Notice anything different?

I've been riding for about ten years now. One of the fun things is seeing how many other riders wave at us when we're on the road (Harley riders rarely seem to wave at metric bikes here). Now I'm noticing no one seems to wave at scooters. Just my imagination?

When I was riding my old Harleys. I had to make arm turn signals because the old bikes did not have turn signals. Here in Oklahoma every one thought I was waving when I was making a turn.

DennisB

I was out riding for about 6 hours today and a lot of bikers waved. Some were on Harleys. I was actually suprised that so many would wave at a scooter rider. But then, I have a friend who rides with me who owns a farm and he waves at anybody on a tractor.

We get waves from all types of bikes here. We wave where ever we go, and notice it is regional and by bike type. Odd as all get out, but doesn't change our approach - we wave.

I noticed that most oncoming riders (both Harley and metric) wave at me. However, they probably can't tell I am on a scooter until it is too late. I am sure they go home in shame after realizing their mistake.

I have both a Harley and a Silverwing. I do notice a difference in the reactions I get on them. On the Harley the reaction seems to be "Oh, look, kids, another old hippie on a Harley" while the reaction on the Silverwing is more like "Damn, how'd he get that thing to go this fast??"

Bottom line, for me is "there are alot nice people on different kinds of motorcycles and alot of different "people with an attitude" on nice motorcycles." Its usually easy to spot the difference.

I feel most of us here in this forum fall in the first category. At least that is the way I hope people percieve me. Heck, I wave at everyone. I have even found myself waving at bikes while driving my car.

churchlady53 wrote:

I've been riding for about ten years now. One of the fun things is seeing how many other riders wave at us when we're on the road (Harley riders rarely seem to wave at metric bikes here). Now I'm noticing no one seems to wave at scooters. Just my imagination?

I used to watch if someone waved or not. After I started seeing enough not waving, I thought about it and finally figured that I could not change others who do not wave so thinking, counting or classifying was just wasting my time.

So now I always wave early while they are still in a distance. If they wave early I see it because I watching down the road ... a lot do wave early. I even wave at night with my reflective jacket.

If they do not wave early, I do not watch if they wave or not ... I find that I am happier not knowing.

I am not saying everyone should do the same ... I am just saying what is working for me.

When I had my bright yellow Helix the Harley's never waved. Now with the new Silverwing they wave!! :Party: I'm sure some when they get by me realize I'm a scooter and regret it but oh well, too late. I almost always wave...and yes I wave at the tractors also. They always wave

As you can see.....by the picture to the left, I wave at everyone!!!!!!

DennisB

I've noticed I get more waves from cruisers than sport bikes. Haven't noticed much difference between Harleys and Metrics, both seem the same.

Up here in Ontario, I get waved at quite a bit. I don't do what they call the "scooter" wave arm bent upright at the elbow, hand waving. That seems to be the wave of choice for the Vespa riders - they also tend to bounce up and down slightly on their seats in excitement, with their hands waving frantically when they see each other. I extend my arm out and down, or, if I'm in a tricky situation ( a cage within 30 feet of me) I do the head nod. I have found cruisers to be a lot more friendly . There are very few S'Wings up here, so I get a lot of double-takes when riders see I am riding a scooter. It's hard to tell from the front or the back what it is. Last summer, I watched a sport bike trying for quite a while trying to catch up to my husband (on his Meanstreak) and myself on a busy highway. I guess he couldn't figure out from the back what I was riding, so was dodging in and out of traffic to catch up. He finally caught up to us at a red light. I looked over in time to see the head-shake of disgust ( "just a scooter"), said "nice ride" to my husband , and popped a small wheelie when the light changed to get away from us. I've also had a real "biker" type - Harley, tattoos, black leather and chains from head to toe come over in a coffee shop parking lot in the middle of nowhere to comment on my S'Wing, saying he had heard some good things about them and asking questions.

It seems like a lot of people wave and some do not. I usually wave if I see another bike coming and if I am not engaged in some sort of tricky maneuver. Several "real motorcyclists" have commented "Well, at least you are on 2 wheels". And of course there are others who won't even look at you. I sill get quite a few comments from people at stop lights, in parking lots, or while filling it up. As far as I am concerned, riding it is way too much fun to care what other people think.

