Who Hates Harley Davidson?

http://oregoncoast.craigslist.org/clo/4401775773.html

So is one picture worth a thousand words or a hundred bucks?

 

Yup! A friend pulled into my driveway on his road king sporting his new HD boots and proud of 'em. Had to let him down by telling him they were made in China. Claimed the dealer told they were USA made. Too embarrassed to take them back.


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Yep, would have been better off buying some Red-Wings. Had to move a Road-King today, at the end of the day, when the energy was low, what a pile! If that gawd damn bike ever fell over, you would be farked! No way you could back into it and pick it up like they teach you at the honda goldwing school or police acadImY. In my opinion, light is right, if you wana tour, do it on a managable bike. Not something that is the equevelant of a Winnebego with two wheels. And besides, when you show up on your light little chitter of a bike with some scruffy soft bags, your gona be "dah-man." Not some boob that trailored his bike to bike night/sturgis/gaytona. ; )

I shut up and ride bee-ah-ChH.

 

You really can't call a VROD a true Harley, yes it has the name, but that is about it. Don't blame you on the VROD or the Sporster for that matter.

As far as attire, I ride both, Sport and Cruiser. I do not have multiple costumes in my closet in fact none of my gear is made by H-D nor will it ever be!

Like the Bike, Hate the Company!! I hope Indian pwns their ass!!

I also hope Indian makes a nice Bobber here in the near future.

BB kiss it!

 

I like the Victory, but in the real world, I will end up buying a CL bike that cost what the tax would cost on a new Victory/HD/Indian. Just the state of affairs, was listening to tawk radio the other day, and they were tawkiing aboot the "medium-income." Think it was aboot 40,000 or so? Wonder what the hell the average income would be for someone walking into a HD showroom and signing on the dotted line?

 

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but I was thinking about this the other day. There must be a reason that HD's have acquired legendary status (aside from the "lifestyle"/customising/accessories ect). Are they, or at least were the older ones, reliable? By that I mean, will that lazy v twin motor keep on going forever? Maybe someone who has owned one long term can answer. Has the doctor/lawyer Sunday riders image sullied what was at one time a tough dependable bike?

 

How old? When AMF owned them I think they pissed oil on the garage floor more than ever. AMF should have stayed in the bowling business. They are probably more reliable today. They refuse to change known engineering problems from ancient times so they will still have that "Harley feel". I have rode most of the models except the Vrod. They have a particular "character" but its not for me. Unless I need a massage. Do they come with a case of loctite?

 

Billy that jacket photo is going to make its rounds with a few friends. lmao.

 

AMF stands for American Machine and Foundry so the name couldn't have been better tailored to fit HD. I won't go into it but they pretty much let HD founder on the rocks. Pre EVO HD's leaked. They all leaked. My 2005 Vrod leaked! It had 82 miles on it when I acquired it.
HD's are very dependable as far as I know. They are rolling mannequins. Dress em up. There are hardcore riders with big miles and very little work done. I'm going to guess most of them are garage/trailer queens.
I bought the Vrod based on its design and the fact that it's different than the run of the mill HD. Lesson learned. Lost $ on it. I think I listed the issues I had with it in a earlier post. I'm just not a cruiser/power cruiser guy.


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lmao. I thought it was the bowling company, makes more sense now.

 

It's a conglomerate. Buys, sells etc. but yeah bowling equipment and golfcarts. Golfcarts power = HD power. Ha!


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HD and several Italian bike and scooter manufacturers have been in and out of the sack together for years. Where we might give thanks is when HD sold tooling to the Japanese in the 1920's and Ford did the same thing in the 30's

As racebikes go, and as far as I know the first entre' into American racing was Yamaha sending a bike, (s) team and rider to the Catalina GP in 1955.

What the harleydoods miss is the irony. One dude here who has to be dumber than a sack of rubber chickens to the point of suspecting he has a major brain malfunction, is still fighting WWII. Japanese made bikes even though assembled here are crap but German bikes are AOK. This dude I think was maybe a Girl Scout at one time.. He is definitely missing some cookies.

I guess it could be worse and he might be fighting the Civil War too. BTW you dudes in the South do not have the redneck market cornered.

 

My old boss, at the bike shop, was a Harley mechanic through the AMF years and long before. I asked him once "why Harleys were so bad" and he said "They are not. If they are built correctly (which the never were) and ridden like they were meant to be ridden they will last nearly forever. " You have to understand that back in the 20s, 30s and 40s most major roads in the US were dirt. Top speed was 60 mph at best. Harleys and Indians were designed for big torque on shitty roads. He said if you tried to ride them over 70mph for any length of time the vibration broke things. By the way, he was no fan of Harley Davidson products, the company or the culture. He found BMW and never looked back.

Before 1970 all bikes leaked except BMWs.

 

I have had my Harley for several years now...it does not leak has never failed to start and has never left me stranded on the side of the road through the few trips the ole lady and I have made. She is my trusty Steed!

 

North Florida folks might argue Billy. lol South Fl, not so much.

 

I'm not touching that one..LOL

 

South Florida the last time I looked had been annexed by some folks in NYC.

Up here for some harleydoods, the South is anywhere South of the Canadian border.. and North of the Mexican Border.

 

They actually leaked before that and they also ran better. A buddy had a 69 Sporster (which was a hot bike at the time) and pulled wheelies all over the place with it and beat the other twins of the day. Basically back then you had better know how to work on bikes, cause all of them needed wrenching quite often to keep them on the road. Back then it was said the last good year of Harley was 69. That was when AMF took over. Quality, if there was any, dropped and no improvements were had. They had a problem with the top end as usual which gave them a bad rep. My neighbor had a new 80 glide what ever and half way thru the 1st season he lost the rear cylinder on night we were out. Did make it home (20miles) on one cylinder though. That was just the first one for him with that bike.

Then the Harley boys bought it back and designed the Evo with help from somebody. The point being if I remember correctly they went from cast iron jugs/heads to alum jugs/heads and they were cast in Japan because of fine casting techniques. This stopped them from leaking oil basically. Along with other parts from Japan which helped to make them more reliable.

Back before the eighties Harley was just another bike with a big rep for cruisers (baggers). Nobody really had any fast bikes back then until the 69 CB750 came out.

 

Finally a little due respect :hss:

 

I don't HATE Harley's, I just chose not to have one.