I've often wondered where the line was drawn between 'what is' vs. 'what isn't' a Bagger. In a recent Hot Bike -Baggers Buyers Guide Editor Courtney Hallowel, asked his staff to create a definition for 'Bagger'. According to the magazine, a Bagger is (quote): "a bike that meets the criteria of being a cruiser, but comes with hard bags, not leather, and a windshield." Continuing...."Yes, the Dyna Defender fit that profile, but so does the Harley Road King"

So now I'm really confused..according to Mr. Hallowell, the RK Standard w/hard bags is a Bagger; but the leather bagged - RK Classic and RK Custom are not!? If the bike comes from any (yes, according to Hallowell, even metrics) factory w/hard bags + windshield it is a Bagger, but, if you aftermarket hard bags and a windshield it is not?!?

Hmmmm........?

 

He wants to sell more magazines and he has to defend his target market I think.

 

According to him, I'm not part of his market. I have leather bags.

 

It's a "subjective" answer to that question. I myself agree that it must be a "cruiser" and it must obviously have "bags" but hard or soft, it doesn't matter. Now I've seen Sportys with bags mounted and I don't consider them to be "baggers". Windshield is optional in my opinion...

 

I've always figured a "bagger" to be a touring bike where luggage was part of the actual design of the bike - as opposed to tossing some bags on later.

I mean, look at how goofy our (any HD Touring model) bikes look when you take the bags off...

 

I agree with the 'designed that way' definition.


And....... I replied so that the two best lookin baggers could be in the same thread.

 

+1 on that.

 

Whew, I'm glad I switched to hard bags on my RKC...... I wouldn't have wanted to be left owning a non-bagger

Those magazines are just drawing attention to themselves, and they do it well. As far as I'm concerned any bike called a "touring" bike is a "bagger".

Whiskers, are you stirring up a debate

Why do you care anyways, what anyone thinks? We ride the "KING" !

I still love that bike of yours, very nostalgic.

 

bager, geezer glide, car on 2 whels, why bother you can stay home on your couch,
hao much stuff do you need, what!!!! a radio?, remember when baggers were called police specials?

just kidding.

simple if it has factory bags & is a touring model it is known to us real bikers as a bagger.

a RK is not realy a bagger, it may be to people who cant tell the difference.

 

I dunno... Going with my "designed that way" theory, when I took the bags off my old RK, it looked - Well, kind of like a Fat Boy with braces.