Brand specific forums - Jeez

[S-Westerly]

It may well be just me but I find that forums which specialise in one manufacturer eg Ducati and Moto Guzzi are a pain in the arse. These are the only two I have personal experience with but to say that they are a bit sensitive would be an understatement.  You ask a simple question about the brand and its like you've stood up in church and mooned the altar. The flame wars are something to behold and the elder statesmen of the forums give every impression that they have received a personal endorsement from God. Annoyingly in among all the garbage there is the odd nugget of useful information. Maybe it's just these 2 who are like this and other brands are models of information exchange and polite chat. Note banter isn't allowed either.

[husoi]

I partially agree.

The honda shadow forum is quite good, However, being US based their definition of banter is very different.

[S-Westerly]

Yes, I've dabbled in 2 Guzzi forums and the US one is more straight-laced than the UK one.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

The Triumph Bobber forum is generally very well behaved and very helpful. You get the occasional nutter but they get banned pretty quickly.

 

To misquote an old advert - You meet the nicest people on a Triumph.

[Fozzie]

The SVrider forum is the same. Really sensitive bunch. 

 

I once said "the fasteners are made of cheese, but that's Suzuki" and it triggered a fight. And, not being in the mood, I replied to the chap who outright said I shouldn't own a bike if I wasn't prepared to look after it properly, which in his book involved greasing the fairing bolts once every 6 months. Told him I never had to do that with any of my Honda's, and he was confusing proper maintenance with poor design. He went nuclear.

 

And all the anti-UK stuff comes out of the woodwork with the Americans, they've got a real complex with us (or at least some of them do). 

[Nick the wanderer]

The XSR site is ok, many folk from around the world with what seem genuine people who will help you out. Easy to search old threads to find info etc.

The majority of Americans on the other hand are morons. I have no idea what goes on in their heads at all. They are happy to call you out and name call but as soon as you say anything back the dummies come out big time. So much so if it's US based l don't bother it's just not worth the grief. 

[manxie49]

I only have experience of using a BMW forum which I was on for about two weeks!  No disrespect to BMW riders, I ride one myself, but it was an eye opener, and I can certainly see why some BMW riders get the reputation they have.  Some guy went on to ask about torque settings for his exhaust, and F--k me, he got berated as though he was some incompetent fool!  That was just one example.  I thought, this just aint for me and left the forum.  Thankfully not all Beamer riders have that attitude, but it seems like a lot of them appear to hang out on the bike specific forums, although in their defence, I would say it's probably a minority giving the majority a bad rep, as usual.

Edited March 12, 2024 by manxie49
spelling

[S-Westerly]

It's true that a lot of the more obnoxious posters are the most frequent posters. Some are really good. When I lost my pannier it was an American guy who contacted me and we did the deal. He very rarely posts.

It's the guys who take any criticism of the brand as a personal insult that actually make me laugh. Not as if they are actually the company owners or anything but the mildest criticism has heaps of opprobrium (big word for shit) piled on your head. 

[RideWithStyles]

Thats

Edited May 15, 2024 by RideWithStyles

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

The Bobber forum is hosted in the US, but I suppose the guys in the US who buy Triumphs tend to be a bit pro-British to begin with. Never had any issue with any of the American members. The only pillock who was picking a fight was a Brit.  

[geofferz]

Mt10 forum is pretty good, was useful when I had mine. Gixxer riders are notoriously chavvy though so I wouldn't bother with one. The reddit r/gsxr is meh, kinda quiet. 

[S-Westerly]

Some of the more obnoxious posters have been Brits even on the US forum. Its the dogmatic "I know I'm right" merchants which make me laugh. If you have an opinion and you are sure of it why post asking for validation and then get enraged when people disagree.? Some serious dummy spits result and for no good reason.

[Bender]

See your all just spoilt rotten here

[Mickly]

The model specific F650GS forum has been a god send & all the things I’ve asked have been covered before & some kind soul usually points me in the right direction, it is quite quiet but not surprising given the age of the bikes.

