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| Blogs > matt-battler > Captain Caveman finally speaks |
Bike curious - what side are you on?
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Bike curious - what side are you on? In my local pub over the weekend I bumped into one of my biker friends whom I hadn't seen in a long time. If you live in this area you're probably going to have some biker friends, it's a stone's throw away from a big motor racing circuit, and an infamous biker cafe - The Oakdene. I'm not a biker myself but by virtue of many connections I've gained an insight into their world. From the outside it would seem like there's a tightknit biker community. It's not quite as simple as that - there are actually two camps: 1) Harley Davidson riders 2) Everyone else The two communities do not mix and the 'Everyone else' camp, which includes all my friends think that Harleys are really shit and people that ride them are wankers. Harley Davidson owners actually think they are cool and their bikes are amazing, and because they never mix with any other bikers they are blissfully unaware of the fact that everybody else is laughing at them. It reminds me of the speech by American political turdburglar Donald Rumsfeld who talked about 'known unknowns and unknown unknowns' - i.e. there are things you're aware that you don't know about, and there are things going on that you hadn't even thought of yet. The whole of the rest of the road community is an 'unknown unknown' to Harley riders as they haul their pieces of crap in formation, excluding all other riders.  I tried to find an offensive pic relating to Harleys but google has censored them all so here's a pic of something cool instead, Steve McQueen on a Metisse bike It reminds me of sites like this where people are very much in silos, there is the chatroom community, the blogging community, the groups community and there are those who depend on emails only who never engage with any communal aspect of the website. I'm not mad keen on labelling myself but I guess I'm part of the chat and blogging communities. I try not to exclude people consciously but it happens, people in the other silos I find hard to relate to. I find people that send unsolicited emails to me to be a bit weird and their mails are usually drivel so the short email exchanges that come from the write-in merchants never go anywhere. Anyway, sorry if you ride a Harley or you dated someone who rides one - this is actually how the rest of the world sees you! |
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I'll post a couple of memes to see if there's any that take your fancy, Matt  [image] "I'm always disappointed when a liar's pants don't actually catch on fire..."
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[image] "I'm always disappointed when a liar's pants don't actually catch on fire..."
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9/6/2016 1:57 pm |
i have a trek mountain bike does that count here? face piles of trials with smiles.. MOODY BLUES please feel free to visit my blog happy blogging
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I have a friend who wears a t-shirt that says 'HardlyMovingSon', I desperately wanted to show that on the blog, but clearly that's only on the dark net.  Impressive use of comic book graphics there - I'm actually a bit jealous of your graphical skills  The more I talk to women, the more I get the sense that they are distinctly unimpressed with the whole 'boys and their toys' side of life, or just men showing off in general (willy waving . . . driving a Ferrari), so maybe this is one of the more female-friendly blogs I've done? (by accident)
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Ranchomongo, thanks for dropping by. A few years ago I went to replace my old road bike with a new one, I'd never had a Raleigh bike when I was growing up and I wanted one, for sentimental reasons I suppose. I visited a local independent bike shop and made an inquiry - the guy threw up on me several times, after I wiped away the trail of sick from my clothes he then explained that he wouldn't even darken his stockroom with a Raleigh and no, he wouldn't order one in for me. 'We only sell Trek and Giant here', he said, as he started to flay my face with a rusty bicycle chain. I guess the bicycle equivalent of a Harley Davidson (in my eyes) is an old heavy 90s mountain bike that is never taken off road - i.e. simply not very good at what it's being used for . . .
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Hi there Tom, I'm no mechanical engineer, but my biker friends tell me that the Harley design is outdated technology - they nearly all ride Japanese bikes and their main debate surrounds whether Honda or Yamaha are the best. The fact is that Harley isn't selling you a bike, it's selling a 'lifestyle' or an 'experience' which is why it's become a museum piece. As you say they are really loud, which might be fine on an open road in Utah, but not so clever in suburban UK where you are likely to wake a lot of people up if you use it as a commuter bike - fuckers!
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9/6/2016 4:15 pm |
Just a little info: There are a few bike manufacturers that have tried to duplicate the Harley, the look was easy but they spent most of their money on copying the sound! And u r correct on the backpressure, all those exhaust pipes r designed for that, without it they would fry the exhaust valves very quickly!
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9/6/2016 4:21 pm |
Correction, That was a Triumph TR6, 650, that Steve McQueen rode in the movie!
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Anyone ride Indians?? not the two-legged ones (Virtual Symposium Group) use Virtual Symposium Group
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9/6/2016 8:30 pm |
Anyone ride Indians?? not the two-legged ones 
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hi there ltrskr, You're right, it is indeed a Triumph, however it now being made as a replica by the small independent company Metisse - I want to give credit and prominence to small and unusual companies such as Metisse, as opposed to the corporations everybody's already heard about. I don't claim to be a massive bike fan, but I am a big fan of having a choice between mainstream mass-manufactured products and low-volume niche quirky products 
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I have a friend who wears a t-shirt that says 'HardlyMovingSon', I desperately wanted to show that on the blog, but clearly that's only on the dark net. Impressive use of comic book graphics there - I'm actually a bit jealous of your graphical skills The more I talk to women, the more I get the sense that they are distinctly unimpressed with the whole 'boys and their toys' side of life, or just men showing off in general (willy waving . . . driving a Ferrari), so maybe this is one of the more female-friendly blogs I've done? (by accident) I have friends who ride Harleys and friends who don't, and there's always some friendly banter about it on both sides. Friendly bordering on bitchy if I'm honest. Me? I couldn't care less. So you're right on that 'showing off' front, it's boring. As it's a bike blog I decided I'd share this pic with you. This is all my own work, no graphical skills required Have a wonderful week, Matt. [image] "I'm always disappointed when a liar's pants don't actually catch on fire..."
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That picture of your legs combined with buffed/polished machinery will probably make a lot of the bikers reading this blog do this for a loonnnggg time:  Mixing of those two communities is very rare and in a few thousand years time people will wonder if they ever knew each other at all, just like we speculate about our former selves and neanderthals. Me? I'm still happy to rely on pedal power . . . since I mentioned guys showing off I won't share my cycling legs with you this time around 
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Haha, well, as most of them are old enough to have fathered me I sincerely hope not! Hey, I'm with you, you can't beat freewheeling at speed down a hill and hoping the brakes on your bike will work Hmm, so I showed you mine but you won't show me yours, eh  That seems very unfair, Matt  "I'm always disappointed when a liar's pants don't actually catch on fire..."
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For some reason (perhaps punishment for not paying for this) I've never been able to attach pics to blog responses - so no legs, no kittens, no fluffy bunnies, nothing. My next blog will be vaguely leg-based so I'll use that as a flimsy pretext to boast about mine 
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Yeah, it's the site being a bunch of miserable gits, not allowing standard members to include pics in replies. Ohhhh, well, then you'll have no excuse not to post pics when boasting  "I'm always disappointed when a liar's pants don't actually catch on fire..."
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