[Closed] Anyone got a Harley Davidson?

Tassles on the jacket too?

Mate with one from new became heartily sick due to mechanical reliability issues - he's not a mechanic so once warranty was over he was paying out a lot and missing days out. Dull but efficient seem to be the BMW tourers

I'm no motor biker but we get a lot visiting my village and for what it's worth I like the look of the Triumphs (and the odd Moto Guzzi).

Tassles on the jacket too?

😂

I always saw that as more of a Honda Virago thing...

the only one I have ridden - a sportster evo was horrible.  slow, ( slower than my 60s bsa) vibrated, handled horribly uncomfortable

They will be better now but they are awful agricultural things IMO.  Triumph twin? ( modern one)

I rode one for about 3000 miles around the west coast of the States about ten years ago; I’m aware of their shortcomings in that respect. Was looking for a bit of real world experience of ownership if possible. Also happy to have piss ripped and completely different suggestions such is the STW way 😊

Plenty of Jap bobbers around for ~£4k if Harley reliability scares you. I used to have a Kawasaki VN1500, it was ace and the only thing it ever needed was tyres. Shaft drive, self adjusting timing chain, it was great.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qOy34oqUJGA

Was like sitting in an armchair, and despite being a big engine (for a bike) it struggled to get over 80mph. If ever a bike could "waft", its this type of bike. Sounds like you want something similar.

Obvz, needs MOAR pics..

My mate had a sportster back in the mid 90’s and because I have (still) a full motorcycle license I borrowed it to go to see an old friend in Somerset.. so back then the journey was A5, M5, stop when it’s gets flat, turn left at King Segmores Drain, look for a barn conversion..

The first part of the part of the journey on the A road was ace, suited the single lane cruising, the motorway wasn’t very pleasant (but that’s because I thought I was doing 70mph, when in actual fact I was doing about 55 in the middle lane thinking I was blasting it) then back in the country lanes it was ace again. I took the long way home through the welsh borders all the way up the river Severn and it was a fabulous way to spend a day.

It didn’t break down nor spit oil everywhere, cost about £15 in petrol and yet I was pleased to hand it back. It was tiring to ride, very thumpy and vibrated through the handlebars and seat, the gears clunked into place with massive waves of excitement/anxiety wondering if I’d broken the gearbox.. yet all of that meant it had charm and what I would call spirit.

I’d never buy one, then nor now, but I do love the look and the **** you attitude they seem to give off.

Buy one before you die.

(it looked like this but a black petrol tank)

Harley’s are God’s way of telling you you’ve too much money. The triumph of marketing over reality. Absolute heaps of pig-iron

i took a brand new demo 1200 Sportster (and they say the Americans don’t do irony) to Wales for the weekend. Just to see what the appeal  was, as I found it inexplicable. Pulled up at a cafe in Ruthin, had a coffee, get back out, put the keys in the ignition.... nothing.

Dead!

Waited hours for the  RAC bloke to  turn up, and got a lift back to Manchester. Turned out that while we were having a brew it’d happily burnt out its entire ignition system. It had 1000 miles on the clock.

handled like a hippo on a skateboard. An engine that belonged in a tractor

if you do have more money than sense, spend it on coke and hookers instead

nothing screams ‘mid life crisis bell-end’ quite like a Harley does

if you do have more money than sense, spend it on coke and hookers instead

I hear you. But what’s the resale value on coke and hookers?

I think binners has summarised it quite nicely. Just buy the jap equivalent and bask in the knowledge that you've saved a lot of money to have a better built, better riding and  far more reliable bike.

But if you have to have a Harley make sure you get the matching jacket so everyone knows you're a mug. Also join H.O.G. - I believe they're the IT chapter of the Hell's Angels

🙂

On the upside, you won't lose any money if you don't like it.

Old ones were horrible. A bloke in our bike club bought a new Sportster, ooh, 30 years ago.  Horrible thing - even worse than a Meriden Bonneville. Painted with a stick, rusty from new, slow, vibrated like a Combat spec Commando and handled like a ruptured ferret.

We were mostly all skint and ran a collection of MZ's, old Brit crap and sub £500 Jap shonkers. We still took the piss out of the Chairman's Sportster. We even wrote a song about it, Cruisin' down to Bacup, which distilled our thoughts about a 50 odd year old from Oldham and his fantasies about livin' the American dream.

