HARLEY SLANG summary
Jerry Dunn
Thanks a million for the Harley slang for my book (Idiom Savant: Slang As
It Is Slung, to be published in fall 1995). Here's the summary I said I'd
post.
Any corrections? Please e-mail me: jer...@rain.org.
Thanks for everything! You're a great group of people, very helpful,
articulate, and funny. All the best -- Jerry
ape hangers n. high handlebars.
bitch bars n. backrest for a passenger.
bitch pegs n. short foot pegs for the female rider, mounted about level
with the driverąs hips. łWhen her legs are up on those new bitch pegs,
that babe provides a picturesque curve of thigh.˛
brother n. another loyal Harley rider. łRidiną a bike is like being a part
of a family. If you own a Hog you can always find a brother to help you out.˛
cage n. car. łMy bike isnąt working. I had to come in my cage.˛
crotch rocket n. fast Japanese motorcycle. łHeąs got one of those
whiny-chainsaw-lean-over-and-go-like-hell-until-you-hit-a-wall-and-splat-like-a-bug
crotch rockets.˛
crotch rocketeer n. pilot of a crotch rocket. łLike the typical crotch
rocketeer, he comes equipped with a complete set of leathers and a
full-face helmet in the same color scheme as the motorcycle.˛
flathead, knucklehead, panhead, shovelhead, blockhead n. five types of
Harley motorcycles, in chronological order.
Half-a-Harley n. Harley Sportster, the smallest model made.
Hog n. Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Syn. scoot.
HOG n. Harley Owners Group.
ink n. a tattoo.
in the wind adj. on the road riding a motorcycle.
Old Lady n. a riderąs woman or significant other. Syn. bitch.
Old Man n. the man who drives the bike.
pig on rollerskates n. the way a Hog handles on rain-slicked roads.
poser n. a Rich Urban Biker who puts on "bad boy" clothes & fake tattoos
to appear to be a łreal˛ biker.
pud n. rider of a Japanese motorcycle who wears fancy racing leathers and
thinks that if he owns a fast bike, he can ride well, too.
pussy pad n. second seat for the passenger.
rice-burner n. Japanese-made motorcycle, especially one that tries to
look like or compete with a Harley.
road rash n. wound resulting from skidding along the pavement on
unprotected epidermis.
RUB n. Rich Urban Biker, a Yuppie who buys a Harley.
scooter trash n. woman on bike.
łShe goes down quicker than a Harley on ice˛ expression Self-explanatory.
sissy bar n. back rest.
skid lid n. helmet. łI hate wearing a skid lid. The law sucks! Those
who ride should decide!˛
speculator n. person who buys a Harley and immediately tries to sell it
for a quick profit.
squid n. inexperienced motorcycle rider. So-called because his
appendages flop about in an effort to maintain balance.
toy ride n. group ride during the Christmas season for a toy drive.
UJM n. Universal Japanese Motorcyle; i.e., any Japanese motorcycle.
Yuppie scum n. Yuppies. łI like to go into coffee bars and scare all the
Yuppie scum.˛
--
Jerry Dunn
jer...@rain.org
Penny Powers
Concerning the matter of trashing several items on this list,
who's going to go first? Do I have to go get one of Skiv's
unfinished knives and leave Jerry with some ragged scars, or
is someone gonna talk nice first?
Penny
ASSHOLE #29
Beth Zimmerman
>
>bitch pegs n. short foot pegs for the female rider, mounted about level
>that babe provides a picturesque curve of thigh.²
>Old Lady n. a rider¹s woman or significant other. Syn. bitch.
>pussy pad n. second seat for the passenger.
>scooter trash n. woman on bike.
>
>³She goes down quicker than a Harley on ice² expression Self-explanatory.
>
And who says Harley riders are sexiest??!!## (Sarcastic grin)
You forgot piglett. Another name for Sporsters. Heavy iron are hogs,
sporsters are pigletts.
Beth Z, BITCH #5
94 Piglett/883 hugger
Jim Combs
Oh yeah, do it Penny. A list like that deserves no mercy.
Jim Combs
Penny Powers
> >bitch bar, n. backrest for a passenger. Syn "sissy bar".
Insurance person to biker: "Accessories.....let's see....'bitch bar'?
What's a 'bitch bar'?"
Biker to insurance person: "That's so the bitch don't fall off."
> >Old Lady n. a rider=B9s woman or significant other. Syn. bitch. =20
Hmmmm....I'm a rider. Hmmmm.....Skiv is my significant other. Hmmmm...
That must make him........naaahhhhh. Sweetheart, no, please put that
down.....here now - wait a minute honey, I didn't mean it! Not really!
It was a joke, really it was! hahahahahaha....pretty funny, eh? Eh???=20
> >scooter trash n. What's left of your bike after the accident.
And people still wonder why we are leary of journalists in this bar?
Glasses stop clinking and all eyes turn to Jerry, the short man
in the Dockers and Eddie Bauer plaid shirt. Beth is tapping her
beer bottle with a short fingernail. Judy's left eye is twitching.
CudaTah stops leafing through a copy of the Senate Proceedings
and peers over her glasses. Lady Jane slips gracefully off her
barstool and her boots hit the floor. Penny fingers her timing
chain belt, casting a glance over to Becky who is finishing her
beer rather quickly. Several men lean back against the bar and
smile. They've seen this before.....shit, there wasn't much left
of that guy, remember?
Penny
ASSHOLE #29
Beth Zimmerman
thought about it the more it pissed me off. I'm not sure if I want to
flame you, or the idiots that gave you the slang.
Couple of years ago I was told I could become an auxillary member
of the AmVets. (I was dating one) As I told this....... gentleman, I have my
own scoot, My own paycheck, a military ID card, and I'm not an auxillary
damnit. (Tour in Desert Storm also makes me a VET) I'm not anyone's property,
and I'm not a bitch. (Term as used here in the bar is not insulting. Some
terms you used may have been used in the past,
but not now. Use them again and you just might wind up with glass braces
from this bottle.
Thomas M. DeBoni
e...@require2.tinker.af.mil (Beth Zimmerman) writes:
I wondered when this shit would start to appear as flaky as it
really is. I was reminded by the original post of the guides to
teen slang that used to appear in Reader's Digest and other such
rags back in the early sixties. It
all looked stupid then, and it still does now.
What the benighted soul who originally asked evidently fails to
realize is that slang grows from social groupings and is usually
pretty localized. It's verbal color and economical expression,
and marks shared understandings among the speakers. It's not
SUPPOSED to be generally applicable or understood. By the time a
piece of it gets unversalized, it's ready to start showing up in
serious dictionaries, and tends to be considered pretty lame, as
slang goes. The idea behind slang is aesthetics and economical
expression.
As for the pejorative terms, like bitch bar, etc., some of this
isn't stuff we'd say to each other, at least not without smiling
broadly. And none of the women here are auxiliary anythings -
they're all the Gneuine Article.
Let this foolish thread die, and let the guy who asked take his
pseudo-slang and slink away into the outer darkness.
Tom DeBoni
Judy Anderson
[snip]
>beer bottle with a short fingernail. Judy's left eye is twitching.
and she's sharpening her acrylic nails to a wicked point
[rumbling resumes]