Blokes,

I have a question that is burning me up inside - WTF is with the Harley hate out there from a number of other motorcyclists? WTF? I'm not talking jokes about tassels but full on criticisms.

As some of you would know, I'm relatively new to riding a Harley. 20 years on Jap bikes and now I'm on a Fat Bob for many personal reasons. And I love it -- I love riding her, pushing her limits in corners, cruising the highways. I dig all the stuff available to support my new habit. I love the concept of customising it. I'm happy with the brakes and while the suspension needs work and a few more ponies would be great, these aren't negatives for me -- they are something I want to save the $$ for and make happen when the time is right. I like people in the local dealer know my name and are happy to talk parts.

But all you hear on so many general bike forums is the same long line of complaints -- too heavy, old technology, bad brakes/suspension, too loud, criticisms of anyone that dares ride one. 

To compound this more, the best I can tell most of the criticisms come from white middle aged men that haven't even ridden one. Or perhaps they did once, around the block. Or their neighbour had one. I'm struggling to find the community of ex-HD riders that would at least have an informed view having ridden their bikes further then the curb.

What's the theories? I read that HD riders do the most Km's each year and are happiest with their bikes (motorbikewriter.com.au) but the carry-on continues. It's easy to say to ignore them but I don't want to give up reading about motorcycle news etc. But the pure hate and criticisms on forums every time a HD or cruiser article is insane. What am I missing here?

I'm happy as a pig in sh!t with my HD. I'm grinning like a cut watermelon on every ride!
 

JFE I have a foot in "both camps" as some may say. I have a Road King and a couple of Honda tourers and I get a kick out of riding them all. I cop it but generally only from, as you say, pricks who have never ridden one. One bloke of my acquaintance slings heaps and he used to ride a BMW. I just say to him, what do you ride now, Smiff?....The answer of course is nothing, because his missus made him sell it. He's not old either!

Dont let it worry you mate. Otherwise your not much better than them. Most of them would jump at the chance if they could. I know a few myself and dont even bother with them anymore because none of them have ever riden a HD. Have offered a few a ride to make an informed decision but they wont lower themselves. Fuck em I say. The hate comes from envy. And your correct in that we generally do more km's than most of them. Just check out some of the local coffee stops with the make out Valentino's hobling around in their leathers. Wankers.

I have a new Breakout and it's the best motorcycle I have ever had... it's beautiful... people just can't take their eyes off it... it rides like a dream and you know you are on a motorcycle.  I also have a Suzuki tourer... different ride.  I am not a person who breaks the speed limit so I don't care how fast a bike goes... I just want to enjoy a cruise and the Breakout does that and more... because a lot of people cannot afford a Harley they will put shit on you...I enjoy the jap bike and Harley for different reasons... when I had my Sportster people would make fun of it.... loved that little Sportster... who cares what people say as long as you're happy.  

Would think the ex Harley community is a very small one . Love mine . Had my time with all sorts of bikes , but have no ambition to ride anything else now .

I wouldn,t be wastin my time reading forums that put them down . 

sticks and stones, really guys who gives a fuck, I'm 63 and probably look silly as fuck on my hotrod softail but I'm still hard enough not to care if the fags on the fi replica's laugh at me coz I have done the miles and the hard yards, fuck em, I'm high, happy and riding my Harley.

Not many of the riders you see out on the weekend ride everyday and a lot on the Forums don't either.

You get people from both sides knocking the other and generally they are Weekend Warriors that talk shit on the Forums.

I ride my bikes everyday,even if its just up to the shops and back. If I take the Suzuki out on the weekend and stop somewhere, I sometimes watch while I'm having a beer or coffee and people that wander by or up to have a look. generally see what it is and snub it.

Don't care, its been a good bike to me.

Just remember, both sides throw the shit and its become more and more in this world of Mobiles and Facebook.

 

 

Why worry mate.

Ride what you enjoy riding.  get the knocker to go for a run around Australia, see if they are still there at the end , then see what they are saying.

Just ride it, i never bought my bike to be popular with the other kids. I chose the colour because i like it and dont care if everyone else hates it, be yourself, do your own thing who cares what people think, move on!

