Why Halloween ghouls ride motorcycles

Motorcycle riding ghouls come out for Halloween.

 What do motorcycles have to do with creepy monsters, ghostly ghouls, flaming skeletons, and living death? Quite a lot, actually, on Halloween. 

It used to be "Halloween Night," but the celebration of doom is now so popular in the United States that October is becoming Halloween Month. 

And motorcycles are part of the fun. 

The best explanation I've read of this phenomenon is a 2016 piece by J. Joshua Placa on Motorcycle.com 

"Most motorcyclists I know have a special fondness for Halloween and all its imagery," he wrote. 

"Maybe it’s a macabre coping mechanism that helps us deal with the grim side of the road. There is just something about death that bikers like to defy. Perhaps it’s just part of our rebel spirit. We’re going to ride until we die, and maybe a couple of days after."

Dressing in studded leather adorned with skulls and cross bones, and incorporating the Grim Reaper into custom motorcycle paint jobs, certainly has meaning, Placa noted.

Intended to be menacing, the everyday "biker" leather and patches get-up is scary enough to wear by itself on any Halloween. So, Placa confides, he just goes as himself.

Asked where in Heaven's name he got his costume, he claims he replied "Heaven's got nothing to do with it."

There have been plenty of horror movies featuring evil motorcycle riders. I can't stand to watch them, but Bryan Wood listed 10 creepy ones for RideApart in 2016. Most you won't ever have heard of ("Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town").

Of the better-known "Ghost Rider" movies he writes:

"These movies don't have a lot of horror in them, but they are just like Halloween candy in that they are easy to consume, and you may regret it later."

Where did all this start? I found a suitably horrifying 1930s photo of a skull and motorcycle on the Motorcycle Timeline blog. The Northampton Pirates Motorcycle Club had it as a centerpiece on the table at its annual dinner way back then.

It stands to reason that vintage motorcycles would be better at being haunted than new motorcycles. I wrote how my retro 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet is, yes, haunted. The proof is a gearbox oil filler bolt that could not be loosened, even with brute force, that subsequently unscrewed all by itself.

I'll tell that story around the campfire sometime. Nothing like a Phantom Fastener to throw a chill up your spine.

It also seems to me that visiting ghost towns or abandoned highways would be a fine activity on a motorcycle.

Halloween is a deal at Rickety Crickett Brewing, just off historic Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona. The Halloween Costume Party is at 11 p.m. tonight, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024 at the restaurant and craft brewery at 532 Beale St.

Just look for the sign of the crazed mechanical man riding his motorcycle.

If you missed it there's no need to wait until next Halloween. He's there every day of the year.

Doomed to ride, apparently, in the wrong direction.

Who owns Royal Enfield's cannon logo?

®EOC
Royal Enfield cannon and Made Like a Gun motto in club badge.

 To my surprise, the Royal Enfield cannon motif and "Made Like a Gun" motto are trademarked for some uses by the Royal Enfield Owners Club (UK). 

Even more surprising is that the club, generously, doesn't maintain the trademark in order to keep it exclusive. It's comfortable with use by others, including the maker of Royal Enfield motorcycles in India. 

In fact, according to the website, club members are encouraged to use it. 

"We recently commissioned a professional designer to produce (restore) a nice sharp master artwork of our club badge to standardize what had become a mix of poor copies of previous copies of the club badge over the years. 

"On our website you’ll find two design variants in three different colors, which can be downloaded and enlarged or reduced for any decorative purpose. One has a simplified gun image more suitable for embroidered garments and some specific printing techniques. Please use our unique club identifier (®EOC), incorporating a trademark, which you’re paying for!" 

The website noted the history behind this:

"In 1995 Ian Parry set up a sub-committee of the REOC with the aim of safeguarding the use of the name Royal Enfield and the made like a gun logo. Ian successfully secured them in two trademarks: UK00002024203 ROYAL ENFIELD and UK00002027094 made like a gun plus cannon device for use on items of clothing, headgear, printed matter and club services. We get most value from the second trademark which is located centrally in our unique club badge.

"We pay a fee to safeguard our two trademarks, which are due for renewal in 2025 at a cost of approximately £1,500, so we need to get our money’s worth. It’s important to understand that the club didn’t want to prevent our trademarks being used by other parties, we wanted to ensure that we can use them without any legal issues."

®EOC
Simplified Royal Enfield Owners Club logo.

The website makes it clear that the club seeks to protect its own logo merchandise and regalia but doesn't oppose the motorcycle company's apparel ventures. That just gives Royal Enfield fans a wider choice of what to wear and display.

