[speeder]

I'm not sure how some Sportster track bike relates to a Harley cruiser, but I guess I'll take your word for it. If they suck so bad, why did you buy the second/third/fourth ones(?)

Dot, I've owned multiple BMW airheads and enjoyed them. An R100RS from the late '70s/early '80s is on my wish list right now. When I go back to Europe in the spring, I'm probably going to buy a ratty old airhead to ride around and either leave over there or sell when I leave. I know them extremely well and have put the miles on them. They are not a HD. See the title of this thread.

My friend Charlie Johnson, the guy in the picture of the garage with the bikes, knows more about BMWs than everyone on this board put together. That's just one part of his garage, BTW. He's been a MC mechanic since the '60s, working at the famous Karl's Cycles in Minneapolis for years. Did you know that Minneapolis, my hometown, is the most MC crazy city on earth? It's a documented fact, # of bikes per capita.

He then got a job with corporate BMW in the '80s as their national service director, traveling the country training techs at each dealer on the newest models and making sure that their service departments were up to snuff, etc. He owns several collectible BMWs, including a mint '74 R90S that he bought new and some rare K-bikes. For the last several years, he's run a small business out of his garage servicing BMW MCs. He has a well-deserved rep as one of the top BMW wrenches in the country.

He has been a Harley-Davidson rider since the '60s, and his main personal bike is still a Super Glide. But what does he know? I should get him to visit this thread and get schooled.

It's a preference thing. There are people who really like and prefer Harley-Davidsons for street riding. Dragging floorboards? Only if you're an idiot. Some of you talk as though the only enjoyable thing to do on a bike is find a set of switch-backs and see how fast you can go through them. What about my neighbors who got married in 1969 and then flew to Europe, picked up a new R60/5 at the BMW factory and toured for 6 weeks with all their gear? Do you think that he was seeing how fast he could take a corner with his bride on the back and 50 lbs. of gear, or leisurely gliding through the cities and back roads of Europe on a fine cruising machine? That bike handled like turd on wheels compared to anything modern today. Talk about scraping cylinders on the ground. How would I know? I've owned 3 exactly like it, and another 3 newer airheads.

I've also had my ass handed to me when I was on one of my BMWs on Mulholland by a skilled rider on a Sportster. Old BMWs are turds as sport bikes and even the new ones don't compare to the competition in handling. But I'd much rather have a BMW than a new Japanese bike. All-out performance isn't everything. Comfort/looks/sound are everything to me at my age.

A Porsche 356 is an absolutely archaic, incompetent POS according to the logic presented here. Any minivan from the last 20 years could beat it around a race track. Yet driving a good one is sheer bliss, IMO. Riding a good Harley is a very pleasurable experience that some people just would not understand.