Perhaps we're overrun with newbies, but I've been riding for two seasons and gotten maybe three waves... and the only people who respond to anything are the 'live to ride' crowd flashing the pitchfork. Where's the love? Do you respond to the wave, the nod, the devil's pitchfork, or what? Or are people just prejudiced towards '83 Hondas held together by duct tape?
Motorcycling is becoming too mainstream. People don't know to wave, nor care anymore. No one waves in Italy, because riding isn't something to wave about. It's a fact of life, like eating or sleeping. I like it that way, honestly.
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
- Soren Kierkegaard (19th century Danish philosopher)
I can tell you people in MN on 82 Yamahas wave and get waved too. Trick is to wave first. You might not get a lot back, but you have to realize that a lot may be just getting the bike out from storage over da long winter, or that whole squid thing...
"I like a man who grins when he fights"
-Winston Churchill