Who Hates Harley Davidson?

Discussion in 'Anything Goes' started by Bubba Zanetti, Jan 31, 2008.

  1. engraym

    engraym New Member

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    more like the brotherhood of assless chaps. be glad they didn't say hello!

    Harleys are BORING! They sell an image, not a bike. Why else would the bike be so outdated? The bike is just the most expensive accessory to their wardrobe.

    Wonder why all the japanese manufactures hopped in on the cruisers? They saw the crap harley was selling wanted to take some of the market by producing bikes of same quality at half the price.

    Last... The American symbol should be a turkey because I would love to see that on all harley attire instead of a bald eagle.
     
  2. OOTV

    OOTV Insider

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    Ironically the Turkey was a candidate for our country's symbol. The Bald Eagle won out though.
     
  3. Chris71Mach1

    Chris71Mach1 Insider

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    My brother bought a brand new Yamaha V-Star 1100 back in 2004, and I quickly realized that Yamaha makes a FAR better Harley than Harley ever could. It's what the lameass Harleyd00ds think their bikes are, and what a real cruiser should be.
     
  4. Big_Jim59

    Big_Jim59 Member

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    Harley is stuck. They are making an antiquated twin for the faithful and it is becoming increasingly difficult to make it work as a modern reliable and powerful ride. My hat is off to their engineering group for keeping the look and feel while trying to produce a modern bike. I think the advent of the electric bike and the 500cc and 750cc Street shows that there is a need for new markets. The Street V-twin has as much in common with the old bikes as Triumph's T100 does with the Bonneville's of old.
     
  5. highway star

    highway star New Member

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    LOLOLOLOL, you should have gotten a blurry picture of that!
     
  6. Chris71Mach1

    Chris71Mach1 Insider

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    I actually had a harleyd00d tell me one that harley didn't have v-twin motors. They were shovelheads, or panheads, or evo, but not a v-twin. I learned right then and there that riding a harley and buying into that bullshit culture required at least a mild case of downs syndrome. These people are certifiably stupid.
     
  7. duccmann

    duccmann Member

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    1126 post on this thread...guess lots of haters huh? Bag-O-Dicks is what this thread should be titled

    Sent from my SGH-T679 using Tapatalk 2
     
  8. V4toTour

    V4toTour New Member

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    On another site some folks got up and arms about the term "crotch rocket". I got to thinking about catchy terms for cruisers and Harleys in general. Hardly, HOG. Etc... None of those really describe the exquisite mess that is the Milwaukee paint shaker. Essentially the Harley is a gigantic POS that the rider has yet to pinch off. It has grown wheels and rolled their ass out of the bathroom, which gets us to the origin of the "peace wave"

    Ever wonder why the arm is stuck out down low, not straight out, or up in the air like "hi". Well the wave started not as a wave, but Harley doods desperately reaching out for TP from passing motorists. The arm's down low position is meant to represent the wave you'd do sitting on the blaster in a public restroom, reaching below the stall partition requesting your neighbor to spare-a-square.
     
  9. NormK

    NormK New Member

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    Big Jim, I hope you are aware that those 500 and 750 Harleys are being built in India and we all know the shit that comes out of India, you wouldn't touch it with a barge pole
     
  10. thx1138

    thx1138 New Member

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    Tell us how you really feel CB-1.
     
  11. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    HD is long on new markets "foreign" manufacture ect. HD was selling tooling and licensing to the Japanese in the 1920s. Same with Ford too. Harley had MV Agusta for awhile, Thankee Jesus they didn't stuff one of those Veetwin paint shaker engines in an MV.. We should not forget the famous HD golf carts or if memory serves the scooters that were Cushmans with the Bar and Shield pasted on,

    Anybody seen one of those 500 or 750's? The Indian models may become collector items when HD finds oot they can have them built in China for five fewer pesos.
     
  12. Big_Jim59

    Big_Jim59 Member

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    My old boss at the bike shop had an HD gold cart. It was a two stroke and reverse was achieved by starting the engine backwards. It died when they went down a hill and over revved it. It exploded leaving oily crap off over the fairway.

    I saw a review of the Harley Street 750. The reviewer was kind of impressed with the bike but taken aback by the crappy fit and finish. As he said, a limited product bike for the press should be better than stock and not worse. But of course that's Harley for you. I am surprised that they will even sell the Street at a regular Harley "America centric" dealership least they piss off the faithful.

    There was a piece in the Wall Street Journal on Indian. They were looking at the Polaris and their Victory and Indian brands in the American marketplace. According to the article Harley Davidson has 52% of the American motorcycle market. Polaris has 3 to 5% for Indian and Victory. Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki check in with 9 to 11% and Ducati and BMW are below 5%. This proves that American's buy a lot of turd motorcycles.

