The General Motorbikers Discussion Thread

Okay, I'm biting my tongue with questions at the Sportster :p , but you're not a Honda fanboy at all, aren't ya? :D
 
I've ridden others, I've even bought others and flipped them (as in sold). Borrowed some from friends - and the one thing I can say is that my Hondas almost always got me home (with the exception of the twin cam 450s and the 500T). Can't say that about most other brands, and my 'other brand' owning friends acknowledge that. Also doesn't hurt that Honda has the best parts support of the Japanese makers - Kawasaki's favorite three letters for anyone with a bike that's been out of production for more than a couple of years is "NLA", for example.

It's not like I don't look at other brands when going shopping, either. It's just that I keep coming back to Honda as the best mix of design, user-friendly handling and reliability. They sell what I want to buy and ride for a long, long time; I don't usually trade my long term fleet in on a regular basis unlike some riders - for example, unless something happens, I don't see the 919 or my 700 necessarily leaving my fleet in the next ten years.
 
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Must spread some more awesomeness areound before giving back to Spectre again.

Wow, and to think I almost bought a '71 CB450 off a buddy of mine back when I was looking for my first bike.
 
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Yeah, those things were terrible. Kawasaki definitely had the better medium displacement parallel twins in the 70s.
 
Nope, I totally understand with Honda and its bullet proof engines and its parts support. :D

With Dave owning a 11 year old VFR, he can still go to the local dealership and pick up a minuscule obscure part which is still in stock. Needless, I'm jealous. I've owned a slightly younger Kawi and Suzuki, and they always have to order in every niggling thing.

Yeah, I'm sad I didn't have the cash to pick up that VFR400 NC30.
 
Kiki said:
With Dave owning a 11 year old VFR, he can still go to the local dealership and pick up a minuscule obscure part which is still in stock. Needless, I'm jealous. I've owned a slightly younger Kawi and Suzuki, and they always have to order in every niggling thing.
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I can still do that with my 25 year old Honda for a surprising number of parts. For what I parts I do have to order, almost all of it shows up in just a couple of days, some bearing signs of very recent production and design improvements. Being able to do that results in better sustainability for a bike; and as some of you know I'm very much a fan of real sustainable designs. Not the faux, greenie ecomentalist type of 'sustainability,' either.

Amusingly, CrazyJeeper will probably be able to do the exact same thing with his 35 year old Honda. :p GL1000s are still wandering around in vast numbers. Anyone seen any of the contemporary competition lately? No? Well, that's part of the reason why. His bike is older than I am and they still stock parts for it.

I'm not real worried about parts support not being there for the 919 in ten years. :p :mrgreen:
 
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The words "Harley Davidson" never ever crossed my mind when I started reading the list. :lol:
Please amuse us and tell more. :mrgreen:
OT: Sick cat? Hope it's nothing serious!
 
Short version: I decided to try a Harley as a new bike to see what they were like. BIIIIG mistake. It broke down all the time, handled like crap, dealer support was awful and I kept getting solicitations to 'buy the lifestyle' to the point where my mailbox overflowed.

Shorter version: If you ever get 'that Harley thing' go to the doctor for an antifungal. It will clear it right up and be cheaper.

As for cat: Upper respiratory infection that had been hanging around got really really bad despite prior veterinary treatment/ongoing medication and he had a really bad night last night. Rushed him to the kitty hospital this morning, got him diagnosed; turned out to be pneumonia. He's back home on very strong antibiotics now and seems to be perking up a bit.
 
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:lol:
I lost count how many times I had this conversation with people that never had a motorcycle:

-Oh, you like motorcycles, huh?
-Yeah!
-You must dream of owning a Harley.
-No. Don?t like them.
-What? How can you not like Harleys?


Aw, poor kitty. Glad to hear he is improving.
 
Back in California I did a charity ride for diabetes research on a Honda Magna (750cc V4). As usual with charity rides the showing was entirely Harley, one big Shadow and me. The ride lasted all day and took us from residential streets to freeways to twisting bumpy Marin County roads and back again. The Magna handled it all far better than the Harleys in the group, especially when it came to the lumpy twisty section. The Magna was lighter and more nimble and the motor had about three times the effective RPM range.

When the ride ended at the BBQ location, I heard one of the guys who had been riding in the group bragging that he had sunk $8,000 into his motor and was now producing 75 bhp at the crank! Woooo! I kind of snickered and bit my lip, but he could tell that I wasn't impressed. He asked me what "that wimpy little import" put out and I had to say that it did just over 76 bhp at the wheel straight from the factory and the whole bike cost less than what he paid for his engine mods.
 
Blind_Io said:
Back in California I did a charity ride for diabetes research on a Honda Magna (750cc V4). As usual with charity rides the showing was entirely Harley, one big Shadow and me. The ride lasted all day and took us from residential streets to freeways to twisting bumpy Marin County roads and back again. The Magna handled it all far better than the Harleys in the group, especially when it came to the lumpy twisty section. The Magna was lighter and more nimble and the motor had about three times the effective RPM range.

