Harley Davidson

[bikerfish1100]

Well,...motorcycles aside,...engines aside....it just goes to further prove that we have become a nation of control freaks.....

huh?

 

[71243]

huh?

What I mean is....everyone thinks they're way is the only way. Ride what I ride, because I have it. it's the only way, etc...seems to be the attitude. Or atleast that's what I observe?

And not just motorcycles....some folks just can't help but to tell you how to live your life. Maybe I'm not making my point? or maybe it's just me ?

 

[ka5ysy]

The Street Rod is the only Vrod that has mid controls, and isn't produced any longer. All Vrods now have forward controls, which I find uncomfortable. Legs out ahead of me, and arms stretched for the handlebars isn't a good positions for me, and I suspect for many other riders also. The engine is amazing, but it's packaged into the model that has the smallest customer base. I wish they would expand the Revolution engine line to include an "RT" style sport touring bike. That machine would be a bike to be reckoned with.

I looked hard at the Street Rod when it appeared, but the position of the non-adjustable brake pedal made for either dragging the rear brake or a very uncomfortable right foot position for me. Sad, because it is an outstanding bike otherwise.

The V-Rod Muscle is a good looking bike too, but has the most uncomfortable seat I have ever tried, and the foot-forward position sucks. All the current models have poor cornering clearance, meeting that design criteria for Harley.

 

[bikerfish1100]

What I mean is....everyone thinks they're way is the only way. Ride what I ride, because I have it. it's the only way, etc...seems to be the attitude. Or atleast that's what I observe?

And not just motorcycles....some folks just can't help but to tell you how to live your life. Maybe I'm not making my point? or maybe it's just me ?

i get your pont (now that it was stated), but could not/still do not see its connection to my comment.

 

[JoeDabbs]

Maybe it's the interpretation of "ain't". That means "if it isn't" not if it "is". For example, "If I ain't got food", means "If I don't have food" - hence: "If it ain't a shovel" means if it "isn't a shovel". Just sayin' and guessin', here.

 

[42906]

I looked hard at the Street Rod when it appeared, but the position of the non-adjustable brake pedal made for either dragging the rear brake or a very uncomfortable right foot position for me. Sad, because it is an outstanding bike otherwise.

The V-Rod Muscle is a good looking bike too, but has the most uncomfortable seat I have ever tried, and the foot-forward position sucks. All the current models have poor cornering clearance, meeting that design criteria for Harley.

I understand your criticism of the brake pedal position. I had the original seat foam modified to make the saddle thicker mainly by filling in the butt pocket to the point where ther is very little in the way of a step. What step there is is now further back. I sit higher this way and this makes using the brake pedal much easier, at least for me. It cost $200 at the local upholsterer to do this.
If the Street Rod still interests you, there are still a few new left over new ones out there and nice low mile used ones turn up fairly often if you keep your eye peeled for them.
Harleys aren't complete bikes when they come from the factory. It took me a while to adjust to this fact. You have to customize them to some degree to make them what you want. It isn't a complete turn key bike you buy and ride as is. The dealers understand this too. It is deliberate I believe. Once you accept this and re-cage your BMW brain to be creative, you find you can make a Street Rod into something very competitive to your Beemer in terms of day to day function and for me every bit as fun to ride. Maybe even moreso ..............

 

[mika]

snip...
Harleys aren't complete bikes when they come from the factory. It took me a while to adjust to this fact. You have to customize them to some degree to make them what you want. It isn't a complete turn key bike you buy and ride as is. The dealers understand this too. It is deliberate I believe. Once you accept this and re-cage your BMW brain to be creative, you find you can make a Street Rod into something very competitive to your Beemer in terms of day to day function and for me every bit as fun to ride. Maybe even moreso ..............

Point well taken. I have yet to own a bike that was complete from the factory. Everyone has taken a bit of work to be what I wanted. I have been playing for years with my current Roadster.

 

[Delaware.Dave]

Point well taken. I have yet to own a bike that was complete from the factory. Everyone has taken a bit of work to be what I wanted. I have been playing for years with my current Roadster.

I hear that point of view from time to time, but I've owned three Harleys over about 15 years and While I've added farkles, I've never felt the need to make changes to seat, bars, grips etc...

