Rat bike

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rat bikes are motorcycles that, over time, have fallen apart but been kept on the road and maintained for next to nothing[1]. Survival bikes look similar to, but are different in purpose from rat bikes--they are modified for stylistic reasons.

[edit] Rat bikes

Rat bikes at the UK Rat and Survival Bike rally, 2005
Rat bikes at the UK Rat and Survival Bike rally, 2005
A rat bike "Hondog" Goldwing at Laconia Bike Week
A rat bike "Hondog" Goldwing at Laconia Bike Week

Rat bikes seemed to appear in the late '70s to early '80s, before the term was even invented. The essence of a true rat bike is keeping a motorbike on the road for the maximum amount of time while spending as little as possible on it.[2] This calls for adaptation of parts that were not designed to fit the model of bike in question[3]. The term 'rat bike' was invented by custom motorbike magazines and retrospectively applied.

Rat bikes do not have to be matte black, however the vast majority of rats seem to be so these days[4] in what may be a cross over from survival bikes. These two kinds of "customized" motorcycles may appear similar but are a vastly different species.

More recently, there has been a trend of deliberately customising bikes into rats, but this defies the organic growth into a rat bike that characterized them originally and led to their uniqueness. Bikes deliberately distressed to look like a rat bike are sometimes derisively referred to as fake rats. Currently the "rat style" is also gaining popularity in car customizing circles, though again in a somewhat misunderstood manner where vehicles are carefully decorated or modified to look worn with age. It is much like the distressing of furniture

[edit] Survival bikes

A Survival bike. Note the artistic exhaust system.
A Survival bike. Note the artistic exhaust system.

Survival bikes are bikes that may appear to be rat bikes, but are not. They are influenced by the Mad Max films.

For many, both rat and survival bikes present an ideological alternative to the consumerist mainstream. The endless quest for speed of the modern sportsbike or the large areas of chrome on cruisers or factory-produced, "custom"-style bikes is subverted by the alternative approach of the rat bike enthusiast. Matte black paint requires no polishing, unlike cruisers with lavish amounts of chrome and custom paint jobs. Similarly, the guiding principle of functionality and practicality make usable power in all road situations more important than speeds that can only be attained on a racetrack.

Whereas many take pride in, or are impressed by, the latest/biggest/fastest/most expensive motorcycle, the ratbiker is impressed by ingenuity and frugality. A decades-old bike that has been kept on the road by whatever is at hand or a resurrected wreck is more prized than a shiny, right-off-the-show-room-floor, new motorcycle.

Ratbike engineering: how to make a sound joint between sections of exhaust pipe when you don't have welding equipment.
Ratbike engineering: how to make a sound joint between sections of exhaust pipe when you don't have welding equipment.
Ratbike engineering: an SU carburettor fitted to an MZ TS250/1 by the use of handy bits of metal and domestic plumbing fittings.
Ratbike engineering: an SU carburettor fitted to an MZ TS250/1 by the use of handy bits of metal and domestic plumbing fittings.
Survival bike engineering: this single-sided bike by 'exmoor customs' won "best in show" & "best engineering" at the UK Rat and Survival Bike rally, 2006.
Survival bike engineering: this single-sided bike by 'exmoor customs' won "best in show" & "best engineering" at the UK Rat and Survival Bike rally, 2006.

[edit] External links

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Languages