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TO NOD OR NOT TO NOD
by PeteG
What gets up bikers noses more than anything
else? Pot holes? diesel spills? psychotic car drivers? Well if the popular
bike press is anything to go by none of these. More and more I see bikers
moaning about other bikers not nodding to them. Now I thought about this,
I would say there is some room for argument. To look at it constructively
you would have to conduct a survey, which I haven’t and neither can I be
arsed to do so I’ll make up some figures later. The main criticism seems
to be lack of acceptance across the biker types. I read with some
amusement just this week that one chap who owns four bikes (like I’m going
to be sympathetic to someone who has four bikes?) says depending what he
rides he can get nods or complete ignorance. "I only ride my Aprillia 250
on track days but when I ride my 996 people on cruisers ignore me, when I
ride my cruiser the sportsbikers ignore me, when I ride my scooter,
everyone ignores me." Now I’m thinking anyone who has four bikes and they
are so oddly dissimilar has a defective character to start with but how
the hell can you jump from a Ducati 996 to a Lambretta? Maybe this is what
the whole issue is about. Because I wouldn’t be seen sober on a scooter I
tend to think that anyone who rides such an embarrassing vehicle must be
socially dysfunctional. I’m going to run a poll on this at some stage but
for now I’ll base my argument on what I have heard recently. I usually
only ride sports/ sports tourer types and I cannot remember the last time
I nodded to a cruiser and had it reciprocated. So I don’t do it anymore.
On the other hand I would say that 50% of sports bikes I see don’t
acknowledge my nods either. The few times I have ridden cruiser types I
have had no cruiser riders nod and no sportsbikes but plenty of
roadster/naked bikers nod. The Bellstaff on utilitarian bike-types don’t
seem to nod or wave to anyone, and scooters, well they seem to spend most
of their time kneeling by the grass verge. I understand why Harley riders
don’t wave, if they let go something will fall off. There are many reasons
for this. At one time I admit that just about every biker you passed would
wave, not just nod but wave. On the continent bikers usually shake a leg
but that’s Johnny Foreigner for you. It was also the case that if you
stopped for a breather someone would pull up and ask if you were okay and
I stopped doing this even for a pee as it became embarrassing having
queues of bikers stopping to see if you needed help. I know it still
happens but believe me, not as much as it should. So the reasons it has
changed?
  
So which one you gonna nod to?
I think on the main it’s due to the types of
people that are bikers today. At one time bikers were young tearaways
living in a part of culture that normal society didn’t understand and
didn’t want to. There was a reason for the camaraderie, us against them.
That isn’t the case now. Insurance companies and government legislation
have stopped the younger people taking part. It is now older people. With
nothing whatsoever to prove apart from "Look, I’m still young at heart."
People that live much steadier, mainstream lives, weekend bikers with
families, television sets and responsible jobs. The ‘dog eat dog’ set. I
think this has more to do with it than anything else. There is also a
‘mines bigger than yours’ attitude as finance helps more of these older
types buy the newest bike as soon as it comes out. I could never do that
when I was younger, if I hadn’t got the cash I hadn’t got the bike. Still
the case for me actually. There are also the "Born again Biker" set. This
particular group (according to the insurance companies) had more to do
with putting up insurance premiums than brand new riders. That may be, but
when Joe Bloggs has a twenty year gap from riding his Tiger Cub and then
jump on a brand new Suzuki K7 without any easing in period, there are
going to be problems. Go down to your local bike meet or pub night. Get
there early and people watch for a while. It’s my favourite pastime but it
can also tell you about yourself.
How About This One?
