earlier appearance of rice-burner

[Douglas G. Wilson]

At 10:58 AM 9/17/00 +0200, you wrote:
>Tony Thorne's Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (1990) gives
>"Rice-burner n American
>a Japanese motorcycle. A contemptuous term used by US bikers and
>particularly by police motorcyclists who were forced to exchange their
>Harley Davidsons for Japanese motorcycles in the 1970s."
>Jan Ivarsson, Sweden

 From my own recollection: I am absolutely certain of the use of this
expression among motorcyclists (particularly those favoring
Harley-Davidsons) in Illinois in 1971. I think I heard it a little earlier,
about 1969, but I can't swear to this.

This was an expression of exasperation at the new appearance of large
Japanese motorcycles in the American market. Since the large Japanese
motorcycles such as the Honda 750 tended to outperform the Harleys,
Triumphs, etc., and to be less expensive, an epithet was needed. If the
expression existed in the mid-1960's (and it may have), it wasn't used
much, since the small Japanese motorcycles of the time were not in
competition with the beloved bigger bikes.

Since the epithet was neither appropriate nor well-conceived, I think it
failed to get into print very much, at least at first.

-- Doug Wilson