Biggest Pet Peeves About Other Motorcyclists – Question of the Day

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung


What drives you nuts about other riders?

Photo by MAXitSmoki/Shutterstock.com

As much as we like to think of motorcycling as a community, we have to admit there are some things about other motorcyclists that we find annoying at times. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that. Anyone who has siblings, or is in a long-term relationship will find something about each other that bothers them, but that doesn’t make us stop loving each other. Usually.


But just because we can overlook each other’s quirks, it doesn’t mean those quirks don’t still bother us.


Personally, my pet peeve is seeing people riding with minimal, or even no safety equipment, like a lot of the folks in the picture above. I mean, sure, it looks like some sort of parade, and, given the tight quarters, I assume everyone’s moving at a very leisurely pace, but my skin still crawls seeing all those T-shirts and shorts, and imagining the potential road rash from a tip over even at a slow speed. Then there’s the varying choices of head protection, which opens up another whole can of worms.


Conversely, I’m sure there are riders out there whose pet peeve is they don’t like being lectured about what they should or shouldn’t wear.


For others, it could be excessive noise from the “loud pipes save lives” crowd, or stunters pulling wheelies on the freeway, and the negative stereotypes they create. It could also be something relatively small, like those who don’t wave back at other riders, or people who forget to turn off their indicators after completing a turn (even though we’ve probably all done it ourselves at some point).


Question of the Day: What are your biggest pet peeves about other motorcyclists? Let us know in the comments below.



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Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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  • Steve Steve on Mar 05, 2024

    The obvious divisions created by the various classes of motorcycles. Sport bike riders who ignore other riders at a gas station, harley/Indian rider with the bad boy attitude, adv riders who snub gold wing cruisers. The bike is not the definition of the rider but the ride defines us all as a bigger community.

  • Steve Steve on Jul 06, 2024

    Loud pipes do NOT save lives. Low frequencies are omnidirectional. By the time I locate the guy I may very well have hit him with my car. The fact that I can hear him will not have clued me in to his location.

    Besides, the sound is obnoxious and makes me think he probably has personality problems.

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