Topic: Living dangerously , took a sohc to a Harley bike show!

[1976cb750f836]

Something I saw on hear reminded me of this, so i thought I'd share.
Bout 15 years ago, when I was building my 750f, a shop friend was building a 550 old school hardtail  Fonda look a like. We had a great time all winter in shop on these builds.
Spring arrives, we ride around local, work all the bugs out, and start thinking bout a day trip.
Get a phone call from a friend, who knew we had just finished our builds, telling us the following Saturday theirs a bike show in nearby town (15 mile away).
It's a HD dealer that has 3-4 shows each summer. We decide to go, me for the ride and he decides to enter the trophy show. 99.?% Harleys. We park in the lot, and immediately draw a croud.  Lots of attention, several stated they started riding on Honda's. They send him to the show lot. Now hear it's a different story, lots of dirty looks, and comments, you going to enter that thing? He did. We messed around a couple hours, eating and looking at the bikes, while the judging was going on. At the end of the day, he takes 2nd place at a HD show. His head got so big he coulnt get his helmet on?LOL
Ps-we thought he should be first, but that might not look right at a Harley show. Lol.

[DHuffman]

 

[ekpent]

 A lot of the old time Harley guys don't give the vintage Honda riders to much grief as a lot of them started out riding on them also from what I have seen and heard. Crotch rockets and some other newer bikes on the other hand may not get such a friendly pass.

[Don R]

 The first time my brother and I got our old 750's running again we got a good reception on a Toys for Tots run at the end of the season. We weren't expecting Harley guys to be as friendly and many did say they started riding on a cheap old Honda. They weren't so welcoming 30 years ago. 

[754]

 Everybody loves a CB 750.... a most loved motorcycle..
 and you will be accepted better than most other Japanese bikes, 90 percent of the time..

[Doobie]

Went to a vintage bike show in Barnstable, Mass. a couple of weekends ago. Only one CB750 out of at least 150 bikes on show or in the parking area. Probably 75% Harleys. This guy was showing a 1946 Knucklehead:

[my name is nobody]

Proof positive that ignorance and stupidity run hand in hand. He looks like a knucklehead from around 1946.

[wayneperry9804@yahoo.com]

would love see a picture of those two bikes. I too built a Honda Easy Rider style bike and entered it under the very same situations. Only non Harley and not a very good reception. Didn't care really

[Doobie]

[754]

 You get those types often , but most folks are more receptive.
 the new riders are funny, even if they like your bike, they wait and see how  the others react,  before they will talk to you.
 I try to stay away from people at shows that are ever more than a few feet from their bike, they are usually not people I want to hang around with.

 I had a Japan bike guy ask why my valve cover was chromed. I told him I like the look against the black motor,  and that it is much easier to clean.. he looked puzzled, and said again, why would anyone do that... must have been a purist.

[seanbarney41]

yeah Frank, that is one I don't get either...seems like some folks find the shiny beauty of chrome to be something morally offensive.  They are always super fast to communicate they will have nothing to do with that nasty shiny stuff.  "I dont want any chrome on my bike."

[maxheadflow]

HD types don't really care about bikes that have their own original design. It's when they copy HD that they get a little concerned.  Most of that was gone by the mid 2000s.

IMO it really don't matter. Ride what you like.

[spotty]

been there too, just after i came back to melbourne in the early 90s with my first 750K2 my mates and i got invited to a 1%er show

when we got there i just followed the rest of the guys through the gates and realised i'd just entered the show.....

the only jap bike there, including the outside parking area, there was my little honda with its matt black paint job, orange and black tiger striped cut off drag pipes, calf skin bungeed onto what was left of the original seat foam, factory baby apes, two foot high sissy bar, maltese cross mirrors and tail light etc, right in the middle of a couple of hundred harleys and brit bikes. i got off and made myself scarce but stayed close enough to keep an eye on it.

it got more attention than any other bike there, i could see loads of guys make a bee line for it and stand there crapping on about how they used to ride one years ago etc. no hassles or angry bro types, just people having a laugh , and no doubt wondering who the hell was crazy enough to ride it in there

and when i got on it to ride out it also proved to be the loudest bike there....

[1976cb750f836]

would love see a picture of those two bikes. I too built a Honda Easy Rider style bike and entered it under the very same situations. Only non Harley and not a very good reception. Didn't care really

Wish I had some pics, this was before the smart phone, and  by most nights end, we were intoxicated on thc and alcohol!

[pjlogue]

I have found the older Harley riders around my age are friendlier than the younger ones.  One of the first rides I took on my 76 after I had finished restoring it, I had stopped at a T intersection and an older guy on a full dresser rode by.  I pulled out and we came to a stop light.  I was behind him and he pointed at the ground next to him in a demanding way.  I pulled up next to him and he barked "what year is that?"  I said '76 and he got a big smile on  his face and said "that's the best restoration I've ever seen of one of those"  He said he used to own one years ago and those engines would run forever.  He made one of my first rides after restoration that much more enjoyable.  I have had a number of compliments since then from Harley riders.  All older guys.  When out riding, it's the older riders on Harley's that usually give a wave.  The younger guys tend to have the attitude and aren't that friendly.  To each his own I guess.

Your story of taking 2nd place in a Harley bike show is fantastic!  Don't think I'd have the stones to enter my bike in a Harley show.  Not around here anyway. 

-P.

