Non-bikers may click on by.....
Read today's DT Motoring section as I always do on a Saturday and noted that Harley-Davidson UK is launching a competition to find the best customized HD. Well of course I can't enter it 'cos I don't live there, but I thought my lovely 2000 Softail would make the grade if asked, so I read the feature with interest.
Then I found out the prize was a new V-Rod! Talk about flushing 102 years of hard won heritage (pun for Hog owners) down the pan. Impossible riding position (where are the cruiser pegs to keep the knees in the breeze?), a puny engine only 1300-something cc's. designed in Germany Lord preserve us and water-cooled at that and with troublesome electronics so bad that my HD tech hates working on them.........what's more there's nothing to tear off and customize like a proper Harley...I mean it's positively un-American. I want something with a vast simple engine bored out oversize, with a proper carburetor, none of this new-fangled electronic nonsense, an air-brushed paint job, and which never goes wrong and if it ever did you could fix it by the side of the road with a Swiss Army knife, a 3lb hammer, several cans of beer and a great deal of bad language. Plus I won't get laughed at down the local pub and have my personal orientation called into question in sniggering asides.
You can put your noise and emission regulations where the sun don't shine ;+)
Worse than one of those Kawazukihonda things or whatever they're called......
For shame........
I'm going to Milwaukee to visit the factory next year and I will have strong words with Willie G. Davidson about this. I may even sell my shares in the HD Motor Co. which have actually done rather well these last years.
(Growlette says stop being grumpy and come and eat your breakfast. It's not my fault your stupid old Mustang won't start, I rode 300km with you yesterday on your blasted bike, it was 34 C, look at what it did to my skin --which being translated means give me 500 Pesos for the beauty parlour--, my bum still hurts and I'm not in the mood for you being cranky.....or words to that effect delivered in the local dialect with a face like a prune. I'd better not say why didn't she make the bacon as crispy as usual the way I like it.......discretion being the better part of valour etc).
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>> Non-bikers may click on by.....
Certainly not!
Praise or curse?
To us on four wheels, who know not a lot about Hogs or any other things on two wheels with an engine, can you clarify what the outcome was re softtail.
You appear to love em and from your last posting Growlette was suffering one.
We need to know!
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I agree about the V-Rod, a truley awful looking bike. It looks like it was copied from BMW's cruiser, the name of which escapes me but it became famous through starring in a Bond film and teenage girls the world over thought it looked "cute". Good enogh reason for not touching it with a barge pole.
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True to say that no one can build a Harley like HD themselves however they have never appealed to me. A motorcycle needs to have a high power to weight ratio, superior dynamics, razor sharp responces and give you a real buzz when you sit on it yet alone let out the clutch, otherwise might as well take the car car, hence why I have a Kawahonducasuzaprilamaha ZX7R.
Ok, the 7R is a bit radical for me nowdays, might look at an unfaired Fazer/Hornet genre bike in the future taking the weight off my ageing arms/wrists in the traffic.
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For Henry K: the HD Softail is made to look like a chopper hardtail like the old Easy Rider stuff (i.e. no rear suspension) but in fact it has stretched out front forks and a hidden horizontal rear suspension. We have a lot of concrete roads here which are somewhat bumpy and Herself's pretty little derriere does suffer a trifle, as she will tell you in a post she is even now preparing on her laptop.
For Cheddar: yes I hear what you're saying but we don't need a gazillion revs before we can do anything meaningful ;+)
Doesn't matter what you ride so long as you ride.
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For a woman, a Harley is so comfortable and feels so safe. I backride with Big Stuff (300km yesterday) and it's like an armchair. Never mind the sore bum, I love it. He bought new Metzeler tires with soft rubber and he can throw it over in the bends and I never worry even he scrapes the pegs,. I just hold his hips and remember what he taught me that the bike knows what to do so just relax. I have my own HD also, a Sportster 1200 but I'm still learning. I did the girl-rider MSF course. 3 days. But I love to ride. No bike gets in your blood like a Harley. I am very proud that I can ride with the group and I wear my club colours.
I don't like the V-Rod.
Love him or leave him anyway. :+)
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For Cheddar: yes I hear what you're saying but we don't need a gazillion revs before we can do anything meaningful ;+)
When I want to be lazy the Mondeo's torquey turbo diesel does the job, goes like stink without needing to see 3000 revs, however sometimes there is nothing like a free reving petrol engine, power building as the revs rise, close ratio box, snicking through the gears ........
>>Doesn't matter what you ride so long as you ride.
>>
So true!
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On our roads unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, given the standards of driving here!) a sportsbike can't be used to its full potential so doesn't make a lot of sense. Although we do have a number of fine racing circuits where you can find out how good you are (or aren't) on track days.
Cruisers are thus very popular here because of the immense kick you get when you wind 'em up and leave the plebs struggling behind at the lights. Also we have the weather for it of course.
Did I mention we can also out-run the cops as well? Not that I personally would of course ;+)
But that V-Rod really is an aberration. Have you noticed how the Japs are copying it now as well? Sacré nom d'un chien.....
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