Up in Scotland we still nod and wave to each other, but the minute I cross the border you can see the difference right away, are you so anti social..... I'm with blade rider; we all need to get back to acknowledging each other, what ever you ride.
Been out today and not 1 Harley or Chopper rider acknowledged me but most of the Sports bike riders did ( im on a Firestorm )
Last year I spent most of my time on an 1800 VTX Honda and found most people acknowledged me on that.!
Strange eh !
Well as a harley rider i do nod/wave at other bikers and i do agree that there are a lot of ignorant harley riders out there who will only wave to other harley riders think its to do with the HOG so just keep waving and nodding to them it must realy feck them off lol
ive been out on my little 125 with L's and i got lots of nods, but also a fair few 'non-returned' nods...and I have to say they were mainly from Sports Bike riders.
Big Thumbs Up to all those that do acknowledge me and other L riders tho, after all, we are all bikers and we all have to start somewhere.
if it has 2 or 3 wheels and an engine the rider gets my respect (a nod or wave), no matter the size or whether it has L plates, I used to have them a good few years back and appreciated being accepted and helped on a number of occasions, end result, all are afforded the respect I was and if I can help I will.
Its great to see the smile come across some of the kids face when you give them a nod as you pass them on there 50s
Hopefully they will stick at it when they turn 17 and get tempted by the dark side
I nod or wave even to the sad HOG lot who's fart don't smell lol
Just like everything in life there is always a minority that spoil it whether be sport, cruiser or custom .....
I like it on the continent, riding around the alps a few years ago it
would appear that the the thing to do if you were local was make sure
you had the bike cranked over on a hair pin and go for a comedy wave or
leg wave as you went past .
I usually nod, wave, leg wave, thumbs up, open hand on bars, or whatever takes my fancy at the time!
Anyway there's not been any discussion on what type of nod, I find sports bike go for the straight forward up and down, slightly down to the right for GS's and adventure types and I go left to right for motos
I go for the curious dog nod, helmet angled down and to one side. I couldn't beleive the amount of non nodders yesterday, we got maybe 20 in around 300 bikes spotted. Most ignorant were the cruiser brigade who are obviously dead hard and don't like people. Personally I cracked up laughing down the road from the midway when we stopped for a stretch. Group of harley riders came in trying to look menacing and gnashing thier teeth and then they all talk like a merchant ivory film. I hate stereotyping people but they sure played up to the outlaw accountant image.
Would agree with one of he other posters ...... been riding for over 35 years and its definately got less.
Its quite funny now I've got the ZZR1400, sports bike riders kinda half do it, as the front end is like the ZX10.
1 in 10 cruiser riders, 1 in 20 harley riders, never had a wave off a goldwing.
Seems the only ones that still do it are the likes of Bandits, GSX1400 etc. My son has a 125 super moto and is over the moon at getting a wave off a big bike and always waves at them, even when they dont wave back
btw Shadowfax, thanks for knockin up me BM nods total, good for an ol'woman's ego ..... i'm a big fan of nodding to fellows on the road, but don't nod back on BM these days...just get too many, well that's my excuse... and i'm stickin to it
i was out with a friend when we ran out of petrol eventually a car stopped and gave my friend a lift to a garage leaving me alone with the bike and all though a couple of bikers passed me neither even checked to see if i was ok i always thought bikers were better than that . As a pillion i always nod even on the back of a sports bike stopped doing it on my scooter nobody ever nooded back well maybe the odd one lol
I nod to everyone on two wheels whatever bike (or scooter) they ride.
To me we are all bro's who ride on two wheels. Most people nod back but if they don't - so what? It is my own choice to acknowledge other bikers.
Manufacturers and the media try and control the biker image for there own profits and sales. For instance from early biking days, was the'dirty biker', next was the 'clean scooter' image, then the 'reliable' Japanese bikes. Harley riders, sport bike riders, 'born again' riders, etc.
All these bikes are slightly different from each other of course, and there is a grain of truth in their and their riders 'supposed' different personas. We all buy into these created 'images' but lets not take them too seriously.
We ride bikes because we love the feeling of being closer to the elemental forces and hopefully acknowledge others just for doing the same.