Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Ive caught myself nodding to bikers when im driving my van !!! :laugh: Just back from a week long tour around wales,yorkshire and Scotland on the xjr and have discovered only Harley and gs adventure riders seem to be non nodders

Most of the time I nod to all riders, parked up or on the road. I nod thank you to all road users & deliberately nod a thank-you to a driver who stopped pulling out from a side road. I'll nod to a rider on the opposite side of the dual carriageway or motorway if s/he glances in my direction.

When I see bikers travelling at speed towards me, I don't expect them to nod - I'd rather they keep their eyes and mind on the road. I don't get upset about it.

Came upon a big group of cyclists on Sunday, riding 3-4 abreast and the length of a truck. I wasn't happy I couldn't overtake for a while. As I passed by, one cyclist performed a salute. I'd rather they just moved over :unsure:

Once pulled over as there'd been an accident on the road ahead and got talking to this nice lady. She was telling me that she thought bikers waving to each other was great.

Only bikers and lorry drivers tend to show this sort of camaraderie.

coyotedave wrote:In this country of social class it depends what you ride. Each group nods to each other, even GS adv riders ignore us lesser standard GS riders.

Now in euro land it's all equal no matter what you ride.


Cheers Dave.

All true Dave

Most of the time I can't be arsed in the UK to nod, it's a bit pointless & sometimes you can't always tell if someone has or not

I prefer the full on left hand wave

Abroad I find it's much easier & the French always do, but the Germans don't

Yep, I've noticed the nods getting scarce. Everybodys stopped bothering because nobody likes not getting a nod in return. Vicious circle. Did a trip from North to South of France a couple of weeks ago, 1000 miles each way, and every biker on a big bike waved, a proper wave with the left hand held out to the side (we nod because we drive on the left and our right hands are on the throttle).

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(thumbs) Nod to all types of bikes, scooters , don't always get a nod back but would say in the UK I get 90% return, in Europe it seems to be leg out with maybe 50% reply rate with most coming from French and very few from the Germans .
Also always raise a hand or nod when four wheel drivers give me room to pass or let into traffic etc .

(thumbs) (thumbs)

Sloth, leg out only seems to be used to signal those on the right in Europe (ie: someone in your right mirror or someone youve just overtaken, again because the right hand is busy with the throttle.) If you used your left leg for bikers coming the other way thats probably why you only got 50 percent reply (they wondered what the hell you were doing LOL) Or perhaps in your 50 percent you are counting small bikes and mopeds which are just transport and the riders dont count themselves as 'bikers'.

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ysbytymike wrote:Only bikers and lorry drivers tend to show this sort of camaraderie.

And 'Motorhome-ists' They all wave to each other.

I don't really care, I'll nod, wave, whatever if it's safe.

My observations, I get more acknowledgment on the Tenere, that looks like it's been through hell though. On the Tigger, less so. Also, from the riders who don't, it's often very clean shiny bikes that ignore you. Through the winter, I can't actually think of an occasion where someone hasn't returned the nod/wink/terrified look.

I always give a driver a thank-you type wave if they've noticed me. Maybe they started to pull out and stopped, or were going for the overtake and held back, or they behaved correctly as I passed them (i.e. didn't drive in the gutter throwing up all the crap, or drive along the center line). I believe that if we all showed consideration to all drivers, eventually they would start to look for us more.

At the end of the day, I like the solitude of riding, I'm a bloke on a bike and I expect others feel the same and may want to live in their own little world. Thats fine by me.

Elle wrote:I nod thank you to all road users & deliberately nod a thank-you to a driver who stopped pulling out from a side road.

You have to be careful with that. A few years ago my son was waiting to turn right into a side road and nodded his thanks to the driver of a car who stopped to give him the way (there was a constant stream of traffic, being rush hour). But the driver clearly misunderstood the message, because as my son set off, so did she, crushing his lower leg between her bumper and his bike. Ended up with a pin in his leg from knee to ankle, compartment syndrome, and several weeks in hospital and enormous scars where the surgeon had to open up both sides of his calf to prevent the compartment syndrome killing the muscles.

ysbytymike wrote:Always give a full blooded wave to fellow bikers. The ones who respond are usually bikers who've been out there years and seen it all, wind, rain, blood and bullets, (so to speak).
I have a hypothesis that half the butterfly/power ranger type don't wave back because their afraid to let go the handlebars. :whistle:

There's something in that, I try to restrict my 'need for speed' these days but a 350 odd mile trip out on the Gixer last Tuesday reminded me how frantic it can sometimes be when your 'making progress' on a plastic missile, missed a couple of nodding opportunities as was focused so much on what I was doing and the horizon hmy:

I'm lucky (old) enough to have more than one bike and surprising the different responses I get depending on what I'm riding/wearing - orange, hand painted, 1971 Yammy step thru only seems to get waves from old ladies and young kids ..........even when I'm not waving at them :laugh: