• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Harley owners: Born or Made?

I prefer to refer to it as "The Mighty Ural", if you please. I feel the pain of the HD rider. The Mighty Ural is often the target of ridicule and scorn, but unfortunately the attacks are all too often justified and take place on Ural forums. :blush

Some irony there! The HD riders are also pretty rough on corporate- even though they make the most fantastic bikes in the universe. Is my new Royal Enfield Himalayan between a Ural and a Harley? or a Ural and a GS? asking for a friend...
 
I don't mind a moderately loud exhaust, but some are simply ridiculous. Drag pipes on anything I can't stand. some of the more open mufflers are loud, but not piercingly loud. That said, my Harley had stock mufflers. Loud pipes and long trips wear on a person.

As far as stuck up, my sh** don't stink riders, the Ural riders are the worst! ;-) :rofl
 
I shouldn't do this, but I will. I've just spent two hours with a Harley owner who was looking at my R1100, for his friend,who was thinking of buying it. I must say it was some of the most tiresome time I've had to endure for a while. Of course I also have to do the same thing with my brother in law and his Harley at Christmas, and other Harley owners whom I chance to meet. My question is: is buying a Harley what seems to turn these guys in to know-it-all, arrogant jerks, or, is it just that that's the type of person who buys one. " Harleys are the absolute best; no other make compares; the rest of us are apparently too stupid to understand that obvious fact; were not supporting true American companies," etc, etc.)
If people want to own them, and decorate their entire wardrobe and truck and everything else right down to their underwear with free advertising for Harley, go ahead. We're already forced to listen to the braying exhaust of these little tanks, but must the rest of us also listen to the endless glorifying of this brand by their proud owners? Give it a rest, boys.

Look at three concepts: Brand tribalism, motivated reasoning and confirmation bias. My observations with HD is that a lot of it revolves around brand tribalism and the bucket they fall into is pretty consistent in terms of the belief boxes checked off. Whatever. I haven't found that they now-it-all, arrogant jerks, but I have noticed they are set in their ways and aren't open to different experiences. Bikes or anything else. Again, whatever. I would move on and feel blessed you didn't sell it to his friend.
 
Steve, Stebe, natrab, and PUB are right on. :thumb

I've had a couple of HDs, ridden quite a few others over the years, several of my friends ride them, and I've even been in a situation very similar to what Stebe experienced - a bunch of us, including a couple of HDs, a couple of BMWs, a couple of Hondas, and a Yamaha, had stopped at a popular "gathering point", and the rectum who came up to me after we had parked didn't notice what bike I came in on... He starts mouthing off about the Japanese bikes while the rest of my friends are watching closely (and giggling, 'coz they already know how I handle things)... After hearing this tirade for a minute or two, he says "That's your Honda over there, right..?" "No, I'm on that red BMW RT over there." Oddly, his attitude and mouth instantly changed, still not "accepting", but at least not so condescending... Then he noticed my guys inching closer, so he shut up and left.

On the other side of the coin, I've stopped several times for dead HDs by the side of the road, and never got any crap at all, including from obvious 1%er-type groups... The riders who actually have a broader range of experience recognize what bikes like mine are for (and who the "real riders" are) and easily accomplish all in the line of duty.

Usually this attitude issue is born of ignorance - to SO many people, "motorcycle" means Harley and they aren't aware of how many different brands (and styles within those brands) are out there. They're influenced by their equally ignorant friends who have never ridden anything else, so not only are they ignorant (note that I'm not saying "stupid"), but they honestly have no "outside" experience and nothing to compare their rides (or loyalties) to.
 
People like myself will, on occasion, "bash" Harley owners. I most often do it after a Saturday and Sunday of listening to the constant "rolling thunder" of countless Harleys thundering past my house all day which, unfortunately, is near a national park. The bikes didn't put those aftermarket pipes on by themselves. But we all have to enjoy them with the "Look at me!" attitude. Same goes with the black and orange bandanas instead of helmets, and the obligatory "Rattlesnake Gulch Harley Davidson" Tee shirt for road rash protection. And we could add some painted skulls and pointy mirrors on the bike also, just for safety sake.

