Nice...

Ryan

 

Why Harley...eh?
Well that's a good question. I can't say why everybody needs to have one, but I can tell you why I have one. I was never really a motorcycle person in my younger years. My husband always aspired to have one. He was nuts over them...and I just couldn't see why. He liked snowmachines, cars, personal watercraft, motorcycles in general and over and above all...Harley's.
We had a few different kinds of bikes over the years but 5 yrs ago now, he bought his first Harley. I will never forget the look on his face as we drove home with his Heritage Softail strapped in the back of the truck. He had tears running down his face. He was completely smitten and moved to tears. It profoundly affected him THAT much! I still, just didn't "get" the connection he had with that bike. We had his bike for about a year and had enjoyed it immensely... went on a great ride down to Arizona to visit friends, it was fantastic. I have to admit I was starting to see the attraction. The people we met, the sights we saw and the distinct feeling I had riding (even as a passenger) along the hwy. I was starting to "get" it.
THEN...on my birthday the following year, he surprised me with my own FATBOY. I have to tell you, I never expected it and it blew me right out of my mind. I cried for days!!!!!! I couldn't believe how profoundly it affected ME! It took me a while to get back on a bike ...(a whole other story than I can't go into right now), but I did it. I loved it! We have both totally encompassed this "way of life". It's more...much more...than just a simple interest. It's a life style.
Again, the people we have met, the sights we have seen, the fragrances we have enjoyed (some stinky..I have to admit..not so enjoyable), but with ALL our senses have enhanced our appreciation for life in general. We are happier as a couple and as individuals.
Why a Harley...you ask?...The smooth ride, complete faith in it's starting and running abilility, the power for passing, the comfort and the looks and most of all..for me...is the sound....I love the distinct sound of that low rumble. It's a love like any other love, doesn't happen to everybody, has many levels of intensity and anybody who has it, understands what I'm talking about.
Remember: "If I have to explain it...you'll never understand".

 

THANKS , PIRATE FOR THE POTATO SOUNDBYTE (SORRY I WAS SCREAMING AT YA) That's why I bought the Harley.

 

Big Daddy,

The newer Harleys are just as reliable as the jap bikes..... and even if you don't want the tradition and the history you get that for free.. the lifestyle comes later if you want it, once you get a Harley you'll understand that part of it. it's like joining our family
you're just a brother from another mother !!

hope to see you on the Harley

Doughboy

 

When I got back from my Western Pacific Deployment, I had quite a bit of money saved up. This was back in December 1999. Some of the people on my ship went out and bought some motorcycles, and I wanted one as well. So I went down to the Honda Dealership and purchased a used 1999 Honda Shadow 600. It was a cheap, fun little bike but after a while I wanted something with more power. So February 2000 I went back to the Honda dealership and traded in that Shadow for a Honda Manga 750. OMG that bike had ***** to it. It would do 140 mph and could take off like a rocket. In 2 years, I put over 8000 miles on that bike, which is quite a feat considering I live on an island. Everytime I'd go riding, I'd bring my wife on the back of the bike with me.

Until June 2002. My wife had a massive heart attack and stroke and was permanently disabled to a wheelchair and unable to use her left extremities. That totally killed it for me, and in 2003 I sold my Honda back to the dealership for 1500 dollars. I even sold my leathers and one of my helmets.

At work, a few of my co-workers started buying Harleys and telling me about it. For the longest time, I loved the look of Harleys, but I just couldn't justify paying that kind of price for them. In my eyes, back in the Honda days, I could get much more bike for a lot less money. So I never bought one.

Then in March, another co-worker bought a used Heritage Softail Classic. He had Vance and Hines pipes put on it at the dealership and I just loved the sound that bike made when he twisted the throttle. I had to get one for myself. My supervisor was a Harley guy too, he owns a 2005 V-rod and a 2005 Classic Electraglide. He would show me pictures of all the 2005 Harleys and I looked at the pictures until I saw a bike that seemed to stand out more than all the others.

The Road King Custom.

On May 7th, I went down and bought a Black Cherry Pearl Metallic Road King Custom with 48 miles on it. The bike felt kind of heavy at first, but it was smooth as silk on the roads. I realized that I wanted a Touring bike that had that stripped down look to it. And that bike was it.

I recently attended the MSF motorcycle safety course and I used my RK for the course. Lemme tell you, scraping the floorboards and going through that U-turn box with a 750 pound bike is lots of good fun!

This past weekend I did the 1000 mile service myself (I'm not paying 300 bucks for 50 dollars worth of materials) and the bike seems to be shifting and performing even better than when I first bought it.













