As time passes, H-D's are being made with more and more components made with metric hardware/dimensions. It's now a machine using globally sourced parts so, naturally, metrification is taking place. And that presents a bit of a logical conundrum with respect to an old familiar term.

Historically, the term "metric" has been used, somewhat pejoratively, to refer to any non H-D branded bike. This has been mostly applied to Japanese machines and, to a lesser extent, to European machines as well. That terminology works just fine so long as we now understand that the term "metric" has a fairly loose connotation because, as we know, there is a good bit of "metric" hardware/dimensions on our H-D's. To see this, just have a look at the assortment of wrenches/sockets/etc that are included in H-D's premium tool kit:

http://www.harley-davidson.com/store/premium-took-kit

Almost half of the sockets and wrenches in the kit are metric. That speaks to the "metrification" of the product. Given that, perhaps it's time to come up with a different term to differentiate between a H-D and a non H-D bike because, like it or not, H-D's are pretty darn "metric" right now and will only become more so with the passing of time.

 

Most "metric" motorcycles refer to their engines sizes in cubic centimeters while MoCo uses cubic inches if that helps

 

H-D's are a mixture of SAE, metric and Torx fasteners. So in addition to engines in cubic inches and the 1250 cc V Rod, 500/750 cc Street's and the 883 and 1200cc Sportster engines no one designation represents anything. So you go with the history of H-D not being classified as a metric.

Besides who gives a crap!

 

In 1968, when I started riding, there were Harley's, Brit's by name (BSA, Triumph, Norton etc) and "Jap" bikes. Now there's more panties, less "purjorative" labelling...but there's still "Harleys" and "metrics"; which to me simply means the rest. Some may belabour semantics; I just ride.

 

the entire argument is a farce

 

Your history doesn't go back very far...metric came about because of political correctness...wasn't that long ago that Japanese bikes were called rice burners.

 

Some of us still call them that, lol.

 

Exactly, I guess some of us didn't get the memo.

 

Goodness.

 

I just refer to them as "Ricers", even when I had some in my stable, "I think I'll take the Ricer out today."