• From: Gander Newfoundland
  • Registered: 2007-05-05
  • Posts: 246

Topic: Harley owners

Anyone here own a Harley? There was a bike rally here this weekend and most of the Harleys were ridicuously loud. There was all kinds of crap stuck on them, and when I spoke to one memorable Softail owner and asked him why the loud pipes, he said "For my safety. Loud pipes save lives!"

Then he got back on his bike, in his shorts and t-shirt with his "protective bandanna" on his head, started it up, and almost dropped it twice pulling out of the parking lot. I was thinking, "Yeah. And you can rely on your pipes to the point that you don't think you need any riding skill or protective gear."

I can understand the "loud pipes save lives" thing to an extent, but it's stupid coming from someone who doesn't wear a helmet or any other gear.

Not all Harley guys are like this and I'm a huge Sportster fan, but there seems to be a higher concentration of these morons among the Harley crowd. Anyone else have any experience with this?

"You have to get over the love of power, and enjoy the power of love, in order to know peace."
-Jimi Hendrix.
  • upyerkilt
  • upyerkilt
  • Unofficial king of Scotland
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  • From: Balloch, Scotland, UK, Earth
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 3,290

Re: Harley owners

well nothing to do with harleys but my sis in laws ex bofriend had a silly wee car that had a big exhaust on it. It never done much for the car apart from make it sound louder like a double barrelled chainsaw. I asked him why he changed the exhaust, his reply was it made the car sound good.
This I think is the mentallity of young boy racers in cars. Carse that have not really got power but they can make them sound noisy and it makes peoples heads turn to them
I say drivers like these, including harley drivers are just looking for attention. they love people to look at them when they are on the road.


ken

ye get some that are cut out for the job and others just get by from pretending
  • From: Starkville, Mississippi USA
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,069

Re: Harley owners

Motorcycle culture is just as bizarre as any other special interest group (like musicians or fashionistas or intellectuals or religious zealots, etc.). Back when I believed I was immortal I rode motorcycles but never got into the whole lifestyle thing - my bikes were just transportation and I fixed something only when it was broken.

Anybody who rides without a helmet and protective clothing is foolish. Loud pipes are purely a fashion statement. I don't begrudge anyone the fun of owning and riding and working on a bike - but some bikes are just absurd 'art pieces' rather than usable transportation.

There is a motorcycle rally in this area every year.
http://www.sturgismsrally.com/noflash/index.php
Riders come from all around to hang out and socialize. Many of them trailer their precious bikes here rather than riding them - very strange.

The kind of bikes I used to ride are now called "Rat Bikes". These are purely functional machines that run great but are not all shiny and new and fancy and tricked out with decorative doo-dads.
Check this site to see what I'm talking about:
http://ratbike.org/

"That darn Pythagorean Comma thing keeps messing me up!"
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma[/url]

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  • Zurf
  • Zurf
  • Blunt but well meaning moderator
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
  • Posts: 7,522

Re: Harley owners

He was a newbie and spouted a standard reply. 

Loud pipes do save lives to the extent that they let a driver know they are there.  Unless of course the driver is driving one of those luxury cars with sound insulation and noise reducing speakers that cancel outside noise, which frankly I think are extremely dangerous.  You can't hear traffic, you can't hear sirens, you can't hear loud pipes (or see the bikes terribly well either), etc. 

Anyway, while true, that particular guy probably didn't know what he was saying and was just regurgitating a bumper sticker sentiment with affectation of being a real biker.

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
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  • From: Gander Newfoundland
  • Registered: 2007-05-05
  • Posts: 246

Re: Harley owners

Riding skill saves lives, not 110-db pipes on an underpowered, overpriced Harley.

I do agree that they alert drivers, but I am dubious about their benefit even there.

"You have to get over the love of power, and enjoy the power of love, in order to know peace."
-Jimi Hendrix.
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,662

Re: Harley owners

SGinCYQX wrote:

Anyone here own a Harley? There was a bike rally here this weekend and most of the Harleys were ridicuously loud. There was all kinds of crap stuck on them, and when I spoke to one memorable Softail owner and asked him why the loud pipes, he said "For my safety. Loud pipes save lives!"

Then he got back on his bike, in his shorts and t-shirt with his "protective bandanna" on his head, started it up, and almost dropped it twice pulling out of the parking lot. I was thinking, "Yeah. And you can rely on your pipes to the point that you don't think you need any riding skill or protective gear."

I can understand the "loud pipes save lives" thing to an extent, but it's stupid coming from someone who doesn't wear a helmet or any other gear.

Not all Harley guys are like this and I'm a huge Sportster fan, but there seems to be a higher concentration of these morons among the Harley crowd. Anyone else have any experience with this?

I own a Harley, a real, real loud one. I am a big muscle man with tatoos covering 3/4th of my body. I only have 1/4 of my teeth but what the hey! Na, just kidding... Relax man, to each his own, the world is a real big place............................

Give everything but up.
  • From: Starkville, Mississippi USA
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,069

Re: Harley owners

Q: Hey, down at the Emergency Room, do you know what they call a motorcycle rider who doesn't wear a helmet?

A: An organ donor.

"That darn Pythagorean Comma thing keeps messing me up!"
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma[/url]

James McCormick's Website

  • dino48
  • Honoured Member
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  • From: los banos,california
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 6,801

Re: Harley owners

HI sgincyqx,I  live in hollister ca.,we have a rally  every july  fourth,it usually lasts 4 days, we get around two hundred thousand people here. This is the town where the movieThe wild Ones was about,that actully took place here. I get really tired of all the noise after a day.Hey james california wont let you ride a motercycle without a helmet.

my papy said son your going too drive me too drinking if you dont stop driving that   Hot  Rod  Lincoln!! Cmdr cody and his lost planet airman