A friendly wave

"Hunrobe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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"Marlene Blanshay" [email hidden]

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The friendliest fellow road users I encounter seem to be carloads of

teenaged

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girls. I think that's due to some kind of "socialization via flirtation"
learning stage some of them go through when they'll flirt with anyone at
anytime. Motorcyclists are the second friendliest group though. The only

any

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negative interaction with motorcyclists I have ever had was at a series of
stoplights with a Harley rider and his girlfriend. He seemed to get a

little

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miffed when, despite all the noise he produced from stoplight to

stoplight, I

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kept up with him through three lights. He was definitely aggravated when I
passed him after the third light. He blew by me right after I passed him

almost

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like we were racing. Yeah, right. My legs and lungs against a 1200cc

internal

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combustion engine.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

P.S.- That Harley rider would have *really* been ticked if he'd known I

never

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even used my big ring between the stoplights. <g>

Hahah.... well, I can't say that teenage girls are on my list but that's
just me, I guess. I do get horndogs from time to time, and sometimes people
yelling things like "Go girl!" or "allez allez!" and one guy in a van yelled
"want to go for a ride sometime? I have a rocky mountain bike!"

"Jean" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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"Chalo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
|
...snip
|
| Being in the habit of delivering the friendly wave at a second's
| notice, I often find myself waving to bicyclists when out riding my
| own bicycle.
|

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My experience is the same as yours - racer wannabes almost always ignore

me

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and never wave, mountain bikers and "regular folks" nearly always say
'hello' in some manner. I've experienced the same thing when I've been
standing by the side of the road with a bike problem - racer wannabes
zipped on by, mountain bikers and "regular folks" asked if I needed help.

My guess as to the reason? Simple snobbery...

I've noticed also that MTBers are always friendly, even the really 'serious'
looking ones. When they're out on the road they always wave. They don't seem
to take themselves OVERLY seriously.

"Eric Ferguson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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My 2 cents.....When I was on my 20-25 year old mountain bike, or now on my
bikeE bent.....I always (well, almost always) say hello and/or wave to
EVERYONE I pass....In either direction....And most say hi and/or wave back
to me...This is usually on the multi-use paths here...

On the main streets, some do, some don't.

A couple of weeks back in Walnut Creek, had a Hell's Angel type biker pull
up next to me at a stop light. I was on my bent. He looked my bike up and
down, gave me a big toothy smile and a thumbs up, and said (with gusto)
"Nice Bike!!".....And since he had a good looking and well decorated
motorcycle, returned the compliment...We both drove off with smiles on our
faces.....

Eric, bikeE CT

Well, I like cool cars, and one day I stopped at a light next to this guy in
a really swell MG convetible, in that bright cherry red, with the top down
of course, and I said, "Nice car!" THe driver, a middle aged guy, said
thanks and complimented my bike. Then he said, "I gotta get into that. I
have to lose more weight." Since he seemed like a guy with money to spend, I
figured he'd be the ideal type to get a pricey bike so I told him that if he
wanted to lose weight, this was the ideal way to go. I said if you get a
bike and ride a lot you can lose 10 lbs off the bat. HE seemed to like that
idea and I think I may have converted another one! ALso, I have a friend who
works at an LBS who caters to just that crowd and sells lots of Treks to
wealthy middle aged men.

People in cool cars are suprised too when someone on a bike compliments
their car, probably figuring we think all cars are evil and are bunny
huggers who eat tofu all day or whatever. But I like cool cars and because
of that I may have convinced someone else to take to the road on a bike!

"psycholist" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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"Bill Davidson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:l7aVc.956$kz6.241@fed1read02...

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Chalo wrote:
This kind of attitude just destroyed our local club. If you became at

all

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serious about cycling, you became some sort of outcast. ("You have to

ride

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OUR way .... WAAAAAHHH.) Well, it got to the point where all the serious
cyclists left the club and a hand full of folks who blow the dust off

their

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bikes a couple times a month got it all to themselves for their little
social outings. Now they wonder why the club can't attract any new

riders.

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Meanwhile, a number of rides have sprung up that attract the serious

folks.

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We ride hard. We ride nice bikes and wear "cycling" gear. We enjoy what

we

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do and we enjoy the company of other like-minded cyclists. Our

socializing

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is in the parking lot or at the post-ride gathering place. We wave when

we

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see other cyclists.