The new ones actually have brakes that work, the rudiments of suspension and bits of them  are finished quite nicely.

I now quite fancy one, but not as much as I fancy a Guzzi V7.

The new (last gen, air-cooled) Bonnevilles are nice, mate at work has a Speedmaster, but they sound and feel like a Superdream and barely make as much power.

Mind you, I like Jawas, Enfields and Urals, so probably best ignored.

Or just go full mid life crisis and get a small two stroke, it'll be about as reliable as the Harley, approximately a million times more fun and if the prices keep going the way they are you'll sell it or more than you paid for it...

I’m happy with handling/performance of them. I’ve done 3000+ miles on a hire HD bike.

From a little bit of googlefu, I think that the unreliability issue is exaggerated; not saying that they are quite up to sorted jap standards but the number of sky high mileage HDs available suggests that they are doing something right (and getting used plenty, too; unlike a lot of sports bikes).

I don’t work in IT and I’m not so wouldn’t fit in to whatever H.O.G is 😂

They will be better now but they are awful agricultural things IMO.  Triumph twin? ( modern one)

I had a demo on the new Street Twin a few weeks back. Awesome bike. Would have a lovely thump to it with a less legal exhaust.

Rather embarrassingly I spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to start the thing again after stopping for a photo. I've never ever ridden modern bikes and had no idea that I was supposed to have the clutch pulled in when starting 🙂

It made getting back on my 36 year old Suzuki feel a bit unrefined.

There's something I've always liked about the real agricultural/ratty Harleys, but the hideous showy chrome and huge fendered types and their associations with showy people in ironed jeans has tainted them for me. Would never have one personally.

I like a few, 1200 sportster for example, even a couple of the 883s. I'd probably go for a Triumph Bobber though.

Neighbour has done 25,000+ on his 2008 HD without issue. Street Bob.

My dad had a 1200 during his midlife crisis (circa 20 years and counting).

Don't think it ever broke down. Think it was between a transalp and swapped it for a BMW GS in the end, both of which were sold due to a complete lack of character. The Harley got sold due to paranoia about letting any of the finish deteriorate, if the chrome is less than shiny then it probably does to the resale value what cracked plastics and scuffed engine cases do for sports bikes.

I'd love an 883r though, and a can of BBQ paint for the chrome.

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Reliability, finish and the bikes themselves improve massively if you get a newer one though, avoid anything from the 90s up until the buyout. Having said that, if you browse the american equivalent of Harley STW, you'll find people bemoaning that they need top end rebuilds at 100,000 miles and a full strip at 250,000, looked at in that context of doing those milages you can see why Americans don't like sports bikes!</span>

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If you've done a few thousand miles on a Harley in the states then you have more of an idea if a Harley will suit you than we have.

One of my mates had a Harley a few years back,I think it was a 1200.He's  not getting another. I've never rode one so I asked him about the Harley experience.He said he couldn't trust the front end especially in the wet,also it was tiring to ride in traffic,something about the fueling / big V twin torque characteristics,the motor felt it was controlled by a on/off switch.He also wasn't over enamored with the Harley dealer experience,he reckoned a lot of the customer base were a bit naive when it came to buying upgrades etc. He wanted some 'Screaming Eagle' exhaust's for his bike but the dealer attempted to take the proverbial so at that point he decided Harley ownership wasn't for him.Don't know if he lost any money when he sold it.He's had bike's since he was a teenager,Japanese road bikes & trials bikes, so he was experienced, now he's happy on his Tiger 800.

The H.O.G. group is the Harley owners group,they do ride out's & stuff.

My dad once said he'd disown me if I ever bought a harley. Anything else, fine. I genuinely think he was being serious.

Are they not AF rather than metric so you get locked into only getting servicing done by a HD garage ($$$$$$) unless your local friendly spannerman has a completely separate set of tools. I live about 200yds from a HD dealer so I see lots and they just strike me as expensive sources of discomfort and much noise. If that's what you're after then nothing else comes close.

Buell X1 Lightning with all the trick mods done FTW.

First time I saw one start it simultaneously set off a car alarm & made a small child cry.

