Why Join a Club?

In 2004 I joined the Southern Cruisers Riding Club, after discovering there was a chapter close to my home town. I wanted to find friends to ride with, and I figured I would find them in the SCRC.

I didn't really know much about the SCRC, aside from looking at some of their chapter photos and web forum. But it looked like a place where I could find friends.

I stuck with it for a few months, and then learned that the SCRC was a very large organization, with the reputation of being an "all-embracing" club. People talked of it as the "bottom rung" of clubs, where anyone could become a member without having to demonstrate their riding skills, or proving their value to the club. Anyone could come in off the street and become a full-fledged member by submitting a web form, and buying their patch online. Membership didn't give me much sense of accomplishment.

Not long after, some former members of the SCRC formed a new riding club, one that was much more exclusive, and more difficult to become a member of. They invited me into it. So I joined them, and became a charter member.

I stayed with that club up until August of 2007. By that time, I was a founding member. A couple of us founders did our best to create a reputation of riding often, riding hard and fast, and always riding together. A couple other founders tried to create a reputation of being partiers and swingers. The club was struggling to define itself, and it started taking on a new reputation, that of being troubled and full of turmoil.

I quit the club, and about 3/4 of the club's membership either quit with me, or became inactive in the club, and now we ride together as friends.

And now we're talking about starting a new club.

What a club basically does, either as a riding club, or motorcycle club, is associate you with a reputation. In short, it helps define who you are. It's like being a Republican or Democrat; most of us have political and social philosophies, but it helps others to understand where you're coming from if you tell them you're a Republican.

That's what a club does for you.

In truth, no one needs to join a club to enjoy motorcycle riding, and you don't need a club to find friends to ride with. But you join a club because you like the idea of being part of an organization that stands for something special.

Ideally, you want your club to be known for good things. If you're in a riding club, you want to be known as skilled riders, who ride often, and ride hard and fast, and are part of something exclusive. That's the reputation we're now trying to build.

Imagine yourself being in a very exclusive riding club, where each of you are skilled riders, who ride everywhere, all the time. When you guys pull into a bar, you want the people to recognize your patch and say, "I've heard of those guys before, I hear they're really skilled riders, and you gotta be really good to get in." You want that reputation to precede you.

So think about some of the clubs you're familiar with, be it riding clubs or motorcycle clubs. What are the thoughts and feelings that first come to mind when you see one of these clubs pull into the same bar that you're at? That feeling you feel, whether it is good or bad, is exactly what these clubs are trying to create.