The Pup Wins One

The following is a just a short anecdote involving an old friend affectionately known as "Pup." To appreciate the humor you need to know that years ago, I liked to harass Pup about hogging all the "biker names." Though his name is Darin, he was such a youngster when he started crewing on our drag bike, that calling him Pup was a natural. Later when he was prospecting for a club he acquired the nickname "Dagwood." Yet another moniker he picked up was "Piglet" though I believe that one would more properly be called an alias. It seems that there may have been one more somewhere in there, but memory fails me. Back then my favorite way to greet him when he came into the shop was "PupDarinDagwoodPiglet....!
As I said, Pup was just a ....well, a pup when I met him. Now-a-days however, he looks much more the part of the stereotypical biker; husky with shaved head and the ever popular facial hair. Add to this the fact that Pup has been riding a real chopper since long before the television shows brought them back into style and ....well, you get the picture. (Trust me, all this set up is required for the story to make sense)


It seems that recently, Pup felt the urge to go to the weekly open house at a local Harley dealership. I think he was mostly there for the combination of free hot dogs, and an opportunity to laugh at all the new bikers in their new leathers on their new bikes.

As he loitered on the show floor, he was approached by a cute little female from the sales department. "What do you get for this V-Star?" Pup answered her inquiry as to whether she could help him. Either not noticing or ignoring that Pup had called the Harley V-Rod a V-Star (Yamaha, I think!) she quoted him a price. He countered by asking "How much for the two tone V-Star?" This proved to above her pay grade, however, so she left him with the assurance that she would send over another salesman who knew more about that model.

Soon Pup was greeted by the promised expert saying "Hi, my name is _____, but the clubbers call me Grumpy." Pup replied in his best deadpan, "My name is Darin, the clubbers call me Darin. How much for the two tone V-Star?"

"Its a V-rod, not a V-Star." insisted Grumpy. "Same difference." Pup dryly replied. At that point Grumpy had the good sense to turn on his heel and walk away, leaving Pup to enjoy his minor victory in the oft imagined skirmishes between genuine old time bikers and their synthetic counterparts.