Not Tropeworthy: Heroes Prefer Motorcycles

There doesn't seem to be any trope here beyond the People Sit On Chairs one "Main characters who use motorcycles". It appears that this was launched without a YKTTW as well judging by the discussion page.

Additionally, any possible meaning appears to be covered by two related, pre-existing tropes:

• Badass Biker, for characters who are cool because they use motorcycles.
• Cool Bike, for when the vehicle itself is what's so awesome.

Any examples on the page are either zero context, chairs, or one of those two tropes. I don't see anything worth salvaging here, so I'm gonna suggest cutting this.

Opening. Agree with OP and second motion to cut.

Agree it should be cut.

The examples seem to read more 'heroes prefer single seater highly mobile vehicles' and 'Motorcycles are a modern stand in for a horse'. They get combined with Knight in Shining Armor with the motorcycle taking the place of the horse and such.

A rewrite to something like that would work IMO instead of cutting.

edited 21st Feb '16 9:07:05 AM by Memers

Either of those would be cut and send back to YKTTW. They'd need new names, definitions, and examples. That's the whole trope. TRS is not the place to make brand new tropes.

Eh? All it would take is a minor rewrite of the description and a few examples chopped and that is about it.

Emphasize the mobility of the motorcycle vs a car is the same as a horse vs a carriage and how a motorcycle invokes a more modern image of a knight on a horse.

edited 21st Feb '16 9:24:38 AM by Memers

Re-YKTTW'ing that trope may be simpler to do than to rewrite an existing trope. We don't need to try always to save an existing broken trope.

It would also probably deserve a new name to make the association more clear, in which case yes, may as well re-YKTTW it.

I recommend Knight On Shining Harley.

Cut it. You guys do whatever in YKTTW.

^^ Sounds like a decent name for that concept. I agree that this should be cut and that one sent back to YKTTW.

edited 21st Feb '16 9:57:14 AM by Morgenthaler

I agree with cutting this. Most of the examples are covered by Badass Biker, Cool Bike and My Horse Is a Motorbike.

Cut and send to YKTTW.

I didn't know we had My Horse Is a Motorbike. Maybe we don't need a Knight On Shining Harley trope after all; seems like it's covered pretty well by that and the others mentioned.

Hmm, merge em I guess. Most examples should probably go there and are missing there.

I think that it is Tropeworthy. Although it does feel a bit stubby, we should also look into why motorbikes are used more for Main Characters: So you can see their faces. A car has a lot less areas for the main character to be seen, a lot of angles being covered by the doors or the top. With a motorcycle, you can see the character (or his stunt double) doing the actions. Mobility is another thing that was already covered, but the largest one I think is that a Motorcycle just applying "Rule of Cool", since its hard NOT to look like a badass on a motorcycle.

If this does get scrapped, I think that placing the name one some other trope may do.

edited 27th Feb '16 2:23:39 PM by JacksonStillburn

I don't think motorbikes are used more by main characters. In my experience they seem to be used primarily by bit players and throw-away stereotypes while showing up far less for main characters.

Yeah, I don't think it's even that common for protagonists to use motorcycles unless they've been commandeered during an elaborate chase scene.

I don't know, the type of hero really dictates that I think.

Most heroes who go solo or have just a GF love bikes over cars. Also mobility focused heroes use bikes as sort of escort vehicle. Then there is the aforementioned Knight in shining wheels personality types like Cyclops and Snow, who both have girlfriends.

edited 27th Feb '16 11:37:47 PM by Memers

Both of those examples are on Badass Biker already, which is the trope that Heroes Prefer Motorcycles is basically a cheap knockoff of, except constructed into a list of zero context examples of 'this protagonist rides a motorcycle'.

agreeing this should be cut and any new tropes we want to make out of this should go to YKTTW

I don't think any of these proposed redifinitions are tropable (or already are). Bikes as Rule of Cool or to suggest a rebel-bad boy vibe go to Badass Biker. The knight-in-shining-armor types go to My Horse Is a Motorbike. Heroes using a vehicle so you can see their faces I don't think is really specific to bikes.

Single-prop crowner for cutting this?

Single-proposition crowner created.

Crowner attached.

Crowner is unanimous in favor of cutting, so calling it.

Time to get to work.

Dewicking is complete. The trope and the Playing With page have been submitted to the cutlist.