What Does It Mean When A Biker Points Two Fingers Down?

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. 

Hello. Guten tag. Konnichiwa. Hei. Olá. There are countless ways to give a verbal greeting depending on the language we speak, and an enormous variety of non-verbal ones too. When speech and a broader wave or similar are impractical, a subtler expressive gesture can work very well on the roads. This is the essence of the two finger downwards gesture. 

In May 2014, the Los Angeles Times' Charles Fleming created a brief YouTube guide titled "Motorcyclists' hand signals explained." The first signal demonstrated was a point with one finger towards the road, followed by variations of the same: Two fingers used, a thumbs up pointed downwards, and a raised palm. Fleming deemed this "probably the most universal sign of all" and stated it can be interpreted as "somewhere between 'hey dude' and 'riding is awesome today.'"

The two-fingered variant of the familiar 'biker wave,' Pirelli notes, has a very specific meaning. In this well-meaning split second greeting between bikers, the two fingers signify the two wheels of their bikes, and combined with the downward angle, the message can be interpreted as wishing their fellow a safe journey, or more literally, that they keep both wheels on the road. Pirelli goes on to suggest that the very first such 'biker wave' was shared by William Harley and Arthur Davidson in 1904, and swiftly caught on after the founders of the iconic and successful Harley-Davidson did it.

Bikers are rather more vulnerable on the roads than those in other vehicles. It's crucial, then, that other road users are vigilant about the safety of their two-wheeled friends. Safety campaigns such as the Texas Department of Transportation's "Share the Road: Look Twice for Motorcycles" are a huge help in raising such awareness. Bikers themselves, meanwhile, can consider the safest motorcycles to ride and their own riding habits to help keep themselves safe on their travels.

As a natural extension of this, and of the spirit of comradeship and looking after each other that's prevalent among bikers, lots of other specific signals are sometimes used too. There are some universal threats that all drivers face, and the biking community can take steps to warn each other of some of them. Charles Fleming notes in the Los Angeles Times' Motorcyclists' hand signals explained that "a shake of the leg on one side or the other warns the rider behind you that there's debris on the road." A signal can be used to indicate to the group that a rider needs to stop to eat or drink (sometimes performed with a thumb towards the rider's mouth), and such seemingly simple things can help to organize a group or even save lives.

Not every biker will be familiar with such hand signals, depending on where you live and ride. Regardless, the two-fingers-down point is a great example of the comradeship and community that motorcycle riders often enjoy.