I’ve been riding the motorcycle for about six weeks now. It finally dawned on me the other day that bikers nod to each other. All this time, I hadn’t noticed. I guess I was too focused on watching the road for occasional dead squirrels, deer, or foxes to even look at bikers going in the opposite direction.
This feels kind of cool. I’m in the club. I can nod to the other bikers and they nod back. Well, it’s not that easy–I can’t just give a big smile and nod like Dopey from the seven dwarfs. I have to give a stony-faced, slow, tough-guy nod as I pass other bikers.
You know who else always nod or wave to each other when they pass? Bus drivers. Whenever I take the bus, I notice the driver always waves at the driver of the bus coming the opposite direction. I always wonder if they know each other. Have they ever attempted a moving high five? I always assumed that these drivers know each other because they see each other around the depot.
Imagine being a bus driver and passing the same bus with the same driver every day several times a day. They must get sick of each other, really. Maybe every time they pass, they get a thought like “I’ll have to remember to tell him I like his new haircut” and then keep having the same thought every time they pass the other driver, then forget all about it when they get to the depot. Anyway, it’s not that way with bikers. Bikers don’t all know each other and we (my new clique) always nod to each other.
The biking community is really very helpful. A few weeks ago when I dropped my bike, a fellow biker stopped to help me out when I had trouble getting the engine started after using the emergency cut-off switch.
The bike is great, by the way. I rode up the A34 this evening and was surprised to see that I had the bike at over 90mph. Scary. I didn’t think I was going so fast. I usually stick to the country roads on my way in to work. It’s always nice to take the bike for a quick tour around Newbury at lunchtime since there are so many places for a bike to park. I’m having a lot of fun.