My previous Harley was a 2007 ElectraGlide Ultra, and I did install the hi-flow air cleaner, which alone added about 7hp and torque and made 6th gear more usable below 60mph.

 

[ka5ysy]

I understand your criticism of the brake pedal position. I had the original seat foam modified to make the saddle thicker mainly by filling in the butt pocket to the point where ther is very little in the way of a step. What step there is is now further back. I sit higher this way and this makes using the brake pedal much easier, at least for me. It cost $200 at the local upholsterer to do this.
If the Street Rod still interests you, there are still a few new left over new ones out there and nice low mile used ones turn up fairly often if you keep your eye peeled for them.
Harleys aren't complete bikes when they come from the factory. It took me a while to adjust to this fact. You have to customize them to some degree to make them what you want. It isn't a complete turn key bike you buy and ride as is. The dealers understand this too. It is deliberate I believe. Once you accept this and re-cage your BMW brain to be creative, you find you can make a Street Rod into something very competitive to your Beemer in terms of day to day function and for me every bit as fun to ride. Maybe even moreso ..............

That is an interesting fix to the brake pedal issue. Like you, I had to upgrade my (BMW) seat at considerably more cost, but for me, it is ideal now (Kontour Seat) . I have upgraded the lighting (HID and HP LED), cooling (RT-P fan kit), Power distribution (switching fuseblock), engine guards, etc. Pretty much all bikes get upgraded somewhat, but I have never had to do anything with my BMW engines. They just work, and that is a good thing.

A good friend of mine has a Road Glide Ultra that gets up to Tennessee and NC quite a bit, and the first trip he made resulted in doing "stage two" and "stage three" upgrades to make the bike perform properly for him, and he was not a real happy camper having spent nearly $32K initially and then having to spend about $4000 more on upgrades to make the bike ride well. I see that situation happen all the time, and chuckle to myself of the necessity to do that. The funny thing is that all my Harley buddies think the BMW bikes are way more expensive than the Harleys, and will mostly not even try a test ride on a Beemer. The even funnier thing is that when you finally get a Harley guy on a Beemer, especially the RT, they are amazed at :

1. The fast acceleration
2. The brakes
3. Lack of engine heat
4. Nothing scrapes in turns !

One day soon, the Motor Company will realize what they actually have in the V-Rod platform and build a great sport touring bike that performs well, does not scrape at high lean angles and has great ergos for the rider.

 

[lmo1131]

One day soon, the Motor Company will realize what they actually have in the V-Rod platform and build a great sport touring bike that performs well, does not scrape at high lean angles and has great ergos for the rider.

Well, they got the "sport" part right with the starting with the early X-series bikes (appearance-wise anyway)

But I think there's is still too much corporate baggage within HD for a proper touring machine; it would undermine their foundation product line. But it would be a great platform for a small shop to do a conversion based on. Someone like Ness could easily pull it off; besides the production capability and distribution, he's already got a following and if he offered it folk would see it as "cool".

And it would be.

What would be nice would be if you could buy a bare-bones "fleet" bike; a running chassis, with no tank, fenders, chrome, etc.

Just my $.02

 

[arthurdent]

A good friend of mine has a Road Glide Ultra that gets up to Tennessee and NC quite a bit, and the first trip he made resulted in doing "stage two" and "stage three" upgrades to make the bike perform properly for him, and he was not a real happy camper having spent nearly $32K initially and then having to spend about $4000 more on upgrades to make the bike ride well. I see that situation happen all the time, and chuckle to myself of the necessity to do that. The funny thing is that all my Harley buddies think the BMW bikes are way more expensive than the Harleys, and will mostly not even try a test ride on a Beemer.

One day soon, the Motor Company will realize what they actually have in the V-Rod platform and build a great sport touring bike that performs well, does not scrape at high lean angles and has great ergos for the rider.

Funny, you could substitute PC for HD and Mac for BMW and the conversation would be quite similar...

 

[ka5ysy]

Funny, you could substitute PC for HD and Mac for BMW and the conversation would be quite similar...

Had not thought of that, but you are absolutely correct. That, among other things, is why I am a Mac user from the first one. Except when John Scully totally FUBAR'd the product.


Poll: How many Mac users here are online with Mac's ?