I wave when it's safe to do so. When I bought my SW last year (my first time ever riding a MC of any kind), it took me about 3 waves to realize that they were waving at me. I used to own a Jeep Wrangler back in the 70s. I vaguely remember Wrangler owners waving to each other too.

My favorite is when a biker waves then realises its a scoot then feels like they have been abused.....I personally nod my head and thats at everyone on two wheels my opinion is we all ride and share a passion so chill :afro:

I remember being on a highway years ago when some bike waved. I had always been on back roads and didn't see many bikes or cars for that matter. I put out my hand to wave and cupped my hand, almost blew me off the bike.. Scared me a bit and then of course I realized you just opened your fingers and relaxed. Live and learn...LOL

I wave my hand as high and as obnoxiously as can..(Particularly Harley's)
till I usually get thier head shaking... and I can read thier mind...
"what a Friggin IDIOT....g'dam geeks..."

Here in my little NE corner of Kansas and no longer than I've been riding, I think I've seen the whole gamut. I also had a hard time figuring out 'how' to wave. Finally caught on to the low left arm out procedure (or whatever I figure is proper at the time). I always get a kick out of receiving a wave whether initiated by me or them.

I don't know the differences between cruisers, sportsters, etc, but can recognize the "crotch rockets" that go zinging around; most with no protective gear at all and carrying passengers in the same mode. I suspect the reason I never get a wave from them is that they're just too darn busy trying to go fast (or afraid to turn loose of the handle bar).

As for the Harleys and Goldwing type bikes, I've seen both ways with them too. At any rate, I keep on trying. If someone doesn't wanna wave, I just say a little curse word to myself and let it go at that. Life's just too short.

Many, Many moons ago (and most of us are old enough to remember that period in time) every one waved. There might have been brand rivals such as Triumph vs BSA, British vs Harleys, Everything vs the early Japanese invasion and other tidbits of friendly rivalry but dog gone everyone waved when passing on the road AND no one ever passed another motorcyclist broken down on the road. It just seemed to be an unwritten thing amoung all cyclist at the time. At least thats how I remember it. I still try to follow this procedure.

I did a web search on Motorcycle Etiquette - One of the results.

"The (Heretofore Previously) Unwritten Laws of "Motorcycle Etiquette"
Jean, http://tinyurl.com/pmbzj9

Many, many years ago, I read the (then very popular) book "The Art of Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance"... It did little, however, to prepare me for the many situations that I encountered when, following our wedding in 1997, my husband and I decided to tour from our home in Northern California across the United States to Florida and then up to South Dakota, and then back across to Portland, OR, and back down to Northern California on his Harley...

This is when (and where) I became acquainted for the very first time with "Motorcycle Etiquette".

One of the first things that you should know about Motorcycle Etiquette is that it is customary for motorcyclists to acknowledge other motorcyclists in some way -- especially when they pass each other coming from opposite directions.

These "acknowledgements" take many different forms but rarely do they involve actual "waving" as you might expect... From what I've been able to glean about the subject, actual "waving" by one cyclist to another is considered "dorky" and "pretty lame" (especially, it seems, by the male of the motorcycling species).

However, from what I observed during all of those many, many miles spent behind Hubby on "The Queen's Seat", there appear to be various gestures of greeting utilized almost universally by cycle enthusiasts which can be indexed into a few basic "moves".

(Yes, I'm fully aware that there IS another name for the "Queen's Seat"; howEVER, in my opinion, only chauvinists and sexists would think of it... Ah-HA! Caughtcha, didn't I?)

One of these "motorcyclistic gestures of greeting" I like to call the "Half-Heil-Hitler"...

In the "Half-Heil-Hitler" the arm is bent at the elbow and held close to the body while the flattened hand is then lifted to shoulder level with the palm facing outwards (almost as if the rider were some kind of "mechanical basketball dribbler" that was about to complete only ONE dribble -- er, "drib"? -- of the ball).

There are other motorcyclistic gestures of greeting which are limited solely to head motions...

There's one I call "The Big Nod" where the head is bobbed, only ONCE -- slowly and exaggeratedly -- up, then down and another that I call "The Whassup?" in which the head is tilted swiftly backwards, one time, in a "jerking motion" while thrusting the chin upwards at the same time.

Some cyclists prefer a move which I call "The Left Turn" which involves the "greeter" cyclist sticking one arm straight out to the side (nearest the oncoming "greetee" cyclist) with his/her fingers splayed out -- almost as if s/he was signaling to make a left turn while, at the same time, making a bid of "$5" in an imaginary auction.

