九年彼得:方達的經典電影「消遙騎士」。彼得:方達在片中飾演一名嬉皮騎士,因不見容於美國保守的鄉村而遇害身亡。
但如今,美國鄉村卻吹起一股「消遙騎士風」。
這種情況在美國南達科他州尤其顯著。每年八月,南達科他州都會喧囂湧入約六十萬名騎士,讓這個小州的人口頓時增加將近一倍。
這些機車騎士每年固定集結在此的主因之一,是為了和其他同好齊聚一堂。裸露的手臂上刺著刺青、留著鬍鬚還帶著骷顱頭標誌的騎士們,與律師和醫生們打成一片;他們一面暢飲啤酒一面交換機車情報和旅程中的消息。
三十七歲的房地產經理人譚雅.布萊麗表示,從約六年前她開始參加大型聚會之後,她對重機騎士就改觀了。
「一旦你置身一個那樣的團體當中,大家有許多共通點,那是超越其他文化背景的,」她在一次集會結束後的電話專訪中對記者說:「你真的可以認識許多你在其他地方不會認識的朋友。」
儘管這幅大融合的景象猶在眼前,但老派的街頭叛逆騎士們可是怒火中燒。
「你的摩托車在哪?」一個來自猶他州的保守騎士開玩笑地問這名攝影記者說:「你是幫FBI拍照嗎?」
但即使是這位連鬍子都灰白了的阿伯也證明了騎乘重機已經越來越普遍了。他的兒子、女兒還有女婿都加入他的行列,各自騎著自己的重機一同上路。
對重機產業來說,這應該是一個不錯的現象吧。(德通社/翻譯:袁星塵)
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