My ride this past Saturday.

A boring, little story for your enjoyment:


This past Saturday, I was passed by a pirate parade of some 30 people on straight piped Harleys (in matching vests.) I was doing 8-10mph over the limit when they passed.

I caught up to them on a section of two lane(eastbound) twisties and was able to get past them before the two lanes turned into one. This was in spite of several of them joining me in my lane at inopportune times. (Like when I was swinging wide through the turn, inside my lane.)

Unfortunately, there was a car in front of me in the now and the group of Harley enthusiasts (in matching vests) was behind me. I was not happy about having this pirate parade at my six and the guy in front of me having a love affair with his brakes. There was one more set of twisties to go until I had to slab it back home.

So, wanting to enjoy this last set of twisties, I passed Mr. Flashy Brakes.

It was a "clean" pass in that I could see far ahead on this straightaway. It was a "dirty" pass due to those all too frequent pesky double yellow lines that I crossed. :eek1

(Lets not turn this into a discussion about passing on a double yellow, okay?

I enjoyed this last bit of twisties and motored along on the straightaway, moving some 8-10 over the limit for several miles.

The pirate parade (in matching vests) caught me several miles later.

At a light, I nodded my head in acknowledgement of existance the "leader" of the pirate parade. "He yelled at me over the noise of his straight pipes and his blippy throttle brethren; "Nice job crossing the double yellow back there. You make us all look bad!"

As cascade of responses poured from my brain. Fortunately for me and my teeth, they came all at once and I could not vocalize my thoughts. Among them were, "If you want to look good you might try losing 30 pounds." I also thought about mentioning the speeds they had traveled over the speed limit. I also thought of mentioning that a lot of people really don't like the noise from straight piped motorcycles and how that affects some people's opinions of motorcyclists.

I just nodded my head and waited for the green light.

There were several more lights for the next few miles where I just sort of looked ahead in anticipation of the green light. Eventually, they turned left and I went straight, with the same number of teeth I left home with that morning. Sometimes it is a good thing to be a little "slow."

"WHAT?! I can't hear you over those damn pipes!"

He said you make us all look bad, not sound bad

I would have just shook my head (more of a "whatever" nod, not a "you're right" nod), maybe add a face palm. Or... would have just ignored. Full face helmets with a mirrored visor are good for that sort of thing. The idiocy and hypocrisy of the "make us look bad" while being total assholes to everyone around them (do ya really need to blip the throttle at a light (or even starting up), will the engine die otherwise?).

boy do bikers have different opinions on what makes other bikers look bad....

Did you just tell us a parade of 30 some cruiser dudes passed you wearing matching vests... How is it possible you let such an atrocitie occur????

My god man. That should never have happened

You've made us all look bad... What if word of this passes. There will be cruiser dudes trying to pass all of us. We will all get numerous speeding tickets trying to right this wrong, and eventually some of us may get jailed for excessive speeding.. The trickle down effect is mind boggling.

Your gonna have to go all "wild hog" on them to make this right. Go find them, cut their fuel lines and blow up their club house. It's the only way....

Oh, the horror. Now there are 30 pirates who don't like motorcyclists.

about a year ago i was riding a bv350 scoot between sequim and port townsend on hwy 104. posted speeds are 50-60, i was ambling along at 65-ish when i chance upon a trio of "pirates" going 45-50, their slash cut pipes blatting.

so's i wind the little 330cc scoot up to pass 'em. and i do.

and i look at their cute little vests.

and their many, many tats.

and their leathery angry faces.

and quickly at their vests again. which are not ACTUALLY cute. they are old leather, with one patch on the back: the norteños. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte%c3%b1os, probably headin' back from visitin' blood in the clallam county corrections center.) :eek1

i may or may not have let out a girlish sequel of horror, but i definitely gunned it. i got the little scoot up to 85, but they were hot on my ass. i knew they were probably havin' fun with me, but i was NOT gonna find out, and i dragged my centerstand tangs turning onto hwy 20, where i finally lost 'em in the curves. at the time, i'd never ridden that hard or hot in my life.

and that, ladies and gents, is the single most emasculating moment on my short-ish developing two wheeled career.

Yeah, that's always exciting. Flip off a group of pirates who can't hold their lane in curve, almost running you off the road, discover that they're not a group of weekend warrior poser types (despite the completely inept riding) but a local chapter of a 1% gang. (Who, probably fortunately for me, apparently didn't notice the gesture)

Hard to keep track of which "cut" belongs to the criminal psychopaths and which are just riding club uniforms.

Well, I just expressed my opinion of "most" Harley riders in the "What is Harley doing?" thread. Since doing so, I've been called a lot of nasty names and now I'm being totally ignored by everyone on that thread. So, other than what I just said, I'm going to keep my mouth shut on this one.

If you were on a bv500, you wouldn't have even broken a sweat

You broke the law and the "leader" called you out in person.

They broke the law and you take to the internet to bitch about it.

Leader had 29 men in reserve

Dentists, accountants, and fast food franchise owners. A surly lot indeed.

I have passed groups of Harley's on my TU250, in a no passing zone, but with sightlines and room to do so.
I am not going to be stuck behind a really slow group of bikes if I can help it.

I am not sure I would do it with the REAL biker gang types.

And your point is what?

Tattoos. Habitual law breakers need them.

This is a made up story.....no group of 30 cruiser riding want-a-be's has EVER passed another rider who was going over the speed limit already......


(unless they were trying to reach the bar before it closed..)

Not perfectly a fit for this thread, but I feel like passing on stories this AM. Here was when I first decided to buy a motorcycle.

It was 1985. I was a typical college student. Went with a bunch of buddies to Daytona Beach during Spring Break that year, and we discovered after arriving there that my college's spring break coincided with Bike Week in Daytona. My buddies and I had signed up for one of the cheap rooms that faced the street, not the oceanfront. We were on about the 3rd floor.

Needless to say, we were constantly serenaded with bike after bike, most doing the potato-potato boogie in our ears. This did nothing to encourage me to buy a bike, it actually irritated the fuck out of us. Until...............

One night around 9 PM or so, we were sitting on the balcony drinking bad beer, and watching the parade below us. Mostly Harleys, a few sportbikes, a few bikes I had no idea about, but mostly we were watching for babes in bikinis. There was a stoplight at the corner right below us, and at a red light, a row of pirates lined up. Actually two rows, being as there were two lanes. Probabaly 8-10 bikes. All potato-potatoing along. Then another bike split right between them and filtered all the way to the front. He came to stop right between the two front bikes.

Wow. what a sight. I had no idea at the time, but I looked it up later, and it was Honda Interceptor, I suspect it was the 1000cc version. The rider was wearing red, white, and blue racing leathers. Full face helmet.

So he flips the visor up, looks at the pirate on the right, says something, looks at the pirate on the left, and I'm assuming says the same thing. Meanwhile lots of angry harrumphing (revving) going on behind them.

So. Visor down. Lights changes, and it's on. The Interceptor is gone. Just screams and is gone. Meanwhile the pirates are doing their best, but it's more noise than motion. They are hardly across the intersection, and the Honda is almost out of sight. One pirate killed his bike, and is trying to restart it.

It was fucking hilarious. We were high fiving each other, spilling beer everywhere. It was fucking awesome. Right then, I knew. That summer, I bought my first bike, a used 1984 Honda VT500, I've never once been on a cruiser in my entire life. Not saying I never will, but haven't given in so far.

Okay, back to your thread, just felt like sharing.