What's the difference between a harley rider and a Hoover Vacuum?

[jserio]

that's what you rmom said too.

[shiznizbiz]

that's what you rmom said too.

I know laughing only makes him do it more, but f%$k its so classic and well timed

[yamahonkawazuki]

cabbage

take your pic

[grayghost]

that was a nasty crack yamahonkawazuki.

[The Buddha]

Holeee cow, that looks like the harley rider's GF pyramid.

Having said that ... newer sport bikes are junk, especially the 929/954 - sorry python.
They will not last 20k UNLESS YOU KILL YOURSELF MAINTAINING THEM.

The HD of the 80's and 90's much like japaneese bikes of that genre are built to last. To compare an 85 HD to a new 600RR is facetious. Compare the HD to a virago, a Maxim, GS650 type suzi, etc etc ... even a GSXR from the 80's ... for how much you can hammer them and not work on them ... I think all 4 jap bikes will leave HD in the dust/rust. Oh yea, try parking a HD outside all the time. See how fast it rusts.

Today's Twn cam is similar to today's new genre, Vstar, road star etc etc ... and I think HD has held on to more of the longevity than the jap's have. So HD has closed the gap a good bit, Jap's have slipped a bit.

In the 80's through the mid 90's Jap bikes worked very very well for very very long. HD was building a brand and an image, japan was building good solid bikes. After that HD started building better bikes and japan started building bikes that need to be replaced every few years.

Cool.
Buddha.

[bettingpython]

That's OK Buddah, I will be sure to tell all my buddies with newer bikes that have 50 to 70k on them that we are all wrong, that we're really riding junk. 

[The Buddha]

No dont worry I already did. And I have the scars to prove it.
BTW I call it junk not due to motor, but due to the fact that its got swingatm pivot in the engine cases. Do you know the kinda load that runs through those ... and how they insisted that it was superior to having the frame there ... then how they quietly ran race bikes with a full frame ... like the CBR 1000 RR, RC51 etc etc etc ...
You need to glance a curb ... heck climb a curb and you'll know. The VTR1000 ... famous for cracking the engine cases there especially if stunted etc ... and it was drowned out by the TL1000's rotary damper lawsuit snafu in england.
Anyway, I was in canada at the time these were launched and when VTR's were raced they often ended up with leaking cases ... usually cos race bikes used to be street bikes that were crashed ... and many many of them developed this problem due to hairline cracks in the swingarm pivot area.
Lots of ford pinto's were sold too ... that doesn't make them great ... 929/954 will run a long time, its an evolution on the 900RR. Its junk due to the incomplete frame.
BTW I have said this when you posted about buying the bike too.
Cool.
Buddha.

[bettingpython]

I probably ignored your inane ramblings. I usually do

But they are getting a little more intelligible, so thats cool.

I'll let you know when I have swingarm pivot cracking issues. Then you can say see I told you so.

Until that time I have a friend who has wadded his bike up on the street once and 3 times at the track and his hasn't developed a problem.

[The Buddha]

The 929/954 really needs to glance off a curb/sidewalk - I have done it twice on my 89 GS ...   
929/954 is a little resistant because its engine cases are wider than the VTR. The VTR will break with less than 1/2 the impact ... its engine cases are much narrower.
Many more bikes have that design, Buell Blast, some of the old duc's 851 I think, VFR800 and more. However 929/954 is the only high performance bike that did. Duc 851's at one time had this happen in the early 90's, ducati took a bath replacing engine cases. Somehow they got away without having a recall ... dunno how. The 916 design put a larger frame section in that area and did design changes too, and it reduced it drastically.
Honda makes great stuff, but if they make a mistake, they never freaking admit it, and they divert the issue and quietly fix it when and where it counts. The example I have seen was the cam chain tensioners in nighthawks. Tensioner is ideally put in the slack side of the cam chain. If its on the tension side, it has to be a real big beefy beefy rod type. The nighthawk has this chinzy parallelogram with a piddly spring in tension in the middle. Total BS. Of course ... 1 year in, they replaced it with serious springs and a beefy parallelogram ... wihtout ever admitting a problem or recalling.
Cool.
Buddha.

[The Buddha]

Also a savage cam chain tensioner and the damn chain itself ... another POS ... why they didnt slap the GS type chain I dont know, I also dont know why ther could not fit a real CCT in it on the cylinder wall. Some funky sheite on the inside of the lower engine half and its got a gear and chain not sprokets and chain. Worthless.
I think some of this is designed so it will blow up and they can blame us and not warrantee it.
Cool.
Buddha.

