cafe life in a hick town...

Went for a 100km round trip highway ride today at +8C. Saw all sorts of bikes out, all waved. Fuggin cold, good time was had.
 
This is my first post you please excuse me for not having any pics up quite yet. So far I've been spending more time plotting out my next move with my bike instead of creating my profile. I just stumbled onto this goldmine of a site.
It's not too hick out here in Northern California. There are the bad seeds in every style. I'm a young guy (23) and I get bull from every direction. My local Kawi shop employs what I'm guessing are the crotch rocket scenesters. The parts counter dbag completely blew me off for one of his "own" once I said what year my bike was (81 kz650).
I'd have to say that the hickest thing around here is the roadways. With all of the construction, congestion, and the potholes, some routes make me feel that I might as well be on a dirt road.
As far as the arrogent harley riders, it's there loss really. They have the aspect of riding correct, but for the wrong reasons. A bike isn't a trophy or status symbol to display outside of a local bar. I'd much rather drink beer in my garage workin on my bike than leaving it in any parking lot. To me thats what it's about.
 
I hear ya man about beer at the garage. Not much I hate worse than a bunch ofdrunken "look at me" bikers on 600lb rockets. And welcome to the forum btw! I stumbled on to this site much the same way a couple years ago. And also, much like you kaw parts counter exp, I got fed up with being shunned when trying to get parts for an 87 ninja 750. Guy at the counter actually said once that my bike looked gay and I should get a newer sport bike if I wanted to fit in... I hate wading thru assholes to ride. Good luck on your riding and wrenching man.
 
matie69 said:
Interesting read guys......Here in the U.K its totally different....I think we're quite lucky by the sound of it.
whatever bike you ride tourer,fireblade esc,rat,cafe,cruiser........there's always a friendly nod as passing on the roads.

A fellow biker will be happy to look at and talk about each others bike and appreciate the work that has gone into it regardless of make. Lots of Zs,Rds,GSs,Cbs and such like on the roads and you seem to all be part of that biking family.

Do find it off putting to advertise your bike make with matching jackets and accessories but hey thats their choice. Just cause its big, noisey and flash doesnt make it the bee's knees.
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What our cousins from across the pond don't realize, is that Americans have this weird habit of polarizing themselves, in maters of religious and political beliefs, to brand loyalty. I'm not immune from it either. I admit, I am a bike snob to the point of not recognizing my Buells as H-D's, as I often remind Lookie Lou's. But, I truly believe it is the H-D crowd that started all the animosity and I feel it was out of jealousy or the realization that their venerated V twins could not compete with the hi-po in-line 4s from the Land of the Rising Sun. In the face of leaps in performance every 2-3 years in the sport bike world, the H-D guys have nothing to say but "I don't ride for the speed" kind of drivel. To those who have never been, you should check out a dyno drag shootout. The Terossi (sp) truck tours HD boutiques during the summer. The thing to watch is the reaction from the HD folks when sport bikes make their runs. Priceless!
 
Summerfest32 said:
I'd much rather drink beer in my garage workin on my bike than leaving it in any parking lot. To me thats what it's about.
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+10 and welcome to the forum

biker_reject said:
What our cousins from across the pond don't realize, is that Americans have this weird habit of polarizing themselves, in matters of religious and political beliefs, to brand loyalty.
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That's the truth. The Ford guys vs Chevy guys thing here is crazy. I know it still happens, but I do my best not to polarize. I wrench on my own cars and bikes but I know how to order at Starbucks. I know, it's quite the conundrum. I bought my Harley for most of the wrong reasons, but I love it anyway. And that's what really matters.
 
After a few more trips in the area, I've noticed that I tend to get waved at more often by guys on sportbikes. But not as many of the "power ranger" sportbikers do, just the average guys. On the bottom end of that spectrum is another group of sportbike riders that don't wave. And I say "bottom end" for a reason... the dreaded flip flops, shorts, wife beater, and icon titatium gloves wearing squid packs. Seriously, if you crash dressed like that, hands are the last thing im worried about. That group, and the power rangers are what pointed me in the direction of cafe. Them and the blind brand loyalty required of the harley guys here. But back on the power squids, they make me grin most days, because I know they probably know less about motorcycling than I know about crochet... but I still wave at em..
 
What are Power Rangers, guys who wear one piece leathers on the street? That is a rare sight around here. I saw one dude in Louisville about 7 years ago in full leathers. He was riding slicks, his rubber was all balled up, and his knee pucks were ground down. I gave him props. I rode with a pack one summer. It was called simply, "The Pack" and had about 40-50 riders on any given weekend night. Too dangerous for me because of the number of squids in the group. Too much testosterone also. After a few sessions, I quit riding with them. Later that summer, there was a horrible pile up on a highway off ramp. Many dudes got hurt that night. Needless to say, I never rode with them again. The pack was a fad that happened in the mid to late 90's. It faded pretty quick after that. Now, it's stunters in parking lots and dudes hanging out instead of riding. I wave to everyone, cept HD guys. None of them has ever waved back in the 17 years I've been riding street, so fuck 'em.
 
Ouch.

No worries Von, you can still ride with my wife. As long as you don't get out of first, she will keep up.
 
