You gotta love young naive harley riders

Last Saturday I rode my ELR clone to the local O-Reilly's parts store to get some parts for my sons car. While in the store I heard a large group of harley riders pull into the parking lot. I bought my stuff and walked out to the parking lot. I saw about a dozen harley's parked and a small group of them wandered over to by bike. An older guy about my age was really friendly and asked some questions about my bike. After talking about the bike he asked, "Is it fast?" I answered, "Very." A young man in his early 20's was standing next to the older guy I was talking to. This kid stares hard at me and say's, "It's not harley fast." Now this just pushed my button so I asked him what he rode. He said he rides a 2010 1200 sportster and proudly pointed to it. I asked him if he has ever ridden anything else. He proudly said, "I only ride harleys." I asked him if he wanted to race his 3 year old harley against my 31 year old Kawasaki. He said, "hell yes." I then told him I only race people for titles and if he wanted to race me it would be for titles. He promply said,"Yeah."
The older gentleman stepped in looked at me and said, "There is no way I'm a going to let him race you."
I told the older guy, "Ah, the voice of reason, maybe someone needs to educate this youg man a little or better yet broaden his mind and get him to ride something other than a harley."
The older guy apologized for the kids attitude and they all walked away. The kid was not a happy camper but the rest of them were quite friendly. I really hope the older guy told him what a mistake racing would have been. I was looking forward to owning then quickly selling a harley. Maybe another day.

If you look up the word "slow" in Webster's Dictionary the definition given says "Harley Fast." :laugh: :laugh: Ed

If you want a real chuckle take a look at this posting...

kzrider.com/forum/13-bike-related/534727...ional-tractor#534727

Would have taught him pretty quick what an old girl can do

Hmmm, "Harley fast"? That's a new one on me. Is that kind of like Microsoft secure?

It would have been nice to hear about an ELR taking a young squirt to school. At least the one guy was a gentleman and saved him a lot of dough. Who knows, maybe he was still making payments. :blink:

Harley Davidson makes a good windbreaker if you travel behind one, like diving 25 feet into water with your arms ahead of your face vs face first.
they are not much in the way of horsepower although they have gobs of torque. undersquare engine design =Harley

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Luv it!

Had a similar situation many moons ago (Honda 750 interceptor).
Anyways, north of Phoenix in Carefree, Satisfied Frog for a burger, HD weekend warrior hang out... Chromed HD, bandanna wearing, leather you name it...

We (GF & I) stop, off the bike walking passing a group of yuppy wannabes,one smaller guy with perfectly manicured hands by the way standing next to a huge SOB starts giving me shit, Jap this, POS Honda etc... At first just ignored it but this asswipe wouldn't stop...

So I turned somewhat politely, walk over to him and calmly start drilling him about his build... "What's the displacement, bore/stroke, compression, ignition timing set at, camshafts installed, rear wheel HP, torque etc..." on his bad ass build.

Well obviously, he had no idea WTF I was talking about and the big guy just chuckled for he saw I was bitch slapping his little side kick with only words something fierce... Nothing more to say at that point and walked into the place for our burgers.

Not all HD riders are douche bags for most I have found luv the old KZ's.... Hell, most of them have asked for me to start her up just to hear that old familiar sound they remember.

There are sport bike & other rider types as well that have chips on their shoulders, just the way it is.

Anyhoot, loved hearing your story....

Just ask a Harley rider what it is about Harleys that they can't make the gobs of horsepower that the newer Jap bikes can, like 3 per cubic inch or so. You get all kinds of answers like they're built for reliability or they have carbs, not FI. The answer, of course is they are air cooled. To make horsepower you get heat as a by product and that rear cylinder swimming in the hot air from the front one just can't get rid of the heat. Harleys are old technology. What H-D is best at is marketing. They sell an image as much as a motorcycle and the Harley crowd eats it up. That said, there are a lot of savvy Harley riders. Many of them had the big Kaws in their past and they appreciate us keeping them alive. Besides H-D is good for local economy. They sponser a stage at Summerfest and throw some wild ass parties on their anniversaries.

As a motorcyclist who happens to ride both a Harley and my Kaw I do get a charge out of the uneducated bikers who really believe that a Harley is meant to be the king of style and performance. I stop in at the Damsite Inn here in Hell MI. for bike events and know most of the local bikers and shop owners. The bikers in the know are aware of my Killer Kaw and do enjoy setting up another guy to boast about how fast their Softtail with a stage 3 kit is the ultimate performance cycle. Then thay whisper to me to go get the Turbo bike. Its funny to see the boastfull Harley guy as the lights comes on and they realize they brought a Knife to a Gunfight LOL
It would be great fun but no one has decided to race the Kaw once they see me or my son pull up sounding like a indy car and their buddies poking them telling them they have bit off way more than they can chew :evil:

Its funny, I had an un interesting 78 yamaha xs750 and I cleaned it up and cafe'd it. Between that bike and my cleaned up GPz I get all kinds of people talking to me.

Now if I had bought a brand new R1, harley, ducati... I would expect no one would be randomly talking to me about the bike.

Comparing the two bikes is foolish. My bagger will destroy my KZ900 in the 1/4 mile. Never race a guy on a Harley if he has several friends and you are alone. The Old Harley guy respects these old bikes. We were all young once and thought our first bike was fast. Want to race your KLR clone against my 2008 100% stock Bagger? Or my 1990 V-Max?...Russ

I appreciate Harleys for what they are. One day I hope to grow old enough to want to ride one...

Lorcan wrote: I appreciate Harleys for what they are. One day I hope to grow old enough to want to ride one...

Thats Me today, Ridimg my Geezer Glide Ultra but switching over to my Kaw to blow the stick off myself