14 DAY TRIAL // I am about to approach an extremely disputed subject of discussion on many forums, but especially on forums that relate to motorcycles and motorcycling in Romania. Yet, for whom it may concern, this is not supposed to shed light into the matter, but rather state an opinion on something that has plagued many of the discussions in the above mentioned communities regarding the faulty image Romanian motorcyclists possess, generally speaking.
Picture these contexts: motorcycles rushing by your car window with 200 or almost 300 km per hour, motorcycles getting smashed into walls, trees on sides of any road possible, against protective road structures that are being built in dangerous curves, leaving many of the riders, and/or their passengers dead by one of the most excruciating ways of dying ever existing (at least in my opinion), motorcyclists gathering and riding together on Bucharest's boulevards with occasional burnouts or wheelies or stoppies or whatever other motorcycling maneuvers, motorcycle gatherings in different places in this country, or motorcycles making a lot of "noise" whenever one of their community dies. As many will notice, the first part of contexts displays more brutal aspects, while the second, more moderate ones in terms of impact, but both of them send a supposedly foul message. Being confronted with these patterns, almost every day, especially during the summer time, people are trained to believe that whenever they see a single motorcycle, it automatically means that the respective person is rash, crazy, insane, arrogant, and stupid, does not wash, has no values whatsoever, no principles, no ideals, is devoid of any manners, either in theory or in practice. Just because he/she is riding a motorcycle, he/she will automatically go annoy decent people's sleep in the middle of the night with loud motorcycle engine sounds, will go smash himself/herself against a wall because of excessive speed and lack of equipment, will potentially mock you in the face when passing you by, while you're in the car, because they consider you a "tin can" driver or will try to race you, for that matter.
The extremely negative image Romanian motorcyclists have in the eyes of pedestrians and car drivers has always amazed me, but not until I had the chance to meet many of them, I understood where this is coming from. Indeed, it is true that many of the contexts I depicted are inspired from reality, that many of the mentality patterns I described are correct, but only to a certain extent. Why only to a certain extent? Because the truth of the matter is that, while there are a bunch who fit the profiles I mentioned earlier, there are a lot who do not. The main problem is the fact that people do not know how motorcyclists really are, and they generalize, on the basis of misguided and misinformed pieces of evidence, either from the papers, from TV or from their own insufficient knowledge on the subject. People do not know that even if there are horrible motorcycle accidents, a good proportion of them are caused by careless car drivers, that motorcyclists are not self-sufficient and arrogant, they are aware of the traffic around them. Their community is tight and united simply because there are not too many of them and they prefer to stick together in order to help each other whenever one of them needs aid, any kind. This would also explain why they mourn, and maybe they do it in rather "loud" manner, when one of them dies because they consider themselves part of the family, or rather an extension of the true family. They ride together because this way it is more enjoyable. Yes, they sometimes rush out to be the first in line before the streetlight goes green, but they are usually paying attention not to rip anyone's rear view mirror from their cars. On the other hand, they conduct campaigns meant to make others in their community aware that they have to play by the rules in traffic in order to avoid accidents or cars, not take any chances or risks, be civilized, and wear equipment. Car drivers do not have this type of campaigns to make them aware there are motorcycles riding beside them as well, but hey, maybe this is only a case of minority adjustment to majority.
The truth is that many of the Romanian motorcyclists are more civilized than people would believe, yet there is a strange paradox at the core of the issue. Somehow, many of the motorcyclists, of the so called "hot air bikers" species, hanging around downtown meeting places, are getting themselves known to people. Although a minority, they impress people more because they perform "magic" one wheel tricks on Magheru Boulevard to attract girls who are too insensible to judge their intentions and could not care much about them, being interested only in their "cool" bikes, bikers who are careless enough to foolishly assume responsibility on behalf of anyone who is mad enough to jump on their bikes, and so on. Most of these bikers become the "dignified" forefront of the Romanian motorcycling community because their activities are more likely to pop up in the eyes of people who take them into account. It is often many of these guys who pass you by with 200 or almost 300 km per hour, who race "tin can" drivers, who die tragically in a stupid accidents due to excessive speed or lack of equipment, who trash your rear car mirror while going up the front line at streetlights, who disturb your sleep with loud motor engine sounds, who are arrogant about all the other traffic participants, who think they are invincible and in fact they are not. These guys are totally opposite from the "quiet" ones who meet regularly in other places in Bucharest, who are normal civilized people, some of them married, some of them even have kids, who usually do not want to disturb anyone, who attend meetings in other parts of the country, who are united by their passion for motorcycles, who do not welcome the "hot air" type motorcyclists among their midst and do not join them anywhere for that matter. The reason why these guys don't get themselves noticed is because they don't do anything in that regard. I mean, let's face it: if a motorcyclist is riding along your car and he/she passes you by without doing anything "special", is there any chance that someone might notice him? The answer is obviously no. The two communities are severed by fundamental principles, such as real and true passion for motorcycles versus "showing off" patterns, decency and profound feelings versus superficiality and "unfortunate", to put it mildly, behavioral patterns in traffic.
In my opinion, most of the bikers who use any opportunity to impress people in the street just for the sake of drawing attention, are a shame to the Romanian motorcycling community because they have no relationship, no affiliation and no common principle whatsoever to link them to a true motorcyclist community. But, like any other garden, weeds must be present. This is not a case of "good" versus "evil" or "saints" versus "demons", this is only a statement of the facts that happen out there on the road. Of course, not all of the "hot air bikers" may be accused of such things, and the same goes for the other community, not all of its representatives display such good features, yet my approach on this subject is from a general, overall perspective. What is more important is that people have to understand that misconceptions may be very easily induced just by one or two or three events and they misjudge someone who does not deserve to be misjudged. Motorcyclists have to change but others have to change too, otherwise nothing beneficial may come out of it. So, in conclusion, I am going to finish by paraphrasing a slogan that was used almost 20 years ago in Britain in a campaign to make car drivers aware of motorcyclists in the streets and thus avoid accidents of their own fault: look for the single headlight? and when you see one, think once, think twice, think bike!
I'd like to thank MIHAI BARBU, who provided ALL THE PHOTOS in this article.