The only snippy reply I got was when I commented on how much had gone wrong with the bike since I’ve been green laning on it ( had to describe to some people what that meant ) the reply was “ you’ve bought the wrong 20 year old bike, what do you expect?” And tbh .. they’re right

[Mickly]

Oh & don’t call Americans W️S, most of them DO know what it means these days

[Nick the wanderer]

3 hours ago, geofferz said:

Mt10 forum is pretty good, was useful when I had mine. Gixxer riders are notoriously chavvy though so I wouldn't bother with one. The reddit r/gsxr is meh, kinda quiet. 

I did join a GSXR forum which turned out to be American based, didn't stay long there.

Oldskoolsuzuki is best for the er old school Suzukis.

[S-Westerly]

On the American Guzzi site which to be fair is considerably better than the UK one which unless you've been riding Guzzis for at least 25 years your not worth spit, they are in the throes of a monumental spat with a lot of flouncing going on. The instigator of a lot of this emotional trauma is a Brit who to be fair comes across as a monumental pita as the Americans would have it. Pedantic doesn't even begin to describe him. Meanwhile I'm a fascinated spectator.

[Nick the wanderer]

I'm a happy spectator especially if you learn things about the brand. But if it's just name calling and people shouting opposing views for nothing, well, you may as well listen to Jeremy Vine. Can't think of anything worse.

[S-Westerly]

Actually one of the guys who is worth listening to and has been the receiving end of a lot of crap from this Brit is now retired but ran a Custom Bike shop for 20 years and specialised in Guzzis so knows his stuff even if he is a rather sensitive soul. The guy who runs and owns the website also owns a company which specialises in Guzzis so there's a lot of decent knowledge there in between the sound and fury. Most folks much like here just want to get along but my word the Americans are so very serious. Never talk about biscuits although there was a thread about espresso machines so they aren't totally lost.

[bonio]

I used to use the ukgser forum. They call themselves tossers, and although they're wrong about most things, on this point they're spot-on.

Now I use the MV forum; such such a nice a place by comparison. People moan about the parts supply chain and the stupid sprag clutch and the leaky indicators, but they all love the bikes and understand the trade offs and happily post about how to put decent indicators on and still leave room for the luggage.

It's a very international group. One guy's even from Magadan; has to go some thousands of miles miles to get to the dealer in St Petersburg.  

[bonio]

3 hours ago, S-Westerly said:

my word the Americans are so very serious. Never talk about biscuits although there was a thread about espresso machines so they aren't totally lost.

In America, a biscuit is a scone. And they eat them with, wait for it, roast chicken and gravy, which is actually a thick white peppery sauce. While we of course eat scones with jam and cream. It's no wonder they're so serious.  

[S-Westerly]

I quite like their version of a scone (biscuit)  with bacon. In parts of New England they actually do some really good scones like ours too. 

[Gerontious]

Before Forums and back in the day when the GS was a very rare bike and 'adventure' as a word was more associated with Enid Blyton than motorbikes I joined a BMW-GS group that was based in America. I was the only UK member. (I think)

This would have been around 1997/98 - probably.

I lasted about two months before being banned.

The reason given was as a result of my response to a discussion about riding history. How long have I been riding and what bikes Ive owned and so on.

I got such a shocking response to that post it went absolutely ballistic and I was called all sorts.

I can remember almost verbatim what I wrote.

"Started riding on my 18th birthday on a jap 250. then after I passed my test moved on to Brit Triumphs. a T160 then a T140TSS followed by 3 modern Triumphs and now on a R1100GS - which was lent to me as a curtesy bike and I just had to buy one."

Thats what I wrote and that is what caused all the problems which soon escalated out of hand..

I made just one reply in the ensuing mayhem, but it was completely drowned out and I got kicked off.

No great loss.

Edited March 13, 2024 by Gerontious

[bonio]

Lemme guess, Jap was the problem word? Perhaps in the States it has the same ring as calling a VW camper a Nazi car...

[Fender1515]

Having owned most of the leading manufactures bikes of my xx years of biking, both riding, restoring, rebuilding and falling off them, in my experience, all have quirky mechanical stuff that takes an age to work through on your own, and almost always some body has the T-shirt, so for me, it's worth syphoning through the borrocks, if it means I get the knowledge to do the job done better, faster. Currently on the BMW K1200/1300 forum, mostly, all good TBH.