badgolferman <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com> wrote

>> as I believe you have a Gold Wing),
>>
>
> Just a minor discrepancy...

Oh. Thank you. I hadn't even thought of it. I used to ride a bunch of
Suzuki's before I had the beemer but I hadn't thought of the Goldwing
branding. Thanks for correcting my unthinking error. I apologize.

Better yet, I _appreciate_ the clarification as it makes me more
knowledgeable and understanding as a result. Thanks!

I hate being ignorant.

> It's actually a Honda Goldwing, not Gold Wing. I know you will find both
> written versions on the internet and even at the website, but the logo,
> manual, and electronic screen all print it as Goldwing. The same holds true
> for the Honda Silverwing.

Thanks. It's important to know the difference. Since I didn't know the
difference, I couldn't even assess if it mattered - but now that I'm aware,
I can make my own judgment as to which to use.

An example is "loan" vs "lend" or "soil" vs "dirt" or "rock" vs "stone" or
"who" vs "whom" or any number of distinctions (e.g., "tree" vs "bush").

For each of the above, I'm aware of the controversy, whereas those who are
completely ignorant aren't even aware there are discussions about that.

If I don't know there _is_ a difference, then I can't intelligently choose
one or the other - but if I know there is a bone of contention, I can.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll try to use the single-word trademarked
version moving forward, as I see no advantage to breaking it into two.

BTW, I loved my GS650EX even more than the K1200RS because that little
rice burner was more comfortable to ride than the beemer could ever be.

And I prefer a Toyota nowadays to the bimmer because of the reliability.
Point being we change in our preferences, sometimes, as we get older.

Were I ever to buy another of either, it'd be Japanese for sure as I'm done
with the Germans not understanding how to link systems together other than
just the power train (which, I admit, the Germans do know how to design).

> My mother who is from Germany, gets upset when people refer to the BMW as a
> Beemer or Bimmer and considers that disrespectful.

Actually, there is discussion about that, as I recall, where it's a term
that arose in _British_ racing circuits, and which crossed the Pond when
the American obsession with bimmers (much more so than beemers) occurred.

It's most ridiculously used when a person posts how great they are at
mechanical stuff on the BMW forums and then they use the ignorant words.

It's like a person with fancy clothes but no education, which is a poser.

However, in Germany, they use the German names anyway - so BMW doesn't
translate to beemer or bimmer for them - as I recall from discussions.

> I tried to tell her Americans shorten words because we're lazy.

The Europeans below the 42nd parallel use long names but when in the USA,
we shorten those names to roughly four letters - so it's kind of true.

It's part of our culture.

> Remember International House Of
> Pancakes (IHOP) and Dairy Queen (DQ) ? I'm sure you can think of many other
> companies that have given in to slang expressions.

I know it well with names, as we shorten Richard to Dick for example.

It has been my understanding that the Europeans below the 42nd parallel do
it less so than those above - where we Americans are "mostly" from above.