That's the way we are- our motto is 'we're a gang, not a club'. Although
we've gotten less organized due to various changes in lifestyles and
memberships. Our attitude is no hammerheads or taking it too seriously.

I'm confused. Why all this adoration for motorcycle polluters? A motorcycle,
it seems to me, is merely a car without sides.

-
hardly a racer, and will usually acknowledge another rider - even a
mountain biker - but it's a little different during a club ride. If one is
riding closely in a group of people, it seems that the primary focus is riding
smoothly and straight, and watching out for possible problems; being friendly
with folks riding the opposite direction is well down on the priority scheme.

Art

"Hunrobe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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"Marlene Blanshay" [email hidden]

wrote in part:

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Incidentally, I find that out of all the people on the road, drivers that
is, motorcyclists are the least amount of trouble. I have never had a
motorcyclist, even the toughest looking ones on the biggest hogs, ever

yell,

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spit, curse swear or harrass me or my friends. In fact, they tend to give

a

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wide berth and often are friendly and even wave at us!

The friendliest fellow road users I encounter seem to be carloads of

teenaged

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girls. I think that's due to some kind of "socialization via flirtation"
learning stage some of them go through when they'll flirt with anyone at
anytime. Motorcyclists are the second friendliest group though. The only

any

Quoted message said:

negative interaction with motorcyclists I have ever had was at a series of
stoplights with a Harley rider and his girlfriend. He seemed to get a

little

Quoted message said:

miffed when, despite all the noise he produced from stoplight to

stoplight, I

Quoted message said:

kept up with him through three lights. He was definitely aggravated when I
passed him after the third light. He blew by me right after I passed him

almost

Quoted message said:

like we were racing. Yeah, right. My legs and lungs against a 1200cc

internal

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combustion engine.

I enjoy passing them on downhills in the mountains. Those long-wheelbase
Harleys with the ape hanger bars can't corner for [censored].

A couple of years ago while participating in the Bicycle Tour of Colorado, I
was coming down off a pass near Gunnison. The Hell's Angels (the real ones)
were having a get-together in Gunnison and were out for a ride on the same
road. There's nothing like the rush of passing Hell's Angels on Harleys at
45+ mph on a Rocky Mountain curve marked 25 mph!

FWIW - they were pretty cool about it, and several even pulled over to the
right to let me around.

GG

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Regards,
Bob Hunt

P.S.- That Harley rider would have *really* been ticked if he'd known I

never

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even used my big ring between the stoplights. <g>

Chalo wrote:
..
::
:: Is this consistent with anyone else's experience?
::
:: Are folks who wear "Superduperbikeman" getups playing some character
:: role from which they fear to depart?

Not my experience here in SC. The buys in "full plume" always wave, even
when riding in peloton formation.

Marlene Blanshay said:

"Claire Petersky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

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Chalo wrote:
Is this consistent with anyone else's experience?

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Incidentally, I find that out of all the people on the road, drivers that
is, motorcyclists are the least amount of trouble. I have never had a
motorcyclist, even the toughest looking ones on the biggest hogs, ever yell,
spit, curse swear or harrass me or my friends. In fact, they tend to give a
wide berth and often are friendly and even wave at us!

I get a lot more nods and waves when I'm pulling my cargo trailer.
Used to get even more when it was a kid trailer.
Maybe motorcyclists acknowledge bicyclists out of a sense of shared
vulnerability?
Not long ago I had to take the right lane briefly in a busy road due to
some construction. Guy brushed by me in an SUV, hand on the horn,
screaming something about the sidewalk. Harley-Davidson sticker in his
back window.
Wannabes.

GaryG' garyg@shasta_SPAMBEGONE_software.com said:

The primary impression I get from most of the my encounters with guys on
Harleys is one of extremely loud noise. Fairly often, they'll twist the
throttle as they pass me, ensuring my left ear gets a full dose of 100+
decibel engine noise. I know that most of them have been modified to make
them even louder than stock bikes...What's up with that? Do they have to be
that loud to cover other...shortcomings?

Are guys on big loud Harleys playing some sort of character role from which
they fear to depart?

FWIW, I'll exchange waves with the occasional motorhead on a quiet BMW, but
those loud, obnoxious hogs? No way!

Ah, perhaps I should clarify.

