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Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Monday, March 19, 2012

The wonderful world of biking


An appropriate way to start, part of the biker's code and so true. I have been asked before by several people; "What is the biker's code?" and have never really been able to explain it, this certainly is a major part of the code but it is only a part of it. The biker's code embraces all aspects of biking and the way we should conduct ourselves in relation to our brother and sister bikers but also in relation to members of the public. I think it will be an interesting project to research "The biker's code."
On a completely different topic, and I promise this will be the last time that I rant about other bikers not waving or greeting on the open road, and Harley Davidson riders in particular but I had a good laugh the other day while watching an episode of "The World's Greatest Motorcycle Rides."; Henry Cole was in Australia riding around some beautiful wide open spaces on a Harley Davidson Road King and he ended up in one of the cities where he met up with a large motorcycle club.
They got together at a clubhouse and were chatting and Cole asked the other riders; "Why is it that people don't wave to each other here?" and the simple answer from one of the Aussie bikers was "Because you're on a Harley mate, no one waves at Harley riders!"
That's it, I am satisfied now; it's a worldwide phenomenon - Harley riders are the same the world over, it's probably in the sales/purchase agreement or it's part 1 of the rider's manual; "We do not wave at non-Harley riders."
Just joking guys! But it did amuse me to see that happen all the way over there in Aussie.
This picture is amazing, the mind boggles! What could have happened here? The rider ran out of petrol, leaned his bike up against a sapling and then forgot about it? Extremely fast growing trees? One thing's for sure; it would be one hell of a job to recover that motorbike.
Here's some particularly imaginative customising! He's probably been stopped a good few times; "But Officer it's only the fuel tank!"
And I leave you with this thought; keep bikers safe.......
Just a brief insight into the wonderful world of bikers and biking. Keep the shiny side up!

4 comments:

Steve said...

I had to laugh. I live here in Sydney and yes he was right you don't wave to Harley riders, unless they wave at you. And in almost 20 years of riding I could count on one hand the amount of harley riders that have waved at me and i'd still have spare fingers. Bet they were new to riding. Lol

Canajun said...

I don't know where this Harley riders don't wave thing comes from. I ride a Harley and I wave. Now that may make me part of the 2% who do, but at Sturgis my left arm was ready to fall off after every ride from returning waves from Harley riders. Now, sports bike riders? They never wave because to take a hand off the bars would mean a face plant into the speedo. And that just wouldn't do.

Steve said...

I am a sportsbike rider, Yamaha R1 and I will wave to any rider, even a harley but have given up waving at them because the bastards just won't wave back.

Other bikers on cruisers and sportts tourers always wave and generally I'll wave to them first. It's just acknowledgement of the motorcycling brotherhood and all the dangers that we all face as riders no matter what type of bike we ride being cruiser, tourer, sports.

the rider said...

It's a discussion that could take ages, Canajun you are definitely in the minority - especially here in SA we don't bother waving if we recognise the oncoming bike is a Harley, all others will either raise a hand in greeting, flash their lights or nod towards you as they pass. As you say Chillertek, it's an acknowlegement of the brotherhood and the thin line we tread together.