[Revere2]

OK Buddha........let it all out.............are you saying that when I retire and want to "putt around town or make a little 150 mile jaunt" that I should NOT consider the Savage 650? Is it really a piece of trash? I am NOT a mechanic and don't want a bike that I have to constantly work on. I have read that it is a little on the "short side" and "might" make 100 mph downhill. I will take your word on it.

[NEWGS500F]

Alas, the HD Sportsters until very recently had engines that near on popped right on out the frame whilst riding at a (whopping) 50mph due to the mountings or lack off ..... solution - rubber engine mounts  

Easy Rider was years ago...
Its not badass to ride an HD...
If looking cool is whats needed, best get a slick 50's hair cut, black leather jacket, white t-shirt and click your fingers ala the Fonze...
If riding a good, working, solid bike is the requirement, then best avoid MOST HD's...
They are overpriced offering poor value for money and all about IMAGE rather than performance...I even had an HD salesman tell me that "if you want performance...go buy a Suzuki" (I did  ) ... if you want looks and image, this is the bike for YOU..........an 883 Sportster...shity miles to the gallon, wont last the pace through the worst weather, for some reason its inherently stealable and finally, doesnt REALLY go that fast or get there that quickly.  Great purchase 

HD's of the past, and their image worked at the time.  They were the uber-bike for the badass....Easy Rider, Fonda and rebel images.....all now lost - those rebels now replaced with the affluent in society; lawyers, doctors, dentists and weekend "bad boys" have taken over because its all about the LOOK........

Ye know, the biggest (the single BIGGEST) irony is those ex-badass HD riders have become so complacent they dont realise the latest breed of rebel, the younger and more abnoxious out there, those who typified the original HD "movement" are now embracing high powered, high speed Japanese sportsbikes...the hooligan of today isnt interested a shaZam! in chrome and slow, underpowered engines....he/she wants a race tuned, performance bike that goes like shaZam! of a stick, more horses than a day at the races and with looks that now, are cool...

Mere observations...

[Revere2]

The "new" "Rebel Riders"? Hahahahahahahhahahahaha. You tickle me. They are children buying a machine made for a racetrack. But most don't even go to a racetrack. "The road" is their racetrack. You have an guy that is visualizing from stop light to stop light, straightaway to stop, that all the townspeople have turned out to cheer him on to the finish line. All the young girls want to be impaled upon his blatant 18 inch phallus, all the little boys want to grow up to be like him and all the men want to BE him. It is an exercise in fantasy. In a lot of cases, it's a death wish that is fulfilled.
What you type of the posers on HDs is true insofar as the Drs., Lawyers, and old men wanting to "be somebody" types. But there are others that you didn't mention. It's the men that have loved Harley-Davidson since childhood and wanted one but could never afford one. There's something about that rumble that gets you down deep if you'll confess it. Mom, John Wayne, Apple Pie, and Harley-Davidson is the epitomy of Americanism. If you could actually find a Hayabusa type with a smidgeon of truth left in him, he'd tell you that upon pulling alongside a Harley-Davidson at a stop light, he feels eaten to the core. He KNOWS he has him beaten hands DOWN.......
but waaaaaaaay down inside...........he wishes he had a Harley-Davidson. He is just in a "mid-period". He is caught betwixt and between that little boy who first heard that thunder and the older man that can afford one.

edit: just an observation from 54 years of experience

[cafeboy]

Mom, John Wayne, Apple Pie, and Harley-Davidson is the epitomy of Americanism. If you could actually find a Hayabusa type with a smidgeon of truth left in him, he'd tell you that upon pulling alongside a Harley-Davidson at a stop light, he feels eaten to the core. He KNOWS he has him beaten hands DOWN.......
but waaaaaaaay down inside...........he wishes he had a Harley-Davidson. He is just in a "mid-period". He is caught betwixt and between that little boy who first heard that thunder and the older man that can afford one.

edit: just an observation from 54 years of experience

+1 I have had HD's and I do LOVE the sound when going down the road. Not the jacka$$ trying to rev it like a sport bike but just cruising.

[NEWGS500F]

The "new" "Rebel Riders"? Hahahahahahahhahahahaha. You tickle me. They are children buying a machine made for a racetrack. But most don't even go to a racetrack. "The road" is their racetrack. You have an guy that is visualizing from stop light to stop light, straightaway to stop, that all the townspeople have turned out to cheer him on to the finish line. All the young girls want to be impaled upon his blatant 18 inch phallus, all the little boys want to grow up to be like him and all the men want to BE him. It is an exercise in fantasy. In a lot of cases, it's a death wish that is fulfilled.

