Christmas Eve Ride 2002

[Anonymous]

The last time I was out riding was Christmas Eve and it was about 25 degrees. Since then it has not gotten over 20 degrees here in northeastern PA so I’m waiting for spring to return. There is something that has bothered me since this last ride though. Here it is Christmas Eve and everyone is support to be happy right. Well on that particular day I ran into more disgruntled people than usual. Now it’s not unusual to encounter people who are placed in a bad mood simply because you are on a bike, but this day was particularly bad. First my friend Dave and I are cruising through town he on his SV me on the GS1000. Well we usually attract a lot of attention when we ride. We both have Vance and Hines systems on our machines so the noise is defiantly noticeable to say the least. We also have a bad habit of getting into stop light drag races (these are not planned they just kind of happen). Anyhow, I started noticing that we are more getting dirty looks than usual from pedestrians, motorists, shoppers, and the Santa who takes the donations. I guess people just didn’t like the fact that there was someone nuts enough to be out in the freezing cold riding their motorcycle and causing all kinds of racket on Christmas Eve. Those damn rebels and their motorcycles. Later that day we stopped at a carwash to get that dust off the bikes that only two months in storage can deposit (you all know the insufferable dust of which I speak). So here we are in the stall drying our bikes off when a grumpy old man from out of town insists that we leave. Well, I could see his point we should have taken our bikes outside to dry them off so someone else could use the carwash (by the way this is a big carwash with four other stalls). Since my friend is slightly crazy and I was disgruntled from running into pricks all day I informed him that we were not taking our time on purpose and that we really did not intend to be inconsiderate. His response to this included some damn kids type of talk and he told us that, “had we been raised properly we would have been more considerate.” He had his chance when I tried to be nice and explain my self but he screwed that up. Dave is the type of person that does not take kindly to people insisting that he do something especially outside of work. Dave verbally ripped into grumpy old guy and had him backed against the wall telling him that he should look in the mirror when he speaks about being inconsiderate people along with some other choice words he got his point across rather nicely. The best part of this experience was that when Dave got through yelling at this dude he very caringly told the gentleman to have a Merry Christmas and shook his hand. 8) If the man had just nicely asked us to move I would have gladly accommodated him.
Like any rider worth his salt we continued our ride stopping at a gas station to get warm about an hour later. On our way out of the station a man and his wife pulled up to us in a crappy looking Olds. This dude was certainly an HD rider by the look of him. Well he leaned out the window and said “you guys are crazier than I am (for riding in the cold) and in a minuet you’ll see why.” We thought he was going to rob the store. But he just got out of the car in a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals and said let me get the Hog I’ll go riding with you. Unfortunately we had to turn him down because the temp had dropped to around 17 degrees. 8O
Well this is probably not the most entertaining riding story in the world. However, it is interesting to consider that even on the “happiest” day of the year motorcycles can still piss people off.I think I’ll make this a tradition. :twisted: Well everyone have a great day, pray for warm weather, and those of you in warm climates ride safe. Peace.