02-21-2014, 01:07 PM
IMO, there's no standard protocol. The only wrong answer is to allow yourself to feel compelled by social protocol to wave or not wave.
Personally I wave at every 1%er, every ADV-poseur, every motorcycle cop, every crotch-rocket fratboy, and every 6-year-old on a Bigwheel, but I don't expect them to wave back. Sometimes I'm too distracted by my own apex-predicament to notice if they wave back.
There might be a very good reason they don't wave back. Perhaps a bee just flew in his/her helmet (my Dad suffered a fractured femur when this happened to him); maybe he/she is in the middle of changing gears; flat tire; heavy traffic; maybe her husband slaps her hand down because he feels threatened by your devlishly handsome good-looks...
And some of us live in motorcycle-dense regions, where you could spend all day with your clutch hand never getting a rest. An upward jut of the chin will do.
Taking your hands off the bars is dangerous. So you probably shouldn't wave at other motorcyclists. Unless you want to and it's safe.
Personally I wave at every 1%er, every ADV-poseur, every motorcycle cop, every crotch-rocket fratboy, and every 6-year-old on a Bigwheel, but I don't expect them to wave back. Sometimes I'm too distracted by my own apex-predicament to notice if they wave back.
There might be a very good reason they don't wave back. Perhaps a bee just flew in his/her helmet (my Dad suffered a fractured femur when this happened to him); maybe he/she is in the middle of changing gears; flat tire; heavy traffic; maybe her husband slaps her hand down because he feels threatened by your devlishly handsome good-looks...
And some of us live in motorcycle-dense regions, where you could spend all day with your clutch hand never getting a rest. An upward jut of the chin will do.
Taking your hands off the bars is dangerous. So you probably shouldn't wave at other motorcyclists. Unless you want to and it's safe.