Not picking on you precisely, but as a point of order, this whole 'bikers just want to emulate outlaw bikers' crap is misguided.
Gypsy leather comes with the territory - It is functionally the same as why cowboys wear sh*tkickers, chaps, a bandana, and a wide brimmed hat. It's first function is its suitability to the task, with style coming as a secondary function within the necessity of the first... Which is why the 'assless chaps' comments hereon were so hilarious in their ignorance.
'Wearing patch' and all the insignias and etc probably hail from The Bikers' origin - Namely disaffected military home from the war - That's why they conform to militaristic structures and such too - And thus precedes Outlaw gangs entirely.
Loud, stretched out bikes also hail from the beginning, and are quite comparable to hot rod cars and lifted trucks.
To wit: The Biker culture just IS. It is 'outlaw' and contrary by design, without and before what 'Outlaw gangs' may have done... Standing outside of that community makes you ignorant thereof. To accuse a biker of being so because of a 'vicarious thrill of riding with outlaws' is tantamount to accusing a cowboy of being a 'rhinestone cowboy' - All hat and no cattle, as it were. I think you have no idea of the offense you commit against them.
To wit: Your statement may be true to the effect that if good bikers dressed like the good humor man and rode ice cream trucks, they wouldn't have this problem. But they wouldn't be bikers then, would they?
And it is no 'minor convenience' for an American citizen to be rounded up and thrown in prison for better than a week now, with inflated bail, held on RICO type charges, which is the crux of this thread. To pass that off as minor is the most offensive thing of all.
“But they wouldn’t be bikers then, would they?”
Yes, they would. They would IMHO be MORE authentic than the criminal gangs who somehow seem to have absconded with the true biker history and ethos of those who vastly outnumber them. Bikers CAN be bikers without emulating the outlaw lore, mythology, dress adherence, etc. of criminal MC gangs. If they can’t, ?? why not?? JUST ASKING!
“The Biker culture just IS. It is ‘outlaw’ and contrary by design, without and before what ‘Outlaw gangs’ may have done... “
. . . But now it is time and beyond time to distance the authentic biker who may be contrary by design and disposition, from the criminal element. Just why not? Asking!