[SafetyFirst]

Anyone found about right?

On the 03 Ninja 250, I can pretty much always expect a wave or a nod or a finger (not THE finger, a finger) from guys on sports bikes.

Cruisers and standards, hit or miss. If there’s a wife on the back as a passenger, I’ll usually get one from them. Some Harley guys seem to have metric-phobia, so whatever.

Dual-sports? Well, I have yet to see one, so can’t say.

Scooters, NEVER. I guess they don’t get it. I have never had a scooter give me any response back. I’m not even going to try anymore.

Residential streets seem to increase the likelihood of the wave, busy streets reduce it. Common sense prevails. Don’t expect anything more than a head bob from someone starting out a light — the clutch hand is busy.

[davidmdahl]

In the Portland, Oregon area, I usually exchange a wave with all motorized two-wheelers that I encounter while out and about on my Vespa. Last September when I started riding, there were not so many motorcycles on the road, and the number decreased a lot during the Fall and Winter. It was fun to see and greet a fellow rider on cold days. Now that the weather is considerably warmer and drier, the fair-weather riders are on the roads. On weekends, there are sometimes so many riders in the Portland area that the wave is a distraction.

On occasion I encounter an old-school HD rider with full beard and leathers, and a well-worn bike that has apparently traveled many miles. Those waves are a thrill.

Best wishes,

David

[zeppelinfromled]

It seems that the more similar your bikes, and the closer your amounts of safety gear match, the more likely you are to get a wave. If you’re both on sport bikes, and both wearing jackets and full face helmets, it’s pretty likely. If you’re on a sport bike in a jacket and full face helmet, and he’s on a Harley in jeans, a cut-off T-shirt, and no helmet, it’s unlikely that you’ll get a wave back.

I don’t usually wave to scooters. The reason I wave to other motorcyclists is because it’s a community, and that’s a way of acknowledging that community. Scooters aren’t part of that community, nor do they usually try to be (I’m of course speaking generally here, I’m sure there are exceptions). If I got a wave from a scooter, I would return it, but I don’t initiate.

It’s always awkward when someone waves, but you’re on the clutch. I just give a head nod, and I’m sure they realize that it’s just because I needed the clutch.

[gsmurfette]

I’m with Elwood, I pretty much wave to anything on two wheels, other than bicycles, and that’s because around here they think they don’t have to obey the rules of the road, they run red-lights and crap, and I don’t do that on my bicycle, so it makes me mad, lol. I just drop a hand. Some cruiser’s either don’t see me, or are stuck up, ’cause sometimes I don’t get a wave from them. Most everyone waves, trikes always wave (my neighbor has one, so maybe I’m in the circle or something). Here, even if there is a barrier on a divided highway, people make sure to lift an arm instead of dropping it. I’m 2 hours west of Seattle, small bike community. I don’t ride with the local club, because they’re mostly harley, and most of them have the attitude if you don’t ride a harley then you’re not anything. The first time I waved, I was scared to take my hand off the handlebar, so it was like this two finger thing like an inch from the bar……they probably laughed at me. Then the same day, another guy did this two arm wave, it looked like ocean swells, that’s the only way I can describe it. I about died laughing at him.

[ranette]

I ride both a motorcycle and a scooter. When I’m on my motorcycle I wave at everyone, including scooters. When I’m on my scooter I can sometimes be a little hesitant about waving to motorcycles. Certainly not because of any aloofness, and not because I don’t feel like I don’t want to be in the club, but in the midst of Gixxers and Fat Bobs us little 150cc scooter riders can get a little inferiority complex. When I’m on my scooter and someone on a motorcycle waves to me I always return the wave in an instant, as if to say “I was about to wave to you before you waved to me.” So, if you’re on a motorcycle wave to the scooters, they’re in the club, they might be on smaller machines but they’ve got the same skills, are taking the same risks and are having as much fun as everyone on bigger bikes.

[briderdt]

Scooters, cruisers, cops, sporties. The only ones that I get a hit-or-miss from are the scooters.

[ranette]

Check out a scooter board. Every wave discussion will center on how nobody on a motorcycle will return their wave.

Obviously we’re talking in generalities here as every individual, regardless of what their riding, makes the choice to either wave or not. Could it be possible that people’s feeling that scooter riders don wave be based on the fact that there are a ton of new scooter riders out there, maybe a larger percentage of them just aren’t ready to take one hand off the bars yet. I don’t know.

[SafetyFirst]

They must still be looking for the clutch and the gear shifter. I kid, I kid.

[Candice]

I wave/nod at motos and scoots. I nodded at a lady on a scooter yesterday, she nodded back. It was all good!

I also acknowledge someone when they pull up beside me, I’ll just give a little nod. One guy I see every morning refuses to look at me so I don’t bother with him, he always looks miserable, but everyone else seems cool that I’ve encountered so far.

[ranette]

I was going to mention something similar in my post but had to cut it short. What I was going to say is that there are a ton of new scooter riders, probably a greater percentage of those on scoots than those on motorcycles are newbies. It does take a bit of confidence to take your hands off the bars if you are still getting used to the feeling of being on two wheels. Trust me, you may be a newbie on what most might consider a small bike, but to a new scooter rider you look like someone who knows what they’re doing on a big motorcycle; a little wave can go a long way to making someone’s day. I know my first wave from a motorcycle on my scooter really made me feel good.

[Clay Dowling]

I’m more likely to get a wave returned from a bicycle than a scooter. But most of the scooters I see running around are clearly being ridden by somebody new who is trying to save money, not be part of the two-wheeled community.

I dunno, maybe scooters save money. Motorcycles certainly don’t, once you factor in costs for tires and the fact that you need gear.

[bigguybbr]

But I never ever EVER wave at the scooters.

I just can’t bring myself to do it.

If I wave to scooters, then I have to wave at all scooters, the big Burgman 650’s, the little 49cc chinese ones, to the razor scooters with electric motors, and that would just beget waving to bicycles, roller bladers, women pushing baby buggys…

I’d be nodding to the old lady pushing a shopping cart in the grocery store parking lot, waving to kids with the roller skate wheel in the heel of their shoes until finally I’m driving around waving my hands in the air like I’m on fire and tossing my head around like I’m trying to give myself whiplash.

So I say if wittle scoot-scoots want their wavy wuv they can come down off their 2 wheeled high chairs and get on a motorcycle.

[Jim]

I wave to everybody! Why not, lifes too short to be stuck up. I pass this guy on a sport bike everyday on my way to work going the opposite direction, guess he is doing the same. Our daily waves are a ritual now. If I don’t see him for a few days I wonder where he is, I wonder if he wonders the same about me. I will have to chase him down someday and say howdy.

[SafetyFirst]

I have never waved to a cop, mainly because I’m worried that it’d be asking for it.

[zeppelinfromled]

If anyone on a scooter waved to me, I would return it, no question.

I find that most people who ride scooters do it for convenience (I say most, certainly not all). It’s a way to get around town quickly, and they don’t have to worry about locations that aren’t near the subway, or the bus schedule. I see nothing wrong with that, but that’s why I say that a number of scooter riders aren’t part of (and don’t want to be part of) the motorcycle community.

One interesting thing that I’ve found is that when the weather is gross (cold and rainy), I still see scooters out and about even if I don’t see any motorcycles. Those are the kind of scooter riders who I’ll wave to without a problem. It’s impossible to identify them when the weather is nice though, which is a shame.

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