Every month I post links to the most recent research into motorcycle culture, subcultures, clothing and identity, along with the biggest events in the motorcycling calendar. Here’s what caught my eye this month.
Inside Motorcycle Studies’ 2026 “Motogeek Summer Camp”
Wendy Pojmann’s write-up of the 13th International Journal of Motorcycle Studies conference, held at Shelton, Washington. It works as a survey of where the field currently sits: Kate St Vincent Vogl on Louise Scherbyn and the founding of WIMA, Sheila Malone on the Dykes on Bikes archive, Liliana Falcón Zertuche on queer women riders in Mexico City, and Jeff Burns on how outlaw identities are manufactured through media and policing. Half the presenters appeared by livestream because of US visa difficulties.
https://thevintagent.com/2026/07/24/inside-motorcycle-studies-2026-motogeek-summer-camp/
The Lost Empire of Leathertogs, Part 2
Riley Ward’s history of Leathertogs, the Massachusetts firm advertising leather clothing to motorcyclists by 1922. Ward pays close attention to construction: horsehide, Talon zippers, leather studs, the D-pocket and made-to-measure ordering. Garment research at this level of detail is rare in motorcycle studies, and it complicates the usual Schott-first account of how the biker jacket arrived.
https://thevintagent.com/2026/07/22/the-lost-empire-of-leathertogs-part-2/
The Malle Mile returns for 2026
Tommy Begley’s recap of the twelfth Malle Mile at Grimsthorpe Castle, with 2,543 bikes and over 5,000 people on site. The useful numbers are demographic. Average participant age was 35 against a UK biker average of 54, and 31% of riders were women against a national figure of 7 to 10%. Co-founder Robert Nightingale’s account of the first event — 37 bikes on a lawn in South London, drinks raffled off because there was no alcohol licence — is a tidy record of how a scene assembles itself.
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2026/july/malle-mile-festival-2026/
Faro Motorcycle Rally attracted 17,000 visitors in 2026
A short report on the 44th Faro International Motorcycle Rally, held 16 to 19 July at Vale das Almas in the Algarve. Attendance held at roughly 17,000, flat on last year. Faro is among the longest-running rallies in Europe, so its figures are a reasonable proxy for the health of the continental rally circuit. The 45th edition is set for 15 to 18 July 2027.
https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2026-07-21/faro-motorcycle-rally-attracted-17000-visitors-in-2026/1058453
That’s it for this month. If you’ve come across research I’ve missed, feel free to email me.