Bikerworlds: bikers and social networking

In the recent years, I’d be remiss not to mention how important social networking sites have become to the average internet dweller. Sites like: Facebook, Friendster and MySpace are just a few of many and while they have a reputation for being skewed towards a younger demographic, the truth is that these sites are open to everyone of all ages.

When I wondered if there was a “MySpace for bikers” imagine my delight when I found a site called Bikerworlds.

Bikerworlds has been up for less than a year and boasts about 10,000 members. It offers a site chock full ‘o forums, groups to join, classifieds, polls, videos, galleries and ridelogs. One of the things they’ve really focused on is to make the community friendly and open to female motorcyclists.I created my profile back in April and I have to say that there’s barely a day that goes by that one of my BW pals doesn’t send me a friendly message.While the basic functionality of Bikerworlds is very similar to MySpace, it is different enough to set itself apart.

“Larry” is a cuddly, bad-ass of a teddy bear and the public face of the site. He has his own profile and when you join the site he is your first friend (and as I write this Larry is up to 5600 friends, give or take a few!). A sense of community is important to a lot of people, especially online and especially with bikers. They are a group often stereotyped, misinterpreted and undervalued. Their seemingly rough exterior actually houses extreme generosity and kind hearts.When I started this blog my intent was (and still is) to foster a sense of community among young women riders. While I enjoy the social networking sites, nothing beats the freedom of your own site to express your own views. There is such a good feeling when your tooling along some back road and you get that little wave from a fellow biker. This is my wave to my fellow online bikers.

Share and Enjoy:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

9 Comments

• Linda R. Moore said:
  August 20th, 2007 at 2:56 pm

  Ooh–that sounds very interesting! I’m off to join now.

• Lizzie said:
  August 21st, 2007 at 10:09 am

  Be careful, once you join it can become addicting!

• Charles Ray Cox said:
  August 22nd, 2007 at 10:01 am

  Well, well the fat old man found it after all..
  Howdy from Odessa, TX.
  Pops

• Lizzie said:
  August 22nd, 2007 at 10:17 am

  Thanks Pops! Got that link fixed.
  

• Blueskygoodbye said:
  August 22nd, 2007 at 10:52 pm

  I saw your bulletin on Bikerworlds and stopped by to read your blog. Thanks for the wave.

• Lizzie said:
  August 23rd, 2007 at 7:39 am

  And thanks for waving back!

• Barb Cooper said:
  August 26th, 2007 at 8:52 am

  I just found you. I don’t own a motorcycle but I love how you write and I’m enjoying learning about biking from you. THIS post made me comment because, you’ll laugh, there’s this sub-culture of people who KNIT SOCKS that’s much like the community of bikers. No, seriously. The sock knitters group I belong to on Yahoo has, get this, 11,000 members! I think the best thing about the Internet is the communities that have sprung up, uniting people from all over the world who have similar interests.

  Anyway, thanks for writing.

  Barb

• BikerorNot.com: bikers and social networking pt. 2 | Rippin-Kitten said:
  October 17th, 2007 at 6:47 am

  [...] few months ago I wrote a post about Bikerworlds and the growing popularity of social networking with bikers. Well, I just [...]

• Bikers and social networking: the trifecta | Rippin-Kitten said:
  March 6th, 2008 at 7:54 am

  [...] big can of worms when I tackled the subject of social networking for bikers. Back in August I wrote a post about Bikerworlds, the first social site I found geared toward the biker community. In October I [...]

Post a Comment