Who Hates Harley Davidson?

Just saw an update on this today. It seems the driver of the pickup has been found and taken into custody and
is being charged with 7 counts of negligent homicide, and fugitive from justice. Apparently he fled the scene of
the accident.

 

No he was allowed to go back to MA, then arrested at home.

 

We watch the news. Your comment is sick, nothing more, nothing less. Just take it and go on. From history, you can't.

 

Y'know, the best way I've ever heard it stated when it comes to HD and their riders, is that Harley is both the best thing to happen to American motorcycling, and HD is also the worst thing to ever happen to American motorcycling.

If you wanna dive into the best thing, ya have to look at it from a brand and marketing perspective. HD, like certain other companies (like Microsoft, for example) surely does make mediocre (at best), overall BS for their products, but the have one badASS marketing department. HD bikes also (inexplicably) do an outstanding job of retaining their value. HD has managed to get more people on 2 wheels than any other motorcycle company out there, even if they DO make intolerable douchebags out of their core demographic. They market their bikes in a manner that at least looks/sounds like they cater to their customers (even though the smarter consumers watch HD give their customers the middle finger again and again, with those same customers being so complacent to that fact that they're blinded to it), but those HD customers have to look cool, and have the money, so are more than willing to buy that $30k+ rolling shitpile, because...well...HARLEY, RIGHT?! But hey, at least these people are willing to get up on 2 and open their minds to learning about motorcycles in general, as opposed to being one of the majority who remain afraid of the idea of a bicycle with an engine, even if it is a 20hp V-twin that can't get out of its own way or corner worth a crap.

Oh wait, you're still waiting to get the "worst thing to ever happen to American motorcycling" explanation. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten that one yet. MEDIOCRITY, people! HD sells mediocrity at a huge premium, and somehow convince their customers to absolutely eat it up. They KNOW their bikes are underpowered, underbraked, handle like crap, and cost 2-3x what their higher quality, better looking competitors charge for a similar machine. As mentioned earlier, it's all about marketing. It's about branding. It's about image. Harley has created that image of the "badass American biker" since the days of Easy Rider, and HD has learned to ride the coat tails of ANYTHING that makes them look even halfway decent until those coat tails are just tatters and ashes. HD has taught their customers that such mediocrity is just fine as long as you look cool and spend flaming dump trucks full of money doing it. THAT is not okay, and the problem is that you just. Can't. Convince HD owners of these facts.

There are plenty of folks out there that will contend that "it's not WHAT you ride, it's THAT you ride", and I do agree with that somewhat. I'm generally happy finding a HD rider with at least a halfass open mind and help them learn how much better and more fun motorcycling can be when you have a bike with real power, better handling, and that doesn't have an engine so crappily put together that you don't have to to through the engine quarterly just to tighten every fastener so it doesn't vibrate itself apart at a freakin stop light.

 

I've got a friend that is kind of looking at a Harley trike. I told him to look at the Spyder instead, since
it handles, runs like a scalded dawg, and is reliable. Whereas Harley trikes, and front wheel solo trikes
are flat out scary.

He says if it came to that, a Spyder, he'd just drive a Prius. "None so blind..."

 

I don't know if i agree with the great marketing, they are falling off now and they don't know what to do. I think (only my opinion) that Americans buy made in the USA and they stand by that. I have talked to Harley riders here and in the US and they are convinced they have a fast bike and it takes a crank of the right wrist to show them otherwise.

 

Until they find out that their "Hogs" have a lot of Japanese, Korean and Chinese parts on them.

 

Dude, the only "made in the USA" that HD can claim in the last few DECADES is simply "assembled in the USA". They're made of so many imported parts that the final product itself might as well have one of these stupid new tariffs slapped on it. The funny part is that since the assembly plants are all here stateside, and the company is based in Milwaukee, the whole customer base is more than willing to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the obvious truth.

 

Victory was almost 100% US. To bad Polaris killed them. Went with another almost all American bike the Indian.

