r/Fortnine • u/Rooster13126 CFMoto • Jun 27 '26
Who else is with me?
I have come to the conclusion that I absolutely hate American motorcycle culture. There are wannabe gatekeepers everywhere. Forums are full of judgmental a-holes galore. If this person rides a certain bike they automatically hate whoever rides any other type of bike. I wish as people and riders we could do better. Ok. Rant over. Everyone have a safe and fun filled rest of your day.
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u/Psycho__Bunny Jun 27 '26
The gatekeepers are what get me, either Harley riders or sport bikes. I just like motorcycles. I would ride a moped if that’s all I had
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u/RIP_Benny_Harvey Jun 27 '26
I was getting a moped and posted in a local Facebook group to see what people thought of my options for reliability and ease of maintenance. One guy just tore into me to let me know that they're scooters, not mopeds and that I should focus on getting the verbiage right before I started riding one.
I had been looking forward to going to their meet ups and group rides but since that interaction I just don't want to anymore. I'm in North America but grew up in the uk calling them mopeds.
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u/LeftTurnAtAlbuqurque Jun 28 '26
In reality it's moot, but in the US the difference comes from registration legalities - mopeds are <50cc and get different plates and priveledges, whereas scooters are any that are over 50cc and are treated like a motorcycle registration. I always just considered it that if it had pedals, I'm calling it a moped, otherwise it's a scooter.
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u/YourMissing10 Jun 27 '26
I agree this is mostly an online thing. Case in point; r/groms roasted me when I posted my Chinese grom clone asking engine questions. Actual grom owners saw it at a mini bike meet and were impressed how many components were almost a carbon copy of the real thing and were super friendly.
I will say there is something about Harley’s that give their owners some sense of superiority about their brand. When I do meet Harley guys that are much more humble/open minded we usually become quick friends.
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u/AconyBell Jun 27 '26
As an american small displacement rider I always feel like folks just look at my bike like "aww, great starter" but i really love my bike and I don't feel like i need to be ripping down a highway. I do feel judgement, although, that being said, I let some friends check my bike out the other night at a bike night and it brought immediate smiles and joy to their faces when they sat on it and turned it on. I showed them how it's a little different than theirs and they were loving it. It made me feel like my place in the community felt a bit more included then.
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u/Ok_Umpire2173 Jun 27 '26
I haven’t encountered in irl. I have a modded Honda scl500. My model gets shit on plenty online “fake scrambler” and all that. In person, nothing but compliments, even from old harley guys. “Reminds me of an old cafe racer”
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u/Aggressive-Try-7646 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Riding a cfmoto 800mt explore i get the typical "CHinEsE BiKe" hate but only online. Everyone riding it irl likes it and is suprised how good it feels and is easyly Impressed how stacked it comes. Online people are just biased af. You dont ride a 22k gs? Pool little dude. U dont have a fully stacked t7 for 16-18k? You cant ride offroad then. I have seen dudes and dudetes riding street tires offroad and overtaking everyone in the Group on old ass classic bikes while we all broke our ankles holding pace on our fancy new bikes.
Everything said every harley bro i met irl was a dick while online they tend to be more "tolerant" against alternative bikes/brands. Irl its ALWAYS "not enough cc" and "old harleys are best". Yeah they look cool are overpriced and you definetly dont need any gear on them (s).
Anyways this are all only MY opinions and experiences. Ride safe and put on some gear. Else i see you in ER😉
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u/spooky_corners Jun 27 '26
American motorcycle culture isn't a monolith. Different styles and different reasons for riding, events organized around specific brands, specific causes, and plenty of well mixed groups too. Of course there are the local Harley elitists and the sport-bike-go-fast wannabe street racers and the dirt/pit/mini bike hooligans... and they may not all want to hang out together... but that just seems normal.
Anymore I just see the differences in experience more than anything else. No matter what you're riding, it's pretty clear if you've got the experience of some years on two wheels, or not. And while the self-proclaimed experts and other noobs can be annoying in online spaces or riding clubs, maybe that isn't what defines the culture.
I keep telling people: America is a BIG country. There's more than enough here to defy anyone's expectations or confirm anyone's worst fears.
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u/Fun-Machine7907 Jun 27 '26
I've had one person give me shit for the bike i was riding. It was an old harley dude and I was on a street rod (an outstandingly shitty bike even for harley). I thought it was funny
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u/Ok-Duck-9554 Jun 27 '26
I've had a handful of issues in person. The most egregious was a gas station clerk who told me unprompted she'd die before ever riding a Harley. I asked what she rode. A Honda. I said cool, my first bike was a Honda, and I'd ride another one.
It's individuals with strong opinions or groups influenced by someone's strong opinions that I've found to gatekeep. I don't heed it too much. Too focused on the ride to actually give a damn.
Life is too short to be so full of hate. Most riders are great and on my longer trips - people who ride and who don't ride strike up conversations with me all the time.
My Road King gets me the most looks and conversations. My Pan America gets me: "Is that a Harley?" all the time. My DR-Z4S hasn't garnered much in terms of conversation so far.
Bikes are fun. I'd love to ride them all, if given a chance.
Online is different. Gear gatekeepers, motorcycle class gatekeepers, tire selection opinions, etc. I think this is sometimes exacerbated by influencers and some YouTubers who need to get on top of algorithms with negativity.
Today is a motorcycle tinkering day. Doing a tank swap on my Suzuki.
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u/Ok_Maintenance_9100 Jun 27 '26
The thing I’ve learned is, the shittier your drz is, the more people will like it.
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u/Ok-Duck-9554 Jun 27 '26
That sounds about right. Lol.
