My thought for 2010 on Metric vs Harley

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PT1

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Been thinking about all the bashing and banter here between metric and HD riders lately and came to this conclusion:

It is a useless waste of time. We all (MC riders) really belong to the same club in that we are all on 2 wheels and all face the same danger and find the same type of challenge, excitement and relaxation by riding. Would it make sense of offense & defense football players criticized each other? Not really.

So I propose we let go of all the differences and focus on all the things we as a community have in common.

So to all you metric guys:
cheers3.gif
 
The only place that people are so rude to each other is on the internet. I live on 80th st. The Harley Davidson factory is on ~118th. I drive a rice burner. Nobody here in Milwaukee ever gives me the grief I get on internet message boards.
 
It's the same junk that goes on between chevy and ford, import and domestic, tuner and muscle car... Different strokes for different folks. The difference is we're all tough guys when we aren't looking at the other guy in the eyes while talking trash. Everyone enjoys braggin' rights whether it's carving corners, most chrome, fastest laps, biggest jumps...Different strokes for different folks.
 
I think they all have their place. I am not into choppers so for me a HD Sporters all I need. People laugh at me when I say this but I grew up riding BSA's,Triumpts and Yamaha's.....My first real bike was a Yamaha 550 Maxium that I bought off my Dad when he bought a Virago. I went from a 250cc to the 550 over night. Then in Germany I bought a basket case Yamaha V-Max from a solder that totaled it. I played around with turbo chargers and nitros on that bike and took what I learned with me to my car.

When I was a kid I loved catching up to old 1200 CC harleys and blasting past them on the hwy with my little 550. But times change and some of us grow up. Some are too steeped in what they think makes a real bike. I can be just as happy on those new fangle 750cc scooter like bikes with the flat foot area and an automatic...........My bike does not equal my life style I amnot a hells angle type selling crystal met and womanizing etc......I am not some poser that needs to look hard on my "HOG" LOL!!!!

For me anything be it a scooter or a V-Max is about not having 4000lbs of steel around me isolating me from the road. I am not towing a trailer with a bike and do not need reverse. If I want to tow a trailer I can do it with my car.

What people need to do is learn to leave others alone with reguard to what they own. If I want a Camry instead of a Buick Lesaber it is not anyones business butmine. It is one thing if someone asks for your opinion on a matter quite another to volanteer whennot asked. All of my uncles except for my Dad drove old Harleys and they where junk they leaked all over the garage and spent as much time being worked on as an old 1980's Ferari!!! AMC almost destroyed the brand. They are nice bikes today and some of the pre AMC's where not bad but in between you either got a diamond or a turd no inbetween at all.

I have always wanted a BMW bike but so far have not been able to afford one.

When knuckle draggers that are about as ignorant as my Dog and global ecconomies and where their stuff is really made start giving me the buy AMerican non-sense I normaly give them the finger or ask them if they want to step outside if they are being real nasty! SO far only 1 or 2 have taken me up on the offer to step out side! Ignore them if you can if not do not spend time around them. People only have the power you give them!
 
Originally Posted By: Silk
Do riders on this site only ride cruisers? If you don't ride cruisers,there is no Metric/Harley bashing.


No but there are Buell nuts out there to bash Japanese bikes, and then there are the Euro vs Japanese crowd as well. But now that Buell is dead I imagine that there wont be a domestic vs import feud for sportsbikes.
 
Originally Posted By: PT1
Been thinking about all the bashing and banter here between metric and HD riders lately and came to this conclusion:

It is a useless waste of time. We all (MC riders) really belong to the same club in that we are all on 2 wheels and all face the same danger and find the same type of challenge, excitement and relaxation by riding. Would it make sense of offense & defense football players criticized each other? Not really.

So I propose we let go of all the differences and focus on all the things we as a community have in common.

So to all you metric guys:
cheers3.gif



Well said
11.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Originally Posted By: Silk
Do riders on this site only ride cruisers? If you don't ride cruisers,there is no Metric/Harley bashing.

No but there are Buell nuts out there to bash Japanese bikes, and then there are the Euro vs Japanese crowd as well. But now that Buell is dead I imagine that there wont be a domestic vs import feud for sportsbikes.

Actually Buell was sourcing so many parts (well over 50%) from Asia in the last 3-4 years that they removed the "An American Motorcycle" logo from the gas tank. They did this quietly with no announcement.
 
My Honda VTX says made in the USA in big ole letters on the VIN tag. Is it American??? No its not. Its still a [censored] bike. But its still american made. I am sure even the Harleys have a few imported parts on them.. But it matters not to me.. I like my bike, i ride it with pride and get along with every other rider i see on the road.. To each its own i say.. Lets just ride !!!
 
if i was on the credit-go-round and wanted a bike which could be traded at the end of the hp agreement, i'd prolly go japanese. hopefully any probs are the next owners baby. most likely the only costs incurred would be a new back tyre and rego

i know that in some areas, they are superior and more technically advanced, but the plethora of new models each year indicates (to me) change for changes sake, keeping up with the joneses etc-etc

and i'm just not into that ...
 
