As I sat in a conference
room at work, waiting for yet another meeting to begin, I overhear the
new young Russian girl at work talking about riding her bike to work.
"Oh, really? what do you ride?". I asked enthusiastically.
"A Kawasaki
KLR 250'" she replied.
We were about to settle into comfortable
conversation about real bikes when Frank, the pot-bellied pirate across
the table stirred to life and started telling us about his Harley
Davidson ... A 1950 Panhead.
"I'd never ride yours cause it ends in
'...ski'", he said, smirking at his own cleverness.
I turned to Sveta, and was about ready to mock him with, "Really?? Ski?? A
POLISH motorcycle?!?" But before I could begin, he launched into a
diatribe about how people who buy Japanese bikes or cars are responsible for all America's troubles.
Again, before I could speak, he continues with, "Of course I don't ride
it much...on account of that hard tail suspension and my two
spine surgeries..."
I wanted to say, but was saved from my moment of mean-spiritedness by the meeting
starting, "Wow, maybe if you drive a bike with a real suspension, you
wouldn't have had those spinal surgeries."
But during the whole "Made In America" argument, I saw the irrational lunacy in his eyes, and elected not to start that old argument.
What a douche bag! He doesn't even know he's a joke, a caricature, and the subject of my mocking blog entry.
He has also never visited York, PA where they would be happy to tell him where the wheels, electronics, fuel and other systems are outsourced from. There is probably nothing these days made anywhere in particular but kinda ends up assembled one place for show. Sorta like the camaro-the all American muscle car. Made in Canada. Proves you actually can live on image I guess
ReplyDeleteIt's better to let him wallow in his ignorance!
ReplyDeleteAnyone ever listen to a pod cast called wheel nerds?
It's ok it your bored and have nothing to do!
They interviewed a bike dealer and the guy was very interesting, He mentioned something about Harley and how they make their money.
But more importantly, did you explain to the young Ruskia later that not all Americans are complete diptards and comment that a KLR250 is a sweet commuter bike?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny. Everyone is bagging on the HD douchebag, but I think he's actually pretty much in tune with reality, at least when it comes to choice of bike.
ReplyDeleteIf all I wanted to do is talk about motorcycles, as opposed to actually riding them, a Harley would make a pretty good choice.
Thankfully, the young Russian lady knows better.
ReplyDeleteThankfully she knows plenty of riders who are not douchebags.
She clearly has her head on straight in her choice of commuter bike. Now I need to get her to see the light about ATGATT. She wears a helmet, at least.