allways loved the look and the sound, when i was a kid in the mid 60s, my neighbor had an old decked out hog with the tank shifter and dressed like marlon brando, we all thought he was the coolist thing on wheels! then we had the local 1% ers, the grim reapers, manuel carrilo was the leader and he would actually talk to us kids sometimes. but what really done it for me was in 66 when the wild angels came out, went and seen it at the drive in, that was it, had to have a harley, 30 plus years later i got one.

 

my uncle had a duo glide, and my father rode Indian.

 

Rode motor bikes since i was a kid and have owned all kinds so why not a harley too

 

I grew up goin for rides with my dad on his kawi, so ive always had a love for motorcycles. When i got done with school a couple years ago i landed a job where i could actually afford to buy a harley. a real good friend of mine was planning on upgrading to a new ultra and cut me a deal on his customized softail. it really hurt him to see her go, but when i go out ridin, 99% of the time its with him, so he still gets to see her!

 

To be honest, the clincher was about 200 HA's going around on both sides of our van and camper when I was an early teen. The sound of all those bikes was incredible. BTW, my dad didn't flinch, but I think his knuckles were turning reallly white.

 

sound look and the name........

 

I was attracted to the styling and the sound.

 

My older brother had a Sportster, think it was an Ironhead, AMF model he was always fixing something on it. I always dream of riding one to high school and having all the cute girls wantin rides on it. To bad i'm in my upper 50's now. LOL

 

Cher's father rode an Indian at least once.

 

I learned to ride on European and Japanese branded bikes in the very late 60's and 70's. They were what I was around 99% of the time and what I was used to. Most Harley's I saw/heard had straight pipes and were ridden by what would now be described as 1%er's and were not something I wanted to be associated with. On top of that, the first Harley I ever had the chance to ride, an early 70's model Electra Glide, was a noisy, shaking, rubber mounted wallowing POS. To say that I wasn't impressed with it is a gross understatement. I was only mildly aware of the AMF years when Harley developed it's reputation for oil leaks and unreliability.

As the years went on, and I started doing more and more distance touring, I became increasingly aware of the number of Harley's out on the road. Most of them were being ridden by folks who were obviously not 1%er's, had real mufflers on them (of varying degrees of loudness), sometimes even stock exhausts!

I finally started going on an annual ride with friends, some of whom rode Harley's. They put up with the usual reliability and oil leak jokes but over the years, we never had any issues with any of them. In fact, the first time the group was stopped by a failed bike, it was a Goldwing that was the problem, not any of the Harley's in the group!

Fast forward a few years and I'm working part time for a company who's boss, and most of the employees, ride Harley's. The boss offered to let me ride his 2005 Ultra. I almost turned him down, remembering my experience on that early 70's model EG but decided, why not, it's been 30 years, give the bike a chance. Wasn't that magnanimous of me?! Needless to say, I liked it "way" more than I ever expected to. I am now working for that company full time and bought my first Harley, an 09 Ultra Classic in February of 2009 and I am totally loving it. I've made cosmetic and functional changes only so far. That's a requirement, isn't it? I'll probably be doing a Stage 1 from FuelMoto in the next month or so. About the only disadvantage I see is just that. It's crazy the amount of money I've spent on the thing so far but you know, I'm really enjoying it. Oh well!

I've always heard that if you ride long enough, you'll eventually own a Harley. After that, you either won't be able to get rid of it fast enough, or you'll never ride anything else. At this point, I won't say I'd never ride anything else but I'm also no where near ready to get ride of it either. It really is a very fine ride!

FWIW!
Ride Safe,
Steve R.