I live in the United States but I am a long-time member of the Royal Enfield Owners Club (UK). The primary benefit, at this distance, is the every-other-month arrival by email of the club publication The Gun.

The magazine is entertaining and informative but primarily entertaining, since I don't take part in person in any of the many chapter activities. I've shared some of the fun on this blog. For instance, the West Riding "Mystery Run" that was such a mystery its leader made it up as he went.

Every issue of The Gun contains a list of club merchandise you can purchase. I have my eye on a handsome stainless steel logo badge that might look nice on the handlebar of my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet.

Not a member? I encourage you to join.

Wouldn't this look nice on my Royal Enfield?

When people let their emotions drive

 When real self-driving cars finally arrive they presumably will not offer driving modes for "Bully," "Road-Hog," "Tail Gate," "Revenge Honk," or "Grand Prix."

Human drivers, however, do operate in those modes, frequently. We know these anti-social outbursts when we see them.

And I see them a lot.

We live in Florida, but my wife and I have a tiny studio apartment above an alley in downtown Washington, D.C., so we can visit our kids, who live in D.C.

Being on an alley, the garbage trucks and delivery trucks arrive early and often. Luckily we are not light sleepers.

The alley is laid out in a "T" shape, with only the base of the "T" connecting to the street. The arms of the "T" are both dead-ends. The leg of the "T" is narrow, so narrow that only one vehicle at a time can use it. The arms of the alley are just barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass.

It's actually fun to watch the professional truck drivers wheel their massive vehicles through the tight spaces and around other vehicles. But, human nature being what it is, it is EVEN MORE fun to watch the occasionally inept driver try it.

I just thank goodness it isn't me at the wheel, as they struggle, edging backwards and forwards in the turn, denting fencing, and tearing off the occasional rain gutter in the process.

But the real fun comes when difficulty leads to frustration and confrontation.

One recent morning an incredibly long truck arrived, delivering an oversized but empty dumpster to a construction site on the alley. It squeezed in, but the ballet was only beginning.

The driver would have to drop the new, empty, dumpster in a corner of the alley, then maneuver and pick up the old, full-to-the-brim dumpster, move that to a different corner, return and pick up the empty dumpster, move it into position for use, then maneuver again to pick up the full dumpster and carry it away.

This was in progress when a lady in a new Mercedes pulled out of the condo garage in the alley and encountered the truck, nose-to-nose. She couldn't get past him. He couldn't get past her.

Things could have gone in a couple different ways. They went straight down hill.

The truck driver laid on his air horns and kept them blowing for a good long time. The sound might have been sufficient to blow away any ordinary driver, but not this lady. She backed up. Just a couple of feet; just a bit short of how far he would need to get by her.

The truck driver now dismounted and approached the Mercedes. The woman did not roll down her window to negotiate. No one would suggest she do so, but the effect of this was that the truck driver had to shout and gesture wildly in an attempt to communicate. He appeared to be insane. I assume, at this point, that the lady was dialing the police.

The truck driver now resorted to cyber threat. He got out his iPad and began photographing the Mercedes, an obvious threat to bring charges. The lady wasn't intimidated. The truck would just have to back up and let her by.

So the truck driver got into his cab and backed up. Just a couple of feet, but enough for her to squirt past him. Instead of turning down the leg of the "T" and being on her way, however, she remained in that arm of the "T," still effectively blocking the whole dumpster-shifting operetta.

I assume she was on the phone with police, seeking satisfaction. I guess the dispatcher finally explained that police getting around to solving a problem like hers would probably not be the day's top priority.

No sense waiting. She finally did get the Mercedes in gear and turn into the leg of the "T" to exit.

She didn't get far, however, because there was an SUV, inbound, waiting for the dumpsters to move so it could turn into the alley. SUV and Mercedes came nose to nose. Neither budged.

Eventually, the SUV driver relented and began slowly... slowly... slowly... backing up the leg of the "T" toward the street. And then, when he did reach the sidewalk, he carefully, ever so carefully and slowly, edged out into the street and then pulled alongside the curb cut -- blocking the alley exit so the Mercedes couldn't leave.

By now obviously enjoying himself, the SUV driver crawled forward on the street, eventually creating enough of an opening for the Mercedes to cross the sidewalk.

But now, with its front wheels on the street, the Mercedes came to stop. Sweet revenge! Now the SUV would not be able to reenter the alley.

Satisfied with her triumph, the lady did eventually drive away and the morning's drama was at an end.

Would any of these people care to see their behavior through my eyes? Do you see yourself any of this? I hate to admit it, but I know I am guilty on occasion.