It's like dealing with a bunch of children. Motorcycles are dangerous to ride, and getting more so all the time with American's addiction to phones. I'm missing the logic that Harley riders seems to feel they are just big, shiny toys to polish up and annoy everyone with the noise. As for the idea that "other brands are noisy too", well, not that I can see in the vast majority of cases. It's Harleys. And the owners seem to be mighty proud of it. " The louder the better!", I've heard a few say. Did I mention children?

I'm sure that there are fine people riding Harleys. I wave to Harleys on my BMW, and most times they wave back. But by golly, I don't have conversations with Harley owners when they are off their beloved steeds, I get a lecture. And it is tiresome.
 
I was at Daytona 200 with my bike this year and thought I was clever getting there early and parking under a hard canopy, open to bike parking, to keep my bike from being baked in the sun. When the race was over, won by 3 feet after 200 miles of racing, I returned to saddle up and head for Key West. The loud pipe crowd, revving their engines engines excessively under the canopy had to be causing physical damage. Not such a great idea parking under the canopy at this point. I hurriedly got my ear plugs in and it was still really really loud. It reminded me of a time refueling the car, under a hard canopy, and having a single bike being revved to excess. Its not necessarily about a specific manufacturer. We have people in our community, who claim to be educated, taking race bikes (older two strokes) and annoying the hell out of the neighbors. They don't have the skill, inclination or nerve to take the race bike to a race track but its OK to run it around like a NOOB. Its not the 1960's any longer.


Wayne Koppa
Grayling, MI
#71,449
 
I was at the Springfield Mile dirt track races one year. Sunday it was raining and eventually the races were rescheduled for Monday. Much of the crowd had to work on Monday so many riders were preparing to head home in the rain. As I was putting on by bright yellow Dry Rider Rainsuit standing under a canopy several cruiser riders were putting on their trash bags - literally. They wrapped their arms and legs with trash bags and duct tape. With a hole for their heads and two more for their arms they were tightly wrapped in plastic and tape when the Sun came out, and the clouds disappeared. I took off my rainsuit and rode away as they were cutting off their trash bag-duct tape rainsuits in what was sweltering sunshine. They were all sweating like sinners in church.
 
I was at the Springfield Mile dirt track races one year.

Speaking of dirt track, I was at the Syracuse Mile once when Bubba Shobert was cleaning up in flat track - on a Honda when everyone else was on an XR750. He was roundly booed by the crowd every time he came out for practice and when he was accepting the winner's trophy. I wonder why? :banghead
 
Speaking of dirt track, I was at the Syracuse Mile once when Bubba Shobert was cleaning up in flat track - on a Honda when everyone else was on an XR750. He was roundly booed by the crowd every time he came out for practice and when he was accepting the winner's trophy. I wonder why? :banghead

That would have been about the same time period as I was in Springfield with the guys in their trash bags. :)
 
It may amaze you at the cost of that factory part. MBRP may have something less costly.
OM

I already had a dose of sticker shock! Somewhere around $350
My tube of muffler sealer was dried up and not enough for the blowout! :laugh
 
As I was putting on by bright yellow Dry Rider Rainsuit standing under a canopy several cruiser riders were putting on their trash bags - literally. They wrapped their arms and legs with trash bags and duct tape. With a hole for their heads and two more for their arms they were tightly wrapped in plastic and tape


On a trip we stopped for gas and a snack, riding Harleys. Before taking off we looked at weather on our phones and decided to put on raingear. Their was a rider on a newer Goldwing visiting with us, he was traveling on vacation. He mentioned the rain gear. It turned out he was going the same direction as us and asked if we really needed rain gear? I showed him the weather radar on my phone and said I was sure we needed it. It was hard to judge his reaction, but it appeared to me the thought of needing rain gear never crossed his mind. We were by a larger city and I told him I would be hitting a sporting goods store and see what he could find, or be prepared to get soaked, or just hang out for a few hours until it passed. A few miles down the road it was pouring rain and we road in rain for a couple hours. No idea about the GW rider, never saw him again.
 