Bought my first harley in 2008 , loved it , hated the image i also own a british bike love it and a jap bike love that has well ,, don't need or really want 3 bikes but cannot make my mind up which one to sell ... I think the problem with the harley image is the amount of dickheads who own the harley belt , the t harley shirt get full of bad tattoos and don't own a bike ... You also have the weekend warriors , who only go out on 28-32 degree days , ride to the beach and cruise up and down the eplanade with a sneer on there face ,, then on monday go back to there office job , and tell everyone they have a harley .

But lucky enough these are far and few between , over all i've found the harley community to be the freindliest of all bike communities , i ride with a few harley riders and its all about a laugh and a beer to wash down your meal , these guys ride all the time , and a couple of them if they want to can really and i mean really ride , after all they have been on bikes all there lifes . If i was to take my suzuki i get a bit of freindly ribbing, but its all good .. I also took to riding with another bunch on jap bikes and i soon gave it a miss ,, most of them on the sports bikes slagged off the ones who could'nt keep up, and the cruiser guys slagged of harleys, even though they would have de badged jap cruisers done up to fool non riders they were on a harley .

Harleys attract a lot of nice people , a lot of people who just want to cruise and socilize , but it does attract dickheads , who are not into riding but just want a bad boy image , but then again jap sports bikes attract dickheads has well , in there Yellow leather track suits going to fast on country roads whith the image in there head that there on a track .

Thing to do is just ride , i do 25-30,000 klm a year , to some a lot of klm to others bugger all ,, but personaly i don't care who i ride with has long has there good blokes .

Thats sooo funny H and H. Is that your Esplanade Sneer in your Avatar? And who do you Tour with?

Hi all...If you spend enough time here you will see jap bikes get shit bagged as well.

If you read back this thread, you answer most of the question with replies

I ride a Harley with other makes, and I also don't care what they ride, only that they ride.

Not all Harley riders will agree but most do, we're the opposite for jap riders, most do care that their mates ride jap bikes.

My bestest mate rides a Can-Am Spyder and we have done half the country together, rides a Suzuki Boulivard M109, we have done some of SA together, he does take the Micky that I ride a compressor, but I just laugh and talk a bit slower for him.

It's ok H&H I'm a weekend warrior to. I have two young sons so I'd much rather be doing stuff with them than riding, especially on nice weekends. Oldest turns 8 next year and he can't wait to get on the back so hopefully I can get a bit more saddle time but either way I'm happy.

Another thing is clothes, at 6'3" and 130kg's about the only stuff that fits me is harley shirts/ t-shirts and Kmart flannels and they fuckin last a while to so I'm probably one of those dickheads that walks around car shows or the supermarket with Harley merch on. I wish the forum would do another t-shirt run, I'm still wearing mine from 4 or 5 years ago!

About the only flack I get for riding a Harley is from people who don't ride at all...

So, there you have it JFE, another group of informative reply's to a new Harley owner from the members.
I hope you have learned something here.

What's wrong with harleys not braking handling or going anywhere fast and costing more then twice the bike produced by other manufacturers .Owning a harley seems to be a temple of worship a religion of sorts for some usually those under the influence of drugs or out of some sense of self pride to the brand name they won't ride anything else . I own one it's an absolute shitbox I'll admit it I'd rather ride a jap bike any day and I do the harley is off the road and I'll get back to it one day and believe me there is no rush I am enjoying the comfort and handling and power of two different jap bikes atm and loving it.

You would of thought by now that most riders get it.

Its not about the Harley, Jappa, or any other bike. 

That all irrelevant.

The best bike you can buy is the bike you like and buy. Its that simple.

Its not rocket science. 

Its got nothing to do with the brand, handling, braking, ect

Ive bought ex government and new Hilux twin cab 4wds in me time.

Just cause I liked the height. But they are a cheap way overpriced poorly built piles of shit. 

But I like them. Thats all there is to it.

Blokes,

Thanks for taking the time to address my post on the Harley haters. I've learnt a number of things. 

The biggest is probably a feeling of pity for those that criticise HD's and their riders without much in the way of real experience on the topic. You meet one of those kind of blokes in the pub, you tag him as a wanker and your glad when the oxygen thief pisses off. Those that can do, those that can't criticise. 