.....and my new shifter pegs:

 

I wanted to honestly answer your question and I thought I could glibly produce the answer immediately, to be able to explain it to anybody- but I went brain dead. I don’t think if there is a glib answer to this question but rather the answer lies in a combination of factors; some physical, some emotional, some visual, some aural, etc.

So I guess my answer would be some where the ramblings below:

I thought about the much the bandied about phrase (which I have been known to use), “If I have to explain to you - - You wouldn't understand!" and come to the conclusion that was just BS and really means I could not explain it to you. So I threw that out.

Is it the image? Yes, in part.
- - It is belonging to a group within a group. (The Harley riders group within the motorcycle community)

Is it the sound?
- - Yes, in part but there are other bikes that can produce variations of the “potato – potato” sound also

[Image again] Is it along side the lines of “I’m a bad boy see what I ride”? (Hey! I ride a Harley! I'm bad! Don't mess with me or you'll be sorry!")
- - - 35 years ago, yeah that would have described me (along with multiple tattoos, long hair, etc), anti-authority and PO’s against the world. Today as a semi-mature individual the answer is no.

Do they have more "character" than most other bikes? Yes and no. IMO yes. But, then again, character is in the eyes of the beholder

Is it media imaging? I think for newer riders the answer might be yes but what the h*ll do I know

I guess the bottom line is I grew up around Harleys and Indians. Since my father died when I was a couple of years old, my grandfather practically raised me. And since Gramps did the hill climbing thing in southern/eastern Ohio, riding on whatever he had at the time, whether it was an Indian or Harley, my mother would take me along to the races to cheer Gramps on, so I kinda It started then. I heard the stories from my grandmother talking about how he (Gramps) “courted” her and her riding in his side car and the troubles they would get into. (Like him jumping out of a second story window into the Ohio River to escape from the law – I guess he liked his moonshine too well or something).

Wonder if that means during my formative years I had been preprogrammed to have the predilection to gravitate to Harleys?
- - Maybe but it always felt right/good to ride a motorcycle, any motorcycle, but especially a Harley.

To plagiarize some one else’s thoughts and with a little poetic license:

A Harley is not just a two-wheeled car; the difference between driving a car and climbing onto a Harley is the difference between watching TV and actually living your life. We spend all our time sealed in boxes and cars which are just the rolling boxes that shuffle us languidly from home-box to work-box to store-box and back, the whole time entombed in stale air, temperature regulated, sound insulated, and smelling of carpets. On a Harley I know I'm alive. When I ride, even the familiar seems strange and glorious. The air has weight and substance as I push through it and its touch is as intimate as water to a swimmer. I feel the cool wells of air that pool under trees and the warm spokes of sunlight that fall through them. I can see everything in a sweeping 360 degrees, up, down and around, wider than PanaVision and higher than IMAX and unrestricted by ceiling or dashboard. Transportation is only a secondary function. A Harley is a machine of pure rapturous joy. It's a machine of wonders, a metal bird, a motorized prosthetic. It's light and dark and shiny and dirty and warm and cold lapping over each other; it's a conduit of grace, it's a catalyst for bonding the gritty and the holy. AND IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD.

 

Heritage, Flooznie, man are you guy's serious. Honesty, I like that.

 

I really didn't mean to be too serious but when I posed the question to myself I did not have a definitive answer.

It is like asking the question - Why do you like making love/sex? H*ll, it just FEELS soooooooooooooooo good . .. [sm=lildevil.gif]

 

For me owning a HD was just a natural progression. My grandfather rode a Harley in WW2 with the 101st. My dad rode a 55 pan until a car broke his hip and his spirt for riding. All my uncles rode Harleys. My father in law toured Europe and North Africa on a Harley after Korea.

My uncle sold me my first bike for fifty bucks when I was in jr. high school it was a '68 650 BSA. I sold that and bought a '72 750 Bonneville that I rode for a year. In my jr. year in high school my dad asked if I wanted to help him rebuild a '47 Knuckle and after we finshed it he asked me if I wanted to trade my Triumph for it. I rode that for a year until i got my girlfriend (now my wife) knocked up at the age of 19. I sold the bike in '86 to help pay for our son. Seventeen years later and a couple more kids I told my wife it was time for another scooter.

I guess that hardest thing I have had to come to terms with is the fact that seventeen years ago you could pick up a HD for nothing and now well for petes sake they want 20k for a new Electra Glide. I was gonna buy a FL pan like my dad had, but even a basket case was selling for what I paid for my '85 fxwg.

 

Its better to be at the top of the food chain looking down then at the bottom looking up