The wave.

I have been meaning to write about this for a while now but was not really sure how to approach it without pissing anyone off. I guess I just decided I don't care if it does or not. Basically the purpose of this blog is to simply ask why some people on motorcycles wave and others do not. I am sure it must have to do with what you are riding as to whether or not you get a wave. My personal view of it is that I wave because I am on two wheels and so are you. It is funny at times when I wave at people on certain types of bikes and they almost refuse to wave back. I don't know about anyone else but when I wave and get nothing back I feel a bit annoyed. I don't go out of my way to wave or anything just really a small acknowledgement that we are both on motorcycles. I won't wave if I am making a turn from an intersection but will give a nod. I wish when you got your endorsement they had some sort of section on "wave ettiquette". that way when I wave at a guy on a BMW and he for whatever reason looks the other way and ignores me I at least should have known better. I am not trying to pick on BMW riders at all. Harley riders or in more general terms "baggers" sometimes ignore me too. When I see someone on another dual sport some of them seem to get a little too excited at seeing another of their kind on the road. Sometimes I laugh out loud at this ritual.
     I will admit there is one time of year that pretty much all bikers wave all the time. That is the first really nice day of the year when you see a hundred bikes on the road. I think the joy of finally getting the cover off the bike and the feeling of riding again makes everyone happy. No matter what you ride. Even the scooter riders get waved back too. I wave at the scooter guys myself but it is amusing to see baggers wave at them on the first nice day. About a month or two in to the riding season the waves begin to dissipitate. Must be that we are getting used to the novelty of two wheels again and loyalties become stronger.

What baggers usually mean when they wave to me.

     As the season goes on I find it interesting at who still waves at me. BMW guys must see the KLR and think I am a wannabe or something. Baggers are just too cool. Scooter guys are just happy and wave all the time. Metric cruiser people seem to be stuck in the middle. Sport bike riders tend to wave quite often if they see me as they go buy. Mostly because they saw a flash of a motorcycle and figured they should wave just in case. Other dual sport riders like the DR and XL, KLX-s almost seem like they know they will get a wave from me and wave more vigorously than others. I am sure some of these people have opinions of me for what I ride and that is fine. KLR riders are generally known to be slightly frugal or whatever your favorite term is for penny pinchers. Like I said I wave at them all and love to see the salute back. Makes me feel some comradery with people I will never know. I am sure many will read this and say what an idiot but oh well not the first time. When you boil it all down we are doing the same thing just in a different style. I would love to have a GS Adventure but can't afford one I would love to ride a HD V-Rod or Fat Boy in all black or the side of me that would love a Ducati 900 Monster. Hell I even wish for a scooter too because they look like a lot of fun to ride. I tend to drop my left hand and point two fingers out. Seems to be the general way of doing it. Occasionally I see someone almost do a parade wave and I usually don't wave back because I am trying to figure out the point of it and realize they have passed. Everyone has their own way of doing it in their own style that is what is great about riding motorcycles. We are doing the same thing but in our own way. Let's keep the fun in motorcycling and remember we are all doing it because it makes us feel free. It is the one thing that puts me in complete control and gives me a grin every time. Like in a picture on Lady Riders blog you never see a motorcycle parked in front of a psychiatrists office. As a closing when I see someone on two wheels I know they are enjoying some of the same things I am no matter what their lifestyle. That is what makes us different in the same kind of way.

Two wheels rule!

