Aren't Harley riders still keeping Harley afloat?

 

I wave to other riders, i figure if they dont wave back they dont know how to ride and are too scared to take one hand off the handlebars.

 

I'll wave occasionally. If I have a passenger I tell them it is their job to wave. I just get sick of waving.

 

I don't know? Seen their stocks lately. Before the evo & public holding days it was us raggedy *** bikers keepingem afloat! AMF nearly killed em! You know the greasy, hardworking, wear our levis for weeks, refused service because of who we hung with, looked down upon, bikers. Not todays Harley sportin jeans, boots, t-shirts, bandanas, face masks, gloves, jackets, do rags, chaps,trucks, jap cars with HD stickers.stylinridin people! I'm not bitter, mind you, but some us remember the 60's & 70's. It was a different crew & culture. Back then shops gave you t-shirts for doing business with them. Now you pay $25.00 for the priviledge of giving them free advertising. So yaa you & corporate America (read Ford) are still keeping her alive but back then you all weren't on board. There was a much smaller client base and the company was damn near under. That's what I mean by keeping HD afloat! Only GI's, vets, 1%'ers and basically hard core bikers rode back then. Not lawyers and their wives who do it because it's the current rage. Not cops & prison guards playing renegadeflyin some phony *** club colors. To each his own, but I'llnot be damned for remembering what I consider the good old days! I don't even set foot in a dealership unless it's a necessity.

 

I do understand. I too was riding in the 70s (very late 70s mind you), but I was riding an old Yamaha dt250. I was looked at much the same way as the average biker from that era, and also miss the days when not just anybody would saddle up and ride. I just ride now, and I do wave sometimes. I don't get hung up on it, and I don't care if I get one or not. No one waved to me when I began riding, so it never dawned on me to give it much thought.

Ride on.

 

Now that would make for an interesting ride.

 

You need to bite down harder on the leather and pray for the snow to melt......grouchy......

 

what is wrong with everyone having a bike these days?

I read these responses and percieve alot of resentment against people who just bought a bike. One of the things that attracted me to get a HD was the fact that people seemed to be nicer and happier, waving at each other. I grew up in Eastern Montana and so every year we would see the migration to Sturgis, all those people hanging out together. It was cool.

I bought my first harley (my old dyna) after my second Iraq tour. I was so jazzed to finally have a Harley, even though I had never ridden a street bike and hadnt ridden any bike since I was probably 18 and sold my dirt bike. So anyways it took some getting used too. I rode with other guys in my unit and we had prety much all just bought our bikes when we got back. I remember about a week after we got our bikes we were in a bar in Colorado having lunch. Some grizzled biker types came in and sat next to me, asked if that was our bikes out front and started to talk to me. Now just for perception Im a bigger guy, a tanker so I have a little muscle tone (and a bit of a gut!![:@]). I have complete sleeves on both arms and keep my head shaved. SO I guess I could look like some type of stereotypical biker (though usually people think Im a skinhead, I think its cause I like to wear suspenders). Point is this guy starting bitching to me about how people just go out and buy Harleys these days and dont understand the history and bascially havent paid their dues. They dont deserve to own one. Imagine his surprise when I told him that all 3 of us that had bought ours last week and went and paid cash for them. WE didnt even have motorcycle endorsments but we were signed up to take the safety course next week. It was pretty funny cause the guy couldnt decide whether I was serious or not.

It remeinds of how in the Army old guys will always tell how much tougher it was back in their day. You always here some old SGM tell you how tough soldiers were back in the 70's, 80's or whatever. (even heard a few early 90's were tougher lately). Of course it simply not true, but it doesnt prevent people from saying it. But if that old timer wants to tell me his story of glory in the 11th ACR in Fulda, or Grenada or Panama, or the 100 hour gunnery exercise (Desert Storm). And you know whats weirder, some of them want to salute......but I do it. To humor them and I know they feel some pride when they do it.

I wave at people too when they wave at me.

 

Wave or don't wave. It's all up to u

 

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