| Author | Message | ||
     Jackbequick |
Here is a quote from a book, see if you can guess who said it: "In terms of pure workmanship, personally I don't like Harleys. I ride them because I'm in the club and that's the image, but if I could I would seriously consider riding a Honda ST1100 or a BMW. We really missed the boat not switching over to the Japanese models when they started building bigger bikes. I'll usually say "F*** Harley-Davison. You can buy an ST1100 and the motherf***** will do 110 miles per hour right from the factory all day long." Jack | ||
| Barker |
Ralph "Sonny" Barger | ||
| Rocketman |
Yeah the wussy. Rocket | ||
| Tramp |
I know a member who rides a bmw. many members ride buells, even as their primary motorcycle (buells are deemed acceptable mounts by the major motorcycle clubs, as are any custom motorcycles which use american v-twin powerplants). In the immediate postwar years, when the primary american (primary and american are redundancies in this case) motorcycle clubs were formed (typically as ad-hoc veterans groups comprised of returing war vets whom could scarce afford automobiles and whom found solace in the company of others with like experience in regard to death and horror) and their bylaws thus framed, america was reeling from anti-teutonic sentiment, and japan was still regarded as an evil empire of yellow devils. further, there were no major japanese motorcycles being exported in significant numbers to the us at the time (and de facto trade embargoes helped to effect this trend); even the british iron found small, if any, audience here in america. great britain was on no strong industrial ground after being bombed , incessantly, by the luftwaffe and committing all available industry to their war effort. So, the bylaws and constitutions of the first motorcycle clubs included verbiage only to the effect of american motorcycles. ...some later clubs, such as the "pagan's mc", which started as a 1950s touring group riding, primarily, british iron, later amended their rules to allow ONLY "harley davidson motorcycles of at least 74 cubic inch displacement", as they found need to emulate the angels' laws and style upon the angels' appearance and proliferation on the east coast. mr. barger began his own years with the club on a sportster, and when one takes into account the needs (lightness, speed, handling) which preceded the "chopping" of the cumbersome american v-twins of the period, one is led to believe that, were the lighter, faster imported motorcycles being sold on US soil, from manufacturers outside of nations with which we'd been engaged in a long, grueling and pessimistically-portended world war, the major motorcycle clubs would have been riding other brands, as well. inasmuch as the original motorcycle clubs were comprised of veterans, and, as such were operated with an attendant spirit of hard-earned patriotism, the argument exists that only imports from our wartime allies would have been so-entertained. | ||
| Mainstreamer |
Good read Tramp, thanks. | ||
| Jackbequick |
Wow! It only took five minutes to get the right answer. I found that in a book named She's a Motorcycle: Writers on riding. The book has a lot of motorcycle related excerpts from from various writers. Bits and pieces of stuff I've never read before. The above was from Sonny Bargers's book Hell's Angels. I notice they got the punctuation right in the book's title. Sonny Barger describes his first motorcycle as a 1936 knucklehead. And he describes the FXRT and FXR as his and the club's general preference for a starting point. That would speak to the times around the mid 80's or so and later of course. In the early to mid 60's when I lived in the Bay Area, the outlaw rides were still based mostly the older ridgid framed models with various flavors of knuckle, pan, and shovel head engines. I was riding a '58 Triumph Thunderbird at the time and used to look at the H-D's parked on the street or in gaggles at various races and stuff. The mechanical details of the drivelines were interesting to me. But some of the specifics of seating, controls, and the thought of actually operating those was nothing short of bewildering to me. Jack | ||
| Barker |
"Wow! It only took five minutes to get the right answer." Behold, the awesome speed and power of BADWEB! | ||
| Tramp |
and, as i'd said, his first mount with the club was a sportster. ...and the punctuation is, in fact, wrong. there are no apostrophes in the registered/copyrighted club name. unlike the hughes film or the squadron, it's not used in the possessive form in the club's name. the fxr was the club's mount of choice into the early 21st century, supplanted, primarily, by the road glide. the reason behind the fwd. controls, etc., came about as a mode of easing bad knees on long runs. it is very irregular, in this day, to see an angel on a rigid or a chop. they were relegated to rigids back when rigids were the cheaper, older, and therefore more available frame, and they chopped them to reduce weight, primarily. today's "1%er" looks for reliability and long-distance comfort, in that order, hence, most angels ride road kings, road glides, etc., and many still ride buells as their primary mount. some are looking to polaris victories, etc. like them or not, the angels are a uniquely american enigma, and, as such, are one of the least-understood organizations in the world... until one has spent considerable time with angels, one's are as academic and speculative as any outside conjecture. the most honest human beings i have ever known have been hells angels. | ||
| Bomber |
Tramp -- as our resident 1%er historical font, when did it become OK to ride dressers (aka, garbage wagons, a long far ago) -- also, I was under the (possibly mistaken impression) that the original reason for forward controls (and extended front ends, for that matter) was to increase cornering clearance -- | ||
| Tramp |
the wholesale acceptance of Garbage wagons began in the mid to late '80s, at about the time most original members began to approach retirement age. enough young brothers saw the light when, after they'd follow the old brothers on their dressers, the old guys wlaked with a refreshed stride, whilst the younger brothers on the FXRs likely longed for a jacuzzi. the lack of jacuzzis, (rarely standard-issue in the 1%er clubhouse) likely led to the dressers. I have been on all-nighters on my S2T where, by daybreak, I can almost hear nuts, bolts and burdocks deep within my knees, and every RK-mounted rider i rode with dismounts and strides as strong and steady as a high school QB. Origina reason for extended front-ends: drag stability for hwy., without chopping farme. reason for fwd.s: hwy. comfort. apes: same thing, off as it might sound....apes put the rider in the 'back seat' so that the spine needn't provide all the support for that jangling mass. a rider mounting a machine with apes and forwards sort of 'settles in' and 'kicks back', which is a comforting feeling on hours-long, straight stretches of american hiway. ...not my thing, but- i've ridden them, and enjoyed them in the spirit for which they were designed... straight,kicked-back cruising. were it not for the buell, i'd own a 996 and an fxrt. thankfuly, my s2t is ameeting of both: it's no replacement for either one, by any means, but a wonderful middle ground scoot for a rider of modest means. | ||
| Bomber |
Thanks, tramp -- enlightening, as always | ||
| Road_thing |
What Tramp said pretty much describes my experience, too. I love my S2, but if I'm gonna be doing the big miles, the Road Pig is my conveyance of choice. My knees and back ain't what they were back when I was Tramp's age... rt |