    The article also stated ". . .it isn't just about the bikes, it's about the cult of Harley riders. It's their country club. It's their social construct."
     
  13. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    Sometimes it takes awhile for some manufacturers to get with the program. A guy who was in my club was the first importer of the Urals. They were pretty sad. Now they much better. Much the same with the first Royal Enfield singles coming from India. The newer versions are not bad.

    If the 500 and 750 HD are crap so far as fitment and finish are concerned, HD has no one to blame but themselves. The harleydoods balk at anything less than a big twin. Some even scoff at Sportsters and of course Vrods..

    I don't think we are going to see one of those HD golf carts at the AMA museum in the near future. I know a guy who has one.. He has a Messerschmit and a Morgan with a JAP engine, and aboot 20 Honda 165s he races.
     
  14. Big_Jim59

    Big_Jim59 Member

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    Can you say "eclectic?"

    I also hear that Harley is expecting to go racing with the new Street 750 engine.
     
  15. NormK

    NormK New Member

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    I'd be surprised if they sold any of the Indian built badged Harleys in the US as we all know Harley is an image and that won't sit with Harleydoods. I believe the market is aimed at the Indian market so Indians can say they have a Harley but the big Harleys would be too heavy to try and wheel around India and the roads would rattle them to bits
     
  16. OOTV

    OOTV Insider

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    Although the 500 and 750 seem affordable and are just a watered down version of the bigger CC models, their marketing seems to be in line with what's being said here...It's mostly just attitude!

    "You've got 500cc of liquid-cooled Harley-Davidson® V-twin engine and attitude ready to be unleashed on your city." Maybe this is their subliminal way of saying that they're dogs not hogs.
     
  17. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    Fudgepack?
     
  18. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    If they do go racing with the 750 or the 500. The bike will look like the street version but that will be about it using the analog of WSB and those bikes looking like street bikes.

    Those 500 single pro flattrackers with pushrods were very fast. HD still dominates pro flatrack racing and has nearly 100 years of experience building factory racebikes.

    Tons of irony here when comparing all that is HD when a slug of harleydoods who travel to the various meccas (Daytona and Sturgis) do not know both began as races.

    The greatest irony is that the top dudes at HD know exactly what they are doing.. and my stock keeps going up..
     
  19. GreyVF750F

    GreyVF750F Member

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    I guess that kills the Harley poser's saying "I bought a Harley because I want to be different". Yea right....................

    Harley road racing????:pound::pound::pound: I remember when a Harley shop entered a XLCR Cafe Racer model in the 24hrs of Nelson. After they blew the second motor they had to quit. I think it may have run over 12 hrs though. Which is a feat in itself. Slowly but it ran.
     
  20. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    The 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges was an amateur event. I would submit that HD was not the only type bike to blow an engine there. The XlCR was a streetbike designed by Willie G. It didn't sell well just like Sportsters and Vrods do not sell well compared to the big inch twins. Now that bike is a collectors item and some of the styling is still seen on newer Sportsters.

    http://www.harley-davidson.com/content/h-d/en_US/home/events/racing/racing-history.html

    Above is a link sponsored by HD with a short version of the many years of racing by the factory. Just like pro ball they hired the best and the rides have very little to do with streetbikes other than looks. Racebikes sell streetbikes to most of us. Harleydoods are another matter. Short on inches may cause them to buy more inches.. ;)

    HD did eventually start farming out work to shops and tuners especially in the SoCal area. Chief among those was Jerry Branch who started as a wrench at Long Beach HD. Jerry was famous even in the 1950s for his port and relieve jobs on KR and KRTT bikes and a few lucky K bike owners who wanted to go fast. Jerry later worked with the legendary Dick O'Brien and did work on bikes ridden by Troy Lee. Dick Hammer, Joe Leonard, and a whole bunch of HD fast guys. Jerry was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in aboot 2005.

    Road racing for bikes was not well known until the 1950s here. Emphasis on "well known". This got turned around when Hailwood came for a visit and whupped some serious ass at Willow on a Manx Norton and Honda-San showed that 250cc road racer at the Sacramento mile, let Joe Leonard do a couple of laps on it and on lap three went fast enough to qualify for a National Mile.

    See Google for Jerry Branch, Troy Lee Sr, Joe Leonard, et al. I heard once that even Eddie Kretz had his HD flattracker worked on by Jerry Branch. Ed Kretz Sr. was known as "Ironman"

    Both Honda and Yamaha were making inroads into US racing in the 1950s. Yamaha had an entry in the Catalina GP in 1955 or maybe 1956. (??) The Catalina GP was a
    Scrambles run on dirt and asphalt.
     
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