Cowl (motorcyclist)
1: Top Rocker - usually name of the club
2: Center Patch - Logo of the club
3: Bottom Rocker - usually national or regional name, e.g. B. Germany or California
4: "1% er" badge for outlaw MCs
5: Club name
6: Rank and function names such as e.g. B. "President / Vice President", "Road Captain" or "Sergeant at Arms"
7: Side Rocker - usually the name of the regional chapter or charter, e.g. B. Berlin or Nomads
The cowl referred to motorcyclists scene a jeans - or leather vest, for carrying the badge of a rocker clubs or carpool.
function
With the cowl, the wearer expresses his affiliation to his motorcycle club or car pool. Furthermore, many motorcyclists wear frocks without the badge of their own club, be it that their club does not have badges in public or that the wearer does not belong to a group. Many cowl wearers wear badges and patches of their friends' clubs on their cowls, which can range from just a few selected ones to a nationwide collection that are sewn several times on top of one another. In addition, some frocks are decorated with attached objects such as plaques, pins, badges and rivets for a variety of reasons. Some of these have an amulet character for the wearer or can only be decorative accessories.
Members of large and international clubs usually only wear the badges of their own club or their club community. In particular, there are certain regulations that specify exactly where which patch may be attached. On the front of the robe, they often have names and, depending on their function in the club, official titles such as president , vice or rehearsal , or their English names, at chest height . The Siderocker is usually a more precise chapter name or shows friendly chapters.
The habit is the status symbol in the rocker subculture. Larger clubs consider the habit to be club property, which means that if a member is dismissed, the club can reclaim the habit. The member himself is responsible for the safety of the cowl. If she loses, he will be punished. This can range from simple penalties to expulsion from the club. Many robe wearers do not allow strangers to touch their robes. They see this as an attack on themselves and their club. Until the mid-1990s, “collecting trophies” was common among rival clubs. It was considered a special disgrace for those affected if his habit was removed. At that time, the habit was usually hung up in the clubhouse and / or given to the owner for a "ransom". In special cases the habit was also destroyed. Even if an advertisement is frowned upon among rockers, some proceedings were sought in the early 2000s. From a legal point of view, robbery can be a criminal offense according to § 249 StGB (robbery) or § 250 (serious robbery).
At the beginning, the leather cowls usually had to be tailored by yourself. Although there were no precise regulations, three-part suits that were connected at the sides with rivets and leather cords were common. In the course of time, manufacturers adopted the rocker style, so that today it is also possible to buy cowls without a badge, etc. "off the shelf".
Emergence
Initially, in the 1970s and the following years, motorcycle rockers mainly wore denim robes. Since the 1990s, for various reasons, the fashion of cowl wearers switched to leather cowls. On the one hand, there are practical reasons for this, as leather is more durable than denim and more resistant to dirt (denim robes often stink after long periods of wear and rides in the rain). On the other hand, cowls made of leather simply appear "cooler" in the eyes of many wearers.
As with the metal cowls , washing or cleaning the cowl is taboo .
Whether the name Kutte results from the phonetic similarity of the American cut-off (i.e. cut-off sleeves) is doubted in the scene. Other subcultures and men's associations also call their outfit a cowl. It seems much more obvious that the cowl was introduced by the Hells Angels , who come from California. Since it is usually hot and dry there, the normal functional clothing for motorcycling, the motorcycle jacket, was simply impractical.
Cowl baptism
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The hat baptism is an old custom among rockers, which is now rarely practiced and is mostly limited to smaller clubs. Within the scene, it marks the transition from prospect to full member for the member. On the day of his appointment, the prospect receives his patch or his complete robe, which, however, will be inaugurated beforehand. This can be done in different ways, which are listed here as an example (with reference to Ahlsdorf 2004):
- Cowl burnout: A motorcycle is started over the cowl and the tires are spun.
- Hiding place: The prospect has to get the patch out of a particularly disgusting or complicated hiding place (for example a pig's head, bucket or bottle with liquid, a specially prepared mud pit, concrete block).
- The mud pit: The prospect is thrown into a previously prepared mud pit.
- Drinking rituals
- Tars and feathers
- Pee.
Others
In April 2012, the Federal Constitutional Court did not accept a constitutional complaint from a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club for decision (2 BvR 2405/11). This had complained that motorcycle vests with "Hells Angels" were banned during a court hearing . He saw it as violating the principle of the public.
On the occasion of the Kieler Woche 2011, the city of Kiel imposed a ban on wearing badges for a total of 14 motorcycle clubs, practically a cowl ban, within the event site. Due to the ban on wearing the one-center patch, which is common in the scene , other hat wearers were also excluded. The Dirty Pack MC successfully sued the ban and her name was subsequently removed from the listing.
literature
- Michael Ahlsdorf : Everything about Rocker 2 - The laws, the history, the machines . Huber Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-392789-611-6 .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Michael Ahlsdorf : rivets reinforced . In: Everything about Rocker 2 - The laws, the history, the machines , Huber Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-392789-611-6 . Pp. 18-21.
- ↑ Titus Simon, brawl and riot .: social history of aggressive youth cultures and educational efforts from the 19th century to the present day . Juventa, 1996, p. 101.
- ↑ a b Michael Ahlsdorf: Kutten and fringes . In: Everything about Rocker 2 - The laws, the history, the machines , Huber Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-392789-611-6 . Pp. 28-31.
- ↑ a b c Michael Ahlsdorf: Kutten in comparison . In: Bikers News . No. 367 , November 2012, ISSN 1614-9157 , p. 52-61 .
- ↑ Michael Ahlsdorf: Kuttenklau . In: Everything about Rocker 2 - The laws, the history, the machines , Huber Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-392789-611-6 . Pp. 22-26.
- ↑ Michael Ahlsdorf: robe baptism . In: Everything about Rocker 2 - The laws, the history, the machines , Huber Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-392789-611-6 . Pp. 50-55.
- ↑ www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de decision , bdk.de
- ↑ Michael Ahlsdorf: Cowl ban zone . In: Bikers News . No. 360 , April 2012, p. 14-15 .