Best Comment from Non-Rocket Owner?

As we all know we get some pretty off the wall questions and comments about the engine. I love them all. My favorite comment is when they ask or realize the displacement and this comes out in total amazement ... "That's a Car Engine"! I like to reply ... "No, Car Engines are Smaller". That usually gets an affirmative head nod and laugh.
 
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I love your response...... I'll have to remember that next time somebody comments

I also have a R1100S BMW (see attached) that was parked in a restaurant parking lot. We were sitting within earshot of the bike
when a dad in his 40's with his 10 year old son trailing behind, walked past the bike without seeming to notice. He then stopped,
came back to the bike and said to his son "Look....a fast looking bike with an antique motor".
We laughed...... definitely not a motorcycle guy
 

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Nice bike
 
Funny you mention Gold Wing owners.
A number of years back I did the IAM course, locally.
The main honcho's in the 'management' within the local group were G-W riders. I was allocated an 'assessor' on my first meet. A newly qualified member, which was fine. He was a nice enough guy, but I felt almost straight away, that the G-W riding couple of group leaders had ego's far bigger than their bikes.
Every time I met the group at the start of my assessment ride, the people in charge would never speak to me in a way that felt quite right. They acted like they were a clique on their own. Above the others. They would never acknowledge me or ask how things were going. They would just hang with each other.
Just strange, in my opinion.
I never heard them talking about bikes either. They weren't Policemen, but they acted like they were pretending to be.......You know the type....drunk on power/superiority.
I haven't mixed with G-W riders much over the years. Hardly at all, but those three or four guys at the IAM group, didn't give me a positive impression.

I do think, that there is something, with this brand group thing. If folk feel the need to only ride with people who have the same bike, they do generally appear to ignore other riders. Not a very respectful or friendly way to go about things. It's certainly not my way.
To me, a bike is a bike. It doesn't matter what it is. i'll keep an open mind & a respectful manner to all motorcyclists, as a rule.
 
Of my three bikes, the Rocket gets the most interest and the most comments - from other riders and non-riders alike. Non-riders ask the daftest questions, but I don't mind, in fact it's kind of nice. It's a bit like having a very big and very friendly dog: everyone wants to come and talk to you.

Non-riders can't believe they've just clocked a motorcycle with a bigger engine than their car (taking pics of the 2500cc panel on the intake cover is very common). Riders are just intrigued to know what it's like to ride - how fast is it, isn't it really heavy, does it go round corners, how do you hang on to it etc. Rocket 3 demo bikes are not that common so very few people other than owners and journalists have ever ridden one.
I have been parked at a bike meet wandering up and down with a coffee and overheard a couple of riders looking at my bike and saying "it's basically just a car engine". Sometimes I like to engage and have that conversation and explain that it really isn't just a two-wheeled car.

In fact, I've had some thought-provoking conversations thanks to the Rocket that have made me wonder about a few things myself, such as why don't more manufacturers mount in-line engines longitudinally? To me it's a winning format. A 1000 cc in-line triple would be incredibly slim with a low centre of gravity and if the engine is a stressed member it would be extremely easy to work on. LIkewise, when I had my Harley I thought why don't more manufacturers use belt drive? These are the conversations I like having with attention-drawing bikes.

I've never encountered any snobbery. Famously aloof Harley riders are generally interested, especially when I tell them that I traded a Harley to buy my Rocket. The only type of rider who rarely make conversation are the weekend squeaky leather sports bike riders. But they won't speak to anyone who isn't wearing knee sliders anyway. There is a sub-set of sports bike riders who think if it hasn't got 200 bhp it isn't a proper bike and if you haven't got such a bike it means you can't ride one. They're the riders you overtake on the way home.

The only time I've had any disrespect was at Devils Bridge in Kirkby Lonsdale. The Rocket was parked up and I was sitting on the wall having a brew. A group of blokes clustered round the bike and started discusssing it, which was fine - happens all the time. Then they started touching it, putting their feet on the pegs and turning the bars. One of them who must have weighed twenty stone rested his forearms on the tank and leant his weight on it like it was a shopping trolley. That narked me so I put helmet on, walked up to the bike and shewed them away and rode off without speaking to tham.
 
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The aloof attitude is sadly a consequence of the UK IAM. I've been a member for 13 years, all the time with a Rocket. It took three years before they got over themselves, and actually figured out I knew how to ride it, and they couldn't lose me. Generally they are a pretentious bunch of Tw*ats, thinking that they are riding gods and that people like us (the great unwashed) could never aspire to be capable enough of riding at their level. I wouldn't worry too much about their distain, they do it to everybody - I got so sick of it, and the hypocrisy they demonstrate, that I've recently quit the local group. I dispair of them
 
I heard that years ago when I wanted to do an advanced riding course. I went with Rapid Training in the end. The instructors are all former or serving police riders who are also racers or track riders in civvies. Rapid is a private enterprise, nothing to do with police-operated Bikesafe, but they bring police training techiniques. It was intensive 1:1 tuition and a game changer for me. I must do another with them sometime.