yes i had a plastic maggot, back in the day that name rang a bell lol
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- Thread starter TimBucTwo
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RCinNC
Well-Known Member
Maybe they were unreliable. But, based on my experience in government work (and no doubt your experience too), acquisition and purchase wasn't always a merit based system. To me, it's just as likely that they got offered a better purchase contract from Honda with perhaps a little back door money going to someone in city government. Or maybe a city councilman owned a stake in a local Honda dealer who would coincidentally be the service center for city owned bikes. My own agency was behind the purchase of more than one million dollar equipment acquisition that turned out to be really abysmal, to the point you had to really doubt the competence of the purchase committee. Or made you wonder whose pocket got lined when we got saddled with a duty weapon that couldn't be cleaned with standard gun solvent.
It's difficult to imagine an HD rep making a statement like that within the time period since the employee buyout. I can totally see it happening during the time when HD was owned by AMF, when quality control was probably at its nadir and the company was being run by people who made bowling balls and golf carts.
In this case it was because of the bike itself. Apparently, they were down more than they were on the street. Now, could that be because of a bad dealership? Ironically, they ended up going with BMW. Specifically, the only dealership in the entire DFW area. Which, between broken parts and poor service, had caused everybody else to go Huntington Beach Honda.
And you could be right about the time period on when I saw that interview. I can't remember the when, but it was l-o-o-o-o-ng time ago.
I’ve ridden plenty of HDs and the ones I dislike the most are the 1200. They vibrate the fillings out of your teeth!
The best for a long time was the water cooled 1250 as the motor was designed by Porsche of all companies…
Then came the 103. It was a game changer and a bloody brilliant motor. They kept getting better with the 107 and now the 114. Riding a HD cruiser now is almost like a large Jap model - apart from the volume control issue.
Like most bikes, the problem lies with the nut holding the bars rather than the bike itself.
lynnsox
New Member
Were it not for the bowling ball company and Ronald Regan there would be no Harley Davidson. They seem to be spiraling down the drain again.
Owned two Harleys in my life, valves, oil leaks, tranny leaks, carburation issues, (solved by Mikuni) primary problems, awful vibration, lame power.....I could go on. Far and away the worst bikes I ever owned. Could not trust either to go round the block. Now I know plenty of guys that have good luck with the newer generations till the Milwaukee 8. Hard to get over the embarrassing machines they built for so long. They still sell lots of t-shirts......I'm thinking Harley vanishes with the boomers.
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TimBucTwo
Member
Unfortunately, I agree. Modern car have all the bells and whistles. They perform as well as if not better than most MC's. When it rains the windows go up, that is, if they are ever lowered in the first place. The younger crowd wants/needs Bluetooth, AC and internet.
The dedicated HD crowd (hanky heads) want an old school clunker (Harley-Ferguson). You can't blame HD for producing what they want. However, HD is between a rock and a hard place.
When they do try to produce a modern bike, it is shot down by the true blue HD crowd and the company suffers.
I think, what Polaris did with the Indian is great. That is what it should have evolved into if it didn't go out in 1953. The main HD products have not evolved. HD's own customers are holding the company back and sadly some are moving to Indian leaving the company to struggle again.
I keep hearing, the best HD model sales are the trike but that's hearsay.
Check the want ads. They are flooded with HD's. The motor company has a major competitor. This time it is with its self. Why buy a new $25K bike when you can get the same bike with <10k mile for 1/3 the price?
lynnsox
New Member
A Harley dealer in New York told me last year the trikes were second in sales......for what its worth.
Bmwdumptruck
Well-Known Member
This is already happening world wide. And not just with Harley, but all the Jap makes too. Our licencing laws in the uk now mean a 17 yr old can get a car licence and basically drive anything they can afford to insure, which in most cases is only something small, but even small can be pretty quick these days.
But the same 17yr old needs to pass a basic riding test to ride a 125 on L plates. They can take the test but are still restricted to the 125 for two years, the only benefit is they’re allowed a pillion!! They then have to take a second test to get to 46hp and another at 25(might be 21, can’t recall exactly) to get an unlimited licence. It’s stopping most youngsters from even bothering with bikes at all.
