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Weird Behavior On The Roadside

B

BUDDINGGEEZER

Guest
Last spring riding on Mt Magazine State Park, AR, I pulled into a scenic overlook on my Honda ST1100. This fat guy on a Goldwing pulls up beside me, then 4 pirates on a VTX and 3 Harleys .Leather chaps, vest and do-rags, the whole ten yards. I push my bike back to give them more room. I remove my helmet and walk over to admire the view. One of the guys tells me they are old buddies and ask if I would take their picture with their camera. Now all of us are in our 50s or so. I say sure and take their camera. Mr Goldwing says, "When you get through taking our picture, I'm going to take a picture of my buddies kicking your ass, they are bad dudes." I looked straight at the group without smiling and said, "That sounds like we're gonna have some fun, but what are you gonna do if your buddies can't kick my ass?" They all looked like they had crap in their mouth. I snapped their picture and handed the camera back. I thought it was pretty funny.

Any one have an experience like this?

Ralph Sims
 
That's why I carry pepper spray in my jacket pocket... and a "survival" knife in the trunk (not visible when open but easily accessed).
I've encountered roadside scum a few times. I've never had to get physical - fortunate, since I'm not a big guy - but standing up and showing readiness to use that Big Stick has worked for me.
 
Last spring riding on Mt Magazine State Park, AR, I pulled into a scenic overlook on my Honda ST1100. This fat guy on a Goldwing pulls up beside me, then 4 pirates....

Any one have an experience like this?

Ralph Sims

Nope but pirates could be a very funny euphemism and considering that you have authored about 1/3 of the joke in the joke thread...

Unless i am in my home town I try to avoid most contact while riding. There are too many weirdys like the forementioned pirates out there.
 
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Walk softly, carry a big stick (whatever euphemism you choose)... and be prepared... don't turn your back on folks who ride or DRIVE up.
 
The survivors are riding back from Sturgis. After a week up there, they get an "Attitude".

Glad you could help the readjust it before they re-enter the workplace.

Rod
 
The closest I had to that was from a fellow BMW rider at Daytona. He wanted me to sell him my camp stove. When I said 'no', he said, 'If I stuck my .45 up your nose, I bet you would say yes.' I told him he was right, but that is what he would have to do as I was on a two month tour. We quickly changed subjects.
Weirdos/pirates are not always riding 'other brands'.
That being said, after 32yrs and 1/2million kms, I have not met enough 'bad ones' to warrant going around armed.
I really liked your comeback...a classic.
 
I guess I should consider myself lucky. I've yet to encounter any sketchy characters out on the roads. The characters I've encountered in the MOA forum are an entirely different matter. :stick

Interestingly, the friendliest riders I've encountered have almost always been on the major American brand - including guys wearing their "pirate uniforms" and advertising their membership in their "3-patch-club".

One place I encounter a lot of my fellow riders is on Washington State Ferries, as bikes get priority loading and thus we all seek them out as a great way to travel to great places. I've always had friendly - and sometimes playful insults - with the goons on their loud and obnoxious Harleys. They tease me about wearing too much gear and having too complicated of a motorcycle, and I tease them about their road rash scars, bugs in their teeth, and for riding 1950's technology.

I've found that as long as I'm willing to roll with their rhetorical punches and laugh at their jokes about ATGATT guys on BMWs, humor can go a long way towards breaking down the walls created by stereotypes - even if the humor is directly aimed at those stereotypes.

I've also noticed that my highly unique bike is a great ice breaker, as other riders have questions of me about what I ride. No matter how different our appearances and our machines, we all have the most important characteristic in common - we all love to ride.

Now I'll keep my fingers crossed that the truly disturbed don't cross my path. I have enough of those kinds of guys as clients.
 
Interesting point: most of my "encounters" have NOT been with those "nasty biker types". Hard-cores (not the posers) do realize, for the most part, that we BMW types actually do ride to far places, and do it under sometimes adverse conditions, and they seem to respect that aspect. Even in my 7 times at Sturgis over the past 20 years, the Japanese riders got razzed a whole heck of a lot more than any European rider. Several times I've helped, and been helped by, guys whose looks would scare the panties off a non-riding citizen.

