If you dig HD motorcycles...

[Holland Oates]

That's what I want. Maybe after the youngest goes off to college.

[Sangoma]

Anyway, I am biased. I fell off my bike few years ago and could never get my confidence back. The result - recent transition to the opposite extreme of road activity:



The idea is to put a crippled of mods on it - winch, snorkel, winch, roof top tent etc. and go shoot kangaroos, deer and rabbits.

[Alfred_E._Neuman]

That's what I want. Maybe after the youngest goes off to college.

The Urals are cool. I'd still like to have a Royal Enfield Bullet for getting around town on the cheap.

[Alfred_E._Neuman]

Anyway, I am biased. I fell off my bike few years ago and could never get my confidence back. The result - recent transition to the opposite extreme of road activity:



The idea is to put a crippled of mods on it - winch, snorkel, winch, roof top tent etc. and go shoot kangaroos, deer and rabbits.

Shit..... I see G Wagons and Defenders with snorkels, expedition worthy wheels/tires, winch, etc. all the time. And the only thing they used for hunting is Midtown pussy.

[Sangoma]

Anyway, I am biased. I fell off my bike few years ago and could never get my confidence back. The result - recent transition to the opposite extreme of road activity:



The idea is to put a crippled of mods on it - winch, snorkel, winch, roof top tent etc. and go shoot kangaroos, deer and rabbits.

Shit..... I see G Wagons and Defenders with snorkels, expedition worthy wheels/tires, winch, etc. all the time. And the only thing they used for hunting is Midtown pussy.

Bow or rifle?

[Shapecharge]

Great. Now I've got 'roo hunters driving armored Camry stationwagons shitting on my thread.

[Blaidd Drwg]

[Blaidd Drwg]

700CC 2 stroke.

[Shapecharge]

Blade, although it can be done, it's still gonna be a little difficult to ride either of those two bikes to Tulsa to participate in the Black Lives Matter protest.

[Sangoma]

Great. Now I've got 'roo hunters driving armored Camry stationwagons shitting on my thread.

Shit, it took me a full minute to stop laughing.

[Sua Sponte]

Totally with you on this one, Shape. In the quest to satisfy my wanderlust I've traveled the country thousands of miles at a time on everything from full tourers of many a brand to the lowly Honda Rebel. While the 'Strada and the Super Duke GT are the modern way to fly, covering long distances (or short) in comfort and without the appliance-like soul sapping of the mighty Goldwing, the Harley no know equal. Its weight and wheelbase don't lend themselves to precision carving, anybody that can't hustle one through the commonly found turns of anything but the tightest hairpins in the US of A suffers not from a bad bike but from being a shitty rider. That includes most sport riders who confuse the bike's prowess with their own. If a guy can't tell you the physical difference between torque and horsepower, he doesn't get a say. This new motor is a wonder-better in every way but exactly the same.

[Blaidd Drwg]

Oi....and i just referred to you a super intelligent guy.

REVOKED.

HD is a brand built on delusion and nostalgia. There's no measurable quantifiable understandable metric on which that motor is superior to any other twin (with deference of course to the dirt track motor which is correct for that surface)

HD is 100% Flash over substance....uniquely UN-American or oh so very American depending on your prejudices.

[Sua Sponte]

You're railing against the bling, the lifestyle crap and the over pricing of the Harley marketing dynasty. In that you have a compatriot. Doesn't mean the underlying bike, a member of the heavyweight class, making it senseless to compare to a sport bike, isn't a good one. It is. The engine is innovative achieving improvements across the board in any important metric while preserving the look and sound of the engine which are important to HD selling bikes. It is an engineering feat that they can continue down the air-cooled route and still meet ever tightening EPA restrictions while improving the engine on all measurable fronts. If you don't like the sound of the HD (obnoxious pipes notwithstanding), or hate how they shift, or prefer peaky horsepower over stump pulling low rpm torque, then your view is inevitable. Whether it's better, equal or worse to other large displacement V-Twins comes down to how you like your power made, where in the band and what other considerations (like felt heat) matter to you. All measurable but the weight put on each is personal. The ills of the marque aside, this is a good motor in a good chassis.

[Blaidd Drwg]

There are far better aircooled motors and there are plenty of ways to get gorgeous amounts of torque without needing godawful amounts of counter balance and with the ability to rev to the moon. The fact they meet emissions is a testament to the quality of the FI not the motor itself. I prefer grunty motors all day for that crippled half ass sort of riding old fuckers do but frankly we all know if you call that "riding," you'd be better off with a scooter.

HD is the perfect marquee for reflexive conservatism. Keep doing stupid shit because that's the stupid shit we've always done (meanwhile we need four valve heads and oil cooling to preserve the "look" and feel of an archaic design). HD is the polar opposite of absorb what is useful, reject what is useless.

