Thread: Harleys

I still ride the in-laws Harley even though I am not a fan they are still better than a cage in the city.......

Still, I would rather a Jap cruiser ANY day.

I owned a 1991 FXSTC for 11 years . For people who know nothing or little about Harley Davidson it is the Soft Tail Custom.

As with every internal combustion engine that I have owned I like to get a little more out of it. It had port and polished shaved heads, an andrews EV27 cam, S&S E series carbie, cycle shack extractors, screaming eagle computer and a host of other mods and options.

I rode it north/south across Australia several times and it never missed a beat. Even in 46 c summer heat in the middle of Australia. The EVO motor onwards are great engines and reliable. So is the rest of the bike.

There is a saying amonst Harley Riders "It is no point trying to explain to someone who has not ridden one how good they are". Bit like Landrover drivers I think trying to explain to someone how good they are if you have not experienced them off road when the going gets tough.

The reason they do not smile while wearing an open faced helmet is as was said "you get a mouth full of bugs, dirt and whatever else is flying around".

My favourite Harley story actually doesn't have a lot to do with the models you are discussing, but I'm going to tell it anyway.
In the early '70s (that is the 1970s, not the 1870s just in case some young whippersnapper wants to make some joke about just how long ago it was), I worked with an American. He bought himself a 350cc Harley Davidson, a truly dreadful bike with less performance than the average 250. In fact I'm pretty sure my CL175 Honda outperformed it.
Whenever anyone asked him why he bought the Harley instead of a Suzuki, Yahama or Kawasaki or even better a Honda, he always said, "Because it's a Harley and it's American."
So one day I got a bit tired of that and pointed out that the battery was a Nippon Denso (Japanese) and the carburettor was a Dellorto (Italian), the muffler was some Italian brand which I can't actually remember now and the whole bike was assembled by Aermacchi, as were all the smaller Harleys.
The bit I really liked though was that when he woke up to himself less than a year later and tried to trade it in on a decent bike, none of the dealers would give him anything at all for it. Not even one dollar.
I think his reason for buying it was the same as most Harley buyers. They buy it because it's a Harley. Some of us wouldn't touch one with a barge pole because it is a Harley. I suppose it would be a pretty boring world if we all rode the same brand of bike and drove the same 4WD.

My only personal experience of a Harley was bound to leave me with a prejudice against them.
When you are used to operating the clutch with your hand and changing gear with your foot, it takes a bit of getting used to a foot clutch and a hand gear lever.
Add a rigid rear end to those problems and you can probably see why my first ride on a Harley (even if it was an old one) was also my last.

plenty of these clowns around here. mild mannered public servent during the week hard core wannabe biker on the weekend and all look like they wanna cut ya throat but look like they would get queasy sqashing a cockroach at the same time real wackers

If were going to be talking about attitude, then lets spread the base here. As a sport bike rider, I seen WAAAAAAAAAY to many wannabe Mich Doohans in my 20 years of riding. Yes, they buy the lastest rice burner (jap sports bike), buy the most expensive leathers and helmets, spend on expensive exhaust etc etc, yet they cant ride for *****. So, in any sport, 4 wheel, 2 wheel etc, yuo get the people with attitude and you get the people who ride/drive for pleasure.

oh yeah i even work with ppl like that more money than brains

I just don't understand why people pay so much for the brand and then spend up big just to get them to handle, stop and go like they should in the first place.

Hence why I got one of these!