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I rode my 650 to the store yesterday afternoon and when I walked back to my bike there was this 50ish year old man looking at it. He asked me what year it was and I told him a 78. He then said, "Back in the day I owned a 75 harley and I remember wippen these jap bikes all day long."
I didn't say another word to him. I just got on a rode off.
I guess his memory was fading, in 75 you were lucky get a harley started let alone race anyone.

they say memory fades with age.or he had too much to drink.:laugh:

Uhhh, I know you younguns consider anyone over 25 decrepit but, I don't think a "50ish old man" is gonna have that kind of memory problem. I remember '75 very well, and I'm comming up on 57.
Although, if he was ridin' hardleys in the '70's it could have been, that the "green"(raid yard guard and paprika/PCP) he was smokin' just bored holes in his brain.

That's funny...I'm 50ish and back in the day, I owned a Z1 and it could eat any Harley on the road...in fact, it might still be able to give a good account of itself, if I only still owned it:laugh:

Back in the day of "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" I don't believe he was far off the track. More like mid 60's. His figures may be hazy as to WHEN but Hurley was a jap beater till the Black Bomber 450 came around and them HD's wern't all non starters. Remember the HD750 was one wicked tracker. Ya did the best thing to let him have his say and chalk it up to a muddled brain or just plain ugly prejudiced thought. What does it matter anyway. Beatin on the other guy's bikes runs both ways. As for the KZ650 or Z1 running a Hurley down...well....I know where to put my money as I think most of you do. And I know enough young'uns that don't pay enough attention to ever have memories and I can't even imagine what their senior moments will be like. Beevis and Buttheads part dux!

My memory of the 70's is, IMO, excellent. I can still remember seeing the Harleys at the dealer's showroom with drip pans under them because they all leaked.
In the 70's I remember, NO Harley would even try taking on a Kawasaki.

As much as I generally despise Harleys, and the guy is 99% chance of being full of crap, I've seen some decent running Harleys. Back when I had chambers and big carbs ect on my H2 I could generally run 12.40s in the quarter mile here in Denver (5800ft), the KZ650 would run around 14.3. There were several decent running Harley street bikes. I remember a 1000 sportster running around 12.70s and the neatest one I remember was some big hog complete with full fairing, bags and all running around 13.3. Either of these guys would have had a 650 in a race pretty easy. How long they continued running that well is the question though.:laugh:

Seems to be the point. Ya can't be too generalized when slinging crap at motorcycles...no matter what the brand. There was a Kaw dealer in the next state that had Magilla Gorilla building and fixin' bikes. You pretty quickly learned who to go to and who to shun. My bro had to pretty much rebuild a brand new KZ750 for a friend that this dealer sold new and wrenched on. Just a complete butcher job. Not some shadetree mechanic but a dealer moving machines. I know of a motorcycle place that was top shelf until the old man died and his family drove it into ashes with shoddy workmanship and a too bad attitude. I have seen my share of Jap, British and American oil leakers, non starters and general bad bikes. It usually starts with incompetence or laziness and THOSE two goons have NO brand loyalty.:huh:

I have a feeling the old gent was refering to a 75 CUI, not a 1975 year HD.

i remember my dear ol dad preaching to me in the early 70s that harleys were the king and everything else was junk untill his road his 1st z1 around 74 and bought his own in 75 then there was suddenly no more talk about harleys around the house! when i got my 1st basket case z1 running around 80-81 i went from a 125 hodaka dirtbike and the only thing that really scared me other than an h2 was a 750 suzuki ,boy could that guy ride!:S :laugh: someday ill build a harley but it will be a purpose built cruiser type bike ,not a nasty chopper and i will know enough not to pick fights with any decent sized kaws;)

I'm 50 and remember the mid-70's very well. My Dad was a Harley guy and even he hated the AMF Harleys .... they were pretty much junk. All my Harley buddies today even speak of 70's manufacture Harleys as junk. They were so bad that my Dad switched his riding preference to BMW by around 1978 or so.

I was a senoir in high school in 1976. Without a dought the KZ900 was the motorcycle weapon of choice for the go-fast types .... Harleys weren't even on the go-fast radar. Things changed for Harley with the advent of the EVO engine ... still generally slow when compaired to UJM's but much better quality.

So your 50ish year old man really must have been looking through the haze left over from smokin' too much Panama Red and dropin' too much Purple Micro-dot .... LMAO

baldy110 wrote:

I rode my 650 to the store yesterday afternoon and when I walked back to my bike there was this 50ish year old man looking at it. He asked me what year it was and I told him a 78. He then said, "Back in the day I owned a 75 harley and I remember wippen these jap bikes all day long."
I didn't say another word to him. I just got on a rode off.
I guess his memory was fading, in 75 you were lucky get a harley started let alone race anyone.

No point in reasoning with a fool . Riding away was your only option .