10 Legit Intellectuals Who Ride Motorcycles

Stereotypes are hard to eradicate, and anyone who rides a motorcycle will attest to that fact. Bikes are loud, scary looking, and come with so much cultural baggage, it can be hard to imagine that college professors, sociologists, and authors, not to mention fashion models and Lawrence of Arabia himself, all rode or ride motorcycles. You don’t believe it? Well, check out these 10 legit intellectuals, both past and present, who loved and love the experience of a two-wheeled ride.

1. C. Wright Mills:

   

   Born in Waco, Texas, sociologist C. Wright Mills rallied intellectuals to become more engaged in politics with his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination and directly inspired then-Field Secretary of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Tom Hayden to compose the Port Huron Statement, a manifesto for the American student activist movement. The late Christopher Hitchens referred to Hayden’s 1962 statement as "the founding document of the ’60s left." Mills also loved motorcycles, going so far as to earn a certificate in motorcycle repair at a BMW factory in Munich during a 1956 trip to Europe. If something was broken, Mills wanted to know how to fix it, and this attitude carried over into his sociological and political discourse.

2. Robert Pirsig:

   

   Robert Pirsig authored the philosophical motorcycle novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, basing the book’s journey on a 1968 motorcycle trip he took with his son from Minneapolis to San Francisco. Although gifted intellectually since childhood (at age 9 he had an IQ of 170, and at age 15 graduated with a high school diploma), Pirsig has struggled with mental illness throughout his adult life. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance explores the relationship between romantic and classical thought to Eastern philosophies, although Pirsig insists in the book’s introduction: "(The Book) should in no way be associated with the great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It’s not very factual on motorcycles, either."

3. Ted Bishop:

   

   Who is Ted Bishop, you ask? Bishop is a professor of English literature and film studies at the University of Alberta and the author of Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books, a well-received memoir that, in addition to several literary awards, won the Motorcycle Award of Excellence (MAX) for best motorcycle book. In his book, Bishop compares the experience of doing research and archival work with that of motorcycling, which he describes as "an inward experience. Like reading."

4. Ernesto "Che" Guevara:

   

   Ernesto Guevara, one of the most influential and polarizing political figures of the 20th century, was profoundly transformed by a 1952 journey he made mostly by motorcycle, a single cylinder 1939 Norton 500cc, across the continent of South America. Guevara’s memoir The Motorcycle Diaries recounts his life-changing journey. On that trip, Guevara saw firsthand the poverty and injustices suffered by the country’s mining workers, lepers, and indigenous population. His experiences inspired him to embrace Marxism, become a guerrilla revolutionary, and overthrow the Cuban government of General Gulgencio Batista.

5. Stephen Kinzey:

   

   This true story might be as close as real life gets to Breaking Bad. Until September of last year, Dr. Stephen Kinzey was a tenured kinesiology professor at Cal State San Bernardino. Well liked by his students, Kinzey drew upon his love of motorcycling to help teach motion and physiology. However Kinzey, a member of the motorcycle club The Devils Diciples, led a dangerous double life as a meth dealer, and was arrested late last year charged with drug dealing, running a street gang, and possessing illegal firearms. It should be noted that The Devils Diciples website states: "(The Devils Diciples) are NOT a criminal organization and do not plan or implement crimes in any form and do not condone criminal activity."

6. Lauren Hutton:

   

   Going as far back as the 1900s, women motorcyclists have fought against gender barriers in a culture that is still identified with male machismo. Model Lauren Hutton is a member and former vice-president of the Guggenheim Museum Motorcycle Club, a club committed to the art and culture of motorcycles and to traveling by bike to locations across the world. We bet you had no idea the Guggenheim had a motorcycle club. Well, they do! In 1998, the Guggenheim Museum even created "The Art of the Motorcycle," a traveling installation of new and vintage motorcycles. In 2000, Hutton suffered a serious motorcycle accident that left her in a coma for two weeks. However, once she recovered, she returned to riding her favorite motorcycles, including Yamaha dirt bikes and a BMW F650.

7. Bob Dylan:

   

   Singer, songwriter, poet, author, and film actor Bob Dylan enjoyed riding his red-and-silver 1964 Triumph Tiger 100 so much that he wore a Triumph T-shirt for the photograph that appeared on the cover of his classic 1965 album, Highway 61 Revisited. However, in 1966, after years of non-stop paparazzi and touring, Dylan reportedly crashed his beloved Triumph near his home in Woodstock, prompting him to take a nearly eight-year break from touring. The nature of his injuries is still a mystery since there is no record of him being hospitalized or even an ambulance being called. In his autobiography Chronicles I, Dylan says of the accident, "I’d been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race."

8. John Berger:

   

   Born in 1926, art critic, novelist, and painter John Berger, one of England’s most respected living intellectuals, is well-known for his love of his leathers and his giant black Honda 1100 bike. The scope of his achievements is hard to fathom, in part because he is equally talented at so many things. He is perhaps best known as the author of Ways of Seeing, a widely referenced essay on art criticism. "The powerful fear art," says Berger, "because it makes sense of what life’s brutalities cannot."

9. T.E. Lawrence:

   

   Thomas Edward Lawrence, British Army officer and author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, whose role in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turkish Empire would earn him the title "Lawrence of Arabia," loved speed. In particular, he loved the speed that only a motorbike like the Brough Superiors he owned over the course of his life could give him. "A skittish motorbike with a touch of blood in it," Lawrence once said, "is better than all the riding animals on earth." Tragically, Lawrence died from an accident on one of his beloved motorbikes. It is likely he was traveling at close to 100 mph at the time of his crash.

10. Steve Jobs:

    

    In a 1982 article that appeared in National Geographic, a photo appeared showing Apple co-founder Steve Jobs riding a BMW bike, although at the time he did own a Mercedes. A friend is quoted in the article as saying that Jobs prefers, "to drive his motorcycle up to my place, sit around and drink wine, and talk about what we’re going to do when we grow up." However, in spite of his affection for his bike, Jobs told National Geographic that the Apple computer had the potential to be "the Volkswagen of the industry," probably figuring that an analogy to a four-wheeled means of transportation best served to explain his ambitions for the company.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.