The words "suggestion" and "recommendation" were chosen intentionally. This website does not belong to me, nor am I a moderator. I greatly appreciate the deference and respect everyone has shown at my suggestion, but in the end, as long as Bounce doesn't have a problem with it, we are all free to write whatever we want, whenever we want.
September 2014
Who are these people on the FJR Forum?
In today's day of situational awareness and security paranoia, why would anyone share personal thoughts on the Internet?
I'm not a brand loyal consumer. I'd like to believe that marketing strategies are ******** for people that are naïve. Informed consumers will chose products and services only based on their individual and unique wants and needs. Why would anyone listen to these idiots? They are paid promoters - they would back bacon wrapped turds if the contract was sweet enough. I liken them to the World Wrestling Federation. In front of us, they bash each other violently, trying to make themselves look better. But after the cameras go away, they join each other for dinner and laugh all the way to the bank.
Well, no so fast Pants. You've got the FJR forum to thank for that. After you peel away the first couple of layers, true colors start to appear. We are a group of bikers with very similar interests, but it goes well beyond our love for our commons machine. Any one of us will happily go 300 miles for a piece of pie. We will ride hundreds of miles in the worst weather imaginable just to have a beer with one another. We will gladly give our own money, thousands of dollars collectively, so that one of us who is sincerely down on his luck can continue with his 2-wheeled mental therapy. We will spend hours writing and providing technical support for others trying to fix a problem. We will create wonderous how-to threads on maintenance and repairs, providing fully illustrated step by step instructions that make the Yamaha factory service manual look like a time-share brochure. Doing this supports our less mechanically inclined brethren to buy a set of tools and take a chance. We help them every step of the way with encouragement and advice. And if they hit a wall, one of us will ride over and lend a personal hand. Others check into the thread daily, if for nothing else just to offer help or a literary pat on the butt. In the end when the problem is fixed (and sooner or later it ALWAYS gets fixed), we share in the triumph with our friend. A sense of pride overcomes us, knowing that our brother is back on the road to adventure again.
Oh, this is not your typical enthusiast group. No sir, indeed.
Like any social group, at times we have our differences of opinions. In relationships of any kind, one has to get past the formalities in order to truly understand the other. We rib ourselves and each other playfully. Some of us are more direct than others. It is hard to understand context in the written word. And of course naturally, there is always something that sets each of us off. At times, this is often supplemented with dribble and side bar conversations. Who knows where the NEPRT may take us? The administrator and moderators hold us to a standard of decorum and purpose. While a very few see this as unforgiveable censorship, the vast majority of us know why this is really necessary. Keeping our conversations light and humorous is a part of who we are. I believe it is one of the things that draws us to each other at rallies, rambles, ride-to-eats, or just a meeting at the highway intersection. Inside, we want to know who that person really is behind the keyboard. He or she reminds us that the world really is a good place where people do things for the right reasons. In our own way, we want to thank them for their selfless gift.
Each of us has a story to tell and on the forum, we are free to tell it in our own way. But the real story is the collective story. The whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. We are not posers. We are not bikers.
We are riders, this is our story, and it's a good one.
Maggie Valley, North Carolina. We stopped on our Fall tour at the EOM gathering to say hello to some old friends, whom we have never met before.
