I love my little GS and she loves me. Why do I feel so inadequate when people ask me what kind of bike I ride?
First I say ... yeah I ride a bike. Then they say (beaming)... oh is it a Harley? Then I say no, it's a GS500. Then they say .. oh ... is that like a Ninja? Happens almost everytime. Why do they even ask me what I ride when they obviously don't know anything about bikes?
Most people that know about bikes have heard good things about the GS. A friend of mine has a Duc and thought the GS was a smooth riding bike when we traded for a bit. In europe, a 500cc bike is a "big bike". What's going on?!?! I have nothing against other bikes but really .. does anyone "need" a litre bike with 130+ hp? It's like a car with 1000hp.
Rob
litre sportbikes have 180hp. talk about rediculous
yea, for me it's like when older people ask me what music i'm listening to when i have headphones on. if i don't say beatles, they get confused, ya know? (not literally obviously).
the people at my MSF asked what kinda bike i rode, and the instructors were like "wow. great bike" but everyone else was like "is that like those race bikes?"
Do we all need SUVs? Do most people actually need something that big? :dunno:
I haven't run into criticism that much, even with my friends who ride. Some people have told me that I'll be selling it within a year, but that's about it.
A buddy of mine learned how to ride on a ninja zx-6 and said that I was doing it right with my GS; he wishes he hadn't started on a bike that big (now he's getting a TL1000).
Most of the people that I talk to about my bike who don't ride think that it looks fast and look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that its really on the small end of the spectrum as far as sport bikes are concerned.
Another friend of mine is from India, and he learned to ride there. When I was talking with him about learning how to ride, he said that he learned on a small bike (125 i think, maybe 250) and thought it would be wise for me to do the same. Perhaps I should have listened to him but I'm happy with my GS. Fast enough to combine my ass (or face) with the pavement if I'm not careful, but not so fast that it's trying to put me there.
Anyhow, who cares? I like riding my bike, and if they tell me my bike's too small, they can _______________ (use your creative side; fill in the blank) :guns:
Cheer up! Do not let others ignorance of our charmingly quirky Japanese Triumphs bring you down! If they think that they need a Harley to feel adaquate about themselves, that doesn't mean you do! Just smile at them and answer their questions patiently (like a parent to a child ;) ).
Like a TV show that I can't remember the title to, a father and his son are in a sporting goods store and the father says to the son, "We don't need guns, we have penises".
It's all we need.
They just need the bigger bike to make up for their little Wienies
If you feel you need to make excuses, just outline the benefits of the bike. Handles easily, good supply of repair parts, good mileage, takes more skill to really make it perform, etc, etc.
Harleys' riding position can make you feel like a crucified hunchback in a wind-tunnel (not my analogy, taken from Motorcycle Online magazine)
Ultimately, you have to get to the point where you don't care what people's opinions are. I ride fully zipped, pants, boots, jacket, gloves, everything in 90+ degree weather. Sure, some sport guys think I'm a dork but who cares? I know I'm safer.
I get the same thing when I say "its a GS500", most people give you a blank stare. I figure the bike has been around for about 15 yrs, if they don't know what it is by now they must not be into bikes. And, if thats the case why would I care what they think about it. I take the opportunity to explain differnet types of bikes and that there are more makes and models than just Harleys and "them Jap bikes".
From another angle, if you were into fine art, and just aquired a amazing painting by a artist people in art circles rave about. Would you really care if Joe Schmoe walks in and says, "It sucks, you should get a cool velvet Elvis to replace it." Would you take the advice?
(no offense to velvet art collectors everywhere ;) )
:cheers:
In the Philippines, 500cc is almost top of the line! Most people are riding either 125 or 250. If you actually get a Harley or full-fairing sportbike, you're either super-rich or in the mafia. :mrgreen:
It's ok. :)
I get that feeling all the time. :roll:
Even after I say, "it's a standard",
the confused look remains firmly plastered to their faces. I have to explain that the bike it like a mut. It's a mix between a plastic covered sports bike and the comfortably styled cruser (not harley monkey position).
After that the usual coment is, "Oh, it's a crotch rocket"
at which point I say, "Yes, yes it is" :guns:
Cheers
-Denis S.
Instead of just saying 'no, it's a GS500' in response to the Hardly question, throw in a big 'PFFFFFFFT!!' first. :P
"you sit more like how you would on one of those sport bikes with all the plastic, except there's no plastic. and it's slow."
I just say, SUZUKI with an imposing tone.
