Secret Motorcycle Riders Hand Signals?

Klurejr

Klurejr

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Is there some sort of unspoken list of hand signals riders use to communicate with other riders on the road?

I have been riding my Bike since september, but in the last 2 weeks I have seen a few guys give me a hand signal I did not understand.

Last week on a surface street a rider coming the other direction patted the top of his helmet. My only guess is he was warning me of a police officer that I knew was ahead of me by about 1/4 mile...

Then yesterday on the Freeway I had another rider coming the opposite direction do the same thing. But I never saw a CHP or anything. I was not speeding so it was not an issue anyhow.

Am I guessing correctly here? Is that a friendly way to warn other riders of the fuzz?
 
I'm glad to hear of this, had a bunch do that head tap thing coming at me. I was zipping along on the 700S. Never seen it before so slowed before the crest and there he was, sitting in the shadows pointing my way. Last weekend I found him on another off shoot road in the shadows. Unmarked Brow SP. So I give you the up side down peace sign Klurejr.
 
Why not just flash your high beams like cage drivers do? That's a universal signal for police radar ahead. Have ridden a lot of miles and have never seen the head pat.
 
returnrider said:
i havent seen those hand signals before but will definitely be on the lookout. thanks for the heads up!
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Evitzee said:
Why not just flash your high beams like cage drivers do? That's a universal signal for police radar ahead. Have ridden a lot of miles and have never seen the head pat.
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I've seen the pat on the helmet before. Came across it for the first time about 15 years ago from some riders that were older than me so I don't know its origin.
 
Yeah the helmet pat is a warning for police somewhere in the area. Here in cali it's very customary to see riders doing that. Everyone in my group uses this signal
 
A Cali Thing?....

I see the head pat for cops pretty regularly in LA. However on a Route 66 trip (highly recommended), I saw two other options further out east. 1) Flashing headlights. 2) Index finger pointed straight up with hand spinning in a circle - think whoop-de-doo.... I guess that's supposed to represent the spinning light on top of a black-n-white? Sure enough, there were cops ahead in both cases.
 
High beam flash works over here, although people have been booked due to using high beams in close proximity to other vehicles.
 
jrw929 said:
I see the head pat for cops pretty regularly in LA. However on a Route 66 trip (highly recommended), I saw two other options further out east. 1) Flashing headlights. 2) Index finger pointed straight up with hand spinning in a circle - think whoop-de-doo.... I guess that's supposed to represent the spinning light on top of a black-n-white? Sure enough, there were cops ahead in both cases.
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I have always seen people use the old cage method of raising two fingers like the old peace sign.

Hand-Giving-Peace-Sign-504190.jpg



Apparently one of our friends made a visual of the motorcycle hand signs:


Motorcycle hand signals | Gibberish Is My Native Language


....
 
The reason I don't flash my beams is because it looks the same as just hitting a bump around here, and the roads SUCK here so it always looks like I am flashin them.

Also people have gotten tickets if caught alerting other drivers of cops. So yeah...
 
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