I try and park my bike as close to the front door as possible. It give more people the opportunity to look at my beautiful bike.

If I pull into a place that has a club there I park a little away from them whether I am on my HD or my Star. Doesn't matter if they are a 1% club, or just a riders club, or metric bike group. I usually end up talking with them inside but pulling up as a stranger I give space. I figure there is no reason chance anything.
It's not the bike or the club, it's groups. All it takes is one asshole in any group to start with some stupid comment and suddenly it's you against them even though none of the other people in the group cared about you.
I have seen this to many times, and things can quickly escalate when you least except them too.

I do have exceptions though. If it is a H.O.G. club or a eagle riders, or something like that, I don't have much of an issue. I will check out each group of people/bikes before I even park. If it is a mix of metric and HD's it's just general people out riding and no problem. I also check out the people. If they are clean cut, fresh leathers, and look like they are wearing a $300 biker costume, they are usually just RUB's playing weekend biker.
If the group is rough looking and wearing worn leathers, or if they have 3 patches on the back of their vests, move on. especially if it a place with alcohol.
Our bike club started a weekend bike event here called Rumble mountain and have different clubs that come to it. Almost every issue we have had has been with one of these clubs. Most things have been pretty minor, but last year we ended up with the SWAT team there. several armored vehicles and all. (guess I would be a little nervous to walk into a field and 800 bikers at night too)


Never really new scared until the 2nd year and I had to stand nose to nose with the president of the DEATH M/C and the Vice Pres. while surrounded by the club and argue with the fact that they we were not going to allow them to come in unless they took off their colors. They finely removed them but,we now allow colors to be worn

BTW: Anyone I run into that has a 1% patch on there vest I tend to leave alone. I have some friends that are (or where) 1%er's, But I figure they have earned the right to where that very special patch, and i'm not going to give any reason to find out if it is justified. To me that patch is there to tell people "leave me alone" and I am going to respect that. It's not that i'm afraid to talk to them, i'll just let them make the first contact. (Respect)

Sorry I didn't mean to type so much.. to much coffee I guess

I do it around here just to piss them off. We don't have any major M/Cs around here, mostly 20/20 guys. I stopped for gas the other day and one of those and his girlfriend pulled in behind me. He saw that I had commander IIs, and was asking me how I liked them. As he walked over he realized my bike was a Yamaha and not a Harley, He stopped dead in his tracks turned around and walked away!. Most of the old school guys I run into are more inquisitive than anything else. I have noticed that a lot of the older Harley guys are talking about getting a Gold wing for their next ride, go figure.

the last chance saloon in daytona has the tree of death with all old jap bikes and parts hanging from chains in effigy. old jap bike parts usually aint wortha shit (although i did look for old yammy stuff in there once, figured i could get some when all were trashed drunk) . but old HD parts are valuable so we would not have a counterpart for that tree.

Every once in a while I go to The Harley engine plant in Menomonee Falls, WI for work.

On the employee entrance side there is "Harley Bikes Only" to the left and "Other Bikes" to the right.

They keep a pretty good distance between them lol

frogbone wrote:
Every once in a while I go to The Harley engine plant in Menomonee Falls, WI for work.

On the employee entrance side there is "Harley Bikes Only" to the left and "Other Bikes" to the right.

They keep a pretty good distance between them lol

Wonder how many 'other bikes' there are on a nice weather day at said Harley engine plant?

The Jeep plant here in Toledo has the same type thing. Different parking areas for 'other' vehicles. It's probably mostly to just avoid any weird conflicts

I have only seen a Triumph and a couple Gold Wings on the "other" side... lol

But yes, you are correct. It's to avoid conflicts. And who do you think they are afraid of starting shit.... ?

I think it's just a matter of common sense not to park between club members bikes, even if it means parking a little farther away from the doors.

Just show some respect and it will usually be given in return - yes, I speak from experience on both sides of this issue.

As to leaving the keys on the bike are you out of your mind?

NJ

pastornj wrote:
I think it's just a matter of common sense not to park between club members bikes, even if it means parking a little farther away from the doors.

Just show some respect and it will usually be given in return - yes, I speak from experience on both sides of this issue.

As to leaving the keys on the bike are you out of your mind?

NJ

It's a Roadstar. Who's gonna steal it

I inadvertently leave my keys in the Roadie all the time. Always have to run back out of the restaurant or whatever to grab the key. Now, on the R1, totally different story. Never let that out of my sight and I don't ride it to places where it would have to be parked in view for any length of time. Seen way too many 'stolen' threads on the R1 Forum.

Nice write up Cike, I enjoyed it. Very informational.