Twice I've had to fend off overly-aggressive hitchhikers (one actually tried to climb on without any invitation); once I had to deal with a walking "man of the road" who was waaay too aggressive in his panhandling when I stopped for a quick photo; and twice I've dealt with bigoted and/or drunk Indians who just wanted to start some [feces].
 
Interestingly, the friendliest riders I've encountered have almost always been on the major American brand - including guys wearing their "pirate uniforms" and advertising their membership in their "3-patch-club".

I was at my aunt's funeral in PA a couple of weeks back. Having been a fairly old and not all that extroverted person, she had only a few close friends left who made it to the funeral. The extended family is few and far flung, so my Dad and I were the only ones from out of state to show up.

But my cousin is a Regional President for the Pheonix Motorcycle Club of Central PA. It's a bunch of guys who left the substances behind but still like a lot of the other social aspects of being in a "club". There were about 80 HDs and 1 Yamaha, all piloted by a bunch of guys looking like a crew of pirates. Practically every one I met had a big heart. My cousin is fortunate to have such friends.
 
Many, many years ago...

A buddy and I were at an "Aunt Chilotta's" taco place after bar close when we were in college. We'd had a few beers, but were not reallly intoxicated. I had a jean jacket that had several Yamaha patches sewn to it. I think I was 19 at the time, a big strapping farm kid.

In walk a couple of really wasted bikers. This was in the 70's, so these weren't people in pirate outfits, these were the real deal. One guy walks up to me (we were sitting down at a table) points to my patch and says, "Hey little boy, maybe some day you'll grow up and ride a real motorcycle." I look up at him and say, "Oh yeah? Well maybe someday you'll get a brain and not ride some POS Harley that leaks oil everywhere." He gave me a hard, drunken stare, then starts laughing, slaps me on the back, and says,"Hey you're all right!" Bottom line is that I figured we could either:
A) Do OK in a scrap with these two, since they were both really wasted or
B) Get out the door and into our car kicking over their Harleys on the way out.

In my adult life, I've never encountered anything but the most polite of riders when on the road.
 
once I had to deal with a walking "man of the road" [feces].

Oh, this reminds me of one that happened this past July... It was about 11:00am. We were between Somerset and Owensboro Ky heading east. I was the leader (2 bikes no pillions). As we exited a narrow, uphill, left sweeper at about 50 MPH (corn field on both sides- it looked like a narrow corridor) I noticed something in the road. I cut the throttle and began coasting down. As we go closer I though what the cuss is that. Both lanes were open, flat and straight for miles. I moved over and rode the double yellow. Opposing object also moves over to the double yellow. I move to the far left side of the left lane, object moves over too. Oh cuss, that is no object that is a man and he his mirroring me! (Picture yourself swearing out loud inside your closed helmet!) I am thinking oh cuss, oh cuss what is going on here?... By now I could see it was a man sort of staggering. At this time I hit the brakes trying to decide should I slam on and pull a u-turn or should we proceed and ride it out? Too late! Ride it out. I dropped down into 1st as I approached thinking I'll ride by slow and if I need to gas it I'll have lots of torque at the ready. I am thinking is this guy going to rush me from the side, jump in front or throw something? By now I am close enough to see his face but I can't find an expression. Oh cuss this is going to be bad. We are now within 20 feet and ready to meet. I suddenly see the whites of his eyes (they are huge!) and his hands start shuffling in his coat (it was already 91 degrees and humid. A coat?). Oh cuss (the one that begins with F this time) is he pulling out a gun what is he doing? At the last second a terrified look comes over his face and he jumps to the right side of the road. I think whacking the throttle open woke him up. About 1/2 a mile down the road later the emotions took over as the adrenaline faded and reality came back. Oh thank God!! That dude was probably on a major bender, meant no harm and probably didn't even know we were there! We probably scared him so bad the he cussed his pants!

This all took place in about 15 seconds. But in the space/time continuum it actually happened in super slow motion and really took 8 minutes. If I was a cat I just gave up one life matbe two.
 
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