 

[ka5ysy]

Well, they got the "sport" part right with the starting with the early X-series bikes (appearance-wise anyway)

The XR1200X is probably the nicest riding bike HD is making right now. Somehow, engineering managed to sneak adjustable rear shocks by the bean counters, That makes a nice setup and good ride with pretty good stock performance, and can do twisties pretty well. It's the only current HD that I actually would maybe consider if I could not have the RT.

 

[K1600_gtl]

Poll: How many Mac users here are online with Mac's ?

have 4 macs, and been a Mac user from 10 years, since before I ever got into BMW's (either their cars or bikes)..

 

[36654]

I don't eat at Mcdonalds,especially big mac's for sure!

For the guy that paid $32K for his Harley then added $4K in upgrades and farkles, McDee's might be the only restaurant option. And to think, I'm having a hard time rationalizing 24K for a new FWD pick-up.....


Ya, I guess I am a PC........

 

[ka5ysy]

I don't eat at Mcdonalds,especially big mac's for sure!

So you are not a Mac Pro ???

 

[Delaware.Dave]

I use Linux, so I swear no allegiances to either side.

 

[arthurdent]

Unfortunate hijack?

iMac owned, MacBook from school, iPad from school and PC for running the wireless router and streaming vid when we want to watch broadcast shows downstairs. Man is that PC a pain -every time I boot it upit takes 10min to get ready after downloading updates. Yeef.

 

[easy]

You have to love this place. We start out by talking about Harley Davidson & Schultz and are now descussing the merits of Mac.

My phone is dying, so I'll chime in again when we get around to new smartphones.

E.

 

[42906]

That is an interesting fix to the brake pedal issue. Like you, I had to upgrade my (BMW) seat at considerably more cost, but for me, it is ideal now (Kontour Seat) . I have upgraded the lighting (HID and HP LED), cooling (RT-P fan kit), Power distribution (switching fuseblock), engine guards, etc. Pretty much all bikes get upgraded somewhat, but I have never had to do anything with my BMW engines. They just work, and that is a good thing.

A good friend of mine has a Road Glide Ultra that gets up to Tennessee and NC quite a bit, and the first trip he made resulted in doing "stage two" and "stage three" upgrades to make the bike perform properly for him, and he was not a real happy camper having spent nearly $32K initially and then having to spend about $4000 more on upgrades to make the bike ride well. I see that situation happen all the time, and chuckle to myself of the necessity to do that. The funny thing is that all my Harley buddies think the BMW bikes are way more expensive than the Harleys, and will mostly not even try a test ride on a Beemer. The even funnier thing is that when you finally get a Harley guy on a Beemer, especially the RT, they are amazed at :

1. The fast acceleration
2. The brakes
3. Lack of engine heat
4. Nothing scrapes in turns !

One day soon, the Motor Company will realize what they actually have in the V-Rod platform and build a great sport touring bike that performs well, does not scrape at high lean angles and has great ergos for the rider.

Oh, Harley knows all right. At the International Bike Show in Long Beach CA in 2011 one of the people on the HD stand told me he didn't want to hear another rider cry for a touring or sport touring version of the V-Rod. He said everyone at the MOCO knows some riders want a touring V-Rod.
There are a couple of factory people, assembly line staff, who post on a V-Rod discussion board who claim there was a touring version of the V-Rod prototyped and then cancelled, with all the prototype machines later crushed.

Have you ever seen the sport touring version of the Nova V-4? That is the bike I want Harley to build. I have told them as much several times at different venues, but the stock answer is that HD build cruisers, not that kind of bike. When they finally pull their heads out of their collective backsides we'll hear the pop all the way over on the left coast.

Now we're talking. Put a modern fork, brakes and wheel sizes on something like this, ditch the tail pack, and we're on to something. I had money saved for a Nova but HD canned it. I bought a BMW and never looked back until HD popped the Street Rod out by surprise.
Notice that wheel style turns up again on the XR-1200 and the under seat fuel tank and air box between the riders legs turn up again on the V-Rod. Both features first showed up on the original Gold Wing and then the Yamaha Venture, which may have been because someone at HD jumped ship to Yamaha. Take a look at this, a prototype HD called the 1100 OHC, and tell me if you don't see a lot of Virago in the engine.

Oh, what could have been ........