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In the 1960s I built a model of what I think is an FLH Police version.
Don't recall if building the model was cause or effect, but after that, I know I wanted a bike. When I did get into riding, years later, I rode more sporting bikes (CBR, VFR, Ninja). Several years ago, I bought Harley stock, and when a space became available in my garage, I figured I should finally buy one. So I did. That's how I came to own not just a piece of the company, but one of their bikes.
My older brother, 13 yrs older than me, was a Hells Angel back in the early 60's. He lived down a couple of block from us. He ran a shop out of his garage and I loved hanging out there. Grew up around the bikes
I've always like the sound, even as a kid but they were usually all cop bikes. There weren't that many Harley's back then or it didn't seem like it. But the bikes I was around then were my cousins...Indians and BSA but no Harleys.
Then in HS, an article in Post (I think) Magazine came out about the Hells Angels and a few pictures of their bikes. I knew I wanted one. When I went to Nam, I sent off for chopper catalogs and started saving my money to get a bike when I got out of the Marines. And I did.
It cost me $700 and was a '51 panhead with a jockey shift. I didn't have a license, couldn't work a jockey shift and I'd never ridden a bike before anyway. But I knew what I wanted to do to it and I did all that to it too.
In the late 60s I was living in San Diego, I was about 8 or 9 years old and I remember seeing these loud, bitchen looking choppers around town. That in-your-face attitude that these bikes had was intoxicating! It left a mark. Moved to a High School in Corpus Christie Texas where muscle cars and trucks were the ****! Moved again (Pops was in the Navy)
Started college in Pensacola, FL. Made friends with several guys that had bikes, all metric stuff - man did I ever want to join them - it was so cool.
Ran out of money and joined the Air Force. Went to Minot ND. For as short as the riding season was there, there were a lot of guys with bikes (and a bunch of 3 wheelers too) but only one Harley - and brother did you know it when it was kicked into life. Guy that had it got a Big Chicken Dinner for blowing the golden flow test after smoking some weed.
Got married to a gal I had met in Pensacola.
New assignments all over the planet and added 4 kids to the mix. Bought two Mustangs over the years and ended up selling them after I was ordered to move somewhere else. Retired in 2005 in the Albuquerque metro area. Bought my muscle car - the green Dart, Swinger, 340 - 4 speed. Slow paced restro...
12 years later and back to working for Uncle Sam & I'm sitting at my desk with the radio on. One commercial kept getting played. Buy a bike at Thunderbird HD... blah blah blah. Well for the first time in my 55 years I was influenced by a commercial. I bought my first bike - long after seeing friends on them, neighbors riding them... It took a while, but I finally hooked up that 8 year old kid in San Diego.
Last edited by Green Dart; Sep 6, 2017 at 09:41 AM.
my grandfather and uncles rode as well as my cousins so i was hooked at a very young age. mini bikes and then got my first real motorcycle at age 12. could hardly touch the ground but rode the **** put of it. gone every weekend with a friend camping out, snow, rain and the cold, we didn't care. can't believe my parents let me do it. times were different back then i guess. got a harley as soon as i had enough cash.
My uncle rode and when I went to see him from time to time, he would take me out and let me sit on his Harley. It might sound odd/strange but I feel that wanting to ride a motorcycle was in my blood. While I was growing up, every chance that I got I went and looked at motorcycles, foreign and domestic. Sometimes my dad would take me downtown to the Harley dealership and I'd check them all out. I even remember sitting on a few Triumphs. When I first started riding 37 years ago, I just jumped on a motorcycle and started riding, it just felt like it came natural for me to ride.
I've always dreamed of owning a Harley since being a kid, the idea of a ratty chopper with big apes was always what i envisioned.
Nobody really got me into it or influenced it (that i can recall)
Never imagined owning one during most of my adulthood, always associating them with being unaffordable (especially in the UK!), so it remained a distant dream.
One day i decided to just wander around the dealership... even if only to fool myself that i could walk out with one. I fell in love with the darked out custom look of the Iron 883, seemed like the most realistic start even if still unaffordable for me.
Sat down with the dealer, for whatever reason i completely lied on the finance application, totally bullshitted the numbers, i was only working as a part-time doorman, so income was very inconsistent.
By some miracle i was accepted for finance (what the ****!) and a couple weeks passed and i had a brand new, just built harley on my doorstep. The excitement and rush of owning it gave me a newfound lease of life, it somehow changed me. Could say it pushed me to get more work so that i could afford the damn monthlys!
Since then i've owned a couple harleys, going from strength to strength, lifes been good ever since
My dad had a 48 after he got out of the army (lotsa stories).
When I was a kid I grew up on a farm and had horses, but the kids down the road had tote gotes.
My folks could not keep me off motorized bikes of one type or another.
Finlay they gave in and we bought a Harley 90.
Kinda like this one: https://www.google.com/search?biw=14...22gR_9IC9FqsM:
1961. I was 4 years old when my mom met my stepdad. He had a Panhead and I still remember the day he put me on the seat in front of him and rode me around Jonesboro, AR. He married my mom and we eventually moved to Michigan. When I was 11 years old we got into dirt bikes and camping. I started riding on the street at 18 years olds and never stopped. I'm now on my 14th street bike and my first HD. I've ridden a lot of models over the years that belonged to friends or was a test ride. I actually wanted a VRod Muscle, but when I found my Rocker I was instantly smitten and bought it on the spot. No regrets!
The first bike I ever got a ride on. This is my mom and stepdad on his Pan.
Last edited by Sarah93003; Sep 9, 2017 at 11:33 PM.
7 Surprising Harley-Davidson Products that Are Not Motorcycles
Slideshow: The bar-and-shield logo shows up on far more than motorcycles, some of the company's most unexpected products have nothing to do with riding.
Slideshow: From the troubled AMF years to modern misfires, these bikes earned reputations for reliability issues, questionable engineering, or disappointing performance.
Crazy Bunderbike Build Looks Amazing, But Is It Impossible to Ride?
Slideshow: The Swiss custom shop has taken a Harley Softail and stretched it into something so long and low that it looks closer to a rolling sculpture than a conventional motorcycle.
Engraved Rebellion: Inside Bundnerbike's Glam Rock II
Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.
Slideshow: Harley-Davidson's challenges aren't abstract; they show up in dropping shipments, shrinking dealer traffic, and strategic decisions that aren't yet translating into growth.
