G·Day Dodger,
it comforts me the downgrade from idiot on the hill to village idiot. !Sounds nicer, more rural in a way. Back to nature! Just an old hippies cup of tea.
The rockers with whom I had dealings of different sorts, were in Denmark where I·m from, and are the fathers and mothers of the kids I salute when riding. Most of them, as mentioned previously by others, don·t return the gesture, but thats because they do·nt know me either..... !? It would be nice to get together one day and show You what we Vikings are like when we get a few dozens of pints down:chris: . I·ve had horses and understand . Brings to my mind a friend of mine who had a man with a shovel on one cheek (bum) and a load of horse menure on the other, and when contracting his arse muscles, the little tatoo guy started shoveling the shit back to where it came from!
Lovely to get this little item out of the way and now that I recognize that I could be a village idiot and You recognize that You·re daft (lol) , I·m sure we will become real good friends one day!
Love and peace,
Dan

I was just about to explain the footwave but Kevin has done so already above. I too have found the French "flics" quite reasonable even when I've been in the wrong. However, if anyone visits the Le Mans 24 hour races, then if you leave the area even at 8.00 am be prepared to be breathalysed; be careful if you had a bucketful the night before. The reasonableness vanishes then.

Dan the Viking,
"Always remember to pillage before you burn !"

Hrothgar

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Why·s that --- ????
Cheers mate.

It's a Viking father's advice to his son .
And a bit of a joke .

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

The "why·s that" was supposed to be a joke too!!!! A typical "village idiot" question ! Get it ? Lol.
All these Hubb inserts are starting to make me thrive for some of your whatever it·s called Englsh /ale.
Skaal/cheers my friend ---- I·m off to the next whiskey bar.... and don·t ask me why...
Dan

I have noticed that the waves and nods depend on what bike you are on, where your riding and what bike the other person is on.

On my old bikes, 600 bandit, and XT660 - I used to get nods from pretty much everyone, wherever i was. Since getting a 1150gs, i have noticed that most people on sportsbikes ignore me, however i usually get a wave from other people on similar bikes.

Mike

I agree with the above post, it depends on the bike you ride mostly but as said before it is very local and it seems the closer you get to cities in the UK where people are more materialistic and trying to out do eachother, the fewer people pay compliments to fellow bikers.

I have to say that the bikers that I have had the least response from have been people riding BMW's, especially the GS's.....perhaps they all think they are Ewan McGregor or something......but I bet even he would wave back!

Thankfully there are still real bikers around who have been broken down before and have experienced riding in rubbish conditions and have travelled until they cant walk......etc, who understand what fellow bikers are going through.

Trav

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Moto Guzzi California 1100i
Honda XR650R 2003

'Nothing is neither right nor wrong, but what thinking makes it so'

'Where is a desert when you need one?'

I have ridden for 40 years and have seen the slow decline in comradery among bikers in Canada and the States. I was riding with some guys I know and passed a bike broken down on the highway. I stopped and my buddies eventually came back but wanted to leave the guy to fend for himself. That told me a lot about them. Selfish, dont do anything that is going to inconveniance me attitude is totally disgusting and sad.
The waving thing I do all the time regardless of what is comming.
If you dont wave you are a dam snotnose poser.
My rant is over . I only read the first few posts on this thread so I dont know what it became .
Bill

Interesting topic.

I've noticed the further south in the UK you go, the less you're acknowledged.

I always nod or tip my head at other bikes, except when riding in Europe where I'll follow their usual wave with the clutch hand. I don't flash as it can be misinterpreted and as UK traffic laws stand, if it leads to an accident, you're at fault. I'll signal with my palm flat and down with an up-down movement to warn oncoming bikers of an accident or police presence (far more common in mainland Europe) but I'll always make a point of acknowledging police motorcyclists. Goes without saying that I pull over for anyone that looks like they need help.

Also pull the clutch and wave with throttle hand to horse riders and you'll nearly always get a wave and a smile back. I also make sure that I give a thumbs up to car drivers who move over to let me pass, particularly if filtering. It's just a little bit of recognition of their good driving and observation and hopefully they'll keep doing it.

I tend not to nod or wave so much if I'm somewhere where there's loads of bikes, such as a popular meeting place, race meeting, etc, but thats just common sense. I don't usually wave at anything with L-plates unless I get a nod first, well.. maybe I'll wave at 125's if I'm having a good day but that's normal I think.

