I take flak from one guy at the office for riding a “jap-scrap piss pot”. He constantly asks when I’m going to move up to a “Real Bike”. I then ask him how long his “real bike” has spent in the garage in pieces and then I enjoy the silence (he is fixing-up / farkling his harley, so it has spent the entire season in the garage – he hasn’t ridden it yet this year. Though that is a comment on him and the amount of work he is putting into customizing his bike, not harely reliability).
Around here anyways, the divisions in bike cultures are 99% for tease. A harley rider will sneer at my “piss pot” and I’ll comment that his bike has flatulence. It’s all good.
When I’m out on my ZZR I get waves from almost everyone. Even when I’m in Hells Angels territory (now there are people you do NOT make HD jokes around) I wave and get waved back to. I haven’t had any issue with BMW owners either – usually if they aren’t waving it is because they are fiddling with a GPS or some other farkle
In fact, the only category that reliably doesn’t wave are scooter riders. I’m guessing scooter riders always wonder why whenever a motorcycle passes the rider is pointing at the ground with two fingers…
Two wheels is a community, we each find a niche, and each niche has its asshats. Don’t bother trying to get their acceptance, just enjoy the other 95% of riders who consider you one of the fold.
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“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”