Those of you not in "the community" may not be aware of the bitching that goes on about those who ride a bike different than yours. The big division seems to be between Harley riders (and to a lesser extent, cruiser riders as a whole) and sportbikers. Yours truly basically falls into the latter camp, though the Bandit's not really a sportbike...

I can't say for sure what Harley folks think about us. I've never had the "When're you gonna git a REAL BIKE?" speech, but I know lots of folks have, and I know the riders on good ol' American iron do tend to turn their noses up at us on occasion. I do know for a fact that we sportbikers tend to bitch a lot about Harleys; mostly at their inarguably lower performance, higher cost, and the "poser" label we attach to a number of their riders. A lot of the bitching sort of smacks of jealousy, though; "that mean ol' Harley rider didn't wave back to me!" And of course, there's a fair number of us who do our share of posing as well, but there ya have it.

Anyway. I did a bunch of wrenching on the Bandit yesterday in preparation for the Great May West Coast Ride. I guess when I reinstalled the tank I managed to put a kink into the air-vent hose, such that when I rode for a bit and fuel got depleted, pressure dropped in the tank enough to prevent fuel from feeding. Anyway, long story short, the bike died on the freeway - fuel starvation. Luckily I was in the far left lane and was able to stumble to the shoulder before the engine died completely. Trying to figure out the problem, I had the bike up on its centerstand, my helmet on the ground next to it, the engine off, and was obviously trying to figure something out.

In the time it took me to realize what was wrong and figure out a work-around, I was passed by quite a few bikes; traffic was pretty slow, right around 35mph in the fast lane. Of the bikes that passed me, not a one of the sportbikers paid the slightest attention; well, one did throw me a jaunty salute and rev it, as if to say "if your bike wasn't fucked, I'd race ya, bro!" Three different Harleys, however, yelled out to me, pulled off to offer help, etc.

Thanks, guys.

Just a quick reminder that whatever you're riding, the other guy's a fellow rider too. CBXXXX1500R-RR or Ultra-Wide-Dyna-Custom Classic, whatever. We have our little cliques, we all ride for different reasons, but we're all out there riding. You know what? That makes us brothers.

So wave to everyone. Stop to help anyone who needs it. One day it'll be you on the edge of the road, and you never know who'll help you out.

also: welcome to all the new viewers. I presume I can direct my thanks to the Motorcycle Bloggers International site, but I'm glad to see y'all. Keep on stopping by and I promise I'll keep on writing.