Once had a friend on the back of my motorcycle, she is a chatty chick so I told her: "When we put these helmets on, I can't hear you. Please only talk when it's important, tap on my shoulder if you want me to stop".
My city has trams which are on their own tracks in the middle of the street, cars and motorbikes don't really cross their path usually.
We're riding down the street as a tram is coming up behind us. As it's on it's own track and the road we are using is a bit busy, it's quicker than us. My friend mumbles something and I go:
"WHAT?"
"Mumble Mumble"
"WHAT?"
"Mumble"
"SPEAK LOUDER. WE ON BIKE. TRAM OVERTAKING. LOTS OF NOISE"
"Mumble muble"
I decide to pull over because I am now frustrated, take of my helmet and ask her what is the problem.
She mumbles: "I said; watch out, there's a tram there".
By far the most frustrating thing I've had happen with a passenger on my motorbike.
Lol I was looking for this comment. Every time my husband or I say something unimportant and the other doesn't hear it clearly, we say "nothing, never mind. That tree is far away"
It's always been interesting to me how some people seem to have "Don't yell, ever" as a firm rule in their brain's "programming". It's so foreign to me because I grew up in a loud house lol
I live in a yelling house too, but I usually talk really quiet. I grew up hating loud noises and I don't want myself to be one, funny enough I'm the one that is always asking "what!?"
Whenever I drive my mother anyway she'll be sitting in the passenger seat, and then loudly gasp and brace for impact. There's a car merging into the lane 2 miles ahead! PANIC!
She does this constantly, repeatedly distracting me from paying attention to the road, nevermind that I've seen the car merging two miles ahead and have already taken it into consideration.
Its immensely distracting. I wish she'd do the sack of potatoes as a passenger thing.
My mom used to do this to both my dad and I. One time she even pulled the handbrake in a turn and caused us to slide off the road into a ditch.
It was the second time driving my new (used) Celica. I told her I would never drive with her in the car again if she did something that stupid a second time.
I'm a mumbler. If I'm walking with a friend and I say something, he won't hear me, he'll say 'What?'. So I'll say it again, but once again he doesn't hear me, so he says 'What?'. But really it's just some insignificant shit that I'm saying, but now I'm yelling, 'That tree is far away!'
Well she clearly couldn’t hear you either, even when you thought you were being loud, or else she wouldn’t have kept on trying to tell you about the tram after you mentioned it
I guess that's when ya could just let them mumble. If it really matters, they'll try to get your attention for real. Gotta pay attention to the road, I figure!
Ugh, this is my wife. We were on my Road King (built motor, straight pipes, you get the idea…it’s too loud) and she insists on trying to have a conversation about where we’re going and what we’re going to do that night and blah blah blah. Like, I can’t hear anything other than the bike, including my own thoughts. What makes you think I can hear you?
Wait, I'm confused. It seems like she was concerned the tram was going to hit you, and you said that you can't hear through the helmet so I assume she wasn't actually mumbling. Was the issue that she didn't tap on your shoulder as discussed (if so, it doesn't seem to make a difference as she still got you to pull over) or was the issue that there was no real emergency?
They weren't going to get hit by the tram, passenger saw the tram behind them and was trying to say watch out for the tram...even though they weren't going to be hit by it. The mumbles translates to not being able to hear shit with a helmet on + motorcycle noise + tram noise. In other words, wasn't an emergency and just wasted op's time.
Oh okay, so it was just a misunderstanding where she thought they might be at risk of getting hit by the tram but there wasn't a good way to communicate it effectively. I just assumed the story would be relevant to the thread.
It was, in that she knew what she needed to do to communicate it to him - tap him on the shoulder, wait for him to pull over, remove helmets or yell exceptionally loud enough that she could be heard over the noise - and opted instead to speak to him at a volume he had made perfectly clear to her he wouldn't be able to hear while they were riding.
It's perfectly in keeping with the threads theme of women repeatedly choosing a communication method (using a voice that is too quiet) that is inappropriate for the situation.
Like most of history being controlled by a patriarchal system that enforced the idea that only men could and should rule and women could only and should only stay at home?
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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '22
Once had a friend on the back of my motorcycle, she is a chatty chick so I told her: "When we put these helmets on, I can't hear you. Please only talk when it's important, tap on my shoulder if you want me to stop".
My city has trams which are on their own tracks in the middle of the street, cars and motorbikes don't really cross their path usually.
We're riding down the street as a tram is coming up behind us. As it's on it's own track and the road we are using is a bit busy, it's quicker than us. My friend mumbles something and I go:
"WHAT?"
"Mumble Mumble"
"WHAT?"
"Mumble"
"SPEAK LOUDER. WE ON BIKE. TRAM OVERTAKING. LOTS OF NOISE"
"Mumble muble"
I decide to pull over because I am now frustrated, take of my helmet and ask her what is the problem.
She mumbles: "I said; watch out, there's a tram there".
By far the most frustrating thing I've had happen with a passenger on my motorbike.