I was out most of today cruising around north Georgia and, man, were there lots of bikes out today. Because of my experiences today, I would like to propose the following two amendments to the unwritten and unofficial "Wave Rulebook" -
1) Waving at the leader of a large group of riders is sufficient to acknowledge the entire group. I passed a couple of large (25+) groups out riding and I thought either my left arm was going to fall off or I was going to end up in a ditch from riding one handed. The thing is, everyone in the group was enthusiastically waving at me so I felt like it was my duty to return the wave to every one of them. If you're riding in a large group, focus on what you're doing and let the leader wave for you. Or don't feel insulted if I don't wave back at you when you're bike number 35 out of 50!
2) Waving is unnecessary on challenging, twisty roads. I still consider myself a novice rider (2,000 miles on a Sportster and 4,000 on my current Street Glide) so any curve can present a challenge to me. However, I was riding some stuff today that would test anyone - 25MPH tight turns, limited sight distance, that kind of thing. I was amazed at how many riders still waved at me, sometimes in the middle of a curve. My god, am I that bad at this! There is no way I am taking my hand off the controls during this kind of riding. It was all I could do to give them a quick nod, which I'm not sure they noticed. Again, please don't be insulted if a 51 year old dude on a blue Street Glide doesn't return your wave on these types of roads.
End of rant for now. Am I way off base on these two items or can I get someone to second my motion?
1) Waving at the leader of a large group of riders is sufficient to acknowledge the entire group. I passed a couple of large (25+) groups out riding and I thought either my left arm was going to fall off or I was going to end up in a ditch from riding one handed. The thing is, everyone in the group was enthusiastically waving at me so I felt like it was my duty to return the wave to every one of them. If you're riding in a large group, focus on what you're doing and let the leader wave for you. Or don't feel insulted if I don't wave back at you when you're bike number 35 out of 50!
2) Waving is unnecessary on challenging, twisty roads. I still consider myself a novice rider (2,000 miles on a Sportster and 4,000 on my current Street Glide) so any curve can present a challenge to me. However, I was riding some stuff today that would test anyone - 25MPH tight turns, limited sight distance, that kind of thing. I was amazed at how many riders still waved at me, sometimes in the middle of a curve. My god, am I that bad at this! There is no way I am taking my hand off the controls during this kind of riding. It was all I could do to give them a quick nod, which I'm not sure they noticed. Again, please don't be insulted if a 51 year old dude on a blue Street Glide doesn't return your wave on these types of roads.
End of rant for now. Am I way off base on these two items or can I get someone to second my motion?
