Test rode a Harley today

[Bear]

I don't get it. The Low Rider is the one that handles really well according to the dealer. I had to wrestle the thing through corners and was exhausted after a one hour ride. Must be that at 230 lbs I don't have enough grunt to master the beast. We had people complain about the NT vibrating! Heck, after an hour on that bike, I had a total body massage. The whole thing vibrates. Think that I'll stick to what I have.

 

[Macka]

I have always thought that vibration was one of the attractions of a Harley.
I have never ridden one but a few years ago I "accidentally" joined a "club" that turned out to be a wanna-be 1%er gang.
I was on my NT and almost everyone else had a Harley.
There were actually a couple of great guys and girls in the club but the average IQ was pretty low by my judgement.
One guy had spent about AU$30K on a new bike (I don't remember the model) and then spent that much again "personalising" it.
The custom paint job was $6000. Almost nothing on the bike was original and it was only 3 years old.
I left because there were some real idiots there who were rejects from the Hell's Angels and the Comancheros.
Our chapter was relatively small and as I was one of the oldest members I was given the position of Senior Officer.
I still have the vest, shirt and cap as mementos of my "bad boy period" (on my Honda remember).
I only stayed a member for about a year and a half and then used my health problems as an excuse to "retire" from the club.
One thing that I did learn from them was formation riding. They were very big on that. It was all about the show.
Thanks to that lesson, I am now very comfortable riding very close to other riders, provided I know their ability.

Macka

 

[JimTid]

I went through a Harley phase, but I got over it. There was a lot of dressing up in Harley clothes and hanging out and not a lot of riding. Harley is a master of marketing. The devoted are willing to tattoo the brand on their body. You don't see many Honda tattoo's.

 

[suvcw04]

I have always thought that vibration was one of the attractions of a Harley.
I have never ridden one but a few years ago I "accidentally" joined a "club" that turned out to be a wanna-be 1%er gang.
I was on my NT and almost everyone else had a Harley.
There were actually a couple of great guys and girls in the club but the average IQ was pretty low by my judgement.
One guy had spent about AU$30K on a new bike (I don't remember the model) and then spent that much again "personalising" it.
The custom paint job was $6000. Almost nothing on the bike was original and it was only 3 years old.
I left because there were some real idiots there who were rejects from the Hell's Angels and the Comancheros.
Our chapter was relatively small and as I was one of the oldest members I was given the position of Senior Officer.
I still have the vest, shirt and cap as mementos of my "bad boy period" (on my Honda remember).
I only stayed a member for about a year and a half and then used my health problems as an excuse to "retire" from the club.
One thing that I did learn from them was formation riding. They were very big on that. It was all about the show.
Thanks to that lesson, I am now very comfortable riding very close to other riders, provided I know their ability.

Macka

Like a Mustang or Camaro with a six cylinder engine. ALL SHOW, NO GO.

 

[coaster]

I noticed that the ride was one hour.

 

[Phil Tarman]

I have only had one ride on a Harley. It was before I started riding and it was all of a mile, from my house in Ft Morgan to the church. I have no idea what model of FXLHGRQOYT it was, but I remember that my kidneys hurt by the time I got off the back.

When I did start riding, there was a group from Ft Morgan that did a dinner ride once a month and I was invited to join them. I did and we usually rode 40-60 miles one-way to eat and then rode home. They never went over about 50 on two-lanes or 60 on the interstate. Plus there were enough of us that given the formation we rode in, it was nearly impossible for people to pass us on two-lanes. I finally gave it up as something I didn't enjoy, even though they were mostly good company.

 

[harryhendo]

One of the main things I don't like about a Harley are the exhaust fumes. In one of my motorcycle Meetup clubs, a lot of the guys ride Harleys, and I try to stay ahead of them in the pack, because when you are behind, you are breathing acrid exhaust the whole ride, especially when the engine is lugging off of a start. 'Merican machines don't need no pollution controls! Gagging...

 

[suvcw04]

HD. Selling 1920 technology at 2120 prices. But not for long.

 

[suvcw04]

Rats. I'm gonna get censored. Again.

 

[Phil Tarman]

Nah... You can bash Harleys -- at least with one-liners like that. And -- at least as far as I'm concerned, that was simply an objective review.

 

[Warren]

I had my hand slapped awhile back for referring to Harley's as "Full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing." I guess it was not clear if i was referring to the motorcycle or the riders.

 

[DirtFlier]

During H-D's 100th anniversary in 2003, a good pal often quipped "100 years of turning gasoline into noise."

At least to me, the HOG rides are often done in what I call parade formation, with bikes side by side which is always a dangerous situation. And having all bikes in one large group only causes anger and sometimes even road rage by car/truck drivers.

