Brad, I know you love hatin' on the Harleys, and the Harley riders, as you perceive them. I guess you know different Harley riders than I do.
Yeah, I've been to the local Hooters bike nights with the Harley foot-draggers, whose only ride is to the occasional bike night. They put maybe 1,200 miles a year on their full blown touring bike, but have never ridden far enough away from home to sleep in a Hampton Motor Inn. They bash on Jap crap and will brag that they've never owned anything but a Harley. Yep...posers and polishers.
I know a different kind of rider. Most of them have ridden all their lives. Most of them rode a number of different bikes before they bought their first Harley. That's where they settled in, finally finding the perfect motorcycle. You never hear them trash talking the Jap bikes. Rather, they will reminisce about the Jap bikes they owned before they bought a Harley. Some of them still have a Jap bike or two in the garage that they ride when the mood strikes them.
A couple years ago, I met up with a forum group of Harley riders, called The Road King Riders. They weren't all on Road Kings. They weren't even all on Harleys. I was the only one on a vintage Jap bike. I was given a rock star reception when I arrived in Utah, 2,500 miles from home on a 30 year old Suzuki 450. I wasn't the only one who had ridden over a thousand miles to get there, either. There were 60 bikes in the group altogether, and about 70 people. We spent a week riding the fine roads of Utah, visiting Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon North Rim. Yeah, these people are not the polishers and the posers that you are so fond of making fun of, and there certainly are plenty of them out there. However, there is a strong contingent real riders out there who put more miles on their Harleys every year than you probably have ridden in your whole life. A lot of them are past middle age, that is true. Not because they didn't ride, or at least want a Harley when they were younger. Now they can afford it, and are either retired or have enough vacation time that they can go on month long motorcycle trips. These are the guys that you don't notice, because they are not trying to be noticed. They just ride, and they ride one of the most reliable machines that you can hit the road on. If they do break down, there is a Harley dealer nearby that will tow their bike in, and have them back on the road in 24 hours. Try that on a Yamaha. Fry a stator on a road trip, and you are often looking at three weeks just to get the part. May as well rent a truck to get your bike home, because your vacation is over. That is, after you have paid for a 100 mile tow to the nearest dealer, who will look at your bike as soon as he can in the next week or so.
