Not an HD-bashing thread, so help me God......

[Galo]

......but still a study in contrasts:

A long-standing dear friend and co-worked bought a Harley eight weeks ago....not a full-dress FXTYTRYUYTDDGYTRD kinda thing but a slim, simple Dyna Wide Glide (I think).  He's done all the right things like taken a MSF, etc etc and today, after 8 weeks, he finally reached the 500 mile mark on the bike.....he was proud because 'break-in was over' and in our conversation, he asked me if I had been riding recently, given the great OR weather.

I told him that Sunday afternoon I did a 'WCRM warm-up' ride of 206 miles, this in prep for a 570 mile stint next Friday the 18th and his jaw dropped to the floor, he stammered and incredulously asked 'you did 200 plus miles in one day and are planning to do almost 600 miles in one day??!!'

Ahh, the wonders of sport-touring......
 

[Nitro]

I know as many Harley riders who have mega miles on as I do sport touuuuring riders that do...Strange eh?

But even  more  of a contrast is that its hard to believe we did rode 700 mile days 25 yrs ago before anyone dreamed up the sporttouring title! It was just biking....


Take his bike and  put couple thou on it!!  

[Galo]

I know as many Harley riders who have mega miles on as I do sport touuuuring riders that do...Strange eh?

But even  more  of a contrast is that its hard to believe we did rode 700 mile days 25 yrs ago before anyone dreamed up the sporttouring title! It was just biking....


Take his bike and  put couple thou on it!!  

Amen!
I certainly would...it's actually a nice bike.....

[highside]

I think that was a study in contrast between you and one other person, not between two different types of bike. I see *plenty* of years old sport bikes that haven't yet turned over the fourth digit of their odometer. I would go as far as to say that the perceived desireability (is that a word?) of a bike has an inverse relationship with how often it gets ridden.

In other words, the better suited a bike is to being a garage ornament the more likely it is to be employed as such. I would say that Harley's and top end sport bikes, especially Ducatis and Japanese litre bikes. are pretty equal in this status but for different demographics. I have seen a couple of wealthy sorts that have barely broken in BMW touring bikes "on display" as well.

[renegade13]

I have to say this may be more of a beginner thing than anything else. My first BIG day trip on my Katana was a whole 150 miles!!! And it took me almost all day to do it In fact, I had to rest for 15 minutes after my first 30 miles. Anyway, after your buddy's body get used to riding I'm sure he'll be doing long days too without any problems.

[greench440]

At his stage of newbiness, he's probably sore after 50 miles so the concept of 600 in a day doesn't compute.  What he doesn't realize is that the pain stops after 200 miles.  

[Anthony]

......but still a study in contrasts:

A long-standing dear friend and co-worked bought a Harley eight weeks ago....not a full-dress FXTYTRYUYTDDGYTRD kinda thing but a slim, simple Dyna Wide Glide (I think).  He's done all the right things like taken a MSF, etc etc and today, after 8 weeks, he finally reached the 500 mile mark on the bike.....he was proud because 'break-in was over' and in our conversation, he asked me if I had been riding recently, given the great OR weather.

I told him that Sunday afternoon I did a 'WCRM warm-up' ride of 206 miles, this in prep for a 570 mile stint next Friday the 18th and his jaw dropped to the floor, he stammered and incredulously asked 'you did 200 plus miles in one day and are planning to do almost 600 miles in one day??!!'

Ahh, the wonders of sport-touring......
 

I tried to talk my cousin who rides a harley into meeting us in fortuna and got the same response. Then he informed me his bike was almost a year old and just hit 1600 miles .  

[sleazy rider]

What he doesn't realize is that the pain doesn't get any worse after 200 miles. 

Fixed that for ya.   

[TRaGiK]

I've seen people on both ends of the mileage spectrum on all kinds of bikes.

My boss has an 03 Electra Glide that he bought new. So far, he's put over 100k miles on it.

One of my friends bought a 2005 VTX1300, had it for over a year, and put under 1k miles on it.

