Quote:
Originally posted by stomachmonkey
Around my neck of the woods Ducs were the ONLY other marquee that you could pull into the local biker hangout with and not get hassled.
The Harley guys at this place were mostly "affiliated" with clubs, not your weekend warrior badass posers.
There was just something about the Ducatis' that they found respectable.
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In a nutshell, they are not Japanese. The animosity towards Japanese brands runs very deep in biker culture, to the point where I don't think it will ever go away. They were succesful enough to kill the British bike industy, and they got all but one American manufacturer.
Years ago we all rode together. Harleys, Trumpets, Nortons, Beezers, Beemers, and on and on. Even the "club" members were seen on Trumpets and Nortons, among others. No one cared back then when you rode. Until the Japanese bikes started showing up. Then
everyone else banded together against them in an all-out effort to exclude them and keep the traditional brands alive. It didn't work.
For a long time, H-D stood alone as the only survivor, at least in any numbers. There were still the Beemers, Guzzis, and the odd Duc, but they were always in the minority. H-D reigned supreme as
the old school survivor, at least here in the U.S., and everyone rallied around them and saw them as the
only survivor.
Now that some of the old brands are coming back en force, or have re-established themselves, a lot of us old "graybeard" bikers have fond memories resurfacing. A lot of us rode them. A lot of us had buddies that rode them. These makes are all a part of something special that we recognize. They all have their own personalities, unlike the cookie-cutter Japanese copies of all of them. There is an affinity there that the Japanese brands will never crack... They are too late to the party (even 40-some-odd-years on). They will never be a part of that family. Ducati is, and always has been.