There are some very odd people in this world. I guess I would have said whatever it took to end the conversation. I bet his "bumble bee" honda was more than he could handle. What a dork.

 

I was suprised the other day I was out cleaning and lubing my chain at a friends garage, and this old man started talking to me about him riding when he was younger, and I mentioned going to school to be a Ducati mechanic, and he started talking about their team, and then we got onto talking about other things, and he brought up that he rode hondas first 750 or whatever, and mentioned before that, he rode a norton, and a triumph, and said the honda rode circles around all of them. It seems everytime some older person makes fun of my bike, and then I respond right back making fun of harleys, they about have a seisure trying to tell me how harleys are the end all be all bikes.

(Before this turns into ANOTHER jap vs harley thread, I like harleys, I have nothing against them, I just think if you can dish shit out, you should be able to take it, too. I don`t get mad when they say I have a rice burner, I just get even )

Cliff notes: If someone makes fun of your bike saying harleys are better, make fun of harleys (it just has to be something as stupid as "Harleys are the Fords of bikes"), the conversation ends REAL quick.

 

This is some amazing timing, since I've been thinking about Harley (not in a purchasing sort of way) the past couple of days.

With all the $ that Harley has at it's disposal thanks to its fairly recent popularity in the cruiser market, and its apparent interest in sportbikes with the introduction of some reasonable bikes from Buell, I wonder if they'll be smart enough to form a REAL R&D group to improve and advance their technology.

I try not to bash a company who has a shot at becoming a premier bike manufacturer. Maybe Harley won't do it overnight, but they've got the cash available; do they have the desire?

 

Unfortnately one is bound to run into strange characters, in their 40s & much older, that do not understand the modern world of m/c & in fact it they were showen a HD V-Rod here would be the lst to downgrade the latest step by HD.

Yet again you may have those that loved British irons & Triumph will perk up their memories, but any Triumph to-day is so far from the original works of Turner & his famous vertical twin 500cc OHV unit.

I use to bump into two old boys that lived at the same old folks home that would tell me about a friend of theirs that had a Harley Davidson 45 & make sure I knew it was a WWII surplus bike----that did 113mph. Their stories were identical.

Still a Harley 45 in those days developed 25hp & I knew as I use to buy a number of power-plants still in crates & build up the unit to where it had 29 to 30 hp ------ believe me even with a high gearing none could reach 90 mph. So you can see how stories & beliefs grow. YET these two had identical stories which they must have told each other over the yrs & even more that they would recite.