Definition: A rat bike is a bike that is usually unkempt and is loaded with all sorts of luggage, tools, tents, bedrolls, flags, pots and pans, clothes, jackets, etc. You can't miss a rat bike. It has everything on board and looks like the rider has all his or her possessions strapped to the bike.
Ode to My Rat BikeI once sat on a rat, I ride it all day, The frame’s slightly bent, I parked it too close, I ‘splained that, in fact, When I drove it away, But what do I care, It’s mine and I love it, If I washed it I’m sure, So I’ll keep this way, © Jeffry L’H. Tank
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Rat bikes (Rolling pieces of art) are motorcycles that, over time, have fallen apart and been kept on the road and maintained for next to nothing. There are also bikes that, to the untrained eye, appear to be rat bikes, but are not. These are Survival Bikes, influenced from the Mad Max One and Two films. 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 in 'cruisers' or (oxymoronic) factory produced 'custom' style bikes is subverted by the alternative approach of the rat bike enthusiast. Matte black paint requires no polishing. The guiding principle of functionality and practicality put useable power in all road situations over speeds that can only be attained on a racetrack. Whereas the latest/biggest/fastest/most expensive motorcycle confers a spurious sense of superiority in some, the ratbiker is impressed by ingenuity; the decades-old bike that has been kept on the road by whatever is at hand or the resurrected wreck have kudos. External links | ||||||||||||||||||||||||