Speaking of dirt track, I was at the Syracuse Mile once when Bubba Shobert was cleaning up in flat track - on a Honda when everyone else was on an XR750. He was roundly booed by the crowd every time he came out for practice and when he was accepting the winner's trophy. I wonder why? :banghead


I guess they would have loved him more if he was riding some antiquated motorcycle instead of the modern Honda.
 
As a Harley and RT owner, I totally understand. While my Harley has its place, and a feel of it own, I never pretend the the brand and the lifestyle is anything more than what it is. While I prefer the comfort of and tech of my RT, the Harley occupies a totally different area of my brain, and it’s satisfying when I ride it. It’s like being married, and having that one thing your wife tells you not to have but you secretly do it behind her back hahahaha. (Not another woman either lmao)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
So I am compelled to tell another story. Back in the '80s when we lived in Topeka, Kansas, a couple of local police officers with the know-how to access motor vehicle records and identify all local BMW owners ( they both worked as detectives regarding stolen vehicles) contacted us about forming a BMW club and the Heartland Riders club was born. While it was active it was a great small local club. We had ONE business meeting a year, in November, to plan all of the monthly activities for the next year. No monthly debating society for this club! New Years Day Ride, Valentines Day Ride to Russell Stover's Candy Store, St. Patrick's Day Ride, etc.. Every month! Some club member became in charge of each month.

So we were on a ride - I forget which month. We had a member who was a Harley rider. The club was mostly BMW folk but we didn't discriminate against other riders. We were on a monthly club ride and had stopped at a historic site - it was a cemetery from the days of Quantrille's Raiders and the burning of Lawrence, Kansas. It started to rain and I put on my OLD Dry Rider, yellowish gray but used to be yellow rainsuit. He, in his leather jacket and chaps opined, "If I had a rainsuit that ugly I would wear it."

Flash forward to early December and the club's annual Christmas/Holiday party. We had a gift exchange. Voni and I were in charge of the festivities. I had purchased an Aerostich Roadcrafter suit and dutifully wrapped my disreputable grayish rain suit as a gift. So we are at the restaurant, in front of the crowd, picking up wrapped gifts and drawing names from a hat. When my carefully wrapped but recognizable rain suit came up I drew a slip from the hat and called the Harley rider's name. It didn't matter what name was really on that paper. I threw it back in the hat and nobody noticed. He got the rainsuit as his Christmas prize. He actually carried it and wore it a few times. The statute of limitations has now run so I am able to admit my complicity in the fixing of this Xmas gift exchange.
 
Last edited:
On a trip we stopped for gas and a snack, riding Harleys. Before taking off we looked at weather on our phones and decided to put on raingear. Their was a rider on a newer Goldwing visiting with us, he was traveling on vacation. He mentioned the rain gear. It turned out he was going the same direction as us and asked if we really needed rain gear? I showed him the weather radar on my phone and said I was sure we needed it. It was hard to judge his reaction, but it appeared to me the thought of needing rain gear never crossed his mind. We were by a larger city and I told him I would be hitting a sporting goods store and see what he could find, or be prepared to get soaked, or just hang out for a few hours until it passed. A few miles down the road it was pouring rain and we road in rain for a couple hours. No idea about the GW rider, never saw him again.

Stupid Honda riders! They annoy the heck outta me- that and their quiet bikes...who knows where they are- till they pass you.
 
As a Harley and RT owner, I totally understand. While my Harley has its place, and a feel of it own, I never pretend the the brand and the lifestyle is anything more than what it is. While I prefer the comfort of and tech of my RT, the Harley occupies a totally different area of my brain, and it’s satisfying when I ride it. It’s like being married, and having that one thing your wife tells you not you to secretly behind her back hahahaha. (Not another woman either lmao)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself;I am large; I contain multitudes." (W. Whitman)

Thank-you. Love my RT- loaded and touring Southern or Western U>S>A>for weeks....love my loud Heritage softail...cruising back roads of upstate NY on a Sunday afternoon.
 
Back
Top