- personally i think its not a bad move and if you make the effort you will meet some top blokes and enthusiastic motorcycle owners
- i was thinking last night about local clubs, national clubs and forums like these and why people join them
local clubs
- generally tend to all live in the same town or region, often have a core that have known each other for a long time, are sometimes based around a focus point such as a cafe, pub, workshop or even a place of work...these blokes generally form a tight community based on personal experience of each other and the trust that ensues...they get to know each other well, ride together, socialise together, play together, often get in and out of trouble together...issues can get terribly personal and violent
national clubs
- not so locally defined, tend to have a core of skilled enthusiasts that often develop more commercial interests and tend to be older, with more time to spend on club things...they are often based around brands or even models and communicate through newsletters or their own forums...mostly these blokes dont know each other very well and many never meet or dont meet regularly due to geographic reasons...ive seen these organisations split badly over unnecessarily silly things that start well within the core but unresolved split interests turn them into personal and ego issues
forums
- these have no physical boundaries and start with a club or interested person, sometimes with commercial interests based on actual businesses-its good marketing...generally tend to have relatively narrow foci, like a bike model...mostly the contributors never get to meet each other, the annonymity allows all sorts of games and posing, content requires a modicum of control, misunderstandings are relatively common due to lack of tone and body language and sometimes cultural and language differences...there generally tend to be far more lurkers than contributors
...all have their charms, people join and leave them for their own reasons, the main thing is to simply have a good time