I don't know about Harleys as I've never owned one,but what annoyed me,and finally made me give up Japanese bikes was the change for change sake thing.Even if a model has a long production run,it seems something is changed on the bike every 3 months,so parts from another bike of the same year don't fit.I like bikes I can mix and match parts on....of course I never buy new bikes,always buy one that needs work,always strip and rebuild a bike before I ride it.Bottom feeder....but it's where the fun is I reckon.
 
Silk, I'd say that's from competition, especially in the sport/super bike arena. The Japanese manufacturers, and now the European builders, are [censored] bent on keeping up or one step ahead of the competition in this arena. I've been looking at crotch rockets and hope to buy soon. Every time I turn around there's, as you noted, an "improvement" on my short list of bikes.

Feff
 
Originally Posted By: Silk
I don't know about Harleys as I've never owned one,but what annoyed me,and finally made me give up Japanese bikes was the change for change sake thing.Even if a model has a long production run,it seems something is changed on the bike every 3 months,so parts from another bike of the same year don't fit.I like bikes I can mix and match parts on....of course I never buy new bikes,always buy one that needs work,always strip and rebuild a bike before I ride it.Bottom feeder....but it's where the fun is I reckon.


Lots of Japanese bikes are virtually unchanged for over a decade. The Yamaha V Star 650 has been pretty much the same since 1999, the Virago 250 since the late 80's, the Kawasaki Vulcan 500 for many years, the Kawasaki Ninja 500 and 250(only recently updated) show continuity, the Suzuki S40/Savage 650...ect.

But the sports bikes do see change all the time. It is from competition on who can make the fastest bike, and from all those riders who have to have the latest greatest machine that can go at a speed that is dangerous on many everyday roads.
 
Originally Posted By: Silk
I don't know about Harleys as I've never owned one,but what annoyed me,and finally made me give up Japanese bikes was the change for change sake thing.Even if a model has a long production run,it seems something is changed on the bike every 3 months,so parts from another bike of the same year don't fit.


LOL, the harley parts numbering system is the same way...however. many parts from other years/models do interchange. I have a 2006 dyna and found a chrome rear wheel from a 2005 softail deuce that fits. It seems like more people modify Harleys than Japanese bikes so there is more information on the web about it as well.
 
Had a HD 250H with a race engine when I was a teenager & really liked the bike, it was fast for a 250. Enjoy riding my Son's Honda VTX1800F, nice looking and quick ride. I currently ride a Suzuki Vstrom & Kawasaki KLR650, enjoy these bikes in the NC mountains on & off road. Ride with friends riding their HD bikes. Happy to help friends work on their bikes, no matter what brand. Ride with another friend in the NC mountains and really like to watch the his Buell Lightning working through the twisties.
 
We get a lot of bikes you have never seen in NZ,a small market with a huge range of bikes.Have you ever tried to gets parts for a Honda XLV750,or Yamaha DT230? I was able to get parts for them,but it wasn't easy.I had a Yamaha XT600 too,these bikes had a production run of nearly 20 years...sure it was the same bike,but a lot of changes made over that period.
 
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Originally Posted By: Silk
I don't know about Harleys as I've never owned one,but what annoyed me,and finally made me give up Japanese bikes was the change for change sake thing.Even if a model has a long production run,it seems something is changed on the bike every 3 months,so parts from another bike of the same year don't fit.I like bikes I can mix and match parts on....of course I never buy new bikes,always buy one that needs work,always strip and rebuild a bike before I ride it.Bottom feeder....but it's where the fun is I reckon.

Lots of Japanese bikes are virtually unchanged for over a decade. The Yamaha V Star 650 has been pretty much the same since 1999, the Virago 250 since the late 80's, the Kawasaki Vulcan 500 for many years, the Kawasaki Ninja 500 and 250(only recently updated) show continuity, the Suzuki S40/Savage 650...ect.

But the sports bikes do see change all the time. It is from competition on who can make the fastest bike, and from all those riders who have to have the latest greatest machine that can go at a speed that is dangerous on many everyday roads.

The V-Max was the same bike from 85-08.
 
Anyone who expects any form of technology to remain unchanged is out of touch with the real world. Everything changes. That's why we no longer live in trees. Change is inevitable. Look at the auto industry. Every year it's something new. More sophisticated and also more complicated to the point where the average mechanically inclined Joe wouldn't know where to start if something went wrong.

I don't mind change as long as it is for the better. That just makes good sense. Change for the sake of "change" is plain useless.

Speaking of Japanese bikes that have had very few changes, the Kawasaki KLR650 was virtually unchanged for over well twenty years. I think the 2008 model is the first major change and much of that was cosmetic. There was also a slight chassis reconfiguration. I think they lowered the seat height to make it more appealing to average sized riders.

I ride with all sorts of bikes. Including Harleys. As long as people leave the exhaust systems stock, I have no problem with them. I actually enjoy the sound of stock Harleys. Once they change to straight pipes, that's it for me. And that doesn't go just for Harleys. I won't ride with anyone whose bike has been modified to make unnecessary noise. It seems that for some reason, the Harley riders I know cannot leave the stock pipes on. First thing they do is put on pipes that make more noise.

WHY? Please don't give me the "loud pipes saves lives" line of b-s either.
 
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