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US
Flag Only
If only
the US Flag is on your bike, it should either be at the
center, or to its "marching right" - on the right side
of the motorcycle to the rider's perspective when facing
forward.
US
Flag And One Other Flag Of Any Type
If the US Flag is on
your bike with another, it should be to its "marching
right" - on the right side of the motorcycle to the
rider's perspective. If the other flag is that of
another nation, it should be the same size and at the
same height of the US Flag - NO flag should ever be
displayed higher than the US Flag.
US
Flag And More Than One Other Non-National Flag
If the US Flag is on
your bike with several other non-national flags
(POW/MIA, ALR, Eagles, Service Banners, etc.) , it
should be at center and higher than any of the other
flags.
US
Flag And More Than One Flag Including Those Of Other
Nations
If the US Flag is
displayed on your bike with those of any other nation,
the flags should be same size and at the same height,
with the US Flag to marching right (right side of the
vehicle), and others arranged in alphabetical order to
the left. Other flags should be arranged in order of
decreasing importance - Nations first, states (in order
of admittance) and territories second, military third
(in order of establishment), and then any others. Again,
no flag should fly higher than the US Flag, but the US
Flag should be no higher than that of any other nations
displayed.
Rationale
I and others have
argued that, since the small bike flags we use are all
but invisible from the front (when mounted on the rear),
the concept of "Flag's own right" should be used with
the vantage from the rear of the bike. (This would place
the Flag on the on left-hand, rear of your bike). This
concept, unfortunately, overlooks a more applicable
concept.
If you equate the
motion of your bike with marching, and you equate
traffic with a procession, another portion of the Flag
Code becomes the obvious choice for display of the Flag
alone, or with another:
Rule 9: "The Flag,
when carried in a procession with another flag or flags,
should be either on the marching right; that is, the
Flag's own right, or, if there is a line of other flags,
in front of the center of that line."
The second portion
of this rule does not work well with most motorcycles,
since there usually is no means to mount the Flag in
front (in the direction of travel) of the others if all
flags are to be mounted at the rear of the bike. In this
case, we rely on:
Rule 10: "The Flag
of the United States of America should be at the center
and at the highest point of the group when a number of
flags of States or localities or pennants of societies
are grouped and displayed from staffs." Included in this
would be POW/MIA flags and American Legion Riders flags.
Finally, if you are
displaying another country's flag along with the US
Flag, they both should be at the same height and the
same size, and the US Flag should be displayed on the
right side (again, marching right). This is basically
Rule 11: "When flags of two or more nations are
displayed, they are to be flown from separate staffs of
the same height. The flags should be of approximately
equal size. International usage forbids the display of
the flag of one nation above that of another nation in
time of peace. The order of precedence for flags
generally is National flags (US first, then others in
alphabetical order in English), State (host state first,
then others in the order of admission) and territories
(Washington DC, Puerto Rico, etc.), Military (in order
of establishment: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force,
Coast Guard), then other."
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