All the sh!t talk about Harley Davidison

[VFRBenny]

Sportbikes: It seems people like to wear uniforms, maybe to feel important? Seeing some clowns on sportbikes pretending they are being paid to advertise for their "sponsors" with company logos and brands plastered all over them is funny as hell. Kind of has that "I'm a tool" appeal

Not always the case! I got a one piece leather suit on closeOut for $300. It's 1.7mm thick and of real nice quality. It's got Honda HRC shit all over it, and I could care less because it cost me $300. and it's MSRP is over $1k.

Dont judge a book by it's cover.

 

[Feanor]

The VMAX 1700cc a guy had at the CG fest on friday night looked and sounded Fantastic! What a F-ing Beast!

http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/yamaha/yamaha_v%20max%2009.htm

I had a chance to sit on a 2008 (or was it a 2009?) Kawasaki Vulcan 2000... It felt like you could have carried my ZX-10 on a trailer hitch mount off the back of the thing!

The thing I couldn't believe about it though was that the owner said it only had something like 100hp... Out of 2 liters!? That must have been at something like 2500rpm though. He didn't know what the torque on it was at peak, but I have this weird suspicion that it's the reverse of our literbikes, with our HP being their peak torque and our peak torque being their horsepower

I wonder what these giants are like to manuever?

 

[AOW]

Harley has been incredibly successful with "branding". They attract a very specific crowd. I just never felt any interest in becoming part of that scene. The bandana, brain bucket, wife beater, blue jeans scene just seems foolish to me. I also find nothing sillier than a white collar guy pretending to be blue collar just when riding on the H-D. And as an ATGATT kind of rider, I figure I would look goofy riding a Harley wearing a full faced helmet with full gear.

Yes, HD attracts the majority of the "white beards" and weekend tough guy, doesn't mean that an HD isn't the correct fit for your needs. I'm an ATGATT guy on my VROD. Anyone that gets the urge to trash talk can kiss my ass! I paid for that bike, no one else.
Go check out a few HDs, including the VROD line up as the seat heights fit your criteria, and ignore the bandanna heads.

 

[Feanor]

I will only say this:

I hated Harley's until I rode one, not for one day, not for a week, for a couple months. Something changed at that point. What you ask?

I stopped complaining about what a Harley couldn't do as well as my sportbike, and started appreciating it for what it does extremely well.

After I opened my mind up to that aspect of it, I started to really appreciate them for what they are. Now I can't wait to buy a Street Glide.

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I was riding my friends Harley. It was comfortable, it was relaxing, it was predictable, the brakes were a bit weak but not frighteningly weak.

I think that your argument is entirely valid as far as the Harley's and the Sportbikes being pretty much on even footing performance wise in a street arena because the vast majority of motorcyclists on the street never push themselves or the machines, whatever they are on, beyond a certain performance level, which is usually far below what the machine they are on is truly capable of.

But in a straight comparison for speed and manueverability, they might push the Harley to 85-90% of its capability, while a sportbike ridden as hard will be within 40-50% of its capability... The rider is the bottleneck in performance the way that Eric Clapton on a broken Ukelele sounds better than me on a $15,000 Stratocaster...

I have several friends who ride Goldwings and Harley's and large metric cruisers. Whenever I jokingly say "Let's Race!" they say "Ok.... To Kansas City!"

 

[Burning1]

I think that your argument is entirely valid as far as the Harley's and the Sportbikes being pretty much on even footing performance wise in a street arena because the vast majority of motorcyclists on the street never push themselves or the machines, whatever they are on, beyond a certain performance level, which is usually far below what the machine they are on is truly capable of.

Yes and no. A fairly average rider could exceed the cornering limitations of a Harley touring bike. Those floor boards are very low, and I found myself scraping them before I even got off city streets.

The new VMAX is in a completely different league than any cruiser on the market. A true muscle bike, it looks like a cruiser, but the ergonomics are that of a standard, and the parts and technology are straight off a sport bike. They are a hoot to drive, but the 4 gallon fuel tank empties in less than 100 miles, making it a very impractical bike.

I had a chance to sit on a 2008 (or was it a 2009?) Kawasaki Vulcan 2000... It felt like you could have carried my ZX-10 on a trailer hitch mount off the back of the thing!

I wonder what these giants are like to manuever?

I demoed one two years ago at the IMS. If you'd like to try, head out there this year; I bet Kawasaki has one you can ride.

Basically... Very stable at low speeds. Very low floorboards. Careful taking off - the thing can go into a mean wobble if you give it bad inputs - I nearly dropped it as we pulled out of the lot.

