Harleys

[fredintoon]

And howdya know that?

"Oh and the other day some lesbian kept pulling up next to me at the light on a Hurley, I had to take off and leave her at the intersection! Tell him Hurleys are a dyke bike! I taught a lesbian at work how to ride on a Buell Blast once."
Hi Blue,
now I'd suppose that a lady's choice of bike depended a lot more on how tall she was rather than on her gender preference.
And while you may have known about your co-worker's sexual orientation (put the moves on her, didya?) how could you tell about a street-met stranger?
One is reminded of the four Winnipeg gay-bashers who chose to pick on this slim young lad because he "looked gay". When he explained that his sexual preference was no concern of theirs (married with 2 kids, if you care) but that he was the Western Canadian Karate champion, they really should have believed him.

[Montreux_Blue]

Re: And howdya know that?

I asked her at the light! J/K, she was my height, had the spiked flat top and looked really rough with her Spectrum-MRC shirt. And the one at work worked with me everyday for over a year and a half. I got so much crap from the guys, but I don't care. I stuck up for her for ALL the time, rode bikes with her too! Her girlfriend was real jealous of me. The first time we rode together, the next day her girlfriend bought a bike! She never rode a day in her life!
Maybe I'm the local Taekwondo champion, you never know!

[GNEPIG]

Quote:
Don't get me wrong, I love my HD's, I have owned two of them for many years. But The butt hole down the street is always revving his motor and blasting down the street like an as$ thinking he is bad with a bad back fire,, either an exhaust or intake leak. I've been wanting to talk to him about his attempts to make his Harely go faster.


Or you could grab a six-pack, take a walk over to his house and introduce yourself. After you get past the initial "I'm a tough guy biker" first impression thing, he Might be a nice guy.
Then you might have some suggestions for him about how to adjust/repair his bike. You know, suggestions like how a set of baffles would help to cure that low end lean condition and restore some power back to the lower revs. And the baffles would make the bike easier to tune = less reversion effect, stuff like that.

Note
Baffles in drag pipes are not quiet, but they are quieter than drags with no baffs.
Good luck Man!

[ChuckB]

Harleys

I live in an area with a lot of harley riders,and mostly Harly "parkers" If I had to make one generalization about Harley riders,that would be ,they like to be noticed.They want you to look at them in traffic,not for them in traffic.They all wear the black leather,the concho studs,the black "dealer" T-shirts,and talk.
And talk,and talk,and talk.
We have a bar at the end of the block that My wife and I call the "wanna-be" Harley bar. They have one of the best bar burgers in the Detroit area,so we walk there about once or twice a month.The conversations that the "bikers" get into make us laugh our ass off.
They talk about trailering their bike here and there for shows and what not,but they really never ride them,even once they get there.
I'm not a "biker",I'm a motorcyclist,and a gentleman.I'd ratherbe riding that reading,or talking about riding.

[DenyP]

Guess I am getting old. I can relate to most folks who ride a bike, any bike. I am not impressed by a lot of unworn leather, guys who ride w/o helmets, or tough guys.

Were someone to point out to the guy the little kids on the block, he will most likely back off and slow it down. If not, you might as well shoot him.

Just my opinion LOL

Deny

[Yamanatic]

In my 45 years of riding, I have found there are basically 2 schools: Motorcyclists, and Harley riders. HDers don't own a "motorcycle," it's a Harley, and ne're the 2 shall meet. They all go 150MPH, and if you don't have one, you aint $#!+, and are not worth the effort to smoke off in a riding exibition.

For the majority of Harley owners, the name & not the bike really matters; it is just butt-bling coupled with delusions of grandeur. There are a few true HD "bikers," but if you put them them in a crowd of Harleyists (even if all they own is a sticker in the window of their pick-up), anything that does not say HD just becomes an outhouse on wheels. Don't bother arguing, or approaching them on what is good or BAD; their vocabulary does not allow debate.

The last year I went to the Sturgis Rally, (1975), my brother, girlfriend, and I stayed in the park as usual, armed for the first time with Japanese dirt bikes (well, I'd ridden every paved road within 200 miles on my various street bikes including a BMW, Aermacchi, and an unsufferable BSA in years past). We picked up a BLM map, and saw some of the most fantastic scenery imaginable; I highly recommend the almost impassable excursion to the deserted mining town of Tinton! Anyway, after a full day of joy and happiness riding our 'motorcycles,' we managed to get back to Sturgis in one piece for din-din and to rest...

