ya hurt me terry... and i thought we were buds. 
seriously terry? i thought i might have said it before, but maybe not, that i'd own a hd if the mood struck. not my first choice but not out of the question either.
i'm no different than many others here, including you, in that i like to tease every once in a while. you can read more into my posts (clearly you have) if you want but i'm not gonna cry myself to sleep over your disapproval. fyi, because this thread went so far away from harmless ribbing i thought about locking it, but for a while i chose to ignore it, thinking it would die off.
if i do have any issue (with the hd culture) it's with those who take the whole image thing way too seriously- hence the point of the video on page one. many of the credit card insta-bikers deserve a good natured ribbing. but then again... whatever floats yer boat is ok with me. i'm tickled people share my interest in machines. but... where i come from if ya stick it out for the world to see, making some statement, etc... expect someone to take that same liberty to say they don't like it or think it's funny.
and as long as we're making personal observations terry i'd like to point out that, in the course of your utterly subjective and over the top psycho analyzing, you have revealed how overly sensitive you are to criticism, serious or not, of hd. maybe there are those in this thread who fit your professional assessment of harley-phobia but but not here. truthfully, considering what a tough guy you are, i'm a bit shocked over your thin skin.
Nah, not thin skinned at all Bill, and I apologise for hurting your feelings mate, maybe you've read too deeply into my post? It's just that I get tired of the stereo typing of Harley Davidson's and Harley owners that is so prevalent in this thread, which of course you started mate, with your initial inflammatory swipe at Harleys. A wise man from Queensland recently told me that "stereotyping makes you look ignorant" and he was right, but it appears that it's OK for folks who don't know what they're talking about to "stereotype" Harley's as unreliable, oil leaking, poor handling farm machinery with crap brakes, and the only folk out there who'd consider owning one are Hell's Angels, or Hells Angels wannabes.
The fact is that here in Oz, most of the Harley "demographic" is the over 40's folk who's kids have grown up and moved out, their houses are paid for, and they've got the funds to buy themselves a Harley after years of working hard and "doing the right thing" financially. They like the look and the sound of a Harley, they don't care for "cutting edge technology" and couldn't care less that their bikes make less HP than a modern 600cc Jap "Plastic Racer", which they wouldn't be seen dead on, even if their bad backs would allow them to be able to ride one. Here in Oz, you can go to jail if you ride your bike as fast as these things are capable of, so if you can't enjoy riding one at legal speeds they're largely pointless, and only good for the "My bike's faster than yours, so therefore it must be better" set.
Harley's, on the other hand, are useful "real world" bikes, large, comfortable low revving bikes, capable of propelling their riders along comfortably at legal highway speeds for long distances, with a minimum of fuss. Yeah, Harley's "Quality Control" suffered in the 1970's when the company struggled under the AMF ownership, (of course, quality control was a major issue in the US in the 1970's as any Ford or Chevrolet owner of the era will attest) but that's a long dead issue, and since the release of the "Evolution" engine in the early 1980's, all those stereotypical comments about Harley's build quality are largely just bigotted BS, parroted by people who don't have a clue what they're talking about. You know, the kind of folk who know nothing about anything, but can talk about it all day...............
I don't own a Harley now, but I have owned a 1984 Sporty in the past, and it was a great bike. It started first push of the button, it didn't leak oil, it handled better than a CB750 and almost as good as a Moto Guzzi MK1 Lemans on a ride we did from Melbourne to Bathurst in 1987 when I had the opportunity to ride all three bikes on the 1200 mile round trip. It's disc brakes were as good as the Guzzi's, and it got better fuel economy than both of the other bikes. I've got friends who own Harleys though, they belong to clubs that ride all types of bikes, and I get to trade bikes with them on rides so I regularly ride Harleys, and I don't remember an occasion when one of their bikes failed to finish a ride. None of these guys are "Hells Accountants", they're just good blokes who like riding their Harley's, but they like my CB750's (many have owned them in the past) and my Triumph too, and don't hang sh1t on other guys bikes. Cheers, Terry.