Very few people i know ask beyond that.
yeah the "so it's a crotch rocket?" comments always slay me. it seems that with most people, if it's not a cruiser, then it's a crotch rocket; there's nothing else. yesterday though, i was getting some piercings done and the guy saw me in my full gear and asked me what i rode in. told him it was my GS and instantly he said "oh wow, that's a sweet little bike." it was one of the first times anyone had even known what a GS was, and the real first time that anyone had thought it was awsome that i was riding one. but hey, i thought it was cool.
My whole world is upside down... when they see me with helmet... OK OK I am riding in plain clothes in summer... they ask oh yea what do you ride, or what bike you have.... and its really hard to say eliminator 1000, eli 900 with 1000 concourse motor, stock eli 900, another eli 1000, a KZ 440 ltd and a gs500, and BTW I am riding the GS... by now they have already lost me... the eli's get them once and for all... so I end up saying I ahve a bunch, and I am on my GS500 today or the eli or whatever... the harley question is easy for me these days... my neighbor has a Dyna convertible, I am helping him fix it after his crash, or I am always helping him work on it... or whenever it breaks he comes to me... and they know no more BS about HD... the game's up.
Cool.
Srinath.
Some dude in the grocery store a couple of weeks ago gave me this treatment with the "Oh, isn't that kinda slow?" finisher. I said "There's a very good chance that it's faster than your car, so it'll do." He had no response.
Walking into a restaurant recently I passed someone walking out. He said "Hey what kind of bike do you ride?" I pointed to it and said "That blue one." He says "Oh, hey, cool."
I've also received the "Nice bike, I had one of those back in the day" from a guy on a 2004 R1.
I'm really not concerned with what people think about what I ride. Apathy is the best thing that ever happened to me. I just don't give a crap.
Quote from: perfdrug"you sit more like how you would on one of those sport bikes with all the plastic, except there's no plastic. and it's slow."
:lol:
This I gotta remember next time. :)
I always discribe it like this:
"You know those classic late 70's early 80's motorcycles? Like the Honda CB/nighhawks? The one's with the tear-drop shaped gas tanks? It's exactly like that, but 20 years newer and 100 lbs lighter."
My favorite is always "Let me see you do a wheelie!" ... "Yeah, no."
:o
QuoteInstead of just saying 'no, it's a GS500' in response to the Hardly question, throw in a big 'PFFFFFFFT!!' first.
I like this one the best! Makes them feel dumb and me feel betta.
Rob
QuoteApathy is the best thing that ever happened to me. I just don't give a crap.
I agree completely!
Atleast we arnt members of a Ninja 250 forum. My buddy had a ex250 and always got asked is that a 600? He would say no and bow his head. One time this middle aged ladys goes "thats cute, i'd ride one like that." His ego never recovered.
-ash
p.s. theres no replacement for displacement. but w/ motorcycles a dab will do ya.
My friends thought I was nuts and going to end up as road kill cause it looks faster than it is! But my other riding friends all think its a cool bike. But most important to me is that I LOVE it! I talk to it and I have even patted it after a particulalry good ride. Most real riders dont give a stuff what your ride. Tossers that think its a little bike, I dont want to know anyway. :thumb:
Quote from: cozyI just say, SUZUKI with an imposing tone.
Very few people i know ask beyond that.
I tried that. it took about a week for the same guy to ask what kind of suzuki.
another guy, however, when I said "suzuki", he was like "oh shaZam! son, you got a 'busa?" i was like....no.
keep in mind where i go to school :roll:
yeah i love my bike thats what matters to me, i mean i still want a sv650s but i content with my bike. but there is this dude that always comes to my work and he rides a gsxr750 and the first time he came over. he kept staring at my bike, so i went out there and we talked for awhile, he was like "dude thats a aweasome bike" i was like "yeah i know" :mrgreen:
If you say GS500 and they go :roll: just ask them what do they have?
I found it generally shuts them up if they dont ride, unless they turn around and say R1 then you say oh sorry to hear your tackle is that small :lol:
when people ask me what bike do i ride, i just say "suzuki" because i used to say gs500 and they were shocked :? :? :? because non of them ever heard about a gs500 so i don't even have the time to explain to them....my answer to the cagers "i just ride a naked suzuki"
I was in a Pizzeria last year two NYPD cops walked in. One cop asks me "is that my bike?" I told him "yeah". He gets all talkative about bikes but in a tone like he was an authority on the subject and I should be taking notes (you know the type). I guess he sees a GS500 and wants to seize an opprtunity that someone might find him knowledgeable. I let the jack-off ramble a bit until he got to "the bike is too small... A nighthawk 750 would eat it for breakfast... Not in an argumentative way, just in that lecturing tone. I finally told him that it was fast enough and then I asked him how long he's been a cop. He tells me a year. So I told him "if that bike ever decided to run from you, you'd wrap yourself around the first street pole if you chased it." He was a little surprised but it's all I could say on my way out not to smack him in his young face. Some people just feel like they gotta take a shaZam! on someone else just to feel better. There was some gravel in the street from construction. I can't tell you how tempted I was to pop the clutch and shoot gravel at their car. I'd be a puff of dust by the time they dropped their slices and ran to their car. Condescending prick!
