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If I bought another .22 it'd be an Anschutz.I doubt I will but I'd buy a .22 Mag or .17HMR in preference now.
Harley make a decent bike THESE days.A mate bought a new 1974 XLCH and I bought a new 1974 XLH in Australia.Japanese indicators,starter motor,electrics
The starter motor and the indicators and electrics never failed.Much of the rest did.
The guy with the XLCH took his seat off after delivery and found an empty Winston cigarette packet stuffed in the down tube.Mine dropped a valve into the piston within the first 500 miles.I wont bore you with the other sordid details of what went wrong with both those bikes.British workmanship was just as bad if not worse back then.
One thing the Japanese did, is make reliability a must for any brand these days.



42 years ago Harley Davidson was owned by AMF who bought the company in 1969 and cut the work force and compromised the quality of the bikes which resulted in labor strikes. So the mid 1970s were the worst years in Harley Davidson history, comparing today's products with those 42 years ago is like comparing a new Toyota to the Toyotas shipped here to the U.S. in the 1960's that were incapable of maintaining 70 MPH speed limit and when Toyota executives tried to prove they were reliable by driving across America they broke down and had to abandon the attempt. Driving coast to coast was something American cars had been doing since the Model-T Ford. Very disgusting how people always give a pass to the quality failings of foreign products but people still bring up the Pinto and Vega as an example of low quality American cars decades later.

By they way it was an American who taught Japanese companies how to build quality products, his name was W. Edwards Deming.



Don't get your red, white, and blue undies in a twistWhos comparing then to now?Not me. I'm just telling you how it was for me..I'm just as patriotic about Australia as you are about the US.I know the AMF, and BSA, Norton Villiers Triumph, sagas thanks.I lived through them.I was broken hearted when the Brit.bike industry when down the pan,very nearly followed by Harley.
In the 1970s the Japs had quality down to a fine art.I bought a 1973 Yamaha 650 cause I needed an electric starter after having my leg broken while riding a Triumph,and the fit and finish and reliability of that Yamaha was very good, whereas Harley and the British bike manufacturers had let theirs slip.I don't know if you were there in those days or not, but the Brit.and Yank reliability was bad.
I still sold the Yamaha and bought a 1974 Harley at the first opportunity but it was to my regret.

Today Harley and Triumph have picked up the quality and are making great bikes.No comparison.Seems like you want to pick a fight about nothing .Go ahead,knock yourself out.I'll refrain from further comment



This is a discussion not a fight.

It's important to remember that like cars Japan's motorcycle industry is given every advantage by their government including currency manipulation and home market protection.

You must be like 70 years old then so you've got be beat on buying brand new antique motorcycles. My first motorcycle was a new 1977 Honda XR75 but I was just a kid and far too young to ride on the street. I loved that XR it always started and ran good but the design flaw was the frame did not extend under the engine only a skid plate bolted on and protected the engine. With no frame structure to mount the peg and sidestand bracket the Honda engineers stupidly just bolted this critical part to 4 aluminum bosses cast into the bottom of the engine case. All of the riders weight landing off of a jump was supported only by those aluminum mounting bosses. One lowside crash as often happens with dirt bikes is enough to break the bosses off the engine and the foot pegs and side stand fall off. Beyond that minor engineering stupidity the engine was reliable but every nut and bolt was weak and soft as butter either stripping or breaking on removal, like the screws they used on the timer cover which has to come off to replace the points of course.

Fast forward to 2006 and my wife bought a Honda 750 Aero without a test ride because no Honda dealer allows test rides before a purchase you just find out if you like the bike on the way home I guess. Meanwhile, Harley Davidson dealerships try to get you to test ride any bike you're serious about first. She quickly found with their Hondaline windshield the bike's top speed was 84 miles per hour wide open. Nearby I-95s posted speed limit is 75mph and even the police pass you going 80 so just riding on the interstate was a serious struggle for her Honda. Beyond gutless that 750 Honda was a ball of plastic. Fenders, side covers, even fake chrome plated engine parts were all plastic. I swear if you popped off the fake engine plastic parts whats left looks like it came from one of their lawn mowers. The liquid cooling was a plus until the water pump fails requiring engine removal from the frame to replace.

So I think Jap bikes are overrated.

2011 Triumph America (10/2011 to 07/2014) 2012 Harley Davidson 1200C Sportster 2014 Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide