Originally posted by: Cheesehead
Originally posted by: LS8
Also from my experience the people who don't have a fear of riding are sport-bike owners. I see more sport-bike owners riding around in khaki shorts, flip flops, t-shirts and sun glasses than anyone else. In fact where I live I can almost guarantee I'll see several of these riders a day, usually weaving in and out of traffic like an idiot.
As I said earlier, the really competent cyclists are almost invariably riding stripped-down Japanese bikes in full safety gear. They're also mostly above the age of 30 - by that point, attrition has killed off a lot of the idiots. The few who do spend big bucks on their bikes are quite fond of Triumphs - perhaps because they're weird, and perhaps because posers don't seem to buy them.
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
The people who have slightly ratty-looking bikes with real amounts of mileage tend to be secure enough to appreciate that the lighter, faster, better-handling Harley may be a legitimate preference for some folks.
People who have ratty-looking bikes are usually riding something Japanese, or, sometimes, German.
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
The vast majority of people who classify one type of biker as a jerk or a "douchebag" are, in one way or another, provoking that behaviour through their own actions. Whether it's a sportbike rider approaching a Harley owner with a look of disgust on his face or a Harley rider telling a guy on a sportbike to "get a real bike", most of the perceived snobbishness of a certain type of rider is provoked.
And, of course, there's the ever-present idea of selective memory. We tend to only remember those events that reinforce our pre-existing prejudices or which make us angry. That's why, even though we may interact with hundreds of cars on a given day, all we remember is the one guy who cut us off. We simply forget the majority of people who are perfectly polite and normal.
ZV
I have a rather unique perspective:
I am a cyclist. I ride a bicycle. I have two wheels, 1/3 of a horsepower, and brakes that refuse to work properly when they get wet.
At one point I thought learning to ride a motorcycle, but decided it wasn't for me. In the process, I spent a lot of time at a local biker's meet-up at a coffeeshop. The Harley people were, almost without exception, total assholes and flatly refused to talk to me. On the other side of the parking lot were the guys on Suzukis, Hondas, Yamahas, and the rare Ducati or Triumph, almost all of which were very friendly and answered my questions, no matter how stupid they might have been. This may have been specific to the group, but from the guy with the $800 Honda to the $19k Triumph, all of them were serious enthusiasts - one of them had taken up Aikido for the sole purpose of keeping himself in shape during the winter for summer riding.
There are some real assholes on Japanese bikes, and some nice people on Harley-Davidsons - the fellow who biked past me this morning at 20MPH with Bob Marley on his Harley's stereo looked amiable enough, and everyone has stories of dumbasses on gixxers. Still, personal experience has taught me to watch out for riders of big American bikes - I've had them gun their engine as they rode past me on a bicycle, straight pipes emitting enough noise to make you fall off your bike if you're not careful.
EDIT:
On the subject of safety equipment: I've avoided my share of potentially lethal head injuries with a helmet, including flying 15MPH head first into a steel signpost. I even have some experience with road rash from when I was a kid. (Mile long one-in-three hills, over-ambitious twelve year olds, razor scooters, and massive potholes do NOT mix well. 20MPH is all it takes.)
