Types of Bikers

I just rode twelve thousand kilometers through three countries over a period of two and a half weeks.
I saw lots of highway and did myself a bit of an internal survey of what sorts of motorbikes and their riders are on the highways. And the results are that from my perspective there seem to be only about five types of riders out there:

No. 1 The Harley Rider
There are two subgroups here but neither case is the classic hardened biker of our imagination (well mine anyway).
The more common "highway" type is (in general) a midle-aged (40s - 50s - 60s) man with a bit of a pot belly and greying hair. He is wearing designer wrap-around sunglasses and a tinny little skull-Cap helmet and is dressed in shiny black leather chaps (over jeans) and a matching vest. They usually ride in small groups of two to four. Their bikes are almost always black and shiny with two saddle bags and a front fairing. About half of these highway riders are riding 2-up with their wife, similarly attired, on the back of the bike.
The other sub-type is a younger man (late twenties to early thirties) and he virtually always has bare arms and very visible "tribal" type tattoos. He is an urban creature rather than a dweller of the open highway. The bike is still shiny and black and built by Harley Davidson but it does not have the front fairing and the side cases. These guys ride solo.
Both sub-types love to have a very loud exhaust system on their bike and to make the machine as loud as possible while riding at every opportunity - Lots of hard acceleration followed by deceleration :)
These guys are usually doing day or weekend trips in their home state and if they go overnight, they are hopping between motels or hotels (or more often Starbucks to Starbucks :)
I saw hundreds of these riders on the highways of the USA, dozens in Canada, and NONE in Mexico - no doubt due to the ground clearance of the bikes and the speed bumps on all the highways there :)

No. 2 The GoldWing Rider
These people ride the big Honda Goldwing bikes with huge fairings and hard luggage and two way radios and coffee cup holders and cigarette trays and stereo systems, etc... - big bikes! (I think they even have a reverse gear!).
In my mind, the Type N0.1 riders used to ride these bikes but they have nowadays decided to move to the Harleys but the demographic here seems the same (40s - 50s). The ones who are left on the GoldWings have taken the "big rig" concept one step further and almost all of them now ride the big bike with a similarly designed trailer attached behind. Again they tend to ride in a group though the group is usually a bit bigger (3-5) and most of them have the spouse on the back.
These guys are touring long distances in the US and are usually interstate riders.
I'm really not sure what the attraction of this "style" of travel is and why they don't just buy a convertible car instead, but they are not hurting anyone and they seem to be having fun so I say, let them do it :)
I saw probably about a hundred of these riders on the highways of the USA, a few in Canada, and NONE in Mexico - These guys are not interested in "roughing it" either!

No. 3 The Tourer
These guys are usually riding a large four cylinder Japanese sport touring bike.
They have full face helmets and either nice colourful leather riding clothes or slightly less sporty but eminently piratical cordura riding clothes (jacket and pants). The bike is usually equipped with two suitcase style side cases and often a GPS. These guys go long distances and are touring in either the US or Canada - often interstate).
Again, I saw dozens of these in the USA and a few in Canada but none further South.

No. 4 The GS Rider.
These guys almost always ride the same bike - the big BMW R1200GS (or older 1150).
The bike is almost always "fully equipped" with side protector bars and bash plates and pretty much every bolt on accessory that says "adventure tourer" that they can find. This includes GPS, electric heated grips and clothing connections, and of course the BMW recomended and supplied hard cases on the back of the bike. The riders have some "money to spare" and are also virtually always wearing the BMW brand cordura riding gear and boots.
There are a couple of other bikes that they tolerate, including the smaller BMW650GS and the Ducati Multistrada etc - Never a Japanese model and always and expensive European designs.
They have all the gear its true, but the bikes are ALWAYS absolutely immaculate and while some of them may get to see the occasional non-paved surface, they are always cleaned up to pristine condition immediately after (which is to say I have never seen one of these types of riders with a dirty bike!).
These guys can be anywhere from early thirties to 50s in age, and they can ride singly or in groups of up to ten or so. They do tend to gather together in large groups when they park in resort towns though :)
Again, to me it seems a shame that all this wonderful machinery is not doing what it was purportedly designed for, but again, they are not hurting anyone, so let them do it :)
I saw a couple of dozen of these in the USA (mostly in resort towns) and the occasional individual in Mexico and further south (but they were wealthy locals in their own country - from the rego plates)

No.5 The Adventure Tourer
Well, sadly, this one is the rarest of the lot, and includes me. There are a range of different bikes involved here and a range of different equipment. Its hard to define specific items of equipment that tie this group together but they are immediately apparent on the road. The bike is rarely spotless and looks decidedly "used". The clothing and gear is rarely beautifully coordinated like the other groups and is often a mishmash of style and colour. The thing that is identifiable to me is that whatever their rig is, its Practical! - It works and it has clearly been some places- possibly just on the highways and not in the dirt, but long distances and usually international. I have never seen a group of these riders bigger than four and usually just one or two.
On my whole ride North from Guatemala, I saw no more than five in total - very sad since its actually not that much of an adventure to ride the route I came North on - Then again, perhaps that's why I didn't meet more of them!

There are some other types of riders but they are generally urban types and not to be found on the highways outside of cities.

Thats how it seemed to me :))