Then again, I stand by my opinion. The styling of harley’s is both unique and classic, functional yet sexy. And, fyi, I don’t do the loud, obnoxious thing. Stock pipes have a great sound to em. I focus mostly on the comfort and smooth ride…

I am now on my 2nd Harley, I had a 1200 Sportster and last year bought an Ultra Classic Electra Glide. Highway, I get about 45. I’ve had Honda’s and Yamaha’s, they’re good bikes, but I’ll keep my HOG.

You’re claiming that:
1) A harley can’t be a classic (?!)
2) No harley riders can work on their bikes
3) That every professional motorcycle racer/rider whatever knows how to rebuild an engine.

I’ll have you know that I own and 85 harley sportster that I personally rebuilt, and it’s more of a classic with a timeless style that puts your POS hunk of metal to shame. I scorn your ignorance. Oh and by the way, I’m 20 years old, so definitely not a doctor, lawyer, or those other professions that you were too stupid and lazy to attain. And at least they’re rich.

We have two Harleys in the family, 2000 Low Rider and 2006 Sporty. The Low Rider gets a consistant 54 miles per gal on highway. The Sporty gets 60 – 62 highway. Most of the driving is at 65 and above. My little 4 cyl truck gets 24, do the math. Only drove my truck 4 times this summer. Another 25,000 miles on the HD. Ride on!!!

Duh.

Also if you feel inadequate about your bike, well, don’t blame someone else’s bike or try to justify your purchase to others. You made your bed…

I see the ad as trying to get someone to buy a bike so they can feel good about helping the blue collar worker and then pull up at the bar to show off their new “american made bike”. Good job, it goes along with all their other ads and marketing.

To get a Harley you can spend $9K. To get a “decent” Harley, you need to spend at least $18K. To own a “nice” Harley you need to spend $22K. Who are you guys kidding, do you ever look at their prices. Lets be serious here. You walked in and got sucked into the “image” of the HD motorcycle, not anything else, including reliability or safety. The bikes are old, heavy, loud(99% fo HD’s have aftermarket pipes), and there is nothing new or cutting edge about those bikes. (Excluding possibly the V-Rod). Everyone knows the expression “you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig”. That is what it is. The lipstick is the chrome and glitz, but underneath that is an old bike. You just walked out of the store with your new bike that you and every other Harley rider knows deep down that they got ripped off on. But hey at least you got your image and you can fit in with the other HD riders. Don’t forget to get your protective gear to save that image. Loud pipes don’t save anything, your pipes face behind you. So when you get on the throttle it isn’t to save you, you just, piss off your neighborhood, your community, other motorists, and mostly other motorcyclists because you are giving them a bad rap too.

As for the Jap bikes, there isn’t a ton of soul in those bikes but they aren’t buying an image. They got a heck of a bike for a steal! And you know what, it is faster, safer, and just as fun to ride as every other bike out there. Those are the guys you HD people should be waving at, make friends with them because they are the smart ones! OK except for the moron with the helmet strapped to the side of the bike.

German and Italian bikes are still the best, I don’t care who you are. Yeah they are expensive but not as much as an HDs. Plus they will most of the time out handle and sound better than anything out there. Plus there is technology, feel and safety. You may say some of them are unreliable, which is true but you also have to think that someone has to take the leap outside of the box and then the rest will follow. These are the guys you want to meet, you may think they are snobs but maybe you should talk to some of them. Most of the time they are the safest riders out there.

I love motorcycles and I love riding. I hate the idiots that don’t wear the proper gear. Because when they go down it is everyone else who has to pick up the pieces. I still feel and smell everything that another unprotected rider does, but the bonus of wearing the proper gear is that you can ride longer at one time and hopefully longer in your lifetime.

As for this comment:
“Actually, no, America will just lose that many more union, family-wage manufacturing jobs.”

Did you ever think that the old Union way doesn’t work in today’s workplace. Most Union employees are overpaid for the job they do which in turn creates a huge overhead, Which forces companies to move their labor elsewhere or cut costs where they shouldn’t be such as R&D. If all the Union employees would make what they “should be” American companies could compete. Believe me a lot of my friends work for big Union factories and they laugh all the way to the bank about what they get paid but then when people get laid off, they don’t get it.

Maybe if Unions were not there everyone could buy products made in the US that are reliable, well build and competitively priced. This would be a move in the right direction.

I hope this gets some of you thinking.

Imagine what it would be like if everyone who currently has a job that doesn’t require a jockey box or even a briefcase and currently drives to work solo suddenly, starting Monday, rode a motorcycle to work. Sure its a crazy idea BUT its not an impossible idea the elements to make it happen on such a scale are all currently in place. Right now. This second. Yesterday.

I’m all for educating people about motorbikes, I’m an evangelist for them as practical modes of transportation. No one who truly loves to ride motorcycles should let the ideas of someone who doesn’t have real experience in the matter go unchallenged.

Motorbikes are here, now, a real world practical solution to a number of ills associated with private transportation. Little talked about among those ills is guilt about having fun with and taking pride in your choice of transport, especially alternative transport.

How many Prius owners have as much fun as motorcycle owners with their vehicle? Sure, they have a reason to be proud of their choice but how much visceral jump-up-and-down joy does it bring to their life? Oh, and where in the big picture do all those spent batteries go? That alone has to be a bit of a joykiller.

Contemporary humans like to have fun (although I imagine pre-industrial hmans also liked to have fun too) and they’ve created a colorfully storied history of seeing personal transportation as one of the means to do so. There is nothing wrong with that, especially if it can go hand-in-hand with solving some serious contemporary problems.

As far as fuel goes we know about peak oil etc and plenty of things are being done to enlighten folk and take action where I live but if you don’t like Harleys then don’t critisize it,just piss off and go tell someone else how to make choices.

“Don’t sweat the current gas situation too much, you own a vehicle that gets 50mpg. Filling up your Sportster and traveling 100+ miles is only going to set you back about 8 bucks or less, so you’re ahead of the curve. Relax, go for a guilt-free joy-ride.”

For the record my Sportster gets between 45 and 55 real world MPG and my Ninja 250 easily gets 60mpg around town and 70 mpg (going 65-70 mph) on the highway.