well, I haven't heard any condescending comments about my GS500F yet, but one day another guy with an old but classic bike stopped beside me in the traffic lights and first looked curious cause he couldn't recognise it, but when he figured out it was the new GS500F he was impressed and told me it was a great bike and that there was no reason to get a faster one, you would only end up paying more in insurance and not really gaining that much in joy.... :)
So don't worry about it, real riders and bike enthusiasts know if it is a good bike or not. 8)
/Dion
I gotta say I hate it when people say in a retorical way "So thats a 250cc right!?" :x
When I correct them and add that its a 500cc they are like: "Wow, it looks waaaaaaay smaller then that!"
I kinda agree :dunno:
Still, I have yet to been beat by ANY car yet and killed a 2004 R6 with a pillion over 400m the other night - I thought that the R6 would nail my ass even with the pillion.... hmmm power to weight is soooo important.
Stay Safe :thumb:
Whoa! I'd sure hate to ride pillion on an R6 being drag raced!
It was a girl on the back - like 19 or something - she was holding on for dear life! The look on her face was like.... :o
Stay Safe :thumb:
I've only had my 97 for a few weeks now, and I've already heard most of the things many of you have heard. What I've figured out is that most non-riders have only heard of two kinds of bikes. It's either a crotch rocket or a Harley. They couldn't, for example, name even one model of Harley, nor can they tell you anything about crotch rockets. So, I use it as an opportunity to briefly explain the different types of bikes. Sometimes the next thing they say is, "I really want a bike."
Then I've got them. "You want a GS500," I tell them. "Not my GS500, mind you, because I love this machine, but this is what you want."
They aren't trying to be condescending. They just don't know.
Smooth Dave
yesterday this middle age lady got confused because she saw the bike from the front. she said is that a 'harley' I said no it's a suzuki. she was like buzuki, zubuki, I said 'no suzuki' . end of discussion.
as I was leaving she got closer and looked from the side and said 'wow great bike, you be careful' all I could think is how I love this naked mutt as I rode off. :cheers:
I Agree with SmoothDave, most people don't have anough knowledge about bikes, and you'd be surprised how many bike owners there are out there who have very little knowledge themselves... All I hear is R1 here and CBR there etc.. bla bla, most people have seen this bike on TV or heard about it from someone else. But they have no idea about bikes :?
People buy bikes for the wrong reasons, such as looking cool. They hardly ever drive them, only to some coffee shop and park it outside to impress everyone. These people have no idea how to ride and handle it, and it shows on the street. I've been able to beat several of these bikes on acceleration with my GS500F, simply because these guys don't know how to shift.... :) they never bothered to learn how..... only how to look and act cool.... either that or they're so afraid of loosing control of the bike that they don't dare touch the throttle.... but they sure are quick to tell you how cool their bike is.... :roll:
Don't worry about owning a GS, in time you will buy a larger bike (I will too eventually), but you will buy it for the right reasons and be able to actually ride it too....
/Dion
Quote from: ashmanMy buddy had a ex250 and always got asked is that a 600?
When I had my little SRX250 I used to really enjoy it when people asked me (expecially police that had pulled me over) if it was a 500. I'd say "No", with a big grin on my face :) . "It's just a 250." When I was pulled over by one cop car, he thought I was speeding "on that small bike" and I just told him, "It can't even go that fast". :) I never received a ticket on that bike. :mrgreen:
my turn for a story!!
the other day i stopped by a local motorcycle "boutique" shop to pick up a quart of yamaha carb cleaner anyways...
when packing up, several of the service guys were outside for a smoke and one took the time to say "hey your bike looks great, we never see those here because they never need to be"
the shop sells suzuki, ducatti, mv agusta, yamaha and triumph
Not with regards to my GS.
On the other hand, I've always felt uncomfortable in public showers and bathrooms that my thingie maybe isn't quite as, well, all you guys who ride GS's know what I mean.
