Get your leg across a serious machine and all those misgivings will disappear. But give some thought to your main likely area of riding: don't be seduced by all the chrome and leather (hell I know it's hard but gramps really knows about this) just yet:
1) predominantly in traffic, non-motorway, get a dual purpose trail-bike 200 cc or so; it's easier to handle, you'll beat all the jams and it costs peanuts to run. Besides you look real sily in the supermarket carpark trying to pick up half-a-ton of motorcycle if you drop it while wiggling behind all those parkers looking for spaces. As happens with a big bike.
2) long haul, touring: your big Goldie rice-burner is ideal. Will deliver everything we bike for, freedom,independence, tons of torque-y power to give that in control feeling, bugs in teeth et al. But don't go for the intercom option if you're taking your partner on the back. Leaving the nagging at home is partly what you got the bike for ;-0
3) cruising around and showing off: get the biggest and shiniest you can afford, then rip it to bits and get out the custom parts catalogs -- and the hell with practicality....
but get ready for possible encounters with divorce attorneys and an insensitive bank manager;
4) don't waste your money on a crotch rocket, you'll never use the performance, they all look alike, you'll get branded as a prat by the police and the public and hey! there's no chrome to polish and admire at the weekends! Besides you'll want to ride like a true bro, not like some demented multicolored gnome obsessed with getting his knee down, with a compulsive death wish obsession about living milliseconds away from becoming road pizza. That's not biking, that's being a ****head. On de track man but not on de road, please for the rest of our sakes.
If you're still nervous, don't get a trike, that won't do anything for you. You're still out there exposed anyway. Bikes have come a long way since Lambretta and today's sticky rubber
and frame design make it very hard to fall off unless you do something silly. Those big babies like the Goldwing and the Vulcan have low c of g's with lots of weight down there and you can feather down your floorboards on a good surface without fear.
That's a big-ticket item you're talking about there. Get some lessons on something smaller before you jump straight on 8-900 plus pounds of throbbing motorcycle and go looking for the horizon.
Take a bike course. Here we have just had the Keith Code School visit us. They go around the world teaching mainly cornering, which is the primary skill you need. Get A Twist of The Wrist by Keith from Amazon and read it. After two hours with this guy or one of his peers you'll realise your bike can do much more than you think and it's all about finding that out and knowing how to use it. The machine is not inherently dangerous, lack of skill in using it is the problem.
Join a club catering for mature (that's mature as in both age and behaviorally). Riding long-haul with an organised group increases the safety of the exercise, will remove your fears, adds to the enjoyment and will open a brand new bike-related social life. Your road skills will improve dramatically and you will feel a general increase in personal sharpness, kind of like going to a mental gym for a regular workout.
Ignore detractors and snides going on about "born-again" etc. Odds are they've never ridden and just want to score points or they're just jealous anyway.
Hope that's not too much for a Sunday, and yee-haw, I didn't even mention Milwaukee's finest (100 years old next year folks and still going strong. If you still want to sneer at Harleys, check out their stock market performance then go figger).
All of this is a bit off your question, but it's saying don't buy a trike, that's an oddball thing. Do it right or nothing. If you do decide to take the plunge, always use good rubber and keep the shiny side up.
This has been a public service announcement on behalf of the serious motorcycling fraternity by Growler Associates and the Manila Mad Dogs MC.
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Growler,
What a great post!
I'm not up to speed on modern bikes and my info mainly comes from the Saturday Telegraph. I see that all the Japanese firms make big capacity bikes for the cruiser market. The Kawasaki VN1660 Classic was mentioned this weekend. They cost £8/9K in the UK.
I realize that they are imitation Harleys but are they worth buying?
Cardew
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I've got a mate with a Heritage Soft tail Classic. It ain't fast, doesn't corner that well and the brakes are somewhat below Moto GP standard. But he isn't interested in speed, takes it easy on the twisty bits and reads the road well ahead. He is as happy as a pig in stuff, for him nothing beats the real thing and he wouldn't be seen dead on a Jap imitation. The odd part falling off now and again is reckoned to be all part of the experience.
Any of the Jap cruisers will probably do all of the above better than a Harley, so if you just want a cruiser and want aggro - free ownership that's the way to go. But there's only one Coco-Cola, and a lot of people will pay extra for the real thing instead of the cheaper supermarket own brands.
By the way, Growler, that was the best bit of biking journo I've read for a long time. Why don't you get a job on Motorcycle News and I might start buying it again.
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Cardew and Tom, thanks for the kind words.