When the ride ended at the BBQ location, I heard one of the guys who had been riding in the group bragging that he had sunk $8,000 into his motor and was now producing 75 bhp at the crank! Woooo! I kind of snickered and bit my lip, but he could tell that I wasn't impressed. He asked me what "that wimpy little import" put out and I had to say that it did just over 76 bhp at the wheel straight from the factory and the whole bike cost less than what he paid for his engine mods.
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Harley riders usually don?t discuss performance, so they tell you that "it?s not the horsepower, it?s the torque".
When you point out that even in the torque department the "wimpy imports" are better, they run away to that special place called "it?s the experience,man. If you have to ask, you?ll never understand".
 
Redliner said:
Harley riders usually don?t discuss performance, so they tell you that "it?s not the horsepower, it?s the torque".
When you point out that even in the torque department the "wimpy imports" are better, they run away to that special place called "it?s the experience,man. If you have to ask, you?ll never understand".
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The funny thing is that I know a couple actual "bikers"; the kind of guys who Harley is telling their flock they can be just by shelling out 15 grand for an uncompetitive bike and joining HOG. Both of them own foreign bikes (in addition to their Harleys) because they can recognize a good product. The kind of blind allegiance and conformity that HD peddles these days is exactly the kind of thing biker counterculture used to stand against.
 
Blind_Io said:
Fuck Harley, this will be the next great American motorcycle (I hope).
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:lol: That should look good to any fan of the VFR. I'd like to see Buell come back too, instead of just making race bikes. But I'm not going to hold my breath that either Motus or Buell will move many bikes.
 
Motus is trying to take on the giants of Ducati, Honda, and Yamaha. The biggest reservation I would have with a Motus is the lack of a dealer network, which is a major advantage to Honda (as Spectre and Kiki pointed out). If I can get the part number, I can order the parts I need from any Honda dealer - be it a car dealership or a licensed Honda lawnmower and generator dealer.

Still, I would love to put a Motus in the garage.
 
Harley riding is so disconnected from motorbiking I barely even consider Harleys (Harlies?) bikes; it's a different type of mentality. But, I won't judge, to each their own.

But old Sewing Machine Idle (seriously, the thing sounds just like my grandmother's Singer) has beaten the tar out of them at red lights more times than I can count ;)

Behold the 650cc sewing machine. He's scratched, dinged, and a little muddy/dusty, but also very well-loved :D

DSC00458-1.jpg


I have a few more photos I can post if anyone's interested. Our (my dad's and my) collection represents Britain, Canada, East Germany, and Japan (Austria if we're counting Rotax engines). I would have posted them already, but I didn't want to violate any unwritten 56k rules :(
 
Blind_Io said:
When the ride ended at the BBQ location, I heard one of the guys who had been riding in the group bragging that he had sunk $8,000 into his motor and was now producing 75 bhp at the crank! Woooo! I kind of snickered and bit my lip, but he could tell that I wasn't impressed. He asked me what "that wimpy little import" put out and I had to say that it did just over 76 bhp at the wheel straight from the factory and the whole bike cost less than what he paid for his engine mods.
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That mentality reminds me of a conversation I had with my uncle. I was telling him that I have been restoring hondas for fun, and he asked me why I don't mess with Harleys or old brit bikes like a buddy of his does. I replied because I like performance and reliability. I then explained the positive attributes of my Nighthawk, the 750cc inline 4 that makes about 80hp, good handling and cornering clearance, etc. To which he replied that sounds like a rice burner, and it didn't sound like he meant that in a positive sense. We agreed to disagree. But anyways, that mentality that still persists about Japanese bikes is like a fundamentalist religion. Just like I had a history professor, who noticed that I walked in carrying my helmet and asked me what I was riding, to which I replied "1984 Honda Interceptor" and he then said that someday I should get a real bike like a Harley.

I think not. If that is a real bike, I'll stick with my fake Japanese copies.
 
Crazyjeeper said:
That mentality reminds me of a conversation I had with my uncle. I was telling him that I have been restoring hondas for fun, and he asked me why I don't mess with Harleys or old brit bikes like a buddy of his does. I replied because I like performance and reliability. I then explained the positive attributes of my Nighthawk, the 750cc inline 4 that makes about 80hp, good handling and cornering clearance, etc. To which he replied that sounds like a rice burner, and it didn't sound like he meant that in a positive sense. We agreed to disagree. But anyways, that mentality that still persists about Japanese bikes is like a fundamentalist religion. Just like I had a history professor, who noticed that I walked in carrying my helmet and asked me what I was riding, to which I replied "1984 Honda Interceptor" and he then said that someday I should get a real bike like a Harley.

I think not. If that is a real bike, I'll stick with my fake Japanese copies.
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That mentality really gets on my nerves.
I will be the first to defend the people?s right to own whatever the hell they want, but that "Hur hur, Harleys are real bikes, hur hur" is just so STUPID. They could just say "Look, I like Harleys better, just because" and I would be happy with it.
 
Crazyjeeper said:
he then said that someday I should get a real bike like a Harley.

I think not. If that is a real bike, I'll stick with my fake Japanese copies.
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This gets under my skin more than any other motorcycle rhetoric. The only thing I have to say to this crap is this:

Real bikes go racing, call me when Harley is on the starting grid at MotoGP, until then STFU and go back to your steam-powered locomotive.
 
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