"Is that a 250?"

[4 Paws_imp]

Sounds like upper management material to me.

[dbarkdoll_imp]

Sounds like someone who should not be piloting a motorcycle, much less a big HD, on public streets. Sorry but there are enough people on the road who have no business being there.

[emptysea]

Sounds like a lot of standing around talking and gawking when people should be working. <--- there's what upper management sounds like, 4 Paws.

[Django]

I'd say, that was totally agreeable.

Don't ask a lady for her weight. If you do it anyway, make a compliment: "Is that a 250?"

[glenncal1_imp]

"Is that a 250?"

My new co-worker's question, while staring out the office window at my bike.

Reply: "Yes if you are looking at the number 1 (or 4) cylinder....

[the Ferret]

[bigsheep_imp]

Yup, each cylinder is a 250, now lets count them together....

[Bheezy27403_imp]

I had one of my employees tell me the other day that he didn't know I had a 250. And I don't.

I don't know what is is about motorcycles that make people that honestly have no idea about them try to make conversation about them. It's the strangest thing. It doesn't bother me and I don't speak to them condescendingly, I just go ahead with my comment/reply that contains factual information.

It doesn't happen with any of my other hobbies. So what is it about motos that make people do this?

I wouldn't go up to someone playing a guitar (a subject I know little about besides I love the music) and say "so, got yourself a 6 stringer there eh? I used to have a 9 string. It was awesome."

People are weird.

[Banned_imp]

That hasn't happened to me yet on my CB but I have been asked a number of times is my Night Train a Sportster.

But it does happen with my cars and firearms at the range as well - "that's a nice rifle you have there (Bushmaster ACR) I used to shoot my grandfather's Lee Enfield all the time".

[misterprofessionality]

Motorcycles are inherently captivating, especially to Americans. there's a whole mythos built around them. When people see you on one it frames their whole perception of you. Every acquaintence in my life knows me as the guy who rides a motorcycle everywhere. People i encounter as part of work, when i show up to a jobsite on my CB, all basically identify me by that one feature, whatever other defining features i might have at the time. not the guy with glasses, not the guy with the curly mustache, not the guy with the sparkly shoes, no, i'm the motorcycle guy.

So when you ride people see you as some kind of personality, because to them it's not just a vehicle. To the person that's never had a bike, when you pull up on one you might as well have landed in the parking lot on a pegasus or a dragon. to us, it's just our wheels, so it's strange when people want to talk to us about it. I always take those opportunities to show people things. the guy who asks me "is that a 250?" would get a full rundown on just how big the engine is, and what it's capable of. People that tell me they "used to ride." always get a "well why did you stop? what's stopping you now? life is calling you man!"