Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 06:36 am:
i like cruising down the county roads at a nice clip with the m2(supertrapp with 21 discs means nice sound) and come across a gas station or what not with bikes parked there and you watch as you go by with people thinking it's another chromeglide of some kind but it's only little ole me with my sportster on steroids.(m2)
Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 07:43 am:
Carlos, You and Ferris would then have the same problem - the first time I got the chance to ride the Virago up to the Mill one morning it was pretty early and not much traffic on the BRP so by the time we are almost to the Mill and NO fellow riders to wave at I was pretty excited to finally see one, and well, just couldn't help myself. Nearly walked off the thing myself. Then I realized I needed to be cool again, after all, this was not a pokeman bike.
Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 08:25 am:
Hell, why not ask...you did get a Uly last time you asked, didn't you?
hmmmm, wonder if Madduck needs another motorcycle in his collection.......
Actually Carlos and I were talking about getting the M2 up and running and having it be the "mountain bike". Of course, it would need a place to sleep (hint, hint) while we're in the flatlands and need to be ridden (more hinting here) once in a while. It's no 1125, but it's fun to ride!
Kristi, we're here to help - please keep us posted. :-):-)
Jerry_Haughton- In my opinion (again my opinion) I think they are mostly like the people who frequent this forum. People who actually live and breath motorcycling. Not the folks (which I see a lot around here where I live) who get into it for the image.
Spank, thx for the reply. i see your point, but taking a glass half full approach i'm tempted to contend that even the "bike with the most bling wins" guys are living and breathing motorcycling in the process of customizing and riding their sleds.
i kinda figure that anyone who rides, whether it's around the country or just to the local watering hole, is pretty darn cool. the ladies and gents who lavish tons of dinero on their machine to make it stand out could be doing something else with their hard-earned money and time, yet they choose to spend it on their bikes.
being that we're all different people, with different ideas of what constitutes "reality" in our sport, i'm reluctant to judge others by what i *think* i see when i see them. like i said before, if you're in the wind, you're ok by me.
and if you want to blind me with your fla$h when you ride, that's also ok by me.
put another way: my Road King has chrome in places some motorcycles don't even have places.
i suppose one could watch me roll into Stations Inn some sunny afternoon and assume that i'm not a "real" motorcyclist, that i don't live and breathe motorcycles, that i'm just another weekend warrior trying to offset my physical lack of manhood by "flaunting" such a dazzlingly gorgeous machine.
nothing could be further from the truth, and i'd take umbrage if someone ever gave me some attitude about my machine and showed me disrespect because of what i choose to ride.
like.......it's all good, right? :-)
I always thought there was some sort of motorcycle commeradery....guess I might be wrong.
Spank, i see copious camaraderie amongst riders every time i ride. come on down to the Blue Ridge some time and i'll personally show you some. :-)
I don't wave. I'm not drowning.
i LOVE to wave when i ride, and have done so for the past 43 years.
and i love to get a wave back (and almost always do).
to me it means we're in the same club, brothers and sisters in arms and all that.
what will be really interesting is when dealers start selling MV's. How's the Chrome Army gonna feel when a crotch rocket sells for more than their Geezer Glides? Then the shoe is on the other foot. Maybe the attitude will change a tad.
"attitude"? that's rich. please re-read your post, sir.
The only complaint I have is that I would like to be warned when a Lt. Dan wave is coming.
sorry about that, Carlos - at least we saved it until the end of the day... :-)
Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 01:19 pm:
I never thought about what a HD rider would think of me for riding a Buell. I was more concerned with confusing the BMW guys who think I am on a GS until they are too close to pull their arm down! (kidding)
If you really want to confuse an "I only wave at REAL bikes" guy, try riding a BMW cruiser around! The weekend-warrior folks will wave, because it is a cruiser look. The hard-core HD guys have to make a decision, because the single spring in the front and the cylinders stick out the sides tells them something is horribly wrong with this bike! It does, however, have chrome, so that must count for something? I will admit that I enjoy the confusion. I have found that at stops, folks are generally complimentary of the bike, but this is mainly non-riders or metric cruiser riders. I took the BMW to Sturgis, and got a lot of curious questions and compliments, even if I was not part of the "in" crowd.
No one has ever hassled me about the "odd" bikes I ride, and I would take it as a sign of ignorance if someone did.
I have no problem with any brand motorcycle whatsoever. Variety is good. I do get annoyed with owners that do not know how to ride or do dumb things in front of me, though. I will admit I cringe when I come up behind a group of shiny new looking HD's. It is nothing against the bikes, it is just that there is a better than average chance that they ride only a few times a year, and are are actually holding up minivans. That's just embarrasing to the rest of us!
Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 03:31 pm:
I tell HD folks that if Harley made a bike like this to begin with, I'd have straight up bought a Harley, but they don't, so I had no other choice other than to buy a Harley product in a Buell.
Pretty simple logic that even Easy Riders can understand.
If Harley pulled the name "Buell", and just marketed every bike as HD, I got a feeling the Easy Rider crowd would still give us crap. Why? Because we didn't pay the 20k for a bike (and we don't like our pit hair crawling out of the leather vests, and yes, that includes some of the lady riders)
Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 04:00 pm:
I just keep myself covered in case some slimely HD rider chooses to make a comment.
"A Buell? Too uncomfortable to do any miles".
I'm not a hardcore tourer, but 10 hour days are a common occurance, and most people seem to be impressed that I rode 1000 miles to Georgia this past spring on a Sportbike.
"A Harley is a man's bike."
Again, I'm not hardcore, and the only person who needs to be impressed with the size of my junk is the girl that plays with it, but... I would bet that my '64 XLCH sporting a kick-only starter and 11.5:1 compression is a little more manly than just about anything on the street.
Then you get into the Sportster being a girls bike, yadda yadda, and you have to dare the guy to try and start and still be able to walk after.
That all said, I've never gotten anything but praise and interest on my Buell. I can't say the same for the Sportster I had.
Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 07:56 pm:
"Spank, i see copious camaraderie amongst riders every time i ride. come on down to the Blue Ridge some time and i'll personally show you some. :-)"
I may have to take you up on that sometime. My mom's family is in Tennessee so I'm down that way quite often. Same goes for you if you ever make it up this way!
i was just curious what the harley riders thought of buell since harley obviously owns buell. most of the people i've run into scrutinize the buell (at least the two tubers we have at our household-- M2 and S3) for being a crotch rocket that you lean over the tank to ride. they seem a little uneducated.
