my friend just got an 883 sportster...its pretty cool. Alot nice than i thought, but has no power

Was looking at bikes a while ago. Pull into the HD dealer on my Duc and look at a 1200 sportster. Have all my gear on. Ask about test drives "we don't do test drives". I guess the product is soo good, you don't even need to try it.

Then went to the BMW dealership: "Have a good ride, bring it back when you feel like it"

Legion,
You're right.

Coincidentally,
last night I caught the end of an investigation into a fatal bike crash, showing on TV.
The investigating cop (a bike rider himself), was trying to figure out how the guy droped the bike at only 30 mph on a gentle curve.
Turns out the guy had polished the entire tread of the tire.
The scull fracture (I think it was the actual case of death), was his "show only" helmet allowing his head to hit the signal switch....

I think that they are afraid you'll drop it. BMW also offered me a test drive. Ink was still wet on my M class licence. I put down my $1000 deposit and attempted to take a out bike. A big one. I stalled it three times in the parking lot, and almost dropped it. They wouldn't let me out. At the time, it hurt my man-pride. In retrospect, I'm actually glad I didn't go out.

I'm now working my way up to riding over there (it's all interstate) to prove to them I can do it. :D

On another note, I don't see how people can ride with just sunglasses on. At 30 mph, I have to close my facesheild, the wind dries out my eyeballs even with glasses on.

yaaawwwwwnnnn.

Another anti-harley thread.

If you dont like em, don't buy em. End of story. Also, who gives a sheat about what other people are doing.

It's pretty dealer-specific as to whether you get a test ride, regardless of make. My local H-D stealership lets licensed riders go on test rides. My local BMW dealer only has bikes on the floor that have already been sold. They are all ordered sight-unseen but, if you sign up on their list and leave a deposit, they will call you when a similar model to the one you are interested in arrives. If you arrange to meet its new owner when he picks it up, you may even get to sit on it. Their bikes are so damn good they don't even have to stock them; they expect people to buy based on catalog specs and reputation. That's a lot of money to spend on something you might not even get to see, much less ride, first.

If a dealer, any dealer, cops this attitude, just go somewhere else. My buddy that was shopping for Beemers went over 90 miles away to buy one from a dealer that would let him ride it first. Hell, we both rode it, even though I wasn't buying. Some local H-D shops let you ride, some don't. My older brother bought one from a dealer that did, and told the others in no uncertain terms why he would never darken their door again. It's competetive enough out there now that we don't have to put up with that nonsense anymore.

Well put!

To each his own...

Maybe, bubbling under the surface, most of the anti-Harley threads are probably more "Anti-being told what you should think-wear-do-buy-act-talk etc etc", and the people who buy into it.
Harley just being the absolute epitome of a totally for profit, manufactured "culture".
The threads are perhaps frustration with the spin doctors who take something with some value and credibility and mutate it into a caricature of its real essence, and the haunting memory that Porsche came REAL close to it.
This is Dr Fraser Crane, I'm listening.

You pretty well nailed it. I'm certainly not anti-Harley (hell, I have two of them), but they have taken something that was not theirs, that they had no hand in creating, and have made it "theirs". The biker culture. It used to be Harleys were a part of it rather than the center of it, and you could show up on your BSA, Triumph, Norton, Beemer, or whatever and get equal respect (as long as it wasn't some piece of "Jap crap"). Harley even used to put a great deal of effort into distancing themselves from the bikers that were loyal to them. They wanted nothing to do with "biker culture". Now they act as though they created it. And the dip *****s believe it, thinking a shiny new Hawg is their ticket in.

I agree with you Jeff, about assuming a certain aspect of the culture as theirs.

I also own a Harley (I need to change my sig), an Electra Glide. I found most of the riding I was doing was on the interstate, so I wanted more of a touring bike, the FLHT fit the bill.

If I was doing hard core long distance riding, I would have probably gotten a full dress BMW or a Goldwing, but since I still wanted to cruise with on the weekend, the HD just seemed like a better bet.

Bill

Not end of story. They are ridiculously obnoxious and no law enforcement does anything about it. As if Harleys (and other such loud motorcycles) are immune to noise regulations.

I don't think the bikes are necessarily "obnoxious." I think the riders are; those being the yuppie H-wood professional types. The old geezer type of rider is who I like. Guys who can tell you a little bit of the Harley history, and then counsel you on what or what-not to buy if one's interested in Harleys. The yuppie-types can't seem to be bothered if you ask advice of them.

Oh f**k, my kids are right, I AM an old geezer.
When the hell did that happen!?

At 40-years-old.

The issue with loud bikes is really due to after market mods. Factory bikes have to come in at the legal noise limits. Its true that a dealer will sell and install much louder systems, but the factory spec has to be at least legal.

Personally I hate loud pipes. It drives me crazy when all the biker-wana-bees sit at stop lights reving their engines to impress us all. Sometimes I just want to ask these guys if reving the bike is the only way to keep them running.

True enough about the mods, but authorized H-D dealers no longer sell, and H-D no longer manufactures louder than legal pipes. Corporate decree came down just a few months back saying that was no longer tolerated, nor the image H-D wants to project. They have a problem and they know it. Both of my bikes, by the way, run stock exhaust systems. I figure I can stand out from the wannabe's by actually being somewhat socially responsible. Until I hop into my sport-muffled 911, that is...

Ahhh, for the good old days, when only two groups rode Harley..
Outlaws & Cops...

I'll be happy to do that when when every sad wanker who rides a HD fits a legal exhaust. If tehre is more pathetic middle aged white male baby boomer market segment, if can only be Porsche and Rolex buyers.

1800cc to produce a ****l;oad of chaff cutter noise and 24 hp.

Is there a greater feat of form over function than a HD?

Im bad to the bone...da na na na na-na.

This thread brings the funny; like there's no other other riders out there trying to promote some weak image of themselves by their chioce of ride and there no other brands running around the street with much louder than stock and totally unneeded aftermarket pipes:rolleyes:

Personally, I think the Harley models rank among the most beautiful machines on the road and expect to find myself atop a V-Rod in the not terribly distant future.

Sad Wanker? 1800 cc? Hmmm, the only 1800 cc bike that comes to my mind is a Honda.

While I know your comments are tongue in cheek Stuart, I don't want to imagine how mad you get about something that really matters, or that you can control.

By the way, the winner of form over function has got to go to those guys at Orange County. My stock piped HD Electra Glide does a damn good job going down the interstate eating up miles, which is exactly what it was meant to do.