Why I hate the average H.D. Owner #398

I know this is a stuck record, but they are pissing me off again. Nice weekend in Northern Mi making our way up M119 the tunnel of trees. Had the first of the drive ruined by having to follow 15 fart machines up the road at 15-20 mph. Stop in Good Heart for a cup of tea and a group of about 20 Dodge Vipers putter through the village, while not the greatest of exhaust notes themselves, when puttering they are quiet. Then one dick weasel starts his prick replacement machine and makes more noise at idle than all the Vipers made driving through. Worse 5 mins later another group of 20 plus machines went through, again all with no exhausts and not a helmet worn between them.

Nothing against the manufacturer, it's the thoughtless owners that drive me nuts.

I agree with you on every point Adrian, except one. I don't hold H.D. beyond reproach. They promote the 'lifestyle', and part of that lifestyle is the loud, obnoxious exhaust. Funny thing is, those loud pipes that supposedly save lives can't be heard until the bike is beside you. At that point it's not doing much for you. Then there's the odd propensity the bikes have to blip themselves every 3 seconds at a stop light. It must be something in the H.D. tune because I never see any other bikes doing that.

I'm not going to single out HD riders. It's all the folks for whom riding is a "lifestyle", not just something they like to do. That can be SOA-wannabees or squids or bykerboyz.

It just so happens that the Harley crowd tends toward cruising through the otherwise-quiet countryside in big loud groups. The unmuffled sportbikers prefer blasting through freeway traffic in packs at 1.5x the ambient speed.

the average HD rider is fat, stupid, and old, in my experience. and everything that goes along with those features.

The sport bikes almost always run a muffler, but taking the muffler off is the first mod to almost 199% of Harleys.

The sport bikes are loud because they are on it and turning a lot of revs. They aren't loud at idle or normal cruising and the Harley is.

The old South Park episode on Harley riders really was a good one.

At stoplights I like to ask the owner if they've got a misfire.

All the sport bike guys I used to ride with, it wasn't about going fast on the highway. Nor was it cruising down the highway or bar hopping like for the HD guys.

We went and found twisty roads outside of town for shenanigans.

I think the "Harley blip" comes from a time when all HD bikes were junk, and someone had one that wouldn't idle. So, at a stoplight he sits there, occasionally hitting the throttle, someone thinks it sounds cool and copies. Now everyone does it.

Blaaahhhhblebleeeeeeh!

EVERYONE LOOK AT ME! I RIDE A MOTORCYCLE!

it's not just Harleys any more... 2 of my cousins and my uncle all have brand new matching Victorys that have the loud pipes, too..

whenever you see a large group of them, it usually means they are doing one of their "using some charity as an excuse to bar hop across 3 counties with a bunch of other people wearing the same costumes on a saturday afternoon" rides...

You're average cruiser bike rider ranks right up there with Bros, rednecks, and ricers for me. They're all yearning for attention and being huge shiny happy people in doing so.

there is one last night who is at the top of my E36 M3 list. Whomever he is.. riding down a quiet residential street at 2am with no muffler and leaving it in second is bad enough.. but giving it a good rev before downshifting to 1st (and then letting it coast down to a stop) before sitting a stop sign for 20 seconds while blipping the throttle before taking off at full throttle is -not- going to make you any friends

Besides the BMW riders the Harley guys put the most miles on their bikes. I've met people who put tons of miles on their Harleys over 100k miles in some cases. I think if it gets you all pissed off, the harley riders are doing it right and paying it forward. I personally pay it forward so when I have a car cut me off or something I know it is just karma coming back at me.

Spoolpigeon wrote: You're average cruiser bike rider ranks right up there with Bros, rednecks, and ricers for me. They're all yearning for attention and being huge shiny happy people in doing so.

This.

In reply to benzbaronDaryn:

Come have a look at the odometers on my Hondas.

Just got back from a beautiful ride on my Harley.

That is all

I used to work with a HD rider. He was the stereotypical one that compensated for his inadequacies at every availability. He had a HD calendar on the wall of his cubicle at work. He was really offended when I poured a cup of oil dry under the calendar on his desk.

In reply to Scott_H:

You win the Internet today LOL

but do you notice how the cops no longer worry sports cars about loud exhaust?
Evidently there are two things I note from my experience on the Dragon with HD's: they learn how to blip their throttles and how not to EVER pull over for other traffic during their training wheel sessions.

I deal with a lot of these guys daily, most are so predictable its not even worthy of a chuckle anymore.

must wear HD shirt & belt buckle everyday. all other motorcycles are junk. helmets & safety gear are for Bob Costas, Victory = wannabe HD, etc etc

they will buy any piece of crap tchotchke with an HD logo and pay through the nose for it and be proud.

I look at HD as simply a marketing company that happens to also put it's logo on motorcycles.

Harley riders wish they could be as cool as the guys who ride Triumphs:

I still love you guys

I must not be the typical Harley owner. Still have stock pipes, only piece of clothing I have with HD on it is the t-shirt they gave me when I bought it and I have no issues with the size of my penis. I want a Bonnie, seca II, Ducati, KTM super Duke and a lot of other different bikes. But I wouldn't trade mine for anything.

In reply to nicksta43:

And your bike is pretty damned sexy too.

...but I still prefer my Stripple.

You are clearly not cut from the same cloth as the baggers who didnt see an issue with parking three across at the gas pumps doqn the road. One of my best buddies has a sportster custom classic and other Harley riders give him crap that his bike is "too small". I hope he'll let me test ride his bike when I go visit him. Wish more Harley riders were like ypu and him.