Isnt that what the "youth of today" is all about though??  And what yesterdays rebels with loud rock music, ripped jeans, shaZam! loads of leather, big beards and bad attitude thought??  It's always BEEN fantasty.

I never said I agreed/disagreed/liked or disliked how it all pans out and how it was before  but the reality is, things move on and those with the "bad attitude" acting like assholes at times are now more likely to found on a sportsbike than an 883 Sportster, a Shovelhead, a DynaGlide or anything else....its just things moving on.

Im not comparing either "movement" but this is the way things are now ... its all a mindset and that in my opinion, is the big irony. Its just 2 generations disliking each-other....

What you type of the posers on HDs is true insofar as the Drs., Lawyers, and old men wanting to "be somebody" types..

Agreed here mate and this is the point I am making ... there's a lot of the above types riding around, giving the big blank looks, the bikers "nod" is ignored as they stare straight ahead, with a leather clad grip in one hand and a handful of pretend bad boy attitude in the other...

But there are others that you didn't mention. It's the men that have loved Harley-Davidson since childhood and wanted one but could never afford one. There's something about that rumble that gets you down deep if you'll confess it. Mom, John Wayne, Apple Pie, and Harley-Davidson is the epitomy of Americanism...

Im sure these folks do exist and if Im honest, I've no bug bear with either HD owner.  What I cannot be bothered with, is some of the BS that SOME (not all, but some) HD owners spout ... I do appreciate many normal blokes will aspire to an HD (I have some friends and family with HD's - they're the silly ones  ).

However, there's a whole generation who couldnt give a ratts ass about HD, the bad image etc and the rumble does nothing...for these folks,  a race-rep or performance machine matters way more than a dated image/movement which if we're honest was just that...

If you could actually find a Hayabusa type with a smidgeon of truth left in him, he'd tell you that upon pulling alongside a Harley-Davidson at a stop light, he feels eaten to the core. He KNOWS he has him beaten hands DOWN.......
but waaaaaaaay down inside...........he wishes he had a Harley-Davidson. He is just in a "mid-period". He is caught betwixt and between that little boy who first heard that thunder and the older man that can afford one. ...

I used to be like that, as a kid.  Then, I grew up  ..and honest, the truth in me says I dont give a rats ass about an HD.  I dont wish deep down I had/have an HD.  If I had the funds to buy both a HD and a Jap bike, I actually trade the credit for the HD and buy TWO Jap bikes  .....the price of a Sportster, I can buy a Gixxer and I will in a couple of years so the cash argument isn't really there.  I could also possibly stretch to a good second hand mid-range HD but I would rather spend the 8-9k on a Suzuki, most likely a GSXR.

I dont dislike metric cruisers by the way and if funds allowed, I'd surely look at a big assed Suzi 1800 or such like or maybe even a big fat Yamaha cruiser so its not the cruisers I dont like or care much for, its really the HD's.

edit: just an observation from 54 years of experience

Fair play buddy...just my observations from 20 years less experience....its all good though  

[NEWGS500F]

Mom, John Wayne, Apple Pie, and Harley-Davidson is the epitomy of Americanism. If you could actually find a Hayabusa type with a smidgeon of truth left in him, he'd tell you that upon pulling alongside a Harley-Davidson at a stop light, he feels eaten to the core. He KNOWS he has him beaten hands DOWN.......
but waaaaaaaay down inside...........he wishes he had a Harley-Davidson. He is just in a "mid-period". He is caught betwixt and between that little boy who first heard that thunder and the older man that can afford one.

edit: just an observation from 54 years of experience

+1 I have had HD's and I do LOVE the sound when going down the road. Not the jacka$$ trying to rev it like a sport bike but just cruising.

Indeed, this I respect and I also respect everyone's right to enjoy their chosen bike....

Fair play mate 

[Revere2]

So was I  correct? Does the sound of an old English Bonnie 650 or BSA or Matchless or Norton or Brough Superior make you "think back" and proud? Almost makes you stand at attention doesn't it? Tell the truth.

None of them or the old H-D can hold a candle to the new machines but they are down within our souls. They were all made of the iron will that has enabled us to be two of the greatest nations on earth. And don't forget that an American taught the Jappers about quality control. Although I'd like to strangle his ass if he were to be living...........his name was W. Edwards Deming. I've had to suffer that shaZam! in the workplace since the early 90's.