:oops:
Like my KZ440... I told the cop... here you ride it and see how long it takes for you to get to 55 and then tell me I was speeding... You know I was at that red light 1/2 mile back right...He said yea you were, Yea I was... but I was rolling up, saw it go red in the other direction and never closed the throttle... but he thought I stopped... I had to... I was the first in that pack of cars... ha ha weave and get around the slow ones...
Cool.
Srinath.
"tackle". I've never heard that one before.
Laura
You could tell them it's a HarlaBusa500R.
I just tell them "it's the purple kind."
Quote from: ashmanOne time this middle aged ladys goes "thats cute, i'd ride one like that." His ego never recovered.
Buahahahahahah :lol:
this sort of thing used to bother me. i'd tell people i had a GS 500 and they'd kind of look at me weird because i didn't say gixxer, or cbr, or whatever...
needless to say, it stopped bothering me once i realised that anyone who looked down on me for riding a GS 500 either a) didn't know sh*t about bikes, or b) was a new rider on a way-too-fast-bike and didn't understand the reasoning behind starting small.
My best and most proud moment was when I was at a local small bike night (all sportbikes) and a couple of guys come out of the restaraunt next door. They start staring at my 2001 model and I hear them talking amongst themselves. "I think it IS one". "I think you are right, look, there's the decal with it written on it...GS500".
They each used to have '89 models and marveled at the " modern-ness" of my '01 model. The seat, tank, and tail section. I told them that's all that changed except for the front brakes somewhere around 1996.
Then there's the other end of the spectrum:
They see me with my helmet and ask what kind of bike I ride. I say Suzuki GS500. They ask why I didn't get a Harley instead. I say "because I am not a sheep and I can think for myself". That one nearly pisses them off. :mrgreen:
We have no helmet law here in Louisiana. The Harley guys see the helmet and asks why I wear that "hot" helmet in our heat. I tell them I have something worth protecting with the lid. If they don't, then don't waste money on the helmet. That one definitely gets them hot. :nana:
Then they brag about the "POWER" of their big, obnoxiously loud V-twin compared to my tiny 500cc parallel twin. I then look them in the eye with a steely glare and ask them how much money they can afford to lose a quarter mile down the road. Then they backtrack their own claims and say the Harley isn't made for racing. I then inquire why boast and brag about tons of "power" if it's not capable of beating a motorcycle with less than a third of it's engine size. They then start babbling about "American Made" and that rhetoric. I correct them with the phrase "American Engineered", not "made". Shocks, carburetors, and so many other parts being made overseas, they cannot be called American Made. Even the H-D radio commercials use the term American Engineered now instead of American Made.
Then they concede that it's all cool as long as I ride. It doesn't matter what I ride.
Then I tell them that I paid $3300 for a brand new bike with 1.8 miles on the odometer and THEN they get pissed off. :lol:
:lol:
THAT, was funny.
:)
So the first time I rode to my dealership I parked right next a GS500- the same year and color. It ends up belonging to a sales associate and he mentions it's for sale.
"How Come?" I ask
"It's my wife's bike and shes now pregnant."
That was a kick in the shorts. He liked the bike alot and had alot of good things to say... but come on... "wife's bike". Fortunately, a week later I found this forum and the swelling went away...
Some pretty cool stories here. My experience with telling people what I ride is usually:
If it's another motorcyclist: "That's a great bike to learn on."
If it's a non rider: :?
Me: "It's black"
Them: :thumb:
Quote from: ashmanAt least we arn't members of a Ninja 250 forum. My buddy had a ex250 and always got asked is that a 600? He would say no and bow his head. One time this middle aged ladys goes "thats cute, i'd ride one like that." His ego never recovered.
I'm guessing you've never ridden either a Ninja 250 or a middle aged lady. Both are a lot more fun than you might think.
- MarkB
'90 GS500E
'96 Ninja 250
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I work for a motorcycle dealership and sell parts and bikes. I have found that most people don't understand why I ride something so small. Then I have to explain why I ride it. Then they look at me funny. So I have actually had to lie a few times to get sells. but all my customers are usually drag racers. But I will probably keep my bike until I can save up for another one. Probably early next year.
:thumb:
Quote from: MarkB
I'm guessing you've never ridden either a Ninja 250 or a middle aged lady. Both are a lot more fun than you might think.
- MarkB
'90 GS500E
'96 Ninja 250
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :thumb:
I'd love to try the Ninja 250, but I can't get my grandmother off of hers. :mrgreen:
Smooth Dave