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Ever wished you could take a wave back?

6K views 110 replies 51 participants last post by  svrocket 
#1 ·
Dear GSXR rider,

I am a very new rider, and I make it a point to wave at most bikers I see, my only exception being if they are acting like complete idiots. Unfortunately, I gave you the benefit of the doubt only to find myself breaking my own waving rule.

While I was riding along yesterday evening I saw you on your GSXR heading towards me in the opposite lane, so I threw out a wave, only to realize mid wave that you were in the process of hopping up and standing on your bike, hitting the throttle first to get my attention.

I will be the first to say that I don't quite have the cajones to do something like that, and yes it does take certain amount of skill-- but you did it on a pretty busy city street with traffic right behind you at nearly 50 mph. At that point it is no longer impressive, just reckless and dangerous. Personally, being a 3rd degree black belt, I am very good at kicking people in the face. I mean really good. However, I don't run around kicking people in the face in public recklessly to attain approval from others. Are we seeing the parallels?

And what if in my awe of your incredible and superior skills I had shat my pants, causing me to swerve towards you? Standing on top of your bike, I doubt you would have any ability to avoid any kind of obstacles (whether it be a pants pooping rider or water bottle being blown across the road, etc). And if you happen to fall off, not only are you going to get your stupid self run over, but what about the people that swerve to avoid killing your aforementioned stupid self only to cause more innocent people to get injured/killed because you wanted someone to see you do something cool?


Getting to the point, I found myself actually feeling bad about having given you a wave, as you pretty much just made the whole lot of us look like morons, and put many other people in danger.

I will say, however, that a lesson has been learned. From now on I will most definitely be more conservative with my waving.

Sincerely,
Lants
 
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#6 ·
I agree.. been there a couple times myself. I also want to take back all those waves to the D-Bag cruisers that don't wave back. DO you think you are so much better than everyone else riding around town on a lazy boy with a motor wearing a brain bucket with those retarded goggles on?

But on another note, I will flip the bird to any rider that sees me wave and has the opportunity but not the will power to wave back. I'm sure most of the time they don't see me, but I usually feel a little better inside.
 
#14 ·
waves to the D-Bag cruisers that don't wave back

I will flip the bird to any rider that sees me wave and has the opportunity but not the will power to wave back.
next time give a thumbs up to show how cool you think they are for not waving and end it with the bird. that works for me


 
#9 ·
Normally I don't mind too much if somebody doesn't wave back, but what gets to me is when I'm following a cruiser and we both pass another cruiser. A lot of times they'll wave, but then stop the wave when it comes to me. I give the benefit of the doubt when people don't wave, maybe they didn't see my wave or they're about to shift or something, but when they do that? Argh.

I've also wished to take my wave back, out of embarrassment, when I wave to cars that have a broken headlight making them look like a motorcycle until they get closer. ;D
 
#12 ·
I generally tend to be a pretty courteous rider. I give everyone that cruises by on two wheels a little love, and is IS annoying when it doesn't get returned. However, I submit the following:

Dear Mr. Harley-Davidson rider,

While I do appreciate the fact that you actually managed to pull your head out of your rectum and take a moment from using your unmuffled straight pipes to make everyone's ears bleed to cross boundries and toss a little "Jap bike" rider like myself a little wave, I did NOT appreciate the angry glare that you followed it with when I didn't return it immediately. You see, when mere mortals like myself are accelerating from a complete stop we require the use of our left hand to operate the clutch in order to engage the next gear. I do promise, however, to work on shifting with my mind in the future so that I can be better prepared to return your gracious display of charity the next time our paths cross.

Sincerely,
The blue SV rider that tosses you a wave EVERY time we pass on his way to work in the morning that you never return.

Yeah...true story. Some people just ruin it for everyone. ;D
 
#15 ·
I guess I'm anti-social (maybe getting old and crochety), but what's the big deal with waving? I used to do it when I first started riding, but then one day I realized I didn't care anymore. It's pretty liberating not to worry whether or not someone will return your wave. That being said, I do return waves if the other rider waves first, but other than that I just enjoy my own ride!

(I guess I really AM crotchety!)
 
#18 ·
It can get annoying during the height of riding season, when every other vehicle seems to be a bike, but in the spring when you start seeing other bikes on the road, it's kinda cool to wave to someone as if you had some sort of a bond, or belonged to the same club.
 
#20 ·
Where I live, its a megamixed bag of riders. My commute has "regulars", cruiser guys that wave before I do, and fully geared up sport riders versus the gear-less cruiser guys and squids that are obviously riding an extremely manly/heavy/speed of light travel machine that calls for all of their attention on their sunburned faces.

I've pretty much reduced it down to only waving at ATGATT riders, AKA: people with sense. EDIT: And less than ideal weather conditions like cold and rain- rain is hilarious when I only see Goldwingers and adventure bikes duke it out in the wet with me.

Though I am prone to waving at a scooter or two, it's so freakin' hard to tell sometimes.

Now that I've put some major thought into it. Being a daily rider may have put some ego in me too. But I deserve it in my immature mind so nyah :p
 
#22 ·
What about when a dude on a scooter waves?

Had this happen a couple weeks ago on my way to my sister's house. I just laughed as I rode on. I contemplated, for a second giving him the one finger wave, but, like I said, I just laughed and continued on my way.

I say no to waving to the scoooter guy, even if he waves first, like in my case. You're a grown-a$$ man riding a scooter.
 
#23 ·
What's wrong with scooters? He's only being friendly and he's on 2 wheels. Scooters have their place as shown by many other countries. I don't get this stupid anti-scooter mentality as much as the whole "I don't need no stinkin' girls bike" mentality.
 
#31 ·
Oh, so sorry, the correct answer was "a thread about waving"... we do have a wonderful home version of our game for you.



I've almost completely stopped waving, noone waves back but that might be because of the vast majority of bikes are HDs. I get more waves from cruisers than I do sport bike.
 
#29 ·
I would like to join a campaign to kill the wave. It doesn't have the same meaning as it used to with so many people riding now. Plus all the D-bags on cruiser's and HD's that never wave back, the people on scooter's, and yesterday I actually had not one, but two bicyclists wave at me. Time to end the practice I think; it is obviously over done and only causes hardship when the wave is snubbed as mentioned by poster's here. ;D
 
#56 ·
Dear Guy I Didn't Wave Back To That Flipped Me Off,

It probably looked to you like I was ignoring you. But, perhaps you didn't notice the deer/minivan/tumbleweed on the opposite side of the road that had 60% of my attention. Or that tuner car closing on your six (since you were focused ahead on me and measuring the time that I was allotted to wave back before you gave me the finger) and I was wondering how I was going to avoid you/him when one of you came across the double yellow. Maybe I was checking my six planning a lane change, or looking for a street address, or one of a thousand other things. Luckily my riding buddy, the ultimate fighting amateur one step away from roid rage wasn't following me that day to mistake the intent of your finger. I've seen him chase down riders and cagers for less.

Anyway, usually I wave back (or first) but sometimes my attention is required for other things given the number of blind people and other dangers on the road.

I'm sorry.

- got
 
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