 

[ARKNT]

The noise on modified Harleys is not for me. I was around Sturgis in 2001 in a car at rally time. The roads there are nice but when you meet 100's (1000's) of loud bikes on the 2 lane roads it is too much. It was a relief to get away from the noise when we left the area.

Brad

 

[Phil Tarman]

Back in the early 'oughts, I was still riding a bicycle a lot. One day I'd ridden 26 miles north of Ft Morgan to New Raymer for lunch. By the time I got back to FM, it was up to 102F. I'd run out of water about 8 miles north of town and when I got back Dairy Queen lured me into its AC and one of its great big frozen drinks. While I was sitting there, five guys on HDs pulled in. Their bikes were all top level and as I looked at them, I realized that they had extra "touches" that cost mucho' big bucks. I went out looked. Screws, bolts, and nuts were gold! I was looking when one of the guys came out to get something and we talked for a bit. They were all MDs (except for one orthodontist) from San Diego and they were on their way to Sturgis. All of their bikes had cost between $40-50K. I don't know if they rode much except for their annual run to Sturgis, but they were riding on their way. They'd left Durango at 8AM and it was 4:30PM -- that's 414 miles by the shortest route and Google Maps says that's 7 hrs and 9 minutes. They were going to ride on up to Gering, NE, before stopping for the night.

That same week, I was going somewhere on my C10 Concours and got to talking with a guy on an older HD. He hadn't been to Sturgis, but was on his way home to South Texas ... from Prudhoe Bay. He had 145K in his old Harley. There are some riders in the group.

 

[NewTo700V]

At least to me, the HOG rides are often done in what I call parade formation, with bikes side by side which is always a dangerous situation. And having all bikes in one large group only causes anger and sometimes even road rage by car/truck drivers.

A few weekends ago I was behind one of these formations on a single lane road. The highway ended at a stop sign at a T intersection, had to turn left or right. Two of the riders at the front proceeded through the stop one going left, the other right a few yards. They put their bikes horizontal in the oncoming lanes blocking traffic like they were cops for a funeral procession. The whole herd then proceeded through the stop to turn left without stopping individually.

I just chuckled, thinking the brand is dying so acting like a funeral procession made some sense. In a few years they'll give up riding due to age. Maybe they'll charter a tour bus somewhere so they can all turn at a stop sign together again.

 

[DirtFlier]

"...Maybe they'll charter a tour bus somewhere so they can all turn at a stop sign together again."

Those tour buses/sans mufflers will be lowered to the ground, rumble through town, in side by side formation, and rev their engines at each stop. In most states, blocking traffic to let your group of motorcycles go first is illegal without a "parade permit" and it generally angers car drivers. Why do such people think they have the right-of-way?

 

[Warren]

There are a couple of Harley owners were I work and and a couple of past Harley owners. The past owners sold them after a couple of years because they seldom rode them and moved on to other hobbies like golf and fishing. They bought them due to the cool factor but neither had had motorcycles before. The two that still have them ride to work on occasion when the weather is nice. All are in their early 50’s. One is new to the sport and the other started out riding dirt bikes when he was a kid. None of them get why I ride to work in the rain and in the winter when it’s 12 degrees. They are all nice guys and one of them wears the same type of gear that would look normal for someone on a sport touring bike. You can find really nice people riding Harley’s and real jerks on other brands so I try not to judge.

 

[NewTo700V]

"...Maybe they'll charter a tour bus somewhere so they can all turn at a stop sign together again."

Those tour buses/sans mufflers will be lowered to the ground, rumble through town, in side by side formation, and rev their engines at each stop. In most states, blocking traffic to let your group of motorcycles go first is illegal without a "parade permit" and it generally angers car drivers. Why do such people think they have the right-of-way?

Guarantee they'd be the first ones to complain on Monday when they remove the pirate garb and jump in the F-150 for work and see "crotch-rockets" riding fast. "What, they think they own the road?!"

 

[suvcw04]

During H-D's 100th anniversary in 2003, a good pal often quipped "100 years of turning gasoline into noise."

At least to me, the HOG rides are often done in what I call parade formation, with bikes side by side which is always a dangerous situation. And having all bikes in one large group only causes anger and sometimes even road rage by car/truck drivers.

The rest of the statement is "While totally bypassing the production of horsepower."

 

[harryhendo]

"100 years of turning gasoline into noise".... I recall crossing Wyoming with a steady tailwind, and stopping for coffee where I met a bunch of Harley riders who were going the other way and pushing against that same wind as a headwind. They were stopping every 60 miles for gas, saying that they were averaging around 18 mpg! I was getting 72 mpg on my Honda CB500X (and stopping every 300 miles).