| Author | Message | ||
     Ragnagwar |
I went for a ride today and stopped at a rest stop in Wisconsin. While I was inside a bus had pulled in with a group of tourists from Japan. I came out of the door to find about 35 young guys all around my Buell and talking very excitedly (in Japanese). They were all taking pictures and looking the bike over from every angle, even underneath! I said hello and their were nods all around, but it was pretty obvious none of the group spoke English. Finally the spokesman for the rest said to me "X1,X1"? I told him no, Cyclone. He repeated it to the others and again nods and smiles all around. After that he wanted me to stand by the bike and the whole group was taking pictures! I finally convinced the spokesman to sit on the bike and have his picture taken. From what I could surmise he was elated and received a good natured round of kidding from the others. All to soon they had to leave so I started the bike because I knew that's what they were waiting for by the way they were hanging back. Smiles and nods again. Got a big wave from all as I pulled out. Not earth shaking I know, but the whole thing kind of took me by surprise and really made my day. A Buell does it again! | ||
| Captpete |
Fun, ain't it! | ||
| Buellfirebolt31 |
Same concept as all the young kids about the gsxr's and cbr's and yzf's and zx's....... | ||
| Thespive |
That's awesome. Way to represent. --Sean | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Good story. | ||
| Cyclonemick |
That happened to me once a few years ago but it was just one japanese guy. I walked out of my apartment and I noticed this guy was standing there grinning so I said hello. He like the guys in your story didn't speak much english but was familiar with the Buell and said back home in Japan he had never seen one in person. He told me he was here working for a company in the city and asked if he could take some pictures to take back home. I was stoked about the enthusiam he showed for my beloved Cyclone so I said go Ahead. He took 2 full rolls of film. I couldn't belive it! That was a neat day. | ||
| Blake |
I once rode to dinner to meet a group of Toshiba engineers (customers) at our local Cajun restaurant in Longview. I have a photo around here somewhere of us standing around the bike. I think that the Buells have a lot of appeal to Japanese culture in a feng-shui, art through elegant simplicity kind of way. The basic air-cooled V-twin engine seems to embody. I think it's one of the main reasons I prefer Buell motorcycles. | ||
| Darthane |
If you think Buells are rare here, it's nothing compared to over there. The licensing laws make it VERY difficult and expensive to get certified to ride anything over 500cc, and in fact even bikes over 250cc are relatively rare. 1000cc+ is virtually unheard of. ...and then there's what Blake pointed out, which I agree with as well. They're certainly different looking than the VAST majority of motorcycles produced in their homeland. | ||
| Bdabuell |
The licensing laws make it VERY difficult and expensive to get certified to ride anything over 500cc, and in fact even bikes over 250cc are relatively rare. 1000cc+ is virtually unheard of. that's amazingly ironic....that Japanese manufacturers dominate a market so strongly, yet it's so difficult to get their own product on their own streets... i know there must be other factors involved like population, congestion etc....but I still find it very interesting | ||
| Djkaplan |
"Not earth shaking I know..." You are a God to them. Your picture will be handed down for untold generations and your legend will grow. I hope you had your hair combed and you were sucking in your stomach. | ||
| Darthane |
BDA - it's not as bad as might be inferred from my post. Here in the states, the smallest Jap bike you typically see is 600cc, though they do sell 250s and 500s. Over there the ratio is just reversed. They make and sell a lot more of the little 250s and even 125s. I got a real kick out of seeing a bike that looked EXACTLY like a CBR1000 one day at my apartment that was actually only a 125. LOL | ||
| Lost_in_ohio |
Thanks for putting a smile on my face | ||
| Wrong36 |
years ago [before the XB]... my X1 drew a small group of german-speaking ducati-riding guys at a cycle rally. it was really cool, danke schoen buell. | ||
| Damnut |
This happens alot to me. My company has visitors from all over the Far East come here for training. I park my bike by the entrance where they typically smoke. I have caught a few of these guys sitting on my bike and taking pictures. (This pisses me off but I can't really bitch at them cause they are usually customers) But a few had asked if they could sit on it and I don't have a problem with that. Makes me feel good that they don't even look at the foreign bikes and go to mine first. (Then they take pictures of the Harleys parked next to me) | ||
| Darthane |
Not really, Bda...the amount of 125cc and 250cc motorcycles that they manufacture and sell in Japan versus 600, 750, and 1000s is likely about the same as the ratio of 600s, 750s, and 1000s, to 250s here.  One of the funniest motorcycle-related things I saw over there was a guy that went tear-assing past my apartment on what looked from all angles to be a perfect replica of a CBR1000 that would be sold here in the states - except the teensy little muffler and the fact that it had '125' on the side of it. LOL | ||
| Ragnagwar |
Dj, Fortunately the hair was ok and at 5'11" and 165lbs., no belly to hide! LOL. Big regret is not thinking fast enough to try and exchange emails so I could have had them send me some copies of the pics. Would have been nice to post them here. | ||
| Iamike |
I think Japanese tourists are the most fun to be around, they really seem to enjoy themselves. We had one that was a business associate with my wife. We took him out to one of those cook your own steak places. He went crazy at the size of the steaks we could pick. Of course he had his camera out taking pictures of everyone's steaks. Then another time we were at a conference in Kansas City. At breakfast we had an old battle ax for a waitress. She wasn't very good at filling our coffee cups so I got up and started filling mine from the counter when I saw a table of about eight Japanese businessmen watching me. I realized that they wanted coffee too so I walked around their table filling them up. They got the biggest kick out of it and then I looked up and saw Ms. Battle Ax watching me...If looks could kill I would have been dead. | ||
| Daves |
Jeez, I thought the thread said your bike "attacked" the tourists!  |
