"Kerouac" for middle-age-wealthy in China

[40Smiles]

In Japan, there are people that like big motorcycles, retro style, and independence... grown up. Maybe its the bosozuku (wild tribe) affect meets middle age... not sure.

In the US there is the same thing... when you were a kid you bought a motorcyle for $200 that had been rescued from the salvage yard and repaired by a friend, you rode it around a bit before... you got married, had kids, and never actually took a summer off to see the world. So now you are 45 and spend a small fortune on a Harley and try to act like you are 18 again.

Is there a sub-culture like this in the growing middle class? Can you tell me where to find out about it? Book, movie, website?

[889]

There seem to be some packs of guys doing this in China, but usually SUVs not bikes.

[liuzhou]

There is a motorcycle club here in Guangxi.

 

 

They tend to high go for performance bikes like these

 

 

 

 

I have been told that " in many cities in China you must be a member of a motorcycle club in order to register a motorcycle over a certain size (250cc?)." No idea how true that is.

 

Most locals' reaction is that they are pretty silly, immature and have more money than sense.

 

Images and comment from my blog.

 

(Kerouac's On the Road travelling was almost all by car or bus rather than bike, as far as I remember. Neil Cassady (Dean Moriarty) was the driver. Nowhere in his writing does he mention motorcycles.)

[Simon_CH]

This is a big trend here in Beijing, I see it more and more every summer. A lot of custom harleys and other very expensive bikes around, the one I've recently seen on display was 450k RMB. The Harleys in the showroom are displayed like Ferraris really, nothing wild about it at all, just another toy to show off with.

 

From what I see the demographics are slightly younger, 30+ year old succesful businessmen buy these bikes. I've seen and read some documentaries about biker clubs in Beijing, you should be able to google it.

[40Smiles]

@Simon_CH, very interesting, I googled your keywords, "biker clubs in Beijing" and got a couple hits on youtube, thanks.

@liuzhou, great and informative blog post, thanks! Re: "Kerouac's On the Road travelling was almost all by car or bus rather than bike..." yes, I agree, but the nostalgic impression seems to involve the motorcycle...