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.
EICMA 2025
82nd edition, Fiera Milano Rho, 4-9 November. Record-breaking by every measure the organisers chose to count: 600,000+ visitors, 730 exhibitors from 50 countries, 2,000+ brands, 43,000 trade visitors. Theme “That’s Amore”, with a “Desert Queens” tribute exhibition of 31 original Dakar Rally bikes drawing 42,000 visitors on its own. The official recap covers the numbers and the programming.
https://www.eicma.it/en/eicma-2025-a-record-breaking-edition-combining-passion-business-new-content-and-new-ways-to-get-to-the-show/
The “Vanz Boys”: An Ethnographic Exploration of an Underground Motorcycle Subculture in Thailand
Federico D’Orazio and Manuele Mambelli in TPM – Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, special issue 32(S8), published 5 November. Ethnographic study of the dek waen / Vanz Boys nocturnal street-racing scene in Greater Bangkok and Chonburi Province, with attention to class, gender and the urban marginalisation of working-class Thai youth. Closes a real gap in the motorcycle-subcultures literature, which has been heavily skewed toward US and Western European cases.
https://tpmap.org/submission/index.php/tpm/article/view/2886
See also Biketoberfest in October 2025 and EICMA’s 81st edition in Q4 2024.
That’s it for this month. If you’ve come across research I’ve missed, feel free to email me.