....In the real world on the road there is value to riding a big old comfortable cruiser rolling 65mph at only 2400 rpm all day that looks cool and has outstanding fit, finish, paint and chrome with a dealer in every town to take care of you.
Yep OB, but doesn't this all depend upon what KIND of "real world road" you're talkin' about here?!
I mean sure, I gotta admit whenever I'm passin' one or often a bunch of those H-Ds riders on some TWISTY mountain road around here in northern Arizona while ridin' my BA, I DO occasionally think to myself how "comfortable" those fellas look on their big "cool" lumbering machines, alright.
And of course as I come up on 'em and before passing 'em, I ALSO tend to notice they often wouldn't know the proper line to take through a curvy stretch of road if their lives depended upon it...and if ya THINK about this, one's life CAN "depend" upon knowing such a thing, ya know.
Yep, I can't tell ya how many times I've seen those "comfortable" and "cool" riders takin' an early apex into a turn, and then watch as they "go wide" and wallow over and across the double yellow at even MODERATE speeds. Why, it's almost as if they really don't know how to ride a motorcycle or somethin'?! Well, other than maybe "cruising" down some straight boring road, anyway.
And which of course always seems kind'a strange to me, 'cause as I pass 'em on those twisty roads, they in general appear not ONLY to be very "comfortable" and "cool", but ALSO tend to look about the same age I am and thus MUST have been ridin' motorcycles almost as long as I have.
(...that would be comin' up on 50 years now, btw)
Oh I see, so in your opinion since I ride a Harley Davidson my skills are lacking. You know that someone isn't a capable rider just by the brand of bike they have. So I've been riding all my life and when I rode a Triumph I was a good rider but now because I have a Harley Davidson you would judge me incompetent. Brilliant.
Gotta say here OB, that your jumping to the FALSE conclusion that I somehow called YOU a lousy rider is less than "brilliant" ITSELF, dude!
Nope, read that reply of mine to you again, and then you might see that it ACTUALLY contains more the thought which Kevin expressed after I posted it, and which included the idea that because there are a lot of lousy riders out there riding motorcycles of every brand, AND because H-Ds seem to be so predominate on the road, THUS it would give people such as myself the impression that there are more lousy riders riding H-Ds than any other brand.
(...trust me here, kid...in those 50 years of riding I told you about, I also occasionally have noticed riders on big "comfortable" and "cool looking" H-Ds who seem to know how to ride 'em on more challenging roads too, and who don't seem as if leaning their big "comfortable" and "cool looking" machines over at a little speed is beyond their skill level, and who seem to know the right line to take into and out of those curves...and from how you seemed to get your nose out of joint by misreading what I said, perhaps YOU are one of those...the seemingly rare H-D owner who actually KNOWS how to ride motorcycles with some proficiency, and DIDN'T just purchase one because "it's the cool thing to do" and/or so you could indulge yourself into that "cool" little H-D "culture" thing they have goin' on!)
Talking to you is like talking to my mother-in-law you make a point...BUT carefully word it so if someone calls you out about it you have an exit strategy at which time you spin the blame on them for "misunderstanding" what you meant. Well played. I could introduce you to her, y'all would either kill each other or fall in love.
Let me give you an example of the value that I'm talking about. Summer 2014 we left with a group of friends from Virginia Beach on a short trip to an event called Mountainfest in Morgantown West Virginia there were about 12 bikes in the group. With fuel stops and taking our time about 8 hours of straight riding but it started raining hard an hour after we left and kept it up the whole way, we also ran into heavy fog in the mountains. Exhausted and soaked when we arrived at Morgantown my wife hit sand in a low speed turn and had her first crash in many years of riding. Her Sportster went down on the left side hard but the only real damage was the shifter was bent back across the peg and jammed. We called the local Harley Davidson Dealer Triple-S in Morgantown. They quickly sent a truck to pick up her bike no tow charge. We got to the dealership who was very busy hosting activities for Mountainfest late in the afternoon, nevertheless they pushed her bike directly into the shop and started working on it immediately. They replaced the bent shifter but the linkage was jammed inside the case. they said check back in the morning they knew we were from out of town and were going to do what they could. My wife was very down as we rode on my bike to the motel. The next morning I rode to the dealership alone just to see if there was any hope. To my surprise the tech had come in early to work on her bike, had the case apart the linkage fixed and was test riding it when I got there! I rode back and got my wife by the time we got back to the dealership about 10am they were drying it off after a thorough cleaning. I was stunned by this level of customer service, they saved the trip. In my opinion this would not have been possible on any other brand of motorcycle. I believe the nearest Triumph dealer for example was 3 hours from that location and I doubt they would have had the necessary parts in stock and it would be hard to match the positive attitude and service we received. So if that's part of what you sarcastically call "cool" I'll take it.
2011 Triumph America (10/2011 to 07/2014)
2012 Harley Davidson 1200C Sportster
2014 Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide
