kgb540 said:
It's always amusing to see people make silly comparisons such as the BOSE/HD reference. Ok, it's pretty much a given that BOSE is no good in terms of high-fi audio. Anyone who has any history with this hobby knows that. But to draw a comparo and say Harley is a Bose-type machine is just plain ignorance. Completely laughable.
Or painfully accurate, if you choose to look at their track records. Both companies charge a premium for their products; both companies eschew posting performance data on their products; and both companies produce an almost frenzied loyalty in their supporters if the Brand is threatened
kgb540 said:
These "unreliable" Harley's, when taken care of properly, will be around and running long after the stink-weed crop has over-grown the dirt around your graves.
I never said "unreliable"; I said "functional". In fact, most modern HD's are pretty dependable, having spent a good bit of time engineering themselves out of the AMF days. No the non-functional charge comes from their inability to go around a moderately tight corner without grinding down the footpegs (or, god help us, the floorboards), or accelerate faster than a Subaru Forester, or just demonstrate an ability to not slow down the flow of traffic by riding in a 25 bike formation without a parade permit.
kgb540 said:
Thanks in part to the way these vibration riddled, unreliable machines are designed.
...And in part to what they're made from, hundreds of pounds of steel. Thick. Heavy. Sometimes brittle. If I was designing rocks I could do no better than to take a page from the HD manual on the subject.
kgb540 said:
I know the true idiots out there will say I am not comparing bikes from the same era, but the design principal stays the same. I am just putting the finishing touches on my 1955 Panhead chopper and a friend of mine is just starting a '37 Knucklehead project. they seem to have a vibration "issue" too, dont have the benefit of modern manufacturing techinques, fuel injection or of being basically computer controlled electronically and have been know from time to time to drip a little oil but let's see................................. 1937 and this is 2006...........hmmmmmmmmmmmm................nearly 70 years old and worth a ton of cash.
Gee, a '69 CB750 is worth a ton of cash, too; old things frequently are...I think they're called "antiques". Wanna guess what a Brough Superior would go for from that time period? By the way-that '69 CB750 would *still* outperform most Harleys, antiques or not.
kgb540 said:
I also have driven a FXR for 13 trouble free years. Yeah, Harley's are a joke aren't they.
Only in terms of performance: they can be stunningly beatiful vehicles. They just seem to have forgotten they're supposed to be motocycles as well .
kgb540 said:
Dont worry though your Honda, Yamaha, kawasaki or whatever will still most likely be around in 15 years or so too, and still really useful in something like a re-cycled return spring on a bic pen that signs the title over on another 25+ year old Harley that someone will drive and enjoy for years beyond that.
Wow, so I guess the 22 year old V65 magna I sold last year is 7 years past due to be turned into a paperclip: I better tell the current owner/rider. This is the kind of sophmoric drivel I've come to expect from "bikers" who feel insecure about liking under-performing motorcycles. Stand up and be proud of your ability to competently spin a wrench on the old basket cases-you are basically making a roadworthy Model T (with comarable performance). In retrospect, this may be the way to get the most excitement out of motorcycling without getting arrested: 85 mph on a Harley is pretty terrifying-shoot, 75 on a Harley is pretty scary for that matter.
kgb540 said:
But yeah, those 5 times in your life (there may be a couple a exceptions) you actually went over 130mph on your whatever, non-Harley, totally justifies the arguement. I BEG for the flames to come at me and no I am not interested in a link to this arguement done at another time.
130 mph? Isn't that illegal? I can't see why would anyone want to go that fast-after all, any idiot can sit on a bike and pull the trigger on a 1300cc inline 4 or a 125 c.i. v-twin. Now corners are different; you're not going to get through a corner effectively if you don't know what you're doing, and its *more* important to know what you're doing on a cruiser, since they're so poorly designed for the task at hand.
kgb540 said:
Any just to re-cap..............Bose is no good for all the reasons you guys mentioned and then some.
Well, you're not *totally* delusional