I have ridden a few Harley’s (don’t tell my biking buddies) and quite enjoyed the whole experience. The 48 was a good riding position with the forward foot pegs and seemed to have enough grunt for overtakes. The 1200 Sportster was a horrible riding bike, felt twitchy to me and seriously down on power which is strange as it’s the same engine as the 48 but maybe the riding position put you in a sportier frame of mind that it couldn’t deliver on.

I also rode a Sportster 883 and that wouldn’t pull the skin of a rice pudding, some nice custom ones out there if your happy to pose, they don’t hold up well to the weather in this country though and unless only ridden in summer or given lots of TLC they start to show their age fairly quickly. Thousands of easily do-able mods though so you can customise until your heart is content. As you said they do hold their value unbelievably well so you shouldn’t lose too much money if you keep the mods to the usual exhaust, air filter and fancy pegs etc.

If I was looking for a relaxed riding position I’d be trying to get one of the few CCM Spirfire Bobbers that are still available, limited run on them so should easily hold their money. I nearly bought the Cafe Racer version but sensible head told me to hold off as I’m considering a career change. My mate bought the Flat Tracker and is getting it in August. I saw the bikes at the Edinburgh bike show and they are seriously well made and have loads of quality kit as standard. Worth a nosey on their website.

Ill stick to my K4 GSXR 1000 for now.

Yesterday I picked up a Moto Guzzi V7 cafe. It’s flippin mega! 1/4 of the power of my last bike but so so cool and fun to ride. Get one of those, much cheaper than a Hardly Ableson

I've never ridden one, but I once read that the main thing to remember is - HD don't make motorcycles, they make Harleys.

It's a bit like Neanderthal VS Homo Sapiens.

We're definitely going to need pictures once you've wiped the smile off your face....🙂

I remember going into a petrol station and a guy was starting his Harley up, the sound was diabolical. I grinned then laughed and so did he, it was awesome for this reason I'd love to own one too. Maybe not a bike for life but just having one for a while would be ace.

The specific type I’d like is a Road King police spec. Then pop a pair of Vance n Hines pipes on. The ex police ones don’t seem too tasselly 😝 or overly chromey, will probably have a few battle scars already and hopefully some kind of history. There’s one on the bay at the moment. Black n simple.

got to learn how to do this with it :

Don't forget your donor cards when you're out on your bikes guys. I was driving a Polish relative around yesterday and as a peg-grinding Harley rider disappeared around a bend he quipped "kidney donor".

“kidney donor”.

As a lover of all things two wheeled I've come to the conclusion Mountain bikes are the most dangerous.../Thread hijack Off

I've come to the conclusion that giving out names like that is just pathetic, like Wendyball and other things people don't 'get'

Motorbikes can be dangerous, so can eating peanuts. And 1,000,000s of other things

<div class="bbp-reply-author">Edukator
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Don’t forget your donor cards when you’re out on your bikes guys. I was driving a Polish relative around yesterday and as a peg-grinding Harley rider disappeared around a bend he quipped “kidney donor”.

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Odd I’ve ridden bikes for years and often in quite risky circumstances and I’ve only ever donated body fluids. Perhaps you should take guidance from people who know what they’re talking about.

I have, kilo, you too can check out the statistics for where you live. Death rates per mile are typically 20-30 times higher for motorcycles than cars, and higher for motorcycles than bicycles, how much depending very much on where you ride a bicycle.

If you want the Harley V-twin thumpyness, but also desire handling, braking, etc, how about a Manx Norton Harley...

Or there’s a Norley, or a more classic looking Norton/ Harley hybrid.

I only rode on me briefly, one of the smaller ones, they’re not for me, I’d be wary of basing decisions on a few thousand miles in its intended environment- like old US cars they’re perfectly suited to long, wide open freeways not Welsh B-Roads and for a product sold (and bought) on image and little else, most bikers have little time for them.

Does Yamaha still make the XJR1300? I think that’s where I’d be looking if I had a bike shaped space in my life.

There’s also Jim Carducci’s Harley enduro bike, which I rather like:

And you’re not dead either, Thirty three motorcyclists killed in London in 2016 so a fairly remote risk of being a kidney donor I’d say

Does Yamaha still make the XJR1300? I think that’s where I’d be looking if I had a bike shaped space in my life.