I’m 58 now and most of my riding buddies are older than me. Most are now retried, most are buying their last bikes now. I reckon 10 years and dealers will fall like flies, even BMW won’t be able to fight that.
And this is without all the EV b………..t going on.
TimBucTwo
Member
^ WOW! That is really hard on the eyes to read. So sad!
I don't think licensing is the issue with the youngsters. In Texas, a 16 yr old can take a basic MSF course, pass the written, and can ride ANY motorcycle they can afford. Period. Yeah, we're a mandatory insurance state, but I know how many people are riding/driving without it. So, availability isn't an issue. I think it's the lack of social media access while on a bike. I pass a dozen cars a day that are on their phones. They're so engrossed with their phones that they don't even see me flipping them off. I've never encountered anybody on a bike doing that. My kids have their RAM mounts for their phones and answer calls on their SENAs, but even they don't try to ride and text.
Go to Vietnam or Thailand and you’ll see people on bikes texting.
It’s a skill that I hope to never acquire.
MattR
Well-Known Member
I looked in the mirror at 80mph on the motorway and caught my wife knitting a while back. I don’t think she takes motorcycling seriously…
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah… I’ve got mats that used to do that all the time when they were younger.
Not with me though as I was never into the nut-to-butt thing
my wife falls a sleep on the continent on long days to, she's ok tho our jackets are velco together lol
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TimBucTwo
Member
Many many years ago,lol, my dad was part of a group of guys that had 1967 CB450's. They were missiles back then.
The girlfriend of one of the guy would always fall asleep on the back so, before heading out, the rider would zip her hands into his leather jacket pockets.
(I'm in the states so left hand drive)
The best one I saw recently was a lady in a car, on the interstate eating a bowl of some kind of wet noodles with chopsticks.
Her left hand held the bowl, right hand working the chopsticks while keeping the vehicle heading down the road with her right elbow.
Her left arm was resting on the door and she was damn near turned 90° facing me.
The girlfriend of one of the guy would always fall asleep on the back so, before heading out, the rider would zip her hands into his leather jacket pockets.
(I'm in the states so left hand drive)
The best one I saw recently was a lady in a car, on the interstate eating a bowl of some kind of wet noodles with chopsticks.
Her left hand held the bowl, right hand working the chopsticks while keeping the vehicle heading down the road with her right elbow.
Her left arm was resting on the door and she was damn near turned 90° facing me.
AlanSmith7
Member
Hi, a warm Welcome to you. So glad to see you here.
This provides a mental image of someone getting off a bike and walking around with a huge baby attached to their back
Bmwdumptruck
Well-Known Member
Can they do the same with cars?
Here when I was 16 we had no choice but to get a moped for a year, there was no test back then, you just bought a bike and insurance, then at 17 you could upgrade to a 250, still with no test. Lots did this at least until they got 4 wheels, for which we had to pass a full car test. So most of us got close to two years riding before getting cars, especially if money was tight which it was for many in our recession era of the 80’s.
I needed a van for what work I could find at the time, so bikes disappeared till my 30s, again pretty common with ’born again’ bikers becoming very common in the later 90‘s as finances improved for many of us.
The big difference now is a combination of many things. Starting with media assassination of biking being dangerous, especially in line with the huge increase in road traffic these days. Average perception amongst most parents is there little johnny won’t be safe on a bike. So it’s very rare to see 16’s on mopeds, and again very few 17‘s on 125’s, which as I said requires basic tests to even ride. Add the two years before they can progress to anything bigger when they can have any car they can afford as soon as they pass the std car test, and you can see why there’s so few kids coming into biking. And this has been happening more and more for twenty plus years.
In real terms, there are so few young riders coming through, the whole biking industry just won’t survive on such a small amount of turnover. I forsee what dealers are left in ten years having large numbers of 5-15yr old GSs going unwanted and plummeting in value. I’d guess lots will end up being exported to other markets to recoup some of the value.
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Yup. They can get their license in a Ford Focus, and then go drive a 1-ton, four door, 8' bed truck pulling a 35' trailer. Legally.
