Bikers have their own secret language to share respect or to give warnings, such as pointing two fingers down. Here’s what it means and when to do it.
Whether we’re driving a 2024 Lexus GX or riding a Limited Edition Harley-Davidson motorcycle, hundreds of people may flash past us without us even registering their faces. It can be quite isolating and existentially terrifying if you think about it. Let’s think, instead, about the time-honored hand gestures we use to communicate with fellow motorists.
If another driver takes a moment to stop and let us out, they certainly earn themselves an appreciative little half-wave. If they do just the opposite and speed out in front of us, an admonitory blast of the horn is in order, or perhaps a rather unfriendly type of hand gesture may come out. Hand gestures on the road can make for a surprisingly elaborate language, and this is especially true for bikers.
There’s often a sense of community and kinship among the motorcycle faithful, whether a large group of bikers are taking a long-haul trip together or one rider happens to pass another on a lonely stretch of road. They often have just a split second to express all of this, and one of the biker hand signals employed in this respect is a downward motion with two fingers. This isn’t a warning or an instruction, but simply a quick greeting from a fellow biker as you flash past each other. Something of a salute, you might say, sometimes known as the biker wave. There are a lot of important tips a new biker should know, and interpreting such signals is an important one.