Yeah, its pretty much HD country here. There are still the younger crowd with sport bikes. There are a very few bunch who are open minded to all brands and thats where I fit. I have an HD, but always talk about how heavy, slow, and crappy the bikes are. The HD crowd says, you need to do this, put this and that on and it will go fast. I tell 'em if i want to go fast, I'll ride my stock Kawasaki that cost less than the exhaust they put on. Haha. I ride all kinds of wierd stuff, but this last week while on the cb200, people are rubber necking left and right. Too funny, i have less than $1500 in it and people are walking past the $20,000 bikes to look at it. When I ride the Harley, it looks like every other one. When i ride the HD, i wave at everyone, the sport bike crowd about tip over from shock. When I'm on a british or japanese bike i wave at the HD guys and not much response.
I just love all motorcycles, some people are hard to crack though.
Kev
 
biker_reject said:
What are Power Rangers, guys who wear one piece leathers on the street?
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Yup. One piece leathers with the aero hump on their back. Racing slicks and attitudes. 1000 mph everywhere they go and 40 bikes that move like they are all connected ie, pile up fodder. I too haven't seen them in a long time, but I remember the scoffs and shuns I would get back 7 year ago on an 87 ninja. I think they are the older brothers of squids lol.
 
I wish we could all get over the crap. We're all on two wheels, sharing the road, you know? But, I often wonder if all sports and past times are inhabited by their versions of squids and bikers. Could you imagine if we were say, stamp collectors talking about the douche bags who were ruining our thing? Hahahahaha!
 
i guess here in cali its pretty laid back, ive gotten nothin but good reactions with my bike, generally people are like what the hell is that lol, and i even had a captain from the ruff ryders come to my house as he was riding by, gave me props and let me know im welcome to ride with their crew anytime.
and i had an old time biker, not a weekend one tattoo biker lol, stoked about the bike and said he was going to put up pics at the harley dealer and in the album they have of bikes... so kinda cool out here id say.
 
living in a post-industrial (read: poor) city, I come across pirates on Harleys or squids on 'ricers' wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Luckily, there's the Triumph shop down the road that has a decent following of actual riders who know bikes, but they're an older generation that know better to avoid commuting through the city. I'm too busy avoiding potholes and trying not to get killed (last incident, some high motherfucker passed me on the left on a one-way road, while I was about to turn left, blinkers and all) to notice people's reactions, but I usually get confused stares.
 
Ah the "confused stare" seems to reign supreme in cafe land.... I have a small update here: the last few weeks since startig this thread have seen some improvement to the circumstances of normality. One guy flipped me off from the back of his harley and one person must have emptied their wiper jets on a tight two lane road while I followed, then feathered the breaks when I got close-ish. But other than that, its been people who are curious as to what it is, kids running out to the sidewalk waving at me and twisting their wrist and smiling ear to ear, and kids waving at me from cars in traffic. What to do? Wave back, smile at them, and answer all the dumb questions that people think they are the first people to ask. Its just nice to not be looked at with distain sometimes. Today at Autozone I was trying to buy a headlight and while swapping trim rings in the store all the guys working there had to go line the windows and stare. One called it a flat tracker. One said it was a cafe, all of them approved and one is a harley guy who said he thought about cafing his bike. I mentioned this site and they all seemed interested. All in all a good day was had. And now the good days are far outweighing the bad moments...
 
I dont see many others riding older Japanese bikes here in Ottawa. People mostly have big cruisers or crotch rockets. My brother in law bought a 2005 kawi 600, and his friends were all telling him that it was too small and that he needed a "litre bike". I straight up told him that if 36hp from my 350lb 71cb350 was good enough then he was just fine with 100+hp on his 400lb rocket. After seeing some of the posts on FB from his friends about how they were riding, I had to ask him not to ride with those guys. They seem to like hitting 130 on the highway ramps and hitting 290kph on the straights.
On another note
When I was younger one of my really good friends was a 75 year old raging alcoholc outlaw HD guy. He never gave me shit once about owning a "jap bike" he used to ride them all as a kid. He cut his teeth on a water buffalo and fully approved of my gs650g and xs360. He loved all bikes but owned a old harley and didnt want anything else. I'm pretty sure that were he alive today he would have even less use for the yuppie bad boy hd crowd then most people on this board.
 
Hey, I used to ride like that. I don't know about hitting an off ramp at 80, but there are dudes out there who can hit 180 on straights. I guess you could approach an off ramp at 80 and grab a handful of brake before you initiate the turn in, but you ain't gonna take that cloverleaf at 80! :-D I graduated from a gixxer 750, to a ZX9R, then on to the meanest mofo at the time, the gixxer1k. It was a progression of greater and greater performance, but over a 7 year stretch. Current 600's are awesome and a handful for newbs. I'd suggest he learn to ride that Kaw for a while!

This w/e, I had to explain the whole cafe concept and scene to the hairdresser who gave me a cut. She asked me if I built "like choppers and stuff"? She had never heard of a cafe bike and I still don't think she could visualize what they looked like despite my attempts at describing a UJM or the final product. Last week, my neighbor's son was visiting and saw me working on the FrankenBuell and came over. He was once an RC51 rider. He saw my DOHC 750 project in all it's unfinished glory and asked what it was. I had to explain the whole thing again. He was totally intrigued by this type of bike and that there were builders all over the world doing this. He said he was going home to look it up on the internet! I had to smile about the dude's enthusiasm!
 
oh he isnt going to be upgrading for a while I think. He agrees that his buddies are idiots. as far as you riding like that, well its your life I suppose. I would think you have a better idea of what your doing then these guys. As far as trying to xplain what a cafe racer is Ive just given up. I tell em its lik a 60's style race bike. When they ask why I would do that I just shutt up.
 
I'm older and somewhat wiser now. And, I'm not a single guy anymore who can afford to be selfish and take risks. :) Got two little bitty ones and another on the way, plus an amazing wife to think about. I'm happy to wrench away at the moment. Would like to eventually just do track days. No more crazy stuff on the streets for me! My wife is relieved I feel this way. Ha! I don't mind explaining cafe bikes to people, but I do hate it when they ask "why?" A good friend of mine back in the early 2000's saw me sketching what I wanted to build and asked "Why would you want to take a dirty old ugly bike and turn it into a shiny old ugly bike?" Sigh...
 
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