What's with the bull whip?

[bad Chad]

Did I ask this question a couple years ago?  If so, for give me, I don't recall the answer.

I'm speaking of the leather/ish looking whip like thing often found hanging off the throttle on many big bore cruisers here in the good old heartland.   My guess is that they are purely ornamental, meant to scare soccer moms and the like, but could their be an actual practical use that I'm just not considering??  Or is it just part of the "gay pirate" costume?

And that's ok.  There are a ton of men and women who seem to rejoice in the pirate costume, I figure it gives them a bit of a get away on weekends.  But like hating the other sports teams, beating up on Harley Davidson, making fun of riders who seem like posers, it's an easy target to go after the Pirates on two wheels!   So that all said, what is the "whip" about?

[wrbix]

Purely decorative leather ....... like so much else in HD "culture"

[oldbike54]

 They are Get back whips .

 Dusty

[yogidozer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QLzthSkfM

[RinkRat II]

 Here ya go...https://www.chilhowee.net/whips.html
  Some oldtimers used much shorter ones made to a certain spec hanging off their clutch lever as crude speedometers.

   Paul B

[Chuck in Indiana]

 
Poser stuff.. 

[Penderic]

Goes with the boots.


 

[oldbike54]

 Rocker and I went riding together a couple of weeks back . We were stopped along the Illinois River getting some pics , when a Sportster went by . Mike asked if I saw the little base ball bat strapped to the handlebars , which apparently are taking the place of the get back whip . Strange world .

 Dusty

[wrbix]

Rocker and I went riding together a couple of weeks back . We were stopped along the Illinois River getting some pics , when a Sportster went by . Mike asked if I saw the little base ball bat strapped to the handlebars , which apparently are taking the place of the get back whip . Strange world .

 Dusty

Scary message there I'm afraid ...... what next; ax handles?

[oldbike54]

Scary message there I'm afraid ...... what next; ax handles?

 Attack trained pit bulldogs 

  Dusty

[alanp]

I am so glad I will never ride a Harley. 

[kingoffleece]

Gotta keep them wild wommans in line!

[Huzo]

Gets them used to the pain that they'll eventually have to learn to suffer...

[rocker59]

Scary message there I'm afraid ...... what next; ax handles?

Ball Peen Hammers...  No, seriously...

[Kent in Upstate NY]

Possessing one of those in California gets you a felony conviction. Most likely other states as well.

[Shorty]

Real men carry fly swatters.....

[Idontwantapickle]

The leather cord on the levers does have a use if you ride a Convert, especially if it has a hack

Hunter

[rocker59]

Possessing one of those in California gets you a felony conviction. Most likely other states as well.

One of what ???

[Tom H]

Well I'm in a mood tonight, so I'll try to answer this in a good way.

Leather tassels have been around for years on leather items. I remember horse saddles with the tassels and the silver decorations. Some of the tassels may have been long enough to be useful, probably most for decoration.

In the spirit of motorcycles and horses, tassels would fit in as a link between the two. A rider going down the trail or road, so much the same.

I'm not defending the poser, but don't knock an old style rider with some tassels on his/her bike. At least HD and Indian in the old days had their dressed stye bikes with tassels on the seat at least if I remember right.

Just my 2 cents. YMMV.
Tom

[Two Checks]

Tassels are one thing. "Get back" whips are entirely something different.

[sib]

My kid brother had plastic tassels on the handlebars of his banana-seat pedal bike back around 1955.

[yogidozer]

reminds me of that silly poem

sticks and stones may break my bones......
but whips and chains excite me   

[Sheepdog]

Fringed clothes/tack was a Native American invention.  it was so a person would have a length of soft leather to use as an improvised fastener close at hand. Alternately, the "Get-Back Whip" is one of those accessories born of "One-Percenter Envy." It is a thing that few would dare to use, but with it they hope to borrow the badass reputation of patch-wearers. Sorta sad, really...

[Kent in Upstate NY]

One of what ???

A get back whip. See here... http://bikerlawblog.com/2009/05/26/the-getback-whip-issue-revisited/

[Bill Owens]

It was my understanding that fringed leather on shirts was to wick water away and assist in drying.

[blackcat]

About 25?years ago, someone gave me a pair of fringed chaps. OK, so I went on a 500 mile road trip and about 30 miles into the ride,  the whipping of that fringe was driving me crazy, so at the next gas stop I bought a utility knife and cut those stupid things off. I guess at slow speeds one could get use to the whipping of fringe, but at 75-80 mph it really gets annoying.

[guzzisteve]

Chad needs a set of whips on the V65, red & black, then that bike will sell.

[cruzziguzzi]

I'm with Tom above and set it aside as originally being ornamental as in saddlery like how often these whippy things are accompanied by stitched-on grip covers and leather fuel tank accents.

It's just the over-all, deliberately arrived at, perception of badd-assery put out by so many HD owners that we are led to by the nose to view most of their (HD owners) affectations with contempt and mockery.


Todd.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  The secret is that the get back whip identifies the person as the bottom of an S&M duo.

[azguzzirep]

Baaaa-baaaa.