Motorcycle culture — events, scenes, criticism.
May 2026: motorcycle sales in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union are contracting unevenly. Royal Enfield is the conspicuous exception. The deeper problem is cultural — an ageing rider base, a federation of demographically narrowing sub-tribes (Maffesoli’s neo-tribalism), and a regulatory environment in Europe that is tightening while the United States continues to do almost nothing.
Three for March 2026: Daytona Bike Week’s record-breaking 33rd edition, The Vintagent on Wendy Pojmann’s USA/Italy motorcycle book, and IJMS’s 2026 call for papers.
One central piece this month: Steven Burr’s IJMS essay on the motorcycle as aesthetic and ontological vehicle, working through Keats, Heidegger and Pirsig.
Three from IJMS Vol 22’s January launch: Wragg on European biker comics, Hoiland on The Bikeriders, and Stanley & Bridge on UK transport policy.
A quiet December: PetaPixel’s photographic-criticism pickup of Jack Lueders-Booth’s American Motorcycling Culture is the standout.
Two for November 2025: EICMA broke attendance records in Milan, and D’Orazio & Mambelli’s ethnography of Thailand’s “Vanz Boys” landed.
Three for Q4 2024: Wendy Pojmann on motorcycle road racing in Italy, the IJMS Iceland conference announcement, and EICMA’s 81st edition in Milan.
Three for Q3 2024: the 11th IJMS conference in Nottingham, The Vintagent’s Desert Island Motorcycle Books, and the Sturgis 84th anniversary rally.
Five for Q2 2024: Suzanne Ferriss on Lou Reed and death, Dazed on Brazil’s grauzeiros, Danny Lyon’s memoir, The Bikeriders film, and Bike Shed Moto Show.
Four for Q1 2024: IJMS’s three-part Authenticity Roundtable on solo travel, existentialism and motorcycling identity, plus Daytona Bike Week.