But, for what it is it's a very fun bike. Tones of power down low, and very low revs.

 

[bagofdowners]

Nothing wrong with the motorcycle, it's just the 90% of what rides them. They have no clue of what being a motorcyclist is. Sorry but bar hopping, poker runs, setting car alarms off and dressing like pirates just isn't my idea of some body who truly loves all things moto.

 

[maskmarney]

Harleys are chick magnets for women who...

Harleys are chick magnets for women who have their incarcerated boyfriend's name tattoed on one of their b **bs...

 

[rsrider]

Harleys are chick magnets for women who..

Harleys are chick magnets for women who need a weekend warrior dentist to fix their meth damaged teeth.

 

[boney]

Good. I needed to know what part of your post I had to shoot down.

Windows machines were crap (but with good software support) up until February 17th, 2000. The Macintosh was crap up until March 21st, 2001.

If you want to go back to the windows 3.1 days, a good argument could be made that OS 7 was sufficiently superior as to qualify as 'not crap.' Though to be honest, neither could hold a candle to the quality of a good Unix distribution at that time.

These days, both Windows 7 and OSX are pretty high quality products. The stability is there, the UI is pretty clean and functional.

Burning1 ->

 

[Jack the Smack]

I take everything I said back.

Harleys suck, Macs suck, Ducatis suck, Linux sucks.

 

[paddyofurniture]

The latest H_D commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izzlN2zC8PU

 

[cgalford]

The HD culture and it's people are a joke.

Okay, you got me on this one. I love my big twin push-rod motor driven chopper but I cringe when some dude gets off his Softail, adjusts his bandanna, and wants to talk bikes with me. But, I have to give HD credit for marketing their product in a way to birth such a rabid following. Steve Jobs has the only other company I know of that has created such brand loyalty.


Like that time at San Luis Bike Night the drunk, and/or crazy homeless guy goes straight past the 20+ misc other bikes to talk to you about your chopper. Ironically you were complaining about the type of people your bike attracts attention from right as he was walking up.

 

[brichter]

it would run just fine, the valve seats might not last too long though

Same for all the other cars and trucks from the pre-unleaded days, that weren't made with hardened valve seats.

SOP for those engines (as well as Harley engines of that era) is to install hardened seats, doesn't cost very much once the head is off...

 

[nazgulnarsil]

I had a chance to sit on a 2008 (or was it a 2009?) Kawasaki Vulcan 2000... It felt like you could have carried my ZX-10 on a trailer hitch mount off the back of the thing!

saw this yesterday. some guy on a BMW k bike hauling a dirt bike on a trailer behind him.

 

[KWeezyXB12]

hd customer service is great the reason one of the reasons i bought a buell...i was originally looking at a ducati 848 but what swayed me away was the customer service..im not going to name names but at a certain peninsula dealership the ducati sales manager and i met. i told him i was looking to buy and what not so i decided to think it over for the night..i went back the very next day wearing the same sweatshirt and jeans and he didnt recognize me at all it was like we never met. long story short i looked at the buells about a week before..i didnt go back for a month and they remembered me welcomed me in you get the works...everytime i get my bike serviced i get at least 2 follow up calls to make sure everythings alright..they detail my bike everytime its in..they all know me by name and it makes havin a buell that much greater

 

[Beauregard]

Don't knock it till you've tried it.

 

[badjoojoo]

Is it true that Harleys are chick magnets?
Yes, but only if the chick has a steel plate in her head.

What's the cheapest way to get another 50hp from your Harley?
Trade it in on a Kawasaki.

Why do Harleys have fringe?
So you can tell if they're moving.

How is a Harley Davidson like an old dog?
They both like to ride in the back of pickup trucks.

Did you know 95% of all Harleys are still on the road?
The other 5% actually made it home.

The addition or the lack there of a plate in one's head (most are titanium BTW) has no bearing on one's ability to choose a suitable mate.

I know dude.

From experience.

 

[louemc]

What are these Harley DavidIson's of which you speak?



Enjoy your ride, don't worry what others think.

Really

Now the next question, could he spell HarleyDavidson at one time, and then lose brain function after all the vibration took it's toll, or....Does HarleyDavidson just (as the rumor has it) just appeal to a certain mentality?

 

[ob1ventura]

And as an ATGATT kind of rider, I figure I would look goofy riding a Harley wearing a full faced helmet with full gear.

Who's worried about image?

 

[ob1ventura]

I like Harley riders (the carefully folded bandanna ones) because I can make them feel inadequate when I pull up on my 1948 Indian I built just for that purpose.

perfect.