For the bikers - Iron Cross ?

[SilentRage]

I've been wondering about this for quite awhile , I've read all about
where and how this Medal came about , Germans/Prussians and so on ,
my question is how did it ever become a part of the biker culture ?
You see it on bikes , clothing etc. , is there a story behind this or
is it just something someone thought looked cool like having skulls
on everything ? Just curious .

[JayBell]

well, wiki has an explanation of how it started...but today, its just a big old "in" thing to have if ya ride a Cruiser motorcycle.

You know, like all those dentists and tax accountants that ride harleys, and go with names like "Spike" and "Killer" on the weekends when they ride with thier real estate lawyer and office manager buddies that go by "BigDawg" and "Monster" on the weekends

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biker_Cross

[spabula]

I thought everyone liked it and thought it was cool cuz He-Man wore it on his chest plate................

[1861]

same reason they started wearing ww11 german helmets , it pissed of their parents and the normal folk on the street .

[soberbyker]

I used to have Iron Cross mirrors on my bike, until they started showing up everywhere. I had them because I liked the look of them. They were pretty useless as mirrors though, they vibrated to much and it was very hard to see anything in the dark, nothing but a blurr.

I first remember seeing them in the outlaw biker culture along with a lot of other German symbols, it was a rebel kind of thing.

from: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Meaning_of_the_iron_cross

The Ol' Cross of Iron
Well, I'm glad you asked that one!!! The first we know about the Iron Cross, which is mistakenly refered to as a Maltese cross, was when an order of Teutonic Knights adopted it for their sign.
After being used as personal emblems by several Teutonic emporers as an emblem sometime around 1800 or so it was used as a military decoration for extreme valor on the battlefield. Needless to say it went thru a lot of ornamental changes as it went from dynasty to dynasty.
During W W 2, it was last awarded to a German soldier in May 1945, it has not been issued to anyone else because Germany has not been at war since then, and it is only a WARTIME military medal.
When G I's coming back from W W 2 brought home their 'booty" a lot of them brought back Iron Crosses as souveniers.....Now some of these G.I.'s were bikers and some may have been surfers because it was adopted by both groups during the 50's and 60's.....But I'm sure if you asked a biker and a surfer what it meant to them you would get to completely different answers...
Of late variations on the Iron Cross theme have shown up used by Motorcycle builders and anyone else wanting to cash in on Jesse James 15 minutes of fame........
Oh yeah, sidewalk surfers seem to have taken a liking to it too.....You see a lot of skateboards with the iron cross type decorations.....

Here's a couple shots of the ones I had.





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