This one's for Ivan!

[trbig]

Pick either side of this argument and you will find what I believe are guilty parties.

See.. and I always thought the ones that straddled the fence and didn't take a stand were the problem.. pointing at the ones on both sides calling them guilty.


Tod

[barberad]

Bob,

It may have been your cute butt in those riding pants he was so smiley and thumbs up about. He had sunglasses on, or you would have seen the wink also...

There's a lot of "Those types" there in Eureka Springs, ya know..


Tod

Tod, At least your trying to keep some humor in this post. (I shot coffee thru my nose when I read that.
All I could think of is poor Bob mistakenly walking into The Blue Oyster.

[Ivan]

Tod, At least your trying to keep some humor in this post. (I shot coffee thru my nose when I read that.
All I could think of is poor Bob mistakenly walking into The Blue Oyster.

You really need to start drinking cappuccino when reading this site, it burns less going out the schnaze.

[XJOK2PLAY]

Thanks a lot, Tod...

[Wildkat]

Bob,
I think I'd be more worried about him thinking you have a cute butt...
lol

[XJOK2PLAY]

Hey, at least somebody .... ohhh never mind....

[crazy steve]

Question: Steve, do you go on your Harley sites and extol the virtues of your XS? Are you as confrontational there as you are here? Do you jump into unthinking pissing contest with that group?

My thought. This is an XS site. Look up and see, is it just me or does it say XS11.com, or harleyhardhead.com? If you can't respect the intent of this site, my thought is that you should carry your ass on outta here. Jumping ugly with a respected member of this forum is counter-productive to what we try and do here.

My personal feeling is that no matter how many xs's you have owned or for how long, you are no one I would care to ride with.

Sigh...........................

Do I smell a double standard? First, yeah, I have talked about my XS over on the Sporty site. While I may be the only member there that still owns one, many still remember them and there's at least a few former owners over there. The XS11 is very much fondly thought of by these guys, and there's quite a few multi-make owners. Interestly enough, Yamaha is very well represented as the 'other' bike, with late Triumphs and Ducatis probably being the next-most popular makes. So brand-bashing is almost never seen there (and unlike here, discouraged I will note), and certainly isn't the blood-sport it seems to be here. A member will take more heat for buying a 'big' Harley (AKA going to the dark side...) than for getting a 'other' make.

Second, yep, it says XS11.com, but if you'll notice, I posted this in the 'Other Bike Discussion' forum, as in 'other than XS/XJ bikes' so I seem to be in the right place. Nowhere have I read 'No Harley Defenders Allowed'. It also seems I remember a loud discussion a few months ago about everybody's right to freely speak their mind about whatever; that led to the creation of the 'Hot Button' forum for the noisy non-bike subjects. So unless thought control is being proposed, I should have the same rights as any other member to express my views. Or are a 'respected member's' views to be imposed on the rest of us with no questioning allowed?

'78E original owner

[ruffrider]

My 2 cents worth. I ride with and work with alot of Harley riders. And I gotta say that though I've gotten some peer pressure to buy Harley, when I ride either My 75 Wing or the XS1100 I get only respect for the work I've done on them. A couple of the guys even had new XS's back in the day and were very reminiscent of riding the 11. Actually, the vintage bikes get more attention than the Harley's because of their rarity,(and that chaps their hides) while you see Harleys everywhere. Almost all the Harley guys I know are great. But then again, most are my pals anyway. The bottom line is that we all love to ride and it's not what you ride but that you do! We're motorcycle enthusiasts after all.

[Montreux_Blue]

if someone starts a statement/thread with a slam,

[Dragon Tamer]

Well,
I wasn't going to put my oar in this lake but my self control has slipped a cog and so I will. I don't like Harleys all that much and that from a man that has owned more than a couple of them. I don't like them but I don't spend a lot of time bashing them either. I got rid of my last one quite a few years ago because everything on the bike had fallen off except me and I figured that I was about next so I sold it. One point in its favor, they are easy to sell.
I ride the XS's because I like them and up until a few weeks ago I could not really put in words why. Then I heard why and from a Harley rider no less. MindWebs and I on our XS's along with a few friends were touring around and had stopped an eating/drinking establishment in South West WI that caters to bikes (any bikes), there were about 100 different bikes in the parking lot of almost any brand or type you could think of. Webs and my XS's were parked next to each other and I had gone back out to the bike to get something out of the saddle bag when a small group of Harleys pulled in, as they were walking to the bar a young man said to his father "look at them two old pieces of junk". The older gentleman turned to his son and told him "those are the original bad boys of the bike world and at around 30 years of age either one of them will out ride, out run, and out handle any Harley made including your new V-rod so don't ever bash them"!

'Nuff Said.

[Bigfoot]

It is the attitude of the younger gentleman in your story that drives most of us nuts. I have some friends that ride Harleys. They are good guys and for the most part we enjoy teasing each other about our choice of bikes. They know exactly what they have and the capabilities of their bikes. They chose to buy into the Harley image. They will all say they think the Harley's look better, but none will say that they are actually better all around bikes.

I do not think that Harley's are bad bikes. Properly maintained, they actually seem to be pretty reliable. Ask Brent how many miles he has racked up on his and it is still going strong. I am sure they have some issues, but so did the XS. How many of us have had to tear into the tranny for 1st or 2nd gear problems? Or wiring issues? Or pickup coils?

I have seen (don't remember who) a member here posting pics of his brand new Harley. Yeah he caught some flack but it was all good natured. Brent caught some good natured ribbing last week when he came to the rally on his HOG, but we would all gladly have him show up again on it. He could ride almost all of us into the ground on that thing as far as time in the saddle and distance.

So, the real issue here isn't that you have a Harley, or that you modified it yourself. The issue is the attitude that went along with the post. It was very confrontational which is why people responded the way they did. If your attitude would have been more of, "hey, look what I am building" or such, I think you would have gotten a lot more positive response from everyone.