Got stickers from places like the dragon? Do they go with the bike, or go with the rider?

[PrivatePilot]

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Friend bought a bike a few years ago with Dragon stickers already on it. He's been to the dragon but was going to remove them until he actually had that *particular* bike down there which didn't happen for a year or so. He didn't feel like he had earned the privilege of displaying it.

When I bought my current bike last spring I moved over some of my harder earned stickers from the lid of my topbox on my old bike (pictured below) as well as my saddlebag lids over to my new bike.



I had to whittle down the collection pretty heavily as there's not as much realestate on the new bikes top box lid inside, but I kept the ones I value most from many of the far flung places.

For a lot of my stickers of places I've been, I feel that they tell the tales of where I've been on 2 wheels over the years, but for a few particular ones like the tail of the dragon logo, who feels that they're "earned by the bike" as much as the rider? I moved a dragon sticker over as well even though I haven't yet had that bike down there.

If you collect stickers as you travel, what do you do when you move to a new bike? I certainly didn't want to leave them all on the bike when I sold it, I figure the odds were high the new owner would have removed them all anyways, but who knows.

 

[Aens]

Both. Same bike + same rider. Different rider or different bike, you gotta take it through the gap first.

For me, I put the stickers on the inside of the van. Don't have the space and it'd look ugly on the bike. I don't put it on the outside of the van as for the irrational fear that it'll give the random passerby a reason to look at what may be inside.

 

[PrivatePilot]

you gotta take it through the gap first.

Well, now you've forced me to plan a trip to the gap again in the spring.

 

[TwistedKestrel]

Privilege smivilege. You're allowed to think the Dragon is cool without having been there

Leave the badge policing to the pirates

 

[Mad Mike]

No stickers for me.

I might stick something on my stuff if I earned it, but my bike and tool box isn’t a bill board for parts, gear, oil companies or tourist spots.

 

[MacDoc]

With the rider but I'd leave them on earned or not.....lots of cool points at the Forks.

Never got into stickers despite the travels.....the GS I'm selling has a bunch on the crash plate....left them there.
Apple stickers which I have dozens and should sell are theft magnets.

Prefer running the photos of the places we've been every day for hours on the iMac in the living area
and I get to see lots of my departed kid. Better mementos for me.

 

[oioioi]

I say they go with the rider.
I only have enough stickers to count on one hand so far as my travels are not as elaborate and I only started "collecting" recently.

I have started to put them on the outside of my top case or side case. My cases are not bike specific ( GIVI cases) so I plan on keeping them if and when a let the bike go.

So far I have not noticed any increase in horsepower from said stickers. Strange.....

 

[MacDoc]

No additional crash protection either...

 

[Lightcycle]

Not a big sticker guy, but the Dragon stickers are small enough to be unobtrusive, so we put them on our sportbikes when we rode the Gap with them.

When we sold those bikes, the stickers went with the bike. Didn't feel right putting them on a motorcycle that didn't go to the Dragon. Just because the sticker would have generated conversation that would have gone like this:

"Oh, did you do the Tail of the Dragon?"
"Yeah, but not with this bike..."

Did the Gap this last summer and got new stickers for the our latest rides!

 

[PrivatePilot]

Didn't feel right putting them on a motorcycle that didn't go to the Dragon

Yeah, the dragon sticker was the only one I felt didn't quite belong in the move. All others? They tell my story and remind me of great trips. They're situated (on my new bike at least) where only I see them when the top box or saddlebags are open (A few Iron Butt Association stickers aside, they generate good conversation when another IBA rider sees them, so they're out there), so they're mostly personal, but just glancing at them instantly brings back memories of some epic adventures. Some of them were "earned" by several bikes ago however, but something like Sturgis or the Cabot or Mount Washington etc, meh, I don't feel the bike earned that, the rider did.

 

[Lightcycle]

A few Iron Butt Association stickers aside, they generate good conversation when another IBA rider sees them.

Yeah, I had an IBA plate frame. I think it's okay moving it from bike to bike as it's your butt that's doing the endurance ride, not the bike.

That said, I don't feel quite right about moving an IBA plate frame onto a Grom and implying you did a SS1000 on that... or a superbike either, come to think about it...

 

[timtune]

My old Wing left with dragon sticker on it. I bought two though in case my tool box or furnace needed to brag. It's in a drawer.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Yeah, I had an IBA plate frame. I think it's okay moving it from bike to bike as it's your butt that's doing the endurance ride, not the bike.

That said, I don't feel quite right about moving an IBA plate frame onto a Grom and implying you did a SS1000 on that... or a superbike either, come to think about it...

I feel that an IBA plate follows the rider and not the bike and can be moved as much as you want - mine has been on 3 bikes now, my VTX which I earned it on, my Kawi which came close to quite a few IBA certifiable rides (and probably actually did one but I never bothered logging), and now my Transcontinental which did indeed earn one.

But I do kind of feel that the dragon sticker is earned by both the bike and the rider and shouldn't be moved.

Oh the things we riders overthink during the off season lol.

 

[Baggsy]

Either. Sold my last bike with some stickers, because it would look more messed up with half a sticker. The bike has been there, so it counts. New bike doesn’t have any on it yet, but I have a few stickers already, that might go inside the trunk.

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