A couple of my mates have the XJR1300,it's a heavy piece of kit,probably heavier than a Harley!

https://cyclinguphill.com/safe-cycling-stats-cycle-casualties/

^^^^ YAWN ^^^^

So that’s 88 fatality’s per billion kilometres in 2008, wow risky stuff.

Or 1868 casualties.

See Bustaspoke above.

A couple of my mates have the XJR1300,it’s a heavy piece of kit,probably heavier than a Harley!

I dont think its the weight per-se that riders find hard work but the seat height - they weigh about 225Kgs ‘wet’ about 10% more than my old CBR600 F4i which was a LOT lighter than the pig-iron 500 I did my test on.

A quick look says the Sporter 883 which I think it one of the smaller ones, it’s not one of the massive chrome things anyway is 265Kgs.

I’w waaaay out of touch, but I seem to recall riders of those bike naked Jap bikes taking anout lowering kits to make them more usable, but it effected their already ‘not great’ peg clearance.

Used to own a tricked out Buell...

HD - they are okay but more lifestyle than anything else.  It does seem to be the domain of bankers/ accountants having a mid-life crisis... and real Hells Angels

P Jay I get the seat height reference,I'm only 5'6 & one of my bikes is a XT600,it's tall much taller than a XJR13 but compared to a large capacity road bike it's really light.

[img] [/img]

In edukators defence a motorbike can cover a lot more miles than a push bike so the risk is actually even more than the difference of 1035 vs 1885 per billion would suggest.

Having said that, Swinley probably kills more people per mile and is a pretty benign trail center, so unless he plans to give up mountain biking he should just stop trolling.

And let's be honest here, harleys aren't the crotch rockets littering the sides of snakes pass and the cat and fiddle.

Don’t forget your donor cards when you’re out on your bikes guys. I was driving a Polish relative around yesterday and as a peg-grinding Harley rider disappeared around a bend he quipped “kidney donor”.

I’ll notify my brother of your concern as to his welfare, I’m sure he’ll take it to heart and stop riding his bike immediately, as will his wife, he’s only been riding for 38 years, and must be totally unaware of any dangers implicit in his activities.

Actually, he’s fully aware of the dangers, probably more than you are, Edukator, having had a very serious accident some years ago that he was lucky to survive, only the fact that his now wife was riding right behind him (she was an anesthetist at Bristol RUH at the time, and gave the crash team full details), and Wiltshire has a superb air ambulance team. He still rides, he has no recollection of the accident. He was also only doing around 20 mph at the time, he clipped the rear wing of a slow-moving vehicle with his knee as he went to overtake, and toppled over, then was hit by an uninsured driver going in the opposite direction.

An accident can occur at any time, under a whole range of circumstances, not all involve excessive speed.

By the way, what are the figures for cycle fatalities per head of population?

I've just switched and brought the best bike I've ever had, a Triumph Street Scrambler, but having been a mid life bell end for some years, I rode a few Harleys and in general they are a bit agricultural but as you get older that's what you need, to slow you down, I'm back to being a nightmare on this Triumph and every time I take it out I wonder if this is the time I'm going to **** it, it's difficult not being a **** on a bike, but Harleys do take the twerpyness out of your riding.

And they are one of life's great sounds, nothing else sounds like a Harley with a stage three and straight through pipes, except maybe a Spitfire they sound cool as well, and there is no greater joy than hearing all the car and shop burglar alarms going off because of the vibration as you chug past.

They also have a sense of presence on the road that helps to prevent you being what you often are, invisible to the school runners in their chelsea tractors, you don't get as many drivers taking you out at roundabouts or pulling out in front of you, possibly because of the size possibly because of the noise.

Time was Sportsters were just junk, but they've improved recently, my last bike was a Dyna Lowrider, my chum has a V Rod, and a few of my mates are gagging for one called an Outbreak but it's pricey. Buy an old Evo engined Dyna, it'll cost around five grand run it for a year and you'll still get five back for it, I've not had a lot of issues with the Evo engine, but I do hear these modern electrics systems can be a pain, which was the reason I went for the Triumph over the 48 this time, I don't like all that key fob nonsense.