The Kawasaki Vulcan is a fine motorcycle. In fact I was riding a 1997 1500 one over in Cebu 10 days ago in company with a HOg rider. The Big V was dressed up with all the flash billet and chrome add-ons, and with those big loud Cobra pipes and I began to wonder whether Milwaukee had discovered the importance of brakes at last and this was really just a Harley with slicked down hair and wearing a suit for Sunday church.
Add a radiator, a water pump and an electric cooling fan and shaft drive too, and you might think those men from the eponymous Japanese city had been over there with the good ole boys telling Willie G. the family still had some work to do even after these 99 years. After all, there was still enough of the rumble and roll about the Vulcan to feel like a big bike, and for once Kwakkers hadn't painted it that Toys 'R Us green like the other bikes they make. It was that huge I had no trouble finding it in the car park anyway.
Certainly it had all the comfort and style of the HD Road King, its nearest equivalent, one of which I have just sold. But that neat snicky flick of the toes to shift gears felt wrong somehow and I missed that all-or-nothin' 1946 John Deere crash from first up to second where you Harley needs the entire thigh-to-toe muscle complex to make it do what it's told. And what's this? Positive neutral selection? But I like my boots with that gouge on the left toecap....
Three master cylinders, 3, count 'em and a wiring diagram like the Tokyo underground. I think I'd want to make friends with a mechanic with a deep affinity for a big mother like this. Handling, comfort, power, quality of fit and finish, looks, absolutely. And the price, sure, way more affordable than a Harley. But check out Hog residuals vs Japs. Where I am the Big Pigs barely depreciate at all, and even in UK hold their own pretty well as far as I can tell.
The current 88 cu in twin cam I've got in my softail is about the most radical thing Harleys have done engine wise for years, but compared with the Japs it's to mechanical sophistication as a DC-3 is to an Airbus A330. Maintenance is thus simple and generally low cost.
That's why there are a lot of DC-3's still flying. Check out a major repair bill on the motorcycling equivalent of an A330, but make sure you're sitting down first.
I enjoyed riding the Vulcan, I couldn't fault it, but would I feel comfortable showing up on it for a Manila Mad Dogs' MC ride? Nobody would say anything adverse - but it's a body language thang.... To borrow your analogy, more people really do drink Coke than Pepsi.
And this is where the mystique starts. HD's are simple-spec off the line for one reason. Detractors confuse this with old-fashionedness, but that's because they don't bother to try to understand this is Milwaukee's USP (not to mention highly profitable after-market strategy: accessories and clothing).
Everybody makes their Hog look different as soon as they get their hands on it. You don't have to change your bike every year but you can change the way it looks any time you like. May not even cost that much -- new paint, or some of my pals swap bolt-ons among themselves when they get tired of whatever it is they've got. In some cases the only Harley thing about their rides is the tank badge. Furthermore the damn things never go out of style: you can pitch up with a leaky 1950's knucklehead motor stuffed in yours with a neat paint job and you'll be as cool as you would be on the latest Kings Road cruiser in Fred Warr's showroom.
Aggro-free riding? As for reliability the HD V-twin engine these days is as basic as basic gets and mechanical failure is rare. You can do most of the service work yourself, especially on the carburated versions. If you want more poke there are plenty of engine bits to buy. The rear belt drive goes for years, is light and cheap and needs next to nil attention over thousands of miles. This remains a rare Harley innovation while others still fuss about with heavy shafts or gloop-covered chains and sprockets.
Sure the thing vibrates. Proper motorcycles do.
Any Harley, park it up somewhere, and at least one person is going to say "hey, nice bike you've got there.." Why is that? You tell me.
My current one incidentally is a pearl blue 2001 Softail Standard 1450 cc, just bought it, untouched mechanicals but changed the wheels, bars, brakes and added lashings of billet and chrome. It is just drop dead gorgeous. Park it up and I defy you not to turn back for another look. Babes love 'em too. Growlette is all over it. QED.
Hey RogerL and Mark, sorry.
But, given this is (was!) Roger's topic before I thread-jacked it, I would say start with Japanese and find out if you like the bike thing after all first. And get something a bit less weighty than a Vulcan or Goldie. Test ride a few to find one which feels good to you. It's like a good suit or pair of jeans, you'll know when you've found it. That's more important than what the salesman or BIKE mag may want you to think. A mid-range bike will give you all the fun you want at a price you can afford and you won't be ashamed to be seen on it.
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"All of this is a bit off your question, but it's saying don't buy a trike, that's an oddball thing. "
Funnily enough, or not maybe, our latest fatility in Essex (59th this year so far) was a trike rider. Must be pretty unusual.
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One of the best threads for a long time - Growler you really should see if a UK/USA magazine would publish a column written by you "Letter from Manila" perhaps.
Think I'll get a Enfield Bullet and upstage you - serious street cred there!
Marcus
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