The thing is, for me, I'm happy with the tech of my HD. Mods will get done but that is the nature of it. I don't care for 100 more hp as she is a cruiser. I've lived without traction control all these years just fine. I brought mine because how I felt riding it. It was personal and only a HD did it for me. And by God, I love looking at her while having a beer. I'd like HD to keep evolving the product but I get why this isn't done in a two-yearly cycle. Fine by me.

Fark the detractors. Most of them are obviously sad bastards that couldn't ride out of sight on a dark night. Hell, a few couldn't even start a HD. It makes me remember years back when doing a lot of track days, real fast road riding (less cops, smaller fines, more speed), and long days in the saddle. Coming from Nth Qld you had to ride far in all weather to get where you needed to go. I never heard the fastest riders, or the serious tourers for that matter, ever be critical of another rider or their bike. Shit would be slung but it was joking around, not a real go. And always to your face, not from the safety of a keyboard. It was always the loudest blokes who'd talk themselves up, put others and their choices down, and then not be seen when a fellow rider needed help, a ride was on but the weather was ominous, or there were big km's to be done. A flog is a flog that stands out pretty quick in the bike world. Screw 'em.

Cheers men. Your replies show your quality, and have encouraged me to do what these wankers can't do -- appreciate what I ride for my own reasons. See you on the road.
 

What i don't like is this bullshit that Harleys don't / can't handle .. Maybee the old panheads or whatever could'nt handle , I would'nt know i've never ridden one , but the modern bikes can handle well enough for the average rider , Ok some better than others I rode a mates standard softail a few weeks ago , jeez i hated it , after the first roundabout and a couple of bends i deecided stick it up your arse ,, was it the bike , no way it was me ,, forward drag bars , feet stretched out in front , just did'nt suit a verticly challenged , gorrilla lookalike , like me . , But when we were riding together he had no trouble with it , I'm more suited to mid mounts , such has my previous street bon and the current low rider

Off course sports bikes are going to go faster around bends , but only if the rider is capable , otherwise its , hit a tree day and fuck everyones week up , Couple of weeks ago i was riding in the adelaide hills , i was on my v strom , with a couple of guys who fancy themselves has hard riders , and love to talk about how harleys are shit ect ect , weve all heard it ,, we were booting along and hit some twisty bits , and being at the back , i heard them before i seen them , 4-5 harleys , and they flew past me , cuaght the guys i was with and flew past them , , personaly i never bothered they were going to fast for me , but i knew these guys would try and run down and overtake the harleys , especielly the haybuska ,, anyway they were stopped a couple of klm up waiting for me , and i said did you catch them ,, , No way they said , them guys were moving ... I laughed and said , thought you guys said harleys are shit and don't handle ,,they all begrudgingly admitted then , its the rider and the experience that can get the best outt of them , because most modern bikes can handle far better than the skill level of the average rider .

And if you have the skills to notice the difference , you will be going at speeds that should only be done on the track . Has i then said to them , a lot of harley riders have been riding for a lot of years and od a lot of miles , not everyone buys them to showcase , personaly i bought mine because its a comfortable fit , most bikes are too tall for me , and most other cruisers are too heavy ,

Who else makes a 1700cc cruiser that only weighs 300 kilo ... NO one

Though I don't ride a Harley these days, I will have another in time, to complement, not replace, the bike I'm riding now. Old mate was a racer for the last 15 years, wouldn't touch a Harley. Said all the above criticisms many times. Hell, he used to berate me for wearing open-face helmets. He bought his dream bike, a Ducati 996SPS last year. Even his girlfriend hated Harleys, complaining about the noise and casting aspersions on their riders.

Anyway, he saw a damaged '91 FXRS for sale at auction this year and decided to fix it up and flip it for a quick profit. Started taking it to work every day, after a week, he's bought himself an open-face helmet and he and his girlfriend started going on trips on the weekends on it. He decided to keep it. Then he took it on an interstate road trip as he saw me do so many times way back when.

He still races his 600 Supersport bike but the Ducati now spends most of it's time in his hallway...