Do it though, don't listen to the doubters, everyone should ride a Harley for a while at least once in their lives, if only to appreciate a bike like mine.. 😉

There is a "Hells Angels" Harley club out here and so you see a few of them out and about.

Unfortunately, they do give off a huge whiff of desperate mid-life crisis and look a bit sad really either with a group or on their own.

Sorry.

On the other hand, riding around on something like the Triumphs or Nortons above seems completely different to me.

I have no real interest in bikes, and I'm sure I'm totally wrong, but that's how it all comes across to me!

ps.  If you have a family then it's totally irresponsible to ride a bike for leisure.  Harsh but true - sorry again if that offends anyone!

If I was going to buy a motorcycle right now as a mid life treat (and if my wife asks I am definitely not) it would be a Retro Kawasaki z900

https://goo.gl/images/VcmY5c

ps.  If you have a family then it’s totally irresponsible to ride a bike for leisure.  Harsh but true – sorry again if that offends anyone!

Or ride a horse, smoke, drink alcohol, ingest secondary smoke, fall over, have sex or go down stairs

Or ride a horse, smoke, drink alcohol, ingest secondary smoke, fall over, have sex or go down stairs

Smoking, yes, you're shortening your life with your family for a paper tube of burning leaves.

The others are all about risk and whether it's justified.  Riding a motorbike means you are 40 times more likely to be killed in an accident on the road.  This is not the same as having sex, going down stairs, drinking a reasonable level of alcohol or time travelling back to the 1990s to ingest secondary smoke.

Some of these are far worse than the others - surely you can see the nuance of this?

"I don't see what the problem is with a crack cocaine habit because people die in the bath.  Do you want me to never have a bath ever again, do you, well do you?"

Funnily enough my other half loves to ride horses and has always owned a horse.  We have 1 toddler and another on the way and whilst she still rides, she wouldn't ride her last horse, a massive thoroughbred, because of the potential danger and certainly wouldn't compete.  She's got a few years hacking around for now because it really is dangerous.  We're not risk averse, we climb, we ride bikes, we've self guided a three week trek through the Himalayas, but with a family I wouldn't do certain things because you can be easily seriously hurt or killed without doing anything wrong.

Riding a motorbike is one of these things.

FFS Typical STW. OP Asks a question about riding a Harley Davidson & the post goes off on a tangent about road safety...

cba’ed

Some of these are far worse than the others – surely you can see the nuance of this?

You're perceiving certain things as more risky than others, that's a nuance you're missing too. Taking horse riding as an example (because I'd assume that was riskier than motorbikes), h<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">orse eventing more dangerous than motorcycle racing.  I couldn't find anything on recreation but I was surprised enough that anything was riskier than bike racing! You'll probably (and possibly rightly) dismiss it as unrepresentative, but then so is owning a Harley vs doing the TT.</span>

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/33/1/46.full.pdf</span>

What with having dependents I'm not sure I'd take the risk of being a boring, calculated, risk averse shoe gazer, but there you go..

BTW the last bike I rode on the road was a '26 AJS big port with no lights or dials, brakes that won't even hold it on a slope and tyres no wider than those on my mtb. I ****in loved I did!

There is a “Hells Angels” Harley club out here and so you see a few of them out and about.

Big groups of Harley riders in the UK  tend to be H.O.G.

Patch clubs in the UK tend to have a real mix of bikes, Old school, ultra high mileage jap stuff predominates. It used to be old Kwaks and big Suzuki fours, but XJ's are very popular these days.

Modern  non Sportster HD's tend to be ridden by IT consultants and those in the legal profession.

IM ( limited ) E,  no one  in any of the northern patch clubs would be seen on a newish HD. It's not really the done thing.

Bloke at work is in a Welsh patch club. He’s got a Harley and a Pan.

(make of that what you will)

I had a CVO Springer for a year and a bit. It was reliable enough but was uncomfy and some of the fixings etc were pretty cheap and rusted at the slightest whisper of rain. If you ride for an hour, you have to clean it for two.

I found the forward feet riding position hurt the small of your back after a couple of hours riding as you couldn't adjust position.

I think you've got to get Harleys and the whole Harley scene.  I didn't.

Far better bikes out there

Bloke at work is in a Welsh patch club. He’s got a Harley and a Pan.