Well, a group of Harley riders camped across from us decided to impose their opinions. Mind you, I had just turned 21, my GF was 20, and my Brother was 16, all riding 250 Yamaha enduros - a pretty intimidating bunch of hoodlums huh? Well, we were just sitting around our loaf of bread and jar of warm peanut butter trying to scrape off enough dust and dirt to make a meal of it, when several of the HD guys happened to walk over. I doubt that between the 3 of us we weighed as much as one of our multiple visitors, nor were we anywhere near as well armed with chains, tattoos, and god only knows what they were holding onto under their colors.

Well, they proceded to surround us to prevent our escape, and in no uncertain terms (or language), expressed their distaste for us and our choice of machinery, and what horrors they were going to rain on our parade with. At this point we were a little dumfounded to be treated that way by other cyclists, and plenty scared that we were going to be visiting the hospital in a meat wagon. I tried briefly to explain that we were Sturgis vetrans (this was my 10th year there, as I was introduced to the Sturgis rally on the back of my dad's scooter back in '66), but I may as well been singing "Good Ship Lollypop."

To save our a$$es, we agreed to take our crap and get out ASAP; wow, motorcyclists thrown out of the park in Sturgis during bike week by motorcyclists just because of our brand of motorcycles! Sheesh. Well, at least they didn't make sacrifices of us or our scooters (I think they were afraid to touch anything or anyone that didn't say Harley) as we loaded up and made tracks as fast as we could. I have come to learn that this is not an isolated imposition HD people are prone to, and to expect acceptance outside the brotherhood is futile; oh, and I have not been back to Sturgis since.

Now my only comment to the obnoxious, loud, self appointed HD bike-gods as they once again choose to freely expound on my choice of scooter (without provocation other than my being there) as the painful racket gets my ears to ringing is: "Sorry, it's all I can afford, and I have really sensitive ears anyway." Then I walk or ride away as I already know the response. Next time your neighbor rides by, make it obvious with fingers in your ears and an expression you might make if someone fingernails a blackboard that his racket is just that, and accept the fact that you will never matter to him unil you buy at least a Winged Sticker.

I know that I am preaching to the choir, but In my book I care not what you ride or how you dress; just that you enjoy riding. When I am out on my cycle, I wave at EVERY 2 wheeler regardless of what it says on the tank - guess who usually does not wave back? I now understand that any comments on my part, positive or negative, reinforce the stereotype and sadly things are not likely to change.

[DenyP]

I expiranced the outlaw hard ass types when I was stationed in California in the early 70's. I share your feelings towards these guys and their wanabe's.

Prisons are full of this type of people!

Deny

[Paintman]

Other Bikers

Well its is less than 2 weeks till Sturgis starts here again the million Dollar busses and trailers are already showing up. while most of these folks wouldnt give me the time of day i had a very nice experiance with a guy in his 70's both he and his wife still ride they have a pair of Harleys but the best part was when he scrambled across the truck stop to look at my 1100. e talked for pover and hr and he bought me lunch then he opend his trailer and he had a pair of 850 Norton Commandos. and a 78E with 84 K on teh closk he said i ride teh harley but dont like the people then we take out the old bikes and give them some schooling.
Now remeber this guy is 74 and his wife is 68 LOL we went for a ride in the hills and all i can say is i hope im still that good at that age>nothing like the sound of classic bikes in the hills. So just to say that for every 50 idiots i meet one like this comes along and makes my day.

and like has been said we are all riders dont matetr what you drive its all bout who you are.

John

[Korr]

please don't get a 250 ninja. I rode my cousins and it has no torque.I was actually embarrased at stop lights.it would make all this noise and barely go anywhere. A kid on a bicycle will be at the next light before you hit 30mph lol! The 250 ninjas engine is a consumable item and is not meant to last. Get the 500 or the 650R. The 650R has upright handlebars and it feels really good to me at 5'4".

[mstic2000]

I live between two bars and at 2:30 in da morning when I'm awaken by the ear shattering roar of those bikes........well you can guess the thoughts that are going thru my mind. I was young once but I never had a prob with my ego. My XJ is nice and quite and would run circles around any of em. And looks just as good too!!!!