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The ol' helmet tap warning with a question

....Like people in cars would care what a motorcyclist has to say about anything in general, particularly anything that involves signals they themselves don't use (like patting helmets they're not wearing). If you're trying to tell somebody something's up with their headlights (highbeams on, or none on at all or whatever) you flash your own a couple times, everyone knows that.

As for patting your head at a cop, there's not a thing illegal about that, although they'll probably roll their eyes at you.

What's this 'leg warning' about dogs, anyway?
 
-Crash- said:



from

http://www.msf-usa.org/downloads/Group_Ride.pdf


did no one else take or pay attention to the MSF course?
Click to expand...



MSF also teaches to use your throttle hand to point to an obstacle on the right side of your lane....


YMMV, but hand signals are an evolution of local riding culture which bear no allegience to the opinion of someone writing a book in Orange County - or a non-riding DMV clerk, for that matter.


Hand signals are not a covered part of the curriculum, and have only recently been added to the written materials for the BRC.


-Q!
 
Tank34 said:
MSF? Are they still around?
All I know is when someone taps their helmet, I'm headed into a speed trap.
Cagers give a *&% what a motorcyclist has to say about highbeams.
Click to expand...

And more importantly most of us leave are high beams on all the time anyways, or at least those tired of hearing we have a headlight out, ( i had a leo tell me that once and try to write a ticket for that, along only one left mirror)

Point being, I wonder how it either

a. evolved from highbeams on --> po po's out to get you

or

b. Weird parallel evolution led to two exactly identical hand signs came to mean two different things.

I'm gonna go with a. But how did it spread? someone would have had to be the first to tell his buddies what he wanted the sign to mean then they had to do it, if so then who?

I decided I'm going to do into Cultural anthropology/sociology, and write a thesis about the evolution of the head tap.
 
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QuaiChangKane said:
MSF also teaches to use your throttle hand to point to an obstacle on the right side of your lane....


-Q!
Click to expand...



No it doesn't, point with left hand for left, point with right foot for right.

I dare others to misquote something...
 
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Gnarly Cranium said:
What's this 'leg warning' about dogs, anyway?
Click to expand...

"The biggest problem is with domestic animals: i.e. dogs. Most seem to have an urge to chase motorcycles. Those that don’t chase often are known to blunder into the path of moving vehicles.
Don’t let one distract you and cause a spill.
Here are three rules:

#1 Slow down well before you reach the animal.
#2 Do not - repeat - do not kick at the animal.
#3 If the animal looks like he’s going to intercept you, speed up just as you are about to reach him. It will throw his timing off."

from

http://msf-usa.org/downloads/Riding_Tips.pdf
 
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-Crash- said:
a. evolved from highbeams on --> po po's out to get you

or

b. Weird parallell evolution led to two exactly identical hand signs came to mean two different things.
QUOTE]

I always thought it was B. I assumed it was from cops having lights on top of their car.
Although I do remember back in the day before daytime running lights, while driving through Texas I asked my dad why all the cars in the oncoming highway lanes had their lights on. He said "there's probably a cop car up ahead." Sure enough, there was a trooper parked in the median behind a stand of bushes a couple of miles ahead. So maybe there is some correlation between high beams and speed traps.
Click to expand...
 
kross said:
I always thought it was B. I assumed it was from cops having lights on top of their car.
Although I do remember back in the day before daytime running lights, while driving through Texas I asked my dad why all the cars in the oncoming highway lanes had their lights on. He said "there's probably a cop car up ahead." Sure enough, there was a trooper parked in the median behind a stand of bushes a couple of miles ahead. So maybe there is some correlation between high beams and speed traps.
Click to expand...

That is awesome and even better than a.
 
I had a cager, who i would assume also ride, put his hand out the window and tap the roof of his car on hwy 9...
 
Always treat other people the way you want to be treated. I warn everyone, including cagers, although I don't know if they speak the same language. I had one driver flash his lights at me while I was doing 65 in a 35, but I didn't connect the dots right away. I thought he might be trying to tell me something was wrong with my bike, so I stopped to check it out. I couldn't find anything wrong with it, so I just shrugged my shoulders and kept riding. Since I had just stopped, I was more or less going the limit when I saw the patrol car that was waiting up the road. At that point I was no longer confused about the signal I had received. I've also had a cager tap his roof, though. Maybe it was just a caged biker. Anyways, since then I just slow down and ride cautiously whenever I get signals on the road. There's no harm in being careful!
 
"Funny thing about that helmet tap... The actual motion, of patting the top of yer noggin, is the exact same hand signal used to relay an IED strike to other vehicles in the convoy. Ask any 11B, 19K, 19D, SECFOR, or 88M, etc, that's been to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Kinda creeps me out when I see folks doing it here. But I guess after you have personally been the reason for others to pass the IED signal, you'd be a little weird about it too. Getting blown up sucks. It'll be a year ago this month.

Here's what was left of my truck:
Attached Thumbnails"
Originally posted by turbodan


Holy shit it's mind boggling you survived that. Sorry to hear about the disabilities and if I ever run into you in public, the beer is on me, but don't worry---friends don't let friends lose it in public. I guess you're out now right? Glad you survived and I hope the VA takes care of you. I got a lifetime supply of hearing aid batteries and hearing aids for the damage my M-60 did in my time in the Corps---that and the dragon and the phased out 106mm and the 81s and the 60's and the claymores and the...you get the idea. I was lucky though in that I never had to go to combat -[79-83] even though I was young and foolish enough to want to.
 
n10sive said:
To say thanks, flashing break lights 2-3 times means thanks. Used to just grab the light knob and do the ol' one long two short, but those days are over :)
Click to expand...
Acknowledge the courtesy with three flashes of the 4-ways...
 
This thread was fresh on my mind when...

Drove the wifey to work today, picked her up in the afternoon. Took the long cut home up to Daly City/SSF on some back roads near SB Mtn. A LEO was sitting in his car near a residential intersection. As I pulled away, I saw an approaching m/c rider. Quick touch of the window button, arm out, tap the roof. He nods in acknowledgement. Now maybe the rider always stops at that sign, but...

"A tap in time saves fine."
 
repost thread...:p
 
cruisers don't tap but wave arms telling u to slow down = copper nearby.
 
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