...and as I do, thumping and roaring as it happens, and I grind to a halt parking my bike in the few parking spaces available on my way to get my healthy brekky of a pie and a few tins of V (ok I'm addicted and coffee gives me either the shits or indigestion, not my fault, V is addictive...)...
Anyway, this lad comes up to me (from filling up his bus at the diesel pumps a good 10m or so from where I am) and at the point that ive got the kickstand down and just turned off the bike, taking my gloves off and moving onto taking my helmet off and here's what he said, try and fill me in on what I'm missing...
Bloke: oh hey mate, is that a bigger camshaft making that thump-thump sound when you're sitting there idle?
Me: Ahh that's my exhaust mate..
Bloke: exhaust? Ahh ok (giving me a look of either I'm a dickhead for eplaining it or he's a dickhead for not realisting it...)
Me: (trying to work out the fkn knots in me helmet straps after riding for 1/2 hour to get there and I just wanna get a fkn pie before I'm late for work) ...grunt, mumble, fiddle...
Bloke: walks off shaking his head...
And here I am thinking to myself, WTF DO YOU THINK WAS MAKING ALL THE FKN NOISE???
I mean really, this bloke may have been a biker from way-back knowing all the cool bikes and what-not but I'm clearly riding a simple little Harley with some short shot's (as per sig) and he's wondering whether the noise is due to a camshaft??
I'm not a mega mechanically minded bloke, I'm into guitars, homebrew beer and I work as a professional computer nerd, but ffs even I can tell a loud exhaust will kinda sound loud and thumping...
I took it as a compliment that my bike sounds good enough for some random bloke to comment on it, but really, it's not rocket science that an exhaust upgrade could actually sound good.....
Anyone else have a similar story??
Cheers,
Shred.
Maybe he's never really listened to a V twin on idle, only heard em ride past.
Cpl weeks ago i called in to some park toilets for the mrs, standing there waiting for mrs and this old guy stroll's over from a camper van.
Stands there lookin at my bike with arms folded and shaking his head,
With a very strong german accent he say's .......it's no good !!
Why's that i asked ?
NO TV !!!
Well it was funny at the time, lol.
Went to a FLOG event once about 10 years ago.........didn't ride with em, came in late.
One of the idiots saw my bike and asked " whats this old jigger then?"
Well, the bike was an 85' Wideglide......clearly the oldest bike there..........but only about 15 years old at the time! Seemed to have them bamboozled, what with kickstarter and all!!
Didn't know what the fuck he meant by "jigger" at the time......still struggle with that term! Must be a mexican expression!
Me and my other non Hog mate stood in one spot for the first coupla hours gasbaggin and downing beers as you do, leaving a pile of cans at our feet, only to have one of the Flogettes running over every now and again picking them up and frowning at us!.........and No, we weren't indoors!
Haven't bothered with anymore HOG events!!!..........haven't got enough patches anyway!
Burto.
Several years ago I was walkin out of the solicitors office to where Shazza was patiently mindin the bike, as I started puttin my gear on a little old lady came up to us with her shoppin jeep, stopped, looked at the bike for a bit.... and said............ " I used to take my kids to school on one of these, its a Harley isnt it?" She then told us how she took her 2 kids on the bike along dirt roads, rain, hail and shine to school every day. She said the kids didnt like it cos the other kids all teased em about their mum on the noisy old bike. After we left I was spewin I didnt ask if she had any pics to show us.
Made my fukn day, as opposed to the solicitors bullshit babble!!