[Sua Sponte]

Fair enough except I don't know of any large displacement air-cooled motors that are defacto better. HD is driven by its market, like most successful businesses. My statements were properly qualified, though, in stating the motor was better in all ways while staying the same. Staying the same is what allows HD to sell so well to their market. So much so that it might be said that HD doesn't make motorcycles, it makes Harleys. Recall how well the Porsche-designed Revolution motor sold.

[Blaidd Drwg]

Fair enough except I don't know of any large displacement air-cooled motors that are defacto better. HD is driven by its market, like most successful businesses. My statements were properly qualified, though, in stating the motor was better in all ways while staying the same. Staying the same is what allows HD to sell so well to their market. So much so that it might be said that HD doesn't make motorcycles, it makes Harleys. Recall how well the Porsche-designed Revolution motor sold.

Oil head BMW's and V Twin Ducati's are mechanically worlds ahead of the HD in both reliability and pure engineering prowess. Ditch the "air-cooled" constrain t and you're lookign at nearly a dozen motors that deliver massive torque, reliability and no lumpy foolishness at idle.

Clinging to Aircooled is a question of "look" not engineering. If you want to weight the scale based on such factors, you have to take a discount on the fact most HD owners are in fact idiots who couldn't; tell a briggs and straton from a flat 12 boxer

[Sua Sponte]

All true. Have become a recent convert to the Boxer twin myself.

[Blaidd Drwg]

All true. Have become a recent convert to the Boxer twin myself.

I don't personally dig riding them (GS, not withstanding) and a less inspired exhaust note I cannot imagine, but that boxer motor is fucking brilliant. Which model are you riding?

[Sua Sponte]

'15 R12R. Pretty staid bike by any measure but over the last year and half and 30k miles it's turned into my favorite all around bike in over 30 years of street riding. Still, the Super Duke GT makes my heart go pitter patt and my pitter patt go booga-wooga.

[Blaidd Drwg]

'15 R12R. Pretty staid bike by any measure but over the last year and half and 30k miles it's turned into my favorite all around bike in over 30 years of street riding. Still, the Super Duke GT makes my heart go pitter patt and my pitter patt go booga-wooga.

My fav streetbike to own long term was a ZRX1200...about as thrilling to ride as a Frigidaire...but holy shit it was reliable and dead useful. The only config left on my list is an inline triple.....the motor is dead ugly but the character runs deep.

[Blaidd Drwg]

Apropos of American Engineering (swiss....) Check out Indian's new project.

http://www.cycleworld.com/indian-motorc ... al-preview

[Shapecharge]

Since we're all bros now, kinda, I've ridden this, 'Merica's only designed, engineered, manufactured sport-touring motorcycle. It was a blast to ride btw.

http://www.motusmotorcycles.com/mstr

And this past weekend I rode the piss out of this, the Ducati Multistrada Enduro:

http://www.ducati.com/bikes/multistrada ... o/index.do

Although it was great on a 45 minute ride, the Motus is having a few niggling problems that would irritate the living shit out of me if I had one. I love the whole idea and philosophy of it's development. The Multistrada however was outrageously awesome, and I'm seriously thinking of buying it.

[Shafpocalypse Now]

Nice. That Modus is pricy as FUCK though.

Ducati likes hiding the price, eh? That Multistada is pretty sexy

I was seriously looking at the Husquvarna 2 strokes a few years ago, but not serious enough to go ride one. Meh, who am I fooling, need a job to get a bike.

[Sua Sponte]

'15 R12R. Pretty staid bike by any measure but over the last year and half and 30k miles it's turned into my favorite all around bike in over 30 years of street riding. Still, the Super Duke GT makes my heart go pitter patt and my pitter patt go booga-wooga.

My fav streetbike to own long term was a ZRX1200...about as thrilling to ride as a Frigidaire...but holy shit it was reliable and dead useful. The only config left on my list is an inline triple.....the motor is dead ugly but the character runs deep.

Those two bikes, the ZRX and the R12R have remarkably similar characteristics from similar power and torque at similar points in the rev range, weight and steering geometry. I bet they feel nothing like each other when ridden.

[Sua Sponte]

Since we're all bros now, kinda, I've ridden this, 'Merica's only designed, engineered, manufactured sport-touring motorcycle. It was a blast to ride btw.

http://www.motusmotorcycles.com/mstr

And this past weekend I rode the piss out of this, the Ducati Multistrada Enduro:

http://www.ducati.com/bikes/multistrada ... o/index.do

Although it was great on a 45 minute ride, the Motus is having a few niggling problems that would irritate the living shit out of me if I had one. I love the whole idea and philosophy of it's development. The Multistrada however was outrageously awesome, and I'm seriously thinking of buying it.

Would stay away from the Motus for other reasons, too. Love Buells but the guy goes in and out and in and out of business.

The 'Strada was one of the best bikes on the road at introduction and has been getting better. Bit too tall for my liking and I won't be bothered with a chain anymore, otherwise the closest to the perfect method of conveyance in existence today.