well I'm going to bump this because no one is talking about Leticia anymore and I defs think there is some debatable points in your argument
pretty much any harley out of a showroom from the past 30 years i think is a complete waste of money. huge displacement engine with little torque and even less horsepower.Well you have to take into account the emissions restrictions when you are making this statement. Sure, a fresh off the floor sporty doesn't have that much kick these days but if you tune them properly (and thus make your bike not street legal) you can definitely get a lot more bang for your buck. At the end of the day though how fast do your want your harley to go? Their modern day cruisers are just that - built for cruising. If you want speed, you'll be buying a Japanese bike.
The other thing that critics seem to forget is that harley as company had to evolve and still make money. Yes, you can circle jerk pan heads till the cows come home but most dudes who ride a pan aren't exactly in the market for a new bike are they? Harley made a smart business move with the whole dark custom thing (as cringe-worthy as that name is) - they marketed their bikes to new/ young riders as opposed to oil leaking/ bad breaking aficionados who would never purchase their product anyway.
i saw a sportster from the first year they ran the sportster at a vintage plane/bike/car show this past weekend and that one actually looked pretty rad.As I said, I'm a sporty fan, not a harley fan boy
harley culture also just sucks, nothing like shelling out 10 grand for a bike and then another grand on your leather jacket with HARLEY DAVIDSON embossed on it, your HARLEY DAVIDSON hat, and your vintage bike week shirts that have HARLEY DAVIDSON printed across it. plus, half the dudes who ride them won't take the time to learn how to work on them, they just send it "out for service" over the winter and drop another couple thousand on stuff that could take them an afternoon. Yes, and this happens the same in EVERY single sub-culture there is, it is not limited to harley riders. Take a look at skateboarding ffs!
What I do take offense to though is that you seem to think all harley riders are the same. Sure, there are dudes like you mentioned but there are also Supreme/ FA/ fuccbois in our sub-culture too, are you a supreme fuccboi? I doubt it
I know tonnes of dudes who wrench their own pan/ knuckle heads and take pride in doing so but you can't expect everyone to do so and/ or fit into your ideal of what a rider should be. I live o/s at the moment and don't have my tools with me so I wanted a fuss-free bike that looked classic an was fun to ride. Sure, I'd change the oil out or whatever but am I bad person for taking my bike in for a service?? Am I not a true rider in your eyes?
as for me i ride and wrench old jap bikes, i'm currently running a 75 honda cb360t as my daily and building a 75 yamaha rd350 in my basement. if you know anything about old two stroke bikes, you know that the rd was infamous for pummeling four stroke bikes with displacements over twice it's engine size. i'm looking into getting an old brit bike now, either a triumph trophy or a BSA A65.Nice! At the end of the day a bike is a bike; sure we all have our preferences and that's fine. I've seen some crazy things done to those BSA A65s. I recently went to this bike cafe in Sydney (
http://www.surfside.net.au/) and it was cool to see some of the bike my dad rode back in the day. He's currently looking to buy another bonneville while I'll be off the saddle for a minute while my kid grows up. Doesn't mean I still don't think about bikes all day though
I'm actually really liking the w650/ w800s at the moment which is kind of trendy I guess but kawasaki's attention to detail is insane!
no matter what bike it is, it will put a huge fucking grin on your face. i just hate harley culture.fair enough and I agree (to a point) - some bikes will give you a bigger smile than others though and out of all the ones I've owned the sporty (it was a 2008 for reference) won hands down!
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So what's Leticia been up to these day?