 

Agree with the post above and the last five posts on the subject. I will add that (most) Harley riders don't necessarily have money, most of them I know from experience, have good enough credit ratings to borrow an outrageous amount of money to buy a pile of crap and ride with others so they can be cool. Also, an observation, they have no skill, with exceptions, in riding safely and in a manner that indicates a safe skill level. Sad thing is they put a female rider on the pillion with no rider skill on the bike in either position. Observed a female HD rider all decked out in the "stylish" leathers, high healed riding boots drop her 30K POS on top of herself then the rest of the flock run to her because she was literally stuck underneath the bike. She had no business riding that bike. Everyone has dropped. a bike that's been riding any length of time but most of us know how to pick it up properly as well.

Also recently, on a perfectly straight rural road, no anomaly's in the road a downed HD with long scrape marks on the pavement had both lanes of traffic stopped with ambulance, a sheriff's car and a state Po Po car with people lined up as the carnage was cleaned up. I suspect something happened that required a tiny amount of skilll, like watch where he was going, was needed that just wasn't there. I see things like that too much with HD operators. The rider didn't look so cool getting put in a ambulance. I hope he/she is OK but it looked totally unnecessary. I was going to say I don't get it but I think I do. Peer pressure, good money borrowing capabilities, and marketing for a bike that won't go, won't stop, and won't corner. I think the give motorcyclists a bad image overall.

 

I would guess that the riding skill level of most Harley riders is very low. But there are some very skilled riders that own Harleys. Most of them have other bikes than the Harley. And the unskilled riders riding 2 up is often a recipe for disaster. A guy in my neighborhood crashed with his wife on a new Ultra. A classic panic rear brake "had to lay her down" accident. Car turned left in front of them a little close for comfort.

 

As to HD riders skills:

My neighbor recently bought a Road King with all the trimmings. He is roughly 65 yo, and rode a HD 30+ years ago. He was showing me the bike and we started talking about handling and braking, as his handle bars and levers were adjusted in weird positions, that IMHO, would make it hard to use the front brake.

Neighbor said they are just fine, as he never uses the front brake, "It'll put you on you're head!"

Gave him my 2 cents, but his controls were still in the same positions when he skidded into the back of a car at a stop light and fell over. He was not hurt, and minor damage, but now he is selling the bike. Likely a good move!

 

You should show him a video of Johnny Rea hard on the front brake, rear wheel off the ground and still steering the bike. lol

 

Absolutely, Honda and Japanese makers put more people on motorcycles than Harley ever has.
Ya know: "You meet the nicest people...".

 

ya if you read about Honda coming to the US they said the only people riding motorcycles were gang members and drifters and Mr Honda wanted to change that

 

Ignorance and hard headedness kills. I don't get the whole mentality and herd instinct. Spend a fortune to look and act like a bunch of other poor riders. And for goodness sakes, let's go somewhere and park them then stand around a smoke cigarettes or vape so we don't put a bunch of miles on them. Go figure.

 

I have two brothers that recently got rid of their Honda VTX's and moved to HD baggers of some sort. My older brother in particular used to ride on weekends with his buddies but now that he has his HD he is in a much larger social group and seemingly out of nowhere has an infinite supply of HD t-shirts. I think a lot of the HD culture is silly but there is no denying it is a tight social group and you probably meet some really cool people along with a few dopes now and then.

For my part I've never loved or hated HD's or most cruisers, they were just there and never really got my attention but then I've always liked the weird or less common kind of things, my first bike was a 250cc Honda scooter. The most mainstream bike I've owned was a 2012 Kawasaki Ninja 650.

I have taken a few HD's on test rides at various rallies at they definitely have their charm and character but the one that had me seriously considering being an owner is probably the oddest duck in their line-up, the HD Sportster Roadster. It's not fast, handling is peculiar and that funny peanut tank leaves you nowhere to lock your knees which is kinda necessary on a cafe style bike. But, it's buckets of fun to ride and push to it's limits, which come pretty quickly.



I recently rode this one back to back with a Scout and the Indian is a far better engineered machine but I had way more fun on the Roadster. Go figure.

 

Everyone has their opinion for sure, but "charm and character" are not descriptions I would use in
describing HD's. However "It's not fast, handling is peculiar" are definitely descriptive phrases I
would use.