Mature Motorcyclists: Violating Age Norms and Loving It

Abstract

Age norms tell us at what ages members of society consider it appropriate for us to become potty trained, enter and exit school, start and stop driving a car, get married, have children, retire from work, and even die. So, at what age, if any, should a person start riding a motorcycle? More importantly, at what age should a motorcyclist stop riding? The author conducted ethnographic interviews with approximately 90 motorcyclists over the age of fifty. Findings in this study indicate that just as society has established “social clocks” for other personal and social activities, informal norms operate to establish age boundaries for riding motorcycles. Today's Baby Boomers, in their quest to be “forever young,” however, seem to be stretching and breaking those boundaries, redefining previous limitations on a wide variety of activities, including motorcycling. Although the stigma once associated with motorcycling is waning rapidly, some people still view motorcyclists as deviant. Even those who see riding a motorcycle as a non-deviant mainstream activity, however, tend to view motorcycling as the domain of the young and view motorcyclists over the age of fifty as violating age norms.