On The Mark

Look at us. Think about the people represented by the demographics of Backroads readers and rally attendees. The one definite thing we have in common is that we ride motorcycles and read a particular magazine, but the commonalities tend to end there. We come from a collection of backgrounds and professions that varies so widely that it almost seems contrived, as if someone decided to throw as many types of people and professions at one activity as possible in a grand experiment to see if we’d get along. Perhaps there’s some alien staring at us from outside a bell jar, taking notes on just how we get along. The book “Under the Dome” by Stephen King comes to mind.

Geographically, the majority of our homes range from Eastern Canada to the Northeastern part of the United States, as far south as North Carolina and as far west as Ohio. There’s no exclusivity in that Venn Diagram – there are definitely some exceptions – but that’s the bulk of the demographic. OK, Backroads serves the entire electronic universe, but the folded paper in the mailbox and at the motorcycle shops pretty much exists in one of the most densely populated areas of the US. But it isn’t the geography that diversifies us most.

Think about the breadth of professions we represent. Founded by a graphic artist from the publishing industry and a commercial photographer/bike salesman/rogue of all trades, Backroads brings together a vast number of careers. I can think of: architects, engineers (of several kinds), lawyers, law enforcement officers, salespeople (motorcycle and general), pharmacists, psychologists, dentists, doctors, teachers, musicians, firefighters, information technologists, motorcycle dealers, suspension technicians, motorcycle accessory makers, used parts suppliers, GPS fixers, barbers and stylists, restauranteurs (and patrons), financial people, dog trainers, counselors, seamstresses, audio component sellers, bartenders, former motorcycle racers and industry professionals, writers, and many more.

If you dig deeper into those professions, you see different levels of participation and ownership. We have everything from CEOs and high-ranking corporate officers, to small business founders and owners, to self-employed technicians and all walks of life between, plus retirees from all of the above. Some have morphed from one mode to another within an industry, like my travel from worker to project manager to supervisor to retiree. Some have changed industries altogether, making big career moves like architect to firefighter (and back again).

Then there are the personality types, of which I represent a few: obsessive engineer, caring manager, and now, curmudgeonly retiree. I am sure those who know me can name a few more, perhaps less flattering or delivered with a smattering of profanity. In general, we’ve got your extroverts and introverts and nerds and artists and every other genre of human weirdness and “alternative normalcy.” The neologist in me likes that term…

If the aliens observing this cornucopia of characters among Backroads’ readers were taking assiduous notes, they’d find the overlapping part of the Venn Diagram is, of course, motorcycling, hence the magazines and the rallies. What they’d also observe is, despite the fact that we all ride on two (sometimes three) wheels and read one of the few surviving print publications dedicated thereunto, we revel in the multitude of differences between our cultures, educations, professions, and other pursuits. E pluribus unum – from many, one. Or in the words of Dale Berra, son of the great Yogi, “Our similarities are different.” What they’d also find is that, when the chips (or fellow motorcyclists) are down, we all come together as a big, caring family.

One thing about which I’ll warn you, if you haven’t figured this out already, is that the writer in me is an astute observer and if you aren’t careful, you’ll become what we refer to as a “subject.” Some of you may recognize yourselves from the paragraphs above and that’s no coincidence. I have a saying: “Everyone’s a story.” It doesn’t matter how introverted or seemingly uninteresting someone might appear on the surface, if you scratch that surface, you typically find interesting things beneath: they collect trains or build Legos or carve elaborate miniatures out of pencil leads. The great thing about our differences is that you’re a target-rich environment for a story or column, or even just a special conversation over dinner at one of our rallies. No matter what your background or profession or beliefs or personality, however, the ties that bind us are motorcycling…and Backroads.