Easy Rider

[garyboy]

I just replied to a mate about the recent re-showing of the 1969 film, Easy Rider ..
this is wot I rote ..

Easy Rider 1969 film .. "Through the open country and desert lands, two bikers head from L.A to New Orleans, and along the way, meet a man who bridges a counter-culture gap they are unaware of." .. yeh .. its difficult now, to comprehend the culture shock of the 60's generation, with `hippies`, `free love`, festivals etc etc .. looking back it now seems tame .. but at the time it represented a freedom movement from Victorian values and the devastating war years.

like so many iconic films of the times, I never actually got to see most of them, for some reason? .. and of course, decades later, I could not understand why they were so impactive, but could now understand what they meant. …. repression of freedom of expression !! .. Freedom to live your life as you wish .. so so COOL at the time … yeah man

so .. adventure biking is the new easy rider ??


.. just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this ??

[Billy Bananahead]

Maybe the term "adventure biking" is just the new way of saying "biking".
Only the words have changed for the modern world. You know like the way everything these days has to be worded differently for the same thing. Yeah right man.

[Slowboy]

Biking is what many of us have done for years, remember way back when we called it touring or trail riding. Adventure biking is just a marketing monicker to sell us way more stuff than we used to need to go twice as far as we do now

Whatever we call it, I'll keep on keeping on until I can't.

[mark vb]

Biking is what many of us have done for years, remember way back when we called it touring or trail riding. Adventure biking is just a marketing monicker to sell us way more stuff than we used to need to go twice as far as we do now

Whatever we call it, I'll keep on keeping on until I can't.

I quite agree.... couldn't have put it better!

[Spike941]

Wondered if I would ever get to use this photo I had taken in the HD cafe in Vegas 10 years ago, before setting out on West Coast & 66 bike trip.

[garyboy]

apparently, an iconic photograph



I think that is more what I meant when posting the original post ..
not so much `what is adventure riding?`..
more `what makes an iconic concept of biking?` ..

the sixties were all about `freedom` .. not to mention `peace`, `love`, happiness, music, individualism, coolness, easy riding, unconventional life, alternative transport, student world movements, protests, demonstrations, original songs, being cool, drugs, anti-establishment, doing your own thing, cooperation not conflict, hippies, communes, self sufficiency, natural stuff, organic, away from the madding crowd, alternative energy, non industrial, healthy, easy, .. .. .. ..

apparently that seemed to all stop when the Americans shot some protesting students, and they all went quietly back to college …. ?????

the baby boomers still continued, of course, but we, even the unadventurous of us, are now dying out .. and the new waves of young people are, rightly, forging their own way in the world, while us golden oldies and silver surfers are well … trying not to look back so much and trying to get a life doing what we always did?

Not sure I know what I mean, myself … but biking has always been a common thread throughout all this time, different times, different people, but the world goes on, climate or no climate .. … the young have taken over now, and all us older riders can do is try to regain some of the glory days .. perhaps in a more sedate way?

Easy Rider, The Great Escape, The Waterfront?, etc etc seemed such powerful iconic films, that helped shape out view of life …… is this still the case ….

[garyboy]

from the spooky internet today .. in my fb feed …

wimin at Woodstock ..


https://kiwireport.com/the-most-mesmeri ... N4ZPteOG2w

[qcnr]

I must admit I felt the same about Easy Rider. I only watched it recently, and thought 'what is all the fuss about,
that was a bit pants'. I suppose it is impossible to see these films in their original context.
A bit like a teenager nowadays watching the first Star Wars film. For me, that was awesome.
Anyone remember drive in cinemas, fecking brilliant

[Elmer J Fudd]

Look around, we are in the midst of a revolution (and evolution) at the moment, we always were and always will be. The Me2 movement is way overdue but is systemic shift and things won't go back. Ecology is now mainstream and people obviously believe what politicians tell them.

The current vogue to not want to be pigeonholed, but to create enough pigeonholes for a whole flock of the damned things, is one that I don't get.

I see a biker for example, not a M F LBGTQ, Goth, Emo, black, white, brown or yellow Biker; just a Biker. Same goes for Plumbers, Structural Engineers and Farmers as well as idiots and assholes of course. None of these need a further pigeonhole, they just are.

Easy Rider was probably not as big a "thing" outside the US as inside. The US was, and still is, despite its vast Porn, gambling, gun and drug issues, one of the the most restricted societies anywhere. Our equivalent being A Clockwork Orange or even to an extent Trainspotting.

[garyboy]

Look around, we are in the midst of a revolution (and evolution) at the moment, we always were and always will be. The Me2 movement is way overdue but is systemic shift and things won't go back. Ecology is now mainstream and people obviously believe what politicians tell them.

The current vogue to not want to be pigeonholed, but to create enough pigeonholes for a whole flock of the damned things, is one that I don't get.

I see a biker for example, not a M F LBGTQ, Goth, Emo, black, white, brown or yellow Biker; just a Biker. Same goes for Plumbers, Structural Engineers and Farmers as well as idiots and assholes of course. None of these need a further pigeonhole, they just are.

Easy Rider was probably not as big a "thing" outside the US as inside. The US was, and still is, despite its vast Porn, gambling, gun and drug issues, one of the the most restricted societies anywhere. Our equivalent being A Clockwork Orange or even to an extent Trainspotting.

I must admit, I never really felt part of any iconic or world movement, but then, if you been floating down the river all your life you won't even feel the flow. Its when it changes that you should feel the change? .. mind .. saying that .. I remember how the songs of the sixties etc were so obviously fabulous, its just that I thought it would go on and on. .. and I was aware of the changing music scenes, punk, power ballads, rap .. and all that .. and how different it all was from say the forties and fifties.

I can remember how attitudes gradually changed too … family, sex, the church, marriage … slowly things got freer, but the old values still remained inside. ?

So yes .. its been constant change. .. seen clearer when looking back.

One thing I have come to change, in my attitude .. is bikers … I always looked through rose tinted specs, and believed that all bikers were `of the brotherhood` .. but gradually learned that bikers can be thieves, liars, etc etc just like any other human being.


Pidgin hole .. now that I think is very amusing …. people trying to be different, individualistic, yet looking and acting exactly the same.
(Pidgin looks different from Pigeon .. but is exactly the same .. too).
Lately I have thought a lot about this .. how we accept say Doctors to be doctors, or Policemen being policemen, .. just because they have a certain clothes style, whereas the reality is that underneath ,, they are just as human as everyone else …. obvious, I know .. but can be life changing in implication.

"None of these need a further pigeonhole, they just are." …… so NOT true .. no offense. though it all depends on where u coming from?

America, I agree, is so contradictory .. but then, it is a huge country, with different zones... behaviours and beliefs as well as times and geography. .. I don't think anyone can really understand America .. more so than say, India, where it is easier to pigeonhole the inhabitants because we do not know them so well?

end of rambling, for now