I'm starting to get the anti-HD vibe

Exactly! I know cops give tickets in LA to folks going 75 in the fast lane because they are blocking traffic. The idea of entitlement can go both ways. Courteous is the positive way to treat others. It is how I want to be treated. I quit riding with a popular local group of "rolling road block" riders that told me "they don't care about anyone behind them"; AZZHOLES!!!

no kidding! has he checke4d the price on a GS or Tiger lately?:huh

Have checked the price of a used KLR lately???

I also ride a Buell and couldn't agree more with the original post. Every time I go to that area I run into the same thing. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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I normally give them a couple of pull offs and then I start looking for a way around. <o></o>
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Normally that works but last spring on the Skyway I ran across a Triumph Rocket 3 and a newer Goldwing. This was a new on me, they would go through the turns ~ 25 mph and run full throttle down every straight stretch. These are not slow bikes and that was very frustrating. So I passed them and the look on the guy face on the Goldwing was priceless. I didn't want to out run them that way but I didn't want to stay behind that for 40 miles.<o></o>
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I don't get it, I will gladly pull over and do when faster vehicles are coming my way. Why can't they do the same for us? I won't even get started on the cruiser parades. <o></o>

Up here in New England, the best riding is often in rural areas. That means farm equipment & trucks, often heavily loaded, chugging along at sub-limit speeds on narrow, 2 lane blacktop. Other traffic, cars, & bikes, alike, pile up behind. (not just Harleys, but frequently, it seems) When the passing sections do come up, the following traffic just tailgates the slowpoke (car,truck, or bike) but won't make the pass. Once six or seven vehicles are piled up nose to tail behind a slow mover, I'm stuck if I am in 7th place. The passing zones are never long enough, given our hills & curves, to make a safe pass of the assembled clump, but the ones ahead in the mess will tailgate & weave but never summon the nerve to pass the offending slowpoke, even when it can be done legally & safely. I suspect that the prevalence of the interstate highways have led the average driver to lose his ability to make a safe, legal pass, on a 2 lane road.

Was above the tree line in Rocky Mountain National Park last week, and it started to sleet. On my Harley, BTW. And that road doesn't have a lot of guard rails. The traffic really started to slow down, to about 15 mph. It was actually work to keep the heavily loaded Harley balanced at those speeds.

Yes, the little cars causing all the slow down were afraid of the sleet and falling off the side of the road, and slowly drove past several pullouts. And yes, that was rude of them on one level.

But rather than gripe about it, or unfairly pick on one brand of car manufacturer, I just used a pull out myself and let them get ahead. Easy solution. Try it.

There are people who simply do not have the balls to make their own rules (speed in this case), so they take it upon themselves to hold others back. They live bitter lives, and resist friendly courtesy if it isn't required by law. What is so hard about letting someone make their own choices, and face their own consequences? Seeing someone with more courage than themselves, and facing that reality.

It is easy to be irritated by them, but what they really deserve is our pity.

You want huge bunches of bikers backed up behind some newbie who's inching along at speeds slow enough to make your head explode? Head to Sturgis.

I was there in the thick of it with my brothers and nephew. We all like to ride fast. After getting frustrated for a half a day in the black hills on awesome roads...poking behind one big group after another (which seemed to be held back by a two-up WInger instead of a Harley) we changed tactics. We just pulled over as a group when we ran up the tailpipes of some slowbie.. We'd take a five minute break, and as soon as a long spell went by with no traffic we'd zip out and have some fun. And normally catch the monster group of slowbies at the next town.

A lot more fun to stop and let the slow guys go ahead than to work your way through a big crowd.

Of course, I passed a lot of people too. I got a speeding ticket in Wyoming to show for it.

Cakeeater

Is it Friday? Are we still doing that?

He didn't come to that conclusion, or even say anything of the sort. He was noting that this is the thing that people complain about Harley riders doing, and he never got it before, but now after experiencing people doing it, he understands why people complain about it.

Yes, not everyone is going to let you by because you're riding at a faster pace, but they SHOULD. Whether they are going the speed limit or not. And if they know you are there and they don't, they are being a$$holes.

Ah, so you are one of them? Self-righteous, "I'll show them" attitude? Nice.

This!

QFT.

PhilB

This!.

I should have titled the thread "I'm starting to understand the anti-HD vibe" to make it clearer.

And with me it is spreading to an anit-Goldwing vibe as well.

Listen, I don't care how slow you ride, and whether it is required by law or not I get frustrated when people know they are holding you up and could easily let you by, but just refuse to. I don't think it is a sense of entitlement at all. It is a sense of frustration that someone could do something so simple and easy and just plain refuse to. What's up with that?

No worries, they're just being asshats as usual...

The slow riders, and some of the guys posting replies...

Yeah, I really hate it when I get all dressed up in my space man suit to go for a ride on my 180 h.p. racing motorcycle and I want to embarrass all those other riders in the twisties and the nasty bad mans on a Harley won't let me pass him. :huh

On a multi-lane federal highway, it is not just courtesy. It's the LAW. You are REQUIRED to yield to overtaking traffic. Unfortunately, the police seldom issue the ticket unless there is another infraction at the same time. Hence, the prevalence of the slow (insert stereo-type here) in the middle lane, refusing to travel in the right (slow) lane because they are too lazy to deal with on- and off-ramp traffic.

On two-lane highways (one lane each direction), the laws very by state. In Washington, the delay of 5 or more vehicles requires the slow vehicle to pull over to let traffic pass. Again, the police seldom enforce the infraction.

In a world of increasing congestion, and too many instances of road rage, the "delay of vehicle" or "failure to yield to overtaking traffice" should, in my opinion, be the first infraction enforced.

If you don't like it, go to Russia!

I don´t get it?
You´r driving a bike, just pass the suckers

It is practically never safe and legal to pass on any road with curves and very much traffic. It is not "legal" to exceed the speed limit when passing, meaning that if the speed limit is 45 and the bike ahead is going 40, it is going to take a while to pass never exceeding 45 mph.

Also, it is obvious from many of the people posting that they have never ridden the Tail of the Dragon nor the BRP. There are no legal passing zones on the Dragon and VERY few on the BRP (at least on the section I was riding). The sight lines on both are very limited and I was not willing to pass in a way that I did not feel safe. Yet both roads have many places that it is easy to pull off onto and in a matter of five seconds they could have been continuing their ride without me behind them. For you guys who don't get this, we are simply wired differently. I like a little excitement in my ride from time to time. We all have our own acceptable risk levels and there may be some on here who would have passed in the conditions I was riding in. I could not see around them far enough to ensure I wouldn't become a hood ornament, so I wouldn't pass. Others would. And for the record, the people on the BRP parkway were NOT going the speed limit. I don't believe the people on the Dragon were either, but to be honest, I'm not sure what the speed limit is on that road. They were going so slow, however, that I don't see how they could have been going the speed limit.

But, even if they were going the speed limit, my frustration would not change. When someone obviously wants to pass you, let them pass. It's really simple.

So, you went to South Dakota during Sturgis and you expected to be able to enjoy riding the roads there????
SRSLY????

Joe

What's with all these rules, you're on a tucking motorcycle! Yeah, you should blow past people doing the speed limit, because that is just totally obnoxious.

Just because you obviously hate America don't assume I do you fucking commie, now pull over you slow ass mother fucker.

BTW I'm just teasing you, just today I let a 10 speed bike pass me down a hill so no doubt a buell could do the same.