I introduced my wife to motorcycling when we met several years ago. I'ld had a dozen
different bikes of different makes and sizes at one time or another, and I had put on a helluva
lot of miles. I just wasn't one for bike runs. I just liked to ride. Well Patti introduced me
to the rest of motorcycling.
We have been to lots of major bike meets, and had a lot of fun on the smaller bike runs.
There is something for everybody in biking.
One year we went to the annual HOG rodeo put on by our local HOG chapter, and we watched
a lot of bike games. Some are a little different. Most people know what the weenie bite is,
but to those who don't it's a little surprising. To those who have seen it before it's fun to
watch and fun to do. A rider runs his/her bike under a bar with a hotdog hanging off of it on
a string and their passenger tries to bite off as big a piece as possible. The winner is the
crowd. Oh yeah, the winner of the game is the rider who takes the biggest bite. There are a
few rules too. You can't put a foot down, and the passenger can't touch the hot dog or the
string with their hands.
There was the "Ol' Man's Home." A square frame is setup in the middle of a field to look
a window. The biker places his bike on one side of the window , and lays down on a mattress
on the other side of the window. He has to take off his boots and place them next to the
mattress. Usually this game is done competetively in paired eliminations. When somebody yells,
"MY OLD MAN'S HOME." The contestant has to slip into a huge baggy pair of overalls (over their
regular clothes), put on their boots, jump through the "window", start their bike, and ride
across the finish line. It was pretty hilarious. One heat was won by a biker whoes bike
wouldn't start. He pushed it across the finsish line. Another big guy couldn't get into the
supplied XXL overalls.
The most heated game was the twenty yard dirt drags. With a street bike, racing on dirt
is a great equalizer. If you really abuse the throttle the spectators get to see a great big
rooster tail of dirt, but you don't cross the line first.
The HOG rodeo kinda got me interested in bike games. So when we to the ABATE April
Fool's rally the next spring in Arlington, Az I entered all the games with Patti. We took first in the "Joust" and second in the "Egg Snatch." We played "Helmet Soccer," ran a "Keyhole Race," had
"dirt Drags," and did a "Keg Roll." Now I am hooked. I have to say that we had a blast in all
the games, even if I did waste my stock clutch in the drags.
Bike games are a great way to have a lot of fun at a run , and can even be the main event
of a run like a poker run or bike rodeo. After a couple of runs and a lot of fun as both a
participant and as a spectator I started asking around about different kinds of bike games.
One of my buddies suggested I try the internet. A couple of motorcycle related webmasters
gave me their lists of e-mail addresses for people who had visited their websites. The search
was on. I had over 200 people get back with me in the first couple of days. Most were
interested and many where helpful. Of course there were a few who were down right rude, like
the guy who suggested a game called, "L.A. Momma." His description of The L.A. Momma was,
"Wrap yo mamma around the front tire of your bike and ride to L.A." I guess he has some issues
with his momma. May I suggest a good therapist.
Well from all of that we came up with a list of bike games that could be a lot of fun.
Here is a list of some of them:
Slow Ride
Plank Ride - Balancing Plank ride
Keg Roll
Helmet Soccer
Keyhole Ride
Egg Snatch
Joust
Dirt Drags
Weenie Bite
Needle in a Haystack
Nail Drive
Beer Can Pickup
Waterballoon Toss
Burnouts
Barrel Wrap
Figure Eights
Tire Drag
Boot Race
Headless Horseman
Hoop Toss
Slalom
Blind Slalom
Poker Run
Scavenger hunt
In addition to these we got a lot of suggestions to just try and come up with ways to
convert other party games to bike games. We also got some great advice if you want to use
some of these to organize an event. Amoung those things we thought were more important were
these gems:
1. Make all participants sign in and sign a liability disclaimer. We know its
all about having fun, but it only takes one "incident" to screw things up for everybody.
2. Use any reasonable rules for your games, but print them up and stick to them. If
somebody wants to screw around it's ok if it doesn't hurt anybody, but decide winners
by the rules. It avoids hard feelings and makes it more fun for more people.
3. Schedule your games early in the day so you won't have to many messed up people on your
track that could get hurt or hurt someone else.
4. Plan for the weather. (this good advice for any bike event)
5. Make certain water and bathrooms are available.
I hope you found this article entertaining. If you see me out there on the track,
remember one thing. If I can get out there and try it you certainly can. It doesn't take a
professional rider to play bike games. By the way I have a new clutch and I'm out to win.