Fair do's. It's been a while.

Fair do’s. It’s been a while.

I don’t think I was contradicting you TBH; both are fairly ratty. If anything it proves your point; I couldn’t see him on anything fancy chrome and custom paintjobby, that’s for sure.

No worries.

🙂

The demographic of patch clubs seems to have changed massively over the past few years. The impoverished, simplistic man/child cliché seems to have disappeared, overtaken by a much more ruthless, business orientated type of individual.

Never been a fan, hate all that stuff but maintained friendly relations back in the old days - you had to if you attended certain rallies or were a non member in very active areas. Always a big split up here between two well known organisations, with the real power being the third one that hardly anyone had heard of.

And not 'Hell's Angels'. That was more of  a Midlands thing, although they did  excommunicate some people and send them up here as a punishment, where they'd be picked of at leisure by the locals.....

If I was going to buy a motorcycle right now as a mid life treat (and if my wife asks I am definitely not) it would be a Retro Kawasaki z900

https://goo.gl/images/VcmY5c/a >

I had an original 1974 Z900 for a few years. Absolutely gorgeous bike. Not sure what I think about those new ones but they do look nice.

Nice to see there are so many motorbikerists on stw.  🙂

I’ve had three Harley’s (well two, and a Buell). Enjoyed them all in their own way, no reliability issues with the Harley’s (a late 80s 1200 sportster and a 2007 dyna), but the Buell used to vibrate itself to pieces on a weekly basis - exhaust brackets used to fracture constantly, and it managed to fracture the main engine mount whilst on the motorway, which was character building. What I don’t like about Harley’s is that they sound crappy from stock and need different pipes / stage one tuning (this is known as ‘Harley tax’, and the fact you have to spend a further grand or so after already shelling out between ten to twenty grand, dependant on model, on a new bike, is just taking the p**s). The lights are appalling, I mean really, really bad. An LED conversion will cost about four to five hundred quid from Harley, though you can get Chinese knock offs from EBay if you’re willing to take the risk. Finally, the brakes. Seriously, I’ve had mountain bikes with better brakes. A twin piston calliper with a single front disc is dangerous on such a big, heavy motorbike, there’s nothing else to say. When it was new bike time earlier this year, I thought long and hard, for all of maybe ten seconds, and paid a deposit on a bike I’d only seen shots of on the internet. I took delivery of it in April, and I have to say, it’s the best bike I’ve ever owned. It’s the Kawasaki Z900RS, in the 70s Z1 colour scheme (metal flake brown and orange!), and at the price (around ten grand), I don’t give a monkeys that it won’t hold its value as much as a Harley. Bikes, after all, are for riding, not for investing money in.

I’ve got a Fat Bob, bought last year as the next step in my slow decline from sports bikes.  I first rode an HD over a decade ago and said at the time I would have one when I could afford it.

I loved the look of some of the special sportster models, the forty-eight in particular. But found them to be too small.

The Dyna’s come with a real engine and are also physically bigger.  Mine came with some nice V&H pipes, a screen, and sissy bar - along with having the right control configuration I wanted.

The Dyna’s and soft tails seem to hold their value even better than the sportsters too.

Yes they ride differently, but after 3000m I’m sure you’ll realise that you can still hustle them around at illegal speeds.  The difference is that unlike a modern sports bike, it goes round corners because you are making it - not through telepathy!  This makes for a much more engaging ride.

I ride mine with an open face helmet, which limits comfortable speed to 70 for short stints, but it chugs away at 60 in top gear in absolute comfort and relatively low noise.

The advice I received when looking was to find the bike that had the state of tune and controls where you want them, then change bars, seats etc to get the look you want.  Works out cheaper than buying the look and changing the other bits and it seems to be HDs marketing ploy to sell bikes intentionally under specified to guarantee the upgrade catalogue sales!

DO IT - YOU’LL LOVE IT!

The more I read this thread, the more I think my plan to hire a HD this autumn in USA is misguided.

Ill be riding from Tucson to San Francisco and normally ride a BMW S1000XR. I’m beginning to think that a HD, whilst looking the part for an American adventure, might just annoy me.

Obviously, I won’t be able to hire another XR. Looks like a GS?