It's a move remotely akin to what we used to do when we were kids in the backseat of the family car when we stuck our hand and arm out of the open window in order to feel the wind resistance push our arm backwards. (I'm sure you remember doing this... It was usually what we were doing just BEFORE our mothers screamed at us to get our hands and arms back inside the car before some passing semi chopped them off...)

In the U.S.A. and Canada, "The Left Turn" entails the use of the left arm thrust out toward the left; however, in the U.K. (Australia, New Zealand, Japan and practically every other country in the world BUT here), the right hand and arm would be utilized... It would then, of course, be called "The Right Turn".

Then, we come to the move generally acknowledged as the pinnacle of greetings amongst cycling enthusiasts. I call it "The Cool Harley-Dude Point"...

My husband and I had made it as far as Arizona, I believe, in our trek across the country before I witnessed my very first "Cool Harley-Dude Point"...

"The Cool Harley-Dude Point" is supremely understated and most effective when rendered with an accompanying air of mystique and stealth...

It is accomplished by extending the unbent arm (nearest to the oncoming "greetee") downwards at an angle -- offset diagonally from the body by no more than 10-15 degrees -- and then forming the hand, forefinger extended, into a "point" -- almost as if one wished to subtly point out an object on the roadbed to another person while, at the same time, avoiding the attentions of passersby.

It is important to note that, during the execution of "The Cool Harley-Dude Point" the "pointer" refrains from making any eye-contact whatsoever WITH the "pointee"... I don't why, exactly -- it's just "cooler" that way...

There is also a kind of "motorcycle hierarchy" which operates on the highways and byways of America which you should be made aware of:

First off, Harley Davidson riders acknowledge OTHER Harley riders (along with the occasional Norton, Indian or Triumph-rider)... They do NOT, however, acknowledge Honda, Kawasaki or Suzuki (or, basically, any Japanese-manufactured motorcycle -- commonly referred to as "rice burners" by riders of Harley Davidsons) riders, UNLESS the rider of the Japanese cycle acknowledges the Harley-rider FIRST and, even then, the return acknowledgement is NOT a "given".

Japanese-motorcycle riders acknowledge OTHER Japanese-motorcycle riders but rarely make the "first overture" toward HARLEY (or any of the above-mentioned, non-Japanese motorcycles) riders...

It's like a "motorcycle caste system" with Japanese motorcycle riders occupying the place of "The Untouchables"; however, if conditions are adverse enough (horrible riding weather or a general lack of other motorcycle riders of any sort for an extended period of time), the strict "lines of demarcation" between riders of Japanese-manufactured cycles and riders of non-Japanese-manufactured cycles DO tend to relax a bit...

Now, BMW-motorcycle riders are an entirely different matter... They reside in kind of a "nether region" of Motorcycle Etiquette where they sometimes acknowledge Harley riders first and sometimes not... They are also sometimes found traveling together with Harley-riders while, at other times, you can find them traveling blissfully amongst their Japanese counterparts -- which proves, once again, the old adage "He who has a lot of money goes anywhere he wants to with whomsoever he feels like".

I must add that there exists a very small percentage of automobile and truck drivers who, because they have been made privy to Motorcycle Etiquette at some other time in their lives, also occasionally acknowledge motorcyclists with gestures of greeting. These, however, usually take the form of what I like to call the "Harley is No. 1!" gesture (which consists of the "greeter" extending an arm out the window of his/her vehicle with only the forefinger pointing upwards), OR what I call "The Universal Way-to-Go" gesture (which consists of extending the thumb upwards while the rest of the fingers remain formed into a fist).

I feel it is prudent to point out, however, that the automobile/truck drivers in these instances must be very conscientious in displaying the proper digit(s) with regard to these "greetings" because a ticked-off biker can be a very dangerous thing...

The main thing to remember about "auto-to-cycle" or "truck-to-cycle" communication is that it is ALWAYS initiated by the driver of the automobile or truck -- UNLESS, of course, the driver is well-known to the rider (otherwise, cyclists would need some kind of additional brace of some sort attached to their cycles to assist them in keeping their "greeting hand" elevated at all times...).

Well, I hope you benefited in some small way today from this "crash course" in Motorcycle Etiquette because you just never know when this information might come in handy...

Happy cycling!