I hate the sterotypes, but last weekend I'm afraid they fitted perfectly. I took the outfit loaded with wife, dog camping gear to York. In that load condition I'm not doing much more that staying with the faster trucks, so most other bikes passed us. The ones I noticed were:

Three BM GS's with all the toys, London plates, came past very fast, close formation, cut in front without leaving enough space, not so much as a look.

Four cruisers (the one at the back was a Sportster), doing 50 in a 70 zone stared dead ahead as though they were deliberately ignoring the fact a Triumph was passing.

Old Brit bike, maybe a Velocette, huge grin and thumbs up when passed.

12-15 sports bikes in a group; everyone stuck out a leg or waved to acknowledge Karens wave then did his/her lifesaver and pulled in. They were "making progress" but it looked so unstressed and safe looking even plod was going to give them a few MPH grace.

On Saturday night I did a grocery run and stopped to say hello to a bloke on a CBR with a flat. I had tyre kit, but he prefered to let the AA take him home. I was only the second bike to stop on a road with sportsbikes going past every few minutes.

Something is changing in the bike culture and the only thing I can relate it to is that leisure riders on new bikes must now outnumber the full timers keeping old clunkers going. As guys who've never been late for work due to a bike puncture show other guys how it's done we've lost something, they can't help and/or still think like car drivers. Too many idiots out there more worried about their image and how shiney their toys are too.

Andy

I always find that less bike, by percentage, ride well and courtious in the summer than the winter. This fits with observations of others in that I guess winter riders are 'real' bikers, whilst the great majority of the summer guys are fair weather riders.

Always thank drivers for doing the right thing, and alway wave/nod to other bikes on the road. I've never passed a lone bike on the side of the road without slowing and giving the thumbs up/down - now ant then you get a thumbs down, so I stop to see if I can help.

I think the guys who have travelled are much more courtious that those that haven't, lets face it if your attitude stinks you're not going to get far outside of the UK are you ?

i always stop to see if i can help a lone biker at the side of the road and i always nod to other bikers. last week i was stuck at the side of a roundabout and about 40 bikes passed whilst i waited for the breakdown company. NOT ONE STOPPED! lots just turned their heads in the other direction! sad shiny summer bikers! this wont stop me from stopping in the future but i was quite annoyed at thinking were supposed to be a team!

And yet bikes are allways a good ice breaker , conversations with others at petrol stations , roadside stops etc , standing chatting to a stranger for at least 10 mins talking '' bike'' or trips .
i ride road bikes / dual purpose bike , there is a difference in who acknowledges and who doesn,t , but only here not abroad .

i think it's mainly the steroetypes bikers have been given by the media (and sometimes each other) and it's being enforced on the younger generations. Example; cruiser riders are now deeply associated with gang cultures and violence, sports bike riders are known for speeding, using roads as racecourses and doing idiotic stunts on the roads, while the classic bike riders are seen as the slow people who brake down alot and get in the way and harley riders are seen as fair weather poofs.....
I was brought up to believe all that, from teachers to my dad (harley rider), to people tutting in the street and muttering things seeing bikers go past. Plus with all the media attention on a few pricks from some well known biker gangs, most younger riders tend to just keep their heads down and not even look up for fear of upsetting anyone (experience). Btw does anyone agree that the blokey who went on tv and spoke about the ha guys murder with the infamous quote " well these things happen, they shouldn't but they do" is a proper dickhead? Face it with people like that as the mouth piece of bikers, we're ****ed!
But back to the real point i then met a really nice cutdown wearing old school leather clad sweetheart and he taught me a helluva lot, he always stopped for bikers, even scooter riders, never had a bad word to say about anyone, and he waved at everyone including scooter riders, how many of you include those as bikers. Cos they're gonna be on the big machines soon enough and if everyone ignores them, they're gonna be abit like "why the **** should i wave back at you when y'all ignored me for years?" maybe that has summit to do with it????? And cruiser riders bitching at sportsbike riders for being crazy, sportsbike riders seeing everyone as beneath them (read the first page of this thread, theres one of those there) and everyone else pottering along trying to be friendly and being seen as a daft old hippy biker. My guess is the only way to get back the friendly waves and nods is to go back to the bike meets, have a chat with anyone and everyone regardless of what they ride (there's abit too much of a clique culture going on, not pointing fingers sporties) and carry on waving away until it catches on again and spreads like swine flu, and always include the scooter riders. Dear god, imagine for a second if every biker had a chat with the teens on their scooters and 125's, passing on valuable knowledge and the deep love and respect for machines you all have and the mentality of biking culture. Just imagine how much safer the roads could be and how improved the public view of us?????

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***Sorry, can you repeat that......Err what was that again***