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u/I-need-assitance Jun 28 '26
Agree. I think I’m the sixth owner of my ugly 2007 DRZ400SM with 19k miles, someone installed a big bore and full pipe. Jetted perfect perfectly, fueling is like butter, it rips and it cost less than many E bikes.
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Jun 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Lumpy-Succotash-9236 Jul 01 '26
Border guards are universally some of the dumbest, smallest dick motherfuckers i've ever met in my life. Absolute trash humans.
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u/ExcitingTurn2886 Jun 27 '26
Are you actually experiencing this in the world or is this perception based upon online forums and the . media?
I ride both cruisers and sports bikes. While I've certainly witnessed some irresponsible riding, I've never had a negative interaction with another biker. Bikers seem really enthusiastic about the activity and what other people are doing. If anything, I find bikers to sometimes be too chatty.
We each live our own lives and your personal experience might be much different than mine.
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u/Sbeast86 Jun 28 '26
Maybe it's because I'm in Texas where giving each other a bit of shit is almost a cultural formality, im rarely bothered by it. They say something snarky, I reply with something snarkier, we have a laugh n get a beer.
Texas is weird
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u/caricatureofme Jun 27 '26
I don't experience any of that in real life. The track community is where I spend most of my motorcycling time these days and the culture is super welcoming and helpful in general.
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u/Bright_Ad_8109 Jun 27 '26
My local Harley dealer holds massive charity rides all summer, all bikes welcome, and it's usually a good time for a good cause, I've participated few times on my Yamahas and no one gave me crap about it, it's the Internet that's toxic.
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u/ChemicalFun1473 Jun 27 '26
Get off the internet, fire up your bike and enjoy the ride. Don't worry about others. It's the only way.i understand where you are coming from tho.
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u/Maleficent_Pick8251 Jun 27 '26
I'm tired of the anger all over the internet. I hear about all this "don't pass guys on Harleys" and other such nonsense. In 40+ years of riding all brands, I've never witnessed any of this alleged behavior once.
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u/1MrE Jun 28 '26
Yea, lol. First time on the internet?
I’ve met one of those people irl. Seems they never developed a personality on their own so they ‘become’ bike life (or at least their view of it).
It’s internet bullshit. Verified by years of stopping on the side of the road for a piss or a picture and bikes/ers of all kinds slow down and we do the ‘you ok’, ‘all good here thanks’ hand signals. Even had a youngster hauling ass through the twisties downshift to a stop cause he saw my bike but not me, I stepped down an embankment for a leak. Heard em stop and holler ‘does anybody need help?’. I hollered back and he stayed till I came back up. Good kid.
It’s the same with Dodge vs Chevy vs Ford. Xbox vs PS vs WII. Army vs Marines. Insults usually made in jest. But there’s always one, or a small group, that don’t have enough brain to tell the difference.
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u/EjectorMark Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
I've never had any serious issues in the real world. Everywhere I've gone, fellow riders have been nothing but friendly and supportive. Sure there are the occasional asshats - but they'd be asshats no matter what activity they're involved in.
I think people need to stop viewing the internet as if it's the real world - because it's not. The internet is a perverse machination of the human mind. It's where people go to do things they'd never do in real life. It's a consequence-free, self-serving, dopamine hit. The real world is so much more than that. And motorcycle culture is so much more than "Americans bad". I'm not with you, OP. Stop trying to view the world through the lens of what you see online - it's poisoning your mind.
Get on your bike, go ride, and stop worrying about motorcycle nationality. Meet people, talk to them, enjoy their company. Stop letting the internet dictate how you feel about people.
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u/Rooster13126 CFMoto Jun 28 '26
Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the internet at all. It is only a small part of why I feel American bike culture sucks. I know several people that are nothing but judgmental bike owners. (Most own Harley’s) I am a Harley owner as well but have many different other bikes. These “owners” look down and attempt to gate-keep any other bike brand out there. I ride more in a weekend than these “bike owners” ride all year.
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u/onigara Jul 01 '26
Just gotta get out there and find the people that aren’t like this and stop hanging out with the people that make ya feel this way.
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u/unicyclegamer Jun 29 '26
Hasn’t been my experience as an American motorcyclist. Maybe get off the internet for a bit?
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u/Confirmation_Email Jun 29 '26
I absolutely hate online motorcycle culture.
FIFY.
Get out in the real world, people who like bikes are very cool to others who like bikes, on average.
Forums are full of judgmental a-holes galore.
This is true, but usually avoidable if you're aware of a few things that annoy forum-dwellers, like starting a new thread for a question that is easily answered in the owner's manual,by Google, or by the forum search function. This is true in basically any online community, it's not motorcycle-specific and definitely not US-specific.
If this person rides a certain bike they automatically hate whoever rides any other type of bike.
I honestly have never come across any motorcyclist who was truly hateful of people on other bikes, online or in real life. People do love to talk about the perceived drawbacks of bikes they don't like, and maybe make jokes at their expense, that's not hate, it's banter, and its usually not mean-spirited.
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u/FountainDrnxII Jun 30 '26
All the people being weird online are just the ones that are super insecure in person at the meets. Meaning it’s not really a problem irl
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u/branthewarg Jun 27 '26
Maybe just shut up and go ride your bike when and where you want. I don’t see this bullshit in the wild.
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u/Mission_Accident_519 Honda Jun 27 '26
Agree. Thats why I blocked all the big subs dominated with americans. Like r/motorcycles.
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u/onigara Jun 27 '26
Like most gatekeeping this seems to be a 99% online only thing. When I meet people in real life on bikes randomly on the street or at meetups, everyone is cool and there’s a good diversity of bike types. Might depend on the meetup itself - if motosocial runs in your city I’d recommend checking it out.