The other reason you may not get a nod, is
gangism. If the bike coming the other way isn’t in your metaphorical club
you will likely not nod back. Why I wonder? I’m not too sure and I admit I
do this myself to a certain degree, to cruisers particularly for the
reasons stated earlier. I certainly will never wave to a scooter either
and for the reason of nostalgia. When I was a sprog and could only dream
of owning a ......... well let’s just say the bike to have at the time, it
was just at the end of the period where two groups of young people decided
they were not to be seen on the same street unless they were there to kick
the crap out of each other. In the blue corner were the mods and in the
red corner were the rockers. Mods and rockers would go down to Skegness
and the former would throw bricks at the latter and the latter would throw
the former through a shop window or two, which meant the former would find
the latters’ bikes and torch them to ride off into the sunset, fifty
million twinkling mirrors shining into the night.
The latter would then get blind drunk and get
arrested. When I started school the first question I was asked by some
angry looking boys was "You a mod or a rocker?" Not sure of the correct
answer I said "Church of England but we don’t go very often." This ensured
I was picked upon by both sides. The point is here, that culture was
ingrained on schoolboys who were not old enough to ride bikes and had no
idea what rock and roll was. In later years I went to bike rallies such as
the Flash in Derbyshire where the favourite game of the day was ‘Post the
scooter through the letter box." (That should be brought back in my
opinion) So, to cut to the chase I cannot even now bring myself to nod to
a scooter. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want them to stop riding those
old scoots, even the ones with the unfeasible large amount of mirrors. I
applaud it for it IS nostalgic and they still make me smile when I see the
frustration of them broken down at the side of the road.
There couldn’t have been rockers without mods.
Where there is dark we need light, where there is right we need left and
just as we need motorbikes we need ....... well, you get the picture. So
why don’t cruiser riders wave to other bikers? Yes, yes, I know someone
out there is shouting at the screen saying ‘I sodding well do, it’s the
sportsbikes that don’t. but in my experience they don’t. There’s a few
reasons I suspect but I do think that sometimes the type of person that
gets up one morning and thinks, "Cripes, I’m nearly fifty, I need to
expand my horizons. I know, I’ll buy a motorbike." goes down the his local
shop to buy a bike because in 1978 he passed his test on a Honda 50 and
then bought a Ford Escort, got married, had children, etc, etc. Once
there he sees loads of shiny bikes, but which one. Well he did see Easy
Rider when he was younger so that’s what proper bikes look like and oooooh
that rather large one over there should impress the neighbours. "I’ll take
that one over there mate." "Of course sir, the R1." "No not that one, that
one. I don’t want the one with the plastic all over it." "Of course, how
will sir be paying?" "With plastic." Two hours later he’s out on a four
litre bike which weighs as much as Bernard Mannings coffin and dare not
let go of the bars.
What’s wrong with prejudice anyway? How can we
choose what is right or wrong if we don’t have preference or prejudice? We
have our prejudices anyway no matter how much the Nanny State tells us not
to, it’s human and bikers have them too, just like any other walk of life
and why this upsets some riders I just don’t understand. A funny
experiment might be to stick two fingers up to the next bike you don’t
like that comes the other way, just be sure he’s not the head of a ride
out first.
Sometimes you just got to put your
prejudice aside.
Forget about it is my philosophy, just
ride your bike and let everyone do as they please. If someone nods,
nod back or better still give them a hearty wave. If you are having a
breather and someone stops to see if you are okay, then smile and thank
them for being so considerate. If they are about to ride past throw out
the stinger and ask why they were leaving you to die. I was once in a pub,
only once mind, and at the bar two chaps were talking and one was moaning
about this biker who didn’t nod as he went past. I couldn’t help myself
and asked where this was. "Oh it was the Over the Hill run from Lincoln,
this knob head was coming the other way and didn’t nod back." He was
really miffed. "The Over the Hill run?" I asked. "There must have been a
thousand of you to nod at, the poor bastard must have already had a
cricked neck by the time you saw him." And this bloke still refused to see
the point. When I questioned him further it turned out the bike coming the
other way was a cruiser and that was the crux of the matter, he was on a
sportsbike.
Long live prejudice, Long live
rockers, bring back post the 'scooter through the letterbox' and more than
that, just enjoy yourself whatever you ride.
Copyright of the author. © 2007
Tricky Imp Productions
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