My big blue chopper Babe is a very quiet chopper:

http://www.uploadimages.net/images/562466babesid2.JPG

And my club, Dead Baby Bikes, is a moderately noisy club of folks who
ride very quiet bikes:

http://deadbabybikes.org/bikes.htm

That whole introductory drift about motorbiking was just to frame the
discussion of intracommunal waving, which motorbikers do much more
universally than pushbikers, er, bicyclists.

My motorbike (a Suzuki of this type http://www.gsx1100g.com/ ) is
noisy and stinky. but not intentionally so. I don't enjoy it like I
enjoy my bicycles; I just use it to cope with a automotive world
without being stuffed into an automobile.

Chalo Colina

"Chalo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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GaryG' garyg@shasta_SPAMBEGONE_software.com said:

The primary impression I get from most of the my encounters with guys on
Harleys is one of extremely loud noise. Fairly often, they'll twist the
throttle as they pass me, ensuring my left ear gets a full dose of 100+
decibel engine noise. I know that most of them have been modified to

make

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them even louder than stock bikes...What's up with that? Do they have

to be

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that loud to cover other...shortcomings?

Are guys on big loud Harleys playing some sort of character role from

which

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they fear to depart?

FWIW, I'll exchange waves with the occasional motorhead on a quiet BMW,

but

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those loud, obnoxious hogs? No way!

Ah, perhaps I should clarify.

My big blue chopper Babe is a very quiet chopper:

http://www.uploadimages.net/images/562466babesid2.JPG

And my club, Dead Baby Bikes, is a moderately noisy club of folks who
ride very quiet bikes:

Ahhh...well that's a very quiet "chopper" indeed.

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http://deadbabybikes.org/bikes.htm

That whole introductory drift about motorbiking was just to frame the
discussion of intracommunal waving, which motorbikers do much more
universally than pushbikers, er, bicyclists.

As for intracommunal waving...if you wave at me, I'll wave back. And, FWIW,
I usually wave at other cyclists, but I normally ride on quiet rural roads
where encounters with other cyclists are fairly infrequent. I normally
don't wave at motorbikers, because I don't feel part of the same
"community".

GG

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My motorbike (a Suzuki of this type http://www.gsx1100g.com/ ) is
noisy and stinky. but not intentionally so. I don't enjoy it like I
enjoy my bicycles; I just use it to cope with a automotive world
without being stuffed into an automobile.

Chalo Colina

Mark Hickey said:

I've found that the more "into it" riders tend to be on the road
(including those riding flat-bar bikes), the more subtle their
acknowledgement tends to be. By the time you reach Fabrizio's level,
you've pretty much reduced what used to be a friendly "shooshing flies
from the tractor seat wave" to the extension of a few fingers on the
right hand (probably left hand in the UK and other places who haven't
learned to drive on the right side of the road yet).

If you don't know where to look, you miss it. And let's face it, they
go by so fast you have little time to catch the friendly finger-wave.

This would both explain the observed phenomenon and assuage my
suspicions of asocial behavior on the sport riders' part. In the
future, I will try to pay closer attention to subtle gestures.

Chalo Colina

"Bill Baka" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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Proably because I can outspeed many of the Lycra crowd due
to superior conditioning riding my *-mart Huffy MTB as
fast as I can. You should fear me after tomorrow when I get
my real road bike going.

Bill, you may want to read Zoot's post in this thread about
Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Well Terry, since I have no idea what ape hanger bars are, I suppose that
was a slight at me. If it was, it doesn't matter.

I'm out riding to work on my diabetes. A friend gave me my bent, and in a
month and a half, have put over 600 miles on it. In 6 1/2 months, have now
done over 1,200 miles. May not sound like much to *serious* riders, but my
doctor and diabetic care nurse are congratulating me on *finally* doing some
exercise. My blood glucose numbers are coming down. And I'm feeling
better....emotionally, and physically due to the riding. I was a basket case
due to some events that happened in my life in the last 10 months.

I have to admit, I like my bent. It's a bit different looking, and I get a
lot of looks. (Well, partially 'cause a *fat* guy is riding it. But that's
*another* reason I am riding.) So if someone *likes* my bike enough to
comment on it, it makes me feel good about it and my riding. I've also had a
lot of positive comments from other bicycle riders and walkers. Seems I'm
the *only* bikeE in my area.