[nvr2old]

I've been a disk jockey for almost 40 years, and I remember once when Harley Davidson was celebrating..(whatever year)..an anniversary and were doing a benefit ride for MS and wanted a "local radio personality" to go along on the 150 mile ride with them and do call-ins along the way.  I was hesitant because at the time I had an '81 Honda CB750F with a full race fairing.  I showed up for the ride..obviously the only non-Harley of a couple hundred participants.  I got the stink eye the second I got off my bike.  I went into the pre-ride meeting, was introduced as a representative of my radio station and then joined in the staggered que to make the ride.  Not one rider would allow me to ride in their "formation".  They would either speed up or slow down so that I was singled out.  They wanted to stop every 25 miles it seemed like at a cafe, bar, tourist interest..whatever..and I was never approached or talked to even one time.  After 2 stops I said to hell with it.  I lit out for our destination by myself, did the phone-ins, talked about what a great ride it was and how cool that it was for raising money and awareness for MS....got back on my bike and headed home.  I rode for probably 50 miles before I even saw the Harley riders lumbering along on their way to the final destination.  The fact that they couldn't put their prejudice aside for even a charity ride really bothered me.  I have known many Harley owners since, a lot of them very friendly..but this day left a bad taste in my mouth, even all these years later.

[rusty2078]

There may be a bit of a correlation between these attitudes, and maintaining a "tradition" and certain "values" that are now rather outdated and causing the company to hemorrhage value, when many other segments of the motorcycling community are burgeoning.

[pjlogue]

There may be a bit of a correlation between these attitudes, and maintaining a "tradition" and certain "values" that are now rather outdated and causing the company to hemorrhage value, when many other segments of the motorcycling community are burgeoning.

I think your thought is on target.  I wonder what the Harley traditionalists would think if someone showed up with the electric Harley.  I would think they would have quite a mental knot. LOL.

-P.

[RAFster122s]

Local Harley dealer had some event a couple weeks ago in city close by and it must have lasted 4-5 days. They had the lighted roadway signs on that end of town near the dealer on most major roads warning motorist of motorcycles in the area. There are always motorcyclists in the area, but, just not so many.  No clue what their event was and don’t really care.

Some Harley riders will wave to you in the area and others do not.  Been riding my VStrom and surprised at the number of cruiser riders who do wave. It is safer just to nod your head, but don’t know if the would feel it acknowledged if you only nodded at them...

[BigJimG]

I ride my 75 F regularly to a of bike night near me, mostly Harley riders, and a few metric cruisers.  At first, there was always someone coming up to me and telling me about their old 750/500, or just looking it over with a nostalgic look in their eye.  Now I'm one of the regulars, so now it's only the non regulars who say something.  I have noticed a few more vintage bikes coming out to the bike nights though.  A really nice airhead showed up the other night, I have to admit, that one had me really drooling...

[1976cb750f836]

I just dont understand the whole owning a HD culture? I have friends that now in 50s that have gotton rid of their jap bike and now own a HD? I ask them why, none say, performance, reliability,  or good ride, they say always wanted one? I think it a prestige thing? What others think thing? I've rode them, don't want one. Only 1 I ever rode that I kinda liked was a sporster with big bore kit.
Part 2 of my HD bike show story.
Their were 4-5 judges, bike shop owner was 1 of them. We kinda knew one of the others. At the end of the judging we saw them kinda arguing among themselves , minutes later they announced the winners and handed out trophies.  After the show we ask the judge we knew what was going on, he said my buds bike really won, but the HD dealer pitched such a fit, said it would not be right to awards a non HD bike 1st place, at a HD dealer show, and he was paying the bill for all the show, so he won.  Dirty politics . We did not tell anyone at the show. Heck, my bud would have benn happy 5th place! LOL all in all it was a good day, and of coarse their was a wet T shirt show with a couple of flashes.

[Gurp]

people love different. in a world of bolt on chrome a built Honda is always a draw!

[carnivorous chicken]

I just dont understand the whole owning a HD culture? I have friends that now in 50s that have gotton rid of their jap bike and now own a HD? I ask them why, none say, performance, reliability,  or good ride, they say always wanted one? I think it a prestige thing? What others think thing?

This. As well as oil leaks.

I brought a CB160 to a show that was 90% Harleys and took first... but they had a best Japanese category (and to be fair there were only about 5 Japanese bikes there).

But a lot of the older, more serious riders like the older Japanese bikes because they had one when they started. And I have younger friends who started with an old Honda, then got Harleys. Some people consider Hondas "starter bikes" which is funny given what you note above. I have friends who brag about how cool their Harleys are and literally five seconds later are talking about how bolts rattled off their bike on the freeway. I guess surviving is something to brag about?

Harleys can be fun. I rode a 1200 in an 883 frame and did the ton, but my hands and feet were numb when I got home. I'm happy to stick with my "starter" bikes.

[spotty]

people love different. in a world of bolt on chrome a built Honda is always a draw!

in one of the larger HD dealers in australia, they have a 'fitting room' which is not as you might think where you go to try on your factory approved tshirts or chaps, no, its a large glass room where you can watch the factory trained technicians fit all of the factory approved bolt on accessories for you, there are couches and a cappucino machine to keep you comfortable while you watch all that money you've spent to look different gets bolted on

[Gurp]

people love different. in a world of bolt on chrome a built Honda is always a draw!

in one of the larger HD dealers in australia, they have a 'fitting room' which is not as you might think where you go to try on your factory approved tshirts or chaps, no, its a large glass room where you can watch the factory trained technicians fit all of the factory approved bolt on accessories for you, there are couches and a cappucino machine to keep you comfortable while you watch all that money you've spent to look different gets bolted on

F*cking designer bikers......
Might as well have Sons of Anarchy on in the background and a desk girl to tell them all how tough they look😂😂😂
I guess I'll never understand that Prestige of owning a harley.
I had one a 1958 XLCH. had to sell Eventually I'll find another pre 68 sporty but thats all I want in HD.