Harley Bashing. What's it all about?

[Daniii]

Originally Posted by OldRoadToad

Live! From the Jackson, Mississippi International Airport...

Greetings! I just happen to loathe fake Harleys. I despise the faux coolness of them and the copy cat mentality, marketing and owner's clubs. As I said, those with out a salable history of their own are doomed to steal anothers.

I used to try and like just about any bike and I can get along with most any one, but there was a day when I owned my RK-C and I had the misfortune of stopping for a refreshing Double Gulp at a local 7-ll and parked next to a couple of (for lack of a better term) "Limbo's Minions", aka, Star owners.

Sans any provocation by me, they began to belittle my ToadKing and wax euphoric about their fantastic "metric cruisers". It was at that very moment I had an ephiphany, a vision if you will and in it "The Highwayman" spoke the words...

Nope. No visions, no ephiphany, no enlightening words, no nothing at all. Just the sound of two little middle aged mentally pre-pubescent boys concerned more with the size of their motors when compared to mine. The cost of their faux hog in comparison to mine and of course how no one could tell their bikes were not Harleys and how they howled with "gleeeeeee" (!) at that one because they were "always being asked how they liked their HDs".

Did I beat them up? Nope.

Did I toss their bikes on their sides. Toss, not push. Nope.

The last thing I recall is that I laughed at them and left. Laughed. Not a forced laugh, but a genuine one.

It is rare that I have met a Starley rider that is civil about their mount and by that I mean with out failure they must explain their choice over a Harley. Talk about insecure. I do not even have to ask why, they just spill their guts as if they were in dress rehearsal for "Oprah" or "Dr. Phil". Feh!

In contrast a Harley owner need not explain a thing. The bike is what it is, a genuine Harley-Davidson. Not a cheap, taste less, fake pretending to be some thing it is not. With a Harley, you are not pretending to be going any where other than where you all ready are.

I see more HDs on tour than any other marque. Second place belongs to Goldwings. Like HDs, the Goldwing is an original. If Harley were to make a total knock off of the GL, I would lambast them just as much as I do the wussy "metricsexual cruisers" that pretend to be a Harley.

I have standards that are perhaps higher. If others think differently, so be it. I do not have to like your choice in ride and you do not have to like mine. I think my Wing is a two wheeled car, but I could care less about what others think of it.

I do not like fake Harleys. I despise them and can not fathom why any one would buy one when the real thing is readily available. I find it at once both amusing and puzzling.

By the way... I am a friend of The Highwayman. I have known him for many years and admire his ability to write. I am not him, and any mod here can tell you that truth via the IP. His writing is art.

That it upsets some is comedy.

The Toad

Quoted for posterity. And because again the Toad is on the money.

[Putts]

Well, dear Toad, I think you're in error and reverse Harley bashing,
but to err is human, and to forgive divine. And I'll just add my meager forgiveness
to that which you already know you have in abundance,
and hope that when we meet down the road I'll riding my R80G/S ...
a bike that lacks genuineness of it's own kind in no way.


Good to hear your human side, mate, and I mean that with love.

[CPTBLY]

Damn, I love checking this thread every now and then. I learn so much here...when I am not riding anyway. Just wish I wasn't always being told I don't ride a "real Harley"...both by the Big Twin Riders and the BMW riders (though they laugh and say "it can't be a real Harley 'cause you ride it in the rain and it doesn't melt").


Interesting point, one of my earliest bikes was a Virago 1100, back when I got home from Desert Storm. That bike started my desire to one day own a Harley. I ended up with an XT-600 and a Seca II in the interim...but I knew I would have one someday. Now my Sportster is my new favorite bike.

[metlcutr55]

Originally Posted by Putts

I'll riding my R80G/S ...
a bike that lacks genuineness of it's own kind in no way.

no sweat bro. a solid set of well engineered uber wheels, none of that yellow cheap cuntidness. authentic and plenty of character. ride on! its not what you ride , its that you ride! its all the same wind!

.

[HillbillyNinja]

Originally Posted by CPTBLY

Interesting point, one of my earliest bikes was a Virago 1100, back when I got home from Desert Storm. That bike started my desire to one day own a Harley. I ended up with an XT-600 and a Seca II in the interim...but I knew I would have one someday. Now my Sportster is my new favorite bike.

Thank you for your service. You can ride a POO POO for all I care. You earned it.