The Low Five

I am loving my new motorcycle! This is my 4th bike, and I have over 7 years riding experience in snow, rain, offroad, and even a very close call with a tornado. That being said, I haven’t been on a bike in around 28 years. Since I am now a “biker” again, I am getting the fellow rider waves and head nods. For those who don’t know, there is quite a lengthy and complex range of biker waves and of course there are those who only wave to folks with either the same brand bike, or only other cruisers, or race rockets or some other common element. There are also novice waves that will drop your street cred quicker than a Ducati. When I was in freshman year in college in 1979, I was living in Fall River, Massachusetts and got around on a Honda 550 Supersport. I was riding once and got the low five biker wave from a member of the Sidewinders motorcycle club on a beautiful fully chopped Harley with apehangers and an awesome flames paint job. In the bike hierarchy, Harley riders often ignore Japanese bikers, and even moreso, bikers wearing their colors almost never wave to “civilians” on any bike. Well, I was kind of flattered, and always thought the low 5 wave was the coolest form of interbike communication. I hadn’t really thought about this until I started riding again a couple of weeks ago, and have noticed the low 5, or just low wave is very popular here in California. Yesterday I put a mirror in front of my bike, sat on it and practiced my low wave for a couple of hours. I think I am ready to try it in public now, but never to scooter riders, trikes, Vincent riders, or bikes with smaller engines than my badass 300 Honda Rebel. Since my bike is all blacked out, it is hard for people to determine the brand and size, and it is a really nice looking bike. This means that people may wave to me by accident, who would not normally wave to a small Honda. That’s OK. I will wave back.