-Charlie-

My new too me scoot

Well since I have had this blog most of my posts have been about my job. I strayed a little from this in December when I decided to put down a very personal post about a tragic incident that happened back in 99. Well as the title states "Random Thoughts" I figure I will throw in a little two wheeled blog about a recent day.
Back in March of 2008 I got a call from my friend many of you know as Earl. He had a tone in his voice I recognized as excitement. He had just purchased a 2008 KLR 650 in green. I knew a little about the bikes and had more than once engaged in a conversation with him about what a good bike it would be to have. Well finally after wanting one for about 20 years he had one. When I finally got to see it I was amazed at how large it looked for a dual sport type bike. Anyway as I watch him get more into his adventures with his KLR and his continued "farkling" which is a term used a lot on KLR650.net for modifying your KLR I could not help myself but see what this dang bike was all about. So on Saturday March 7th I found me a 2002 model and picked it up. Kind of a humbling experience when you ask your friend(once again Earl) to ride your new pride and joy home for you because you are working and actually have no motorcycle endorsement. I guess the way I look at it is that I would want no one else to take that first ride on my new cycle. When we get to the house he tells me it must be re-geared because of highway rpm but the best part is he said it rode very well.
So as typical in March around here when you want it to be nice it freakin snows. It took about two more weeks for the weather to be descent enough to hop on and take a ride. So.........for the first time in knowing Earl for the last almost 20 years we got to take a ride together on our own bikes. We had talked about this for years but were never able to make it happen due to the many issues that life throws out there. Not that it was any sort of epic ride by any means but I got to share it with a good friend.
I guess to be honest I just want to tell everyone that I now have a KLR of my own and am absolutely taken by the riding experience and also that I am looking forward to many many rides with Earl. (also my dad who has a HD Road King and said he wants to ride with me but good luck keeping up) HA!

It only takes one

So as a small digression from speaking about defendants and the silly stuff they do I am going to take a second to talk about what are supposed to be the good guys.

Recently in my area we were fortunate enough to have a few motorcycle related events. One about 35 south of here in a small town and another the following weekend at our County fairgrounds. Well as you might guess for those two weekends and during that week there was a heavy law enforcement presence to help discourage some behavior inherent to any big event.

On one of the days during that week a close friend of mine was pulled over on a freeway exit and ticketed for doing 45 in a 40. Now if you know anything of the geography of the Hamilton I90 exit in Spokane you know that it is a very long bridge and many people frequently go much faster than 45 coming off the freeway to go down the hill. So just for the record my friend rides a KLR 650 (not exactly a rocket) with large bags and he wears enough safety gear to keep a GP rider safe in a 130 mph sweeper. Basically saying he is not a casual rider, but a professional motorcyclist that rides defensively and also has never had a ticket in his life. This blog is really not that he recieved a ticket but more of the treatment he recived during his interaction with the State Patrol Trooper.

So as he is exiting and coming around the corner, out from behind a tree and the corner steps a WSP Trooper pointing and shouting for him to pull over. My friend was a bit surprised by it all and hits the brake slightly locking up the rear brake and pulls over to the side of the exit ramp. The trooper approaches and my friend steps off the bike and asks whats wrong. The Trooper asks for the normal paperwork in a very rude manner and heads back to his own motorcycle. The trooper comes back a few minutes later and has him sign a ticket and hands it to him and begins to walk away. So my friend never having a ticket before has no clue what is next so he asks the trooper what to do with it. The trooper comes back and gets right up in his face and tells him to read it and he will figure it out. I know I am not totally accurate in all this but what I am getting at is the Trooper was way out of line as far as I am concerned.

So continuing on later that evening my same friend is riding down the road and comes to the freeway entrance ramp. Working his way in traffic puts on his blinker and goes a block and a woman waves at him to let him in ( not a usual thing here). Next thing he knows he sees a Trooper in a car hit the lights and pull in behind him and pull him over. So by this point with the frustration of the morning still fresh in his head he shuts off the KLR and awaits the Troopers approach. When the Trooper gets to him he is told he cut the woman off. My friend now on the defensive tries to explain that the woman waved him in and there was no way he cut her off. The Trooper looks him in the eye and says "well I guess she is not here to verify that is she."

So taking a second to soak that in, him telling me this already has me apologizing for the representation of my proffession BUT.........it gets better.

The Trooper never asks him for any paperwork and says get moving this is a high traffic dangerous area to be. ( um ...excuse me who pulled who over? ) My friend looks at the Trooper and asks him if he can take a second to cool off and relax from the anxiety of being pulled over again. The Trooper looks at him and said "get moving unless you want to cool off in the back of my car". So as most would do he fires up the bike and gets out into traffic and on the way home.

Like I said my point of this blog was not the tickets or being pulled over. My real point is that I am a bit ashamed to even say that I am a Law Enforcement Officer. I want to sincerely apologize for all those that have been truly treated wrong by any law enforcement and to let you know that for the majority of us, we take a lot of pride in our duty.