[VRodDrew]

I actually observed the following 4 bikes and riders yesterday:


1) 75 cc Honda Elite motorscooter. Rider wearing helmet, boots, leather pants, gloves, and leather and ballistic nylon jacket. OK, even I thought this was a slight case of overkill.

2) Honda Rebel: 60ish female rider, wearing helmet, leather jacket gloves, boots. All great, but her pants appeared to be polyester slacks.

3) Late model Heritage Springer. Male rider, late 50s, wearing chaps, vest, shades, but no helmet. Pretty much par for the course here in Milwaukee.

4) Buell Lightning. Male rider, early 20s. Wearing white t-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and shades. I doubt even the staunchest "anti-helmet law" guy would think this was appropriate riding gear; but what made this even more frightening was that they dude was DRAFTING his buddy's Dodge Neon at 75 mph on the freeway. Not simply following too close, but literally <36 inches from the rear bumper ay high speed and in heavy traffic.

The above leads me to postulate Drew's First Law of Observed Scooter Style (FLOSS):

Protective Gear Varies in Inverse Proportion to Hazard Level

 

[cox9000]

What gets me is when I see these nuts on bikes going in and out of their lane to pass dangerously (at a high rate of speed), then when the traffic slows or stops they'll ride between lanes.

 

[Unome]

Was on Poker Run on Sunday and we stopped down an High Falls, GA to get 3rd card. About 30-35 bikes in lot and everyone just hanging out. I had parked next to some guy's Suzuki 750 because only space left. He wasn't on run. He and little girl came out and went to the bike. No one had said anything to him or anything about his bike.

Them: Early 20's couple
Clothes:
Him - Shorts, tennis shoes, t-shirt, full face helmet - Oh, yeah, when he got to bike he proceeded to 'rip' his t-shirt off to show us all his chiseled body with all his muscles. Fu(k, no one was ragging him. Guess he wanted to show a bunch of mid 40's fu(kers what he was made of , huh?
Her - Slack, tennis shoes, thin top, full face helmet

They proceeded to get on bike(no sissy bar, she had to hold on tight) and he tore out of parking lot like his ass was on fire. No one still said sh!t until he was about 200 yards up road and winding it out and missed a gear. Thought I'd laugh my ass off.

 

[fearnot69]

Hi, ya cox9000. I second that. Here in Germany, there are alot of Staus. It is very dangerous when going from 200kph to zero. Anyway, the bikers here do that **** all the time during a stau.(riding between cars, in the middle of the lane.) They are crazy here! Come up to a red light, you are first at the light, and they will pull up and get in front of you. It's like they own the road. I know they have different driving law and rules here(hell, you are suppose to treat bicycles like vehicles) but they are very reckless. Scares me. I would not drive a bike on the Autobahn and I feel pretty comfortable on a bike. J.T.

 

[cox9000]

Hey Fearnot69,
Wazzzzzzzzzz Up?
Yeah driving in Germany or Europe for that matter is different than driving in the States. I had 2 differnt tours to Europe. What I miss more than anything is the autobahn and those winding roads in the Italian mountains. Riding high speed on a bike that's built for it was always a rush for me -- I love it. Of course it's fun driving a well built car that fast also.
Ride safe!