Well, I've probably rambled on enough. And hopefully, in about five years,
I'm gonna do the Vancouver BC to Ensanada Mexico coast route ride on the
bent.

Terry, if I misread you I apologize. If I didn't, it didn't bother me in the
least.

And about apparel. I were regular type shorts, not lycra or anything else,
regular shirts, a yellow jersey type thing for visibility, and a helmet.
Eric

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 20:37:41 +0000 (UTC), [email hidden]

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Not long ago I had to take the right lane briefly in a busy road due to
some construction. Guy brushed by me in an SUV, hand on the horn,
screaming something about the sidewalk. Harley-Davidson sticker in his
back window.
Wannabes.

Middle-aged guys want Harleys for the same reasons their sons listen
to gangsta rap: it's all manifestations of the same adolescent power
fantasies.

In his own mind, every suburban "gangsta" kid is E-Z Motherf****in' E,
just as, in his own mind, every ageing suburban Harleyite is Easy
Rider.

-Luigi

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 07:06:27 -0700, [email hidden] (Tom Keats)

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I just can't socialize during the morning commute (it's too
early for me for that, and my sole intent is to get to the
destination ASAP,) or while riding to job sites. Most of the
other riders I encounter during the morning commute seem to
feel the same way -- maybe they're still waiting for the
caffeine to kick in, or haven't had their first cup of coffee
of the day yet. So I don't pester 'em. If they wave at me,
I don't have time to notice, let alone acknowledge them.

Quite right.

When I commuted in Central London, there were just so many bicycles
going everywhere that attempting to wave to each one would have been
quite silly, considering the volume of traffic (all sorts: buses,
cars, taxis, delivery vans, lorries, horses, motorcycles...).

In more relaxed situations, like out on the suburban roads &
sidestreets, I do tend to wave. But, often as not, it's because I
recognize the rider & bike (even if I don't know him personally).

-Luigi

Marlene Blanshay said:

That's the way we are- our motto is 'we're a gang, not a club'. Although
we've gotten less organized due to various changes in lifestyles and
memberships. Our attitude is no hammerheads or taking it too seriously.

gangs are a lot tougher on non-members than clubs. Ask anyone who's
gotten on the wrong side of MS-13.

-Luigi

Marlene Blanshay said:

Hahah.... well, I can't say that teenage girls are on my list but that's
just me, I guess. I do get horndogs from time to time, and sometimes people
yelling things like "Go girl!" or "allez allez!" and one guy in a van yelled
"want to go for a ride sometime? I have a rocky mountain bike!"

I had some kids on their way to a local music festival called Spittoono
yell at me today "Use the sidewalk." Actually it wasn't quite as stupid
as it sounds as the sidewalk is actually a bike path, but just ahead of
where we were there was a car parked on it completely blocking it.

Pam

"Luigi de Guzman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Middle-aged guys want Harleys for the same reasons their sons listen
to gangsta rap: it's all manifestations of the same adolescent power
fantasies.

In his own mind, every suburban "gangsta" kid is E-Z Motherf****in' E,
just as, in his own mind, every ageing suburban Harleyite is Easy
Rider.

Ever ridden a Harley, or any other motorcycle, for that matter? Motorcycles
are FUN !!!

I've owned a couple - never a Harley, though - and had a blast riding them.
I sold my last one because - since I have limited spare time - I prefer to
ride my bicycles instead.

C'mon, Luigi, blanket statements such as yours are really just plain silly.

Dave

Eric Ferguson said:

Well Terry, since I have no idea what ape hanger bars are, I suppose that
was a slight at me. If it was, it doesn't matter.

No slight intended. Ape hanger bars are typically found on chopped
Harleys. They place the riders hands at about shoulder height, or
sometimes even higher. I suspect some 'bents do the same.

http://www.ultimaproducts.com/handlebars.htm
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Chalo <[email hidden]> wrote:

I'd think that the sight of some sasquatch-looking slob riding a clown bike
wearing a "Have you spit on your soldier today" T-shirt would cause more
than just cyclists to avert their gave. Be thankful no one's throwing
sticks into your wheels. Pat Tillman's parents probably wouldn't wave to
you no matter what you were doing. Make sure you wear a helmet. It might
not help if you fall, but it will help deflect the rocks children must throw
at you.

Tom