Does this mean I need to get a stick-on beard??

rachel

The more I read this thread, the more I think my plan to hire a HD this autumn in USA is misguided.

Just think of it as hiring  an old landrover defender to drive from  Carlisle to Malaga and back 🙂

Allthegear - you’d be ok on a Harley, they’re made for the American market anyway (not much in the way of twisty roads, so the handling and brakes shouldn’t be too much of an issue). They are comfy, and they certainly look the part, I’d personally go for it. You can borrow my beard if you like, I’m sure you’d look a treat!

The more I read this thread, the more I think my plan to hire a HD this autumn in USA is misguided.

I think that that going to the States for a motorcycle road trip and hiring anything BUT a Harley would be a MASSIVE wasted opportunity. It’s their home environment; they definitely work there. It’s our crowded isle that I’m not sure about.

Harleys are ace. They are just not competing with the European idea of what a motorbike should be. Look at (almost) all of the ‘Harleys are crap; try one of these’ suggestions; all gorgeous, flickable, retro cafe racery things. Absolutely lovely bikes, but completely different in purpose and execution to say, a Road King or a Heritage Softail, with its low seat, even lower centre of gravity, massive, lazy engine with waves of torque complemented by an absolutely unique and iconic soundtrack, designed to cruise all day in comfort and in a relaxed fashion, not attack the traffic and carve up the twisties. Nothing wrong with either of those things, I’ve currently got a SuperDuke, and it’s awesome. But just coz a Harley doesn’t do those things well, doesn’t mean it’s shite. It just means it’s not designed to.

The reason I started this thread was to see if people actually enjoy owning Harleys in the UK. It seems that they can, and it also seems that a lot of people are cross that they aren’t sports bikes 😘 I’m completely cool with that, but I haven’t decided if I’m cool with the amount of cleaning that I may be committing myself to should I get one. We’ll see. Thanks all!

I really would love a HD road trip in the US.. pick it up from New York and head to my old home in Florida..

That would be awesome.

I didn’t know you could hire bikes, I must do a bit of googling.. 🤪

A question for those guys that have ridden in the USA, certainly the South States, is it really accepted to ride in t-shirts/jeans/boots and either helmet/no helmet and is it feasible to do so?

Thinking it all looks great on TV adverts, but the reality might be completely different..

I’ve spent time in Southern Spain where it’s acceptable to ride in jeans and t-shirts and trainers (helmet obvz) on R1’s doing silly speeds in town and knees grinding in the hills.. I didn’t see much evidence of spills and gravel rash, though do accept it’s probably hidden..

It’s certainly the norm. I did most of my 3000 miles in jeans, tshirt and occasionally leather jacket. Mostly helmeted (small, open face one) except in Az where it’s not required, so I HAD to try that. Must admit, it was lovely, I can totally see why helmet laws are resisted.

So, yeah, perfectly normal. Sensible? That’s your call.

Even the bike cops in Cali don’t appear to wear protective gear except helmets and gloves.

It's changed a lot in the states re helmets, like here the law forced the wind from our hair, [url= http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/laws/helmetuse/mapmotorcyclehelmets ]here's a map[/url], been out today in T shirt shorts & sandals, very liberating, there are times I wish we could still ride without helmets, but like everything else the world just wants to wrap us in cotton wool.

Not read all this, but I reckon the OP will be grand as long as he only travels in a straight line at a fairly sedentary pace

Cheers chaps..

Going to plan a trip..

I'll come straight out and say I've never ridden one but my neighbour has a custom Harley bobber and it's frickin lovely. Not sure what the stock model was but it set him back £18000 then he spent another 6 on the custom upgrades and the result is frankly stunning. Jet black 1800cc beast with upside down modern forks and real brakes mini apes etc. I asked him if the electrics have failed yet and does it actually ride and he claims its spot on.... and I want one.

I swung my leg over a friend's 67 plates Triumph Bobber and BMW R1200GS (along with 4 or 5 others, and the push bike collection - not envious in the slightest!). I know next to nothing about bikes but am typical middle aged man curious. I'd take either of them over a Harley I think. In a perfect world the BMW would be ideal but in reality I would not do enough of the type of trips to justify it and a day tripper like the bobber would do me fine.