I have put 14k miles on my F4i in under 8 months.

The bike that one rides means nothing to how much they'll actually ride. It's the owners "want" to ride (or not).

[JTM]

So, my dad (harley rider) and my grandfather (if he were still alive) would ask what is wrong with you if you put less than 7500 miles on a bike in a year.

So anyone want to help me make sure I hit 12k this year, I have already put 800 miles on it in the last 3 weeks.

[ctfz1]

Stock Harley seats are notorious, I've met rider riders, and two who's Sunday ride, weather and temp permitting is 11 miles each way, too busy rest of week.

[county]

200 miles is a long ways between bars.

[ray6576]

Let's see on my first bike the longest ride was 260 miles on a day ride, bike Honda Rebel. My next longest ride was on my Harley Sportster with a new Mustang seat (needed large seat for my seat) 330 miles. Longest day trip on my newest bike Harley Electra Glide 360 miles with my SO on the back. And this bike currently has about 1400 miles on it picked it up March 31, 2007. He will get used to longer distance if he is any kind of rider.

[scott-sts]

Call me crazy but i've noticed on those cold, blustery days in March it seems the only other bikes I see on the road are Harleys.

[Biglar]

This 700 mi gig is my longest in one shot. 350 -400 mi is the norm for me on a weekend. It happens fast when I'm thirsty or on my Buell. Riding the Buell up for the Fortuna, CA gig. 700 on this bike will be a trip...

[black hills]

One of the HD guys I know has twice as many miles on his '03 HD as I do on my '03 CBR???

[windsorgreen1]

I know as many Harley riders who have mega miles on as I do sport touuuuring riders that do

the guy I rdie with most of the time has a 93' Electra Glide sport with just over 130k- original

[R.Markus]

200 miles is a long ways between bars.

 

[R.Markus]

But even  more  of a contrast is that its hard to believe we did rode 700 mile days 25 yrs ago before anyone dreamed up the sporttouring title! It was just biking....

Motorcyclists have become weak. The bigger and better large displacement bikes have taken the life out of motorcycling.

[1KPerDay]

The Wide Glide is the most poseuriffic bike H-D makes. Forward controls, mini-apes, etc. 200 miles on that will test your tailbone.

The FLHs and 'standard' Dynas are much more capable mile-eaters.  

[emf1600]

I know more than a few guys who are at both ends of the spectrum.  One guy I ride with regularly has a 2002? Road King with over 50k miles on it.  But I also have friends who have three or four year old Harleys with less than 2500 miles on them, for whom the ride to Rabbit Hash (about 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati) is a long day on the bike.

[bete]

I ride with a guy on occasion who has over 200K on a HD road glide, The real reason to bash his bike is it's had 3 new motors in that 200K. He,s spent more on motors for it than I gave for my Sprint ST. bete..

[dm_gsxr]

My first _long_ ride on a bike was 130 miles from Ft. Meade to Cherry Hill and I was dying from it. I even left the convention (Gen Con South) early because I was feeling so bad. That was on a Honda CB360T with a full sized Vetter Fairing.

I put 10,000 miles on my first Harley from Sept 01 to March 02 and 40k on the second one from June 02 to Sept 04. It sat in the garage for a year before I sold it with a dead battery

That's becuase I got the 'busa. 55k from Jul 04 to now.

It's the newness of the person I think vs the bike type and perhaps his peers. When I got back into riding, my friends took long trips on their bikes. Laconia for instance was a yearly trip for them. They were surprised when I went on my Harley ride from DC to Boise, up to Canada and back through Buffalo. I think that was a longer trip than they'd done before.

Carl

[BigBore4ST]

I ride with a guy on occasion who has over 200K on a HD road glide, The real reason to bash his bike is it's had 3 new motors in that 200K. He,s spent more on motors for it than I gave for my Sprint ST. bete..

 

So was it after the 2nd or 3rd motor he realized he had a POS?
I'm confused  
Would someone PLEASE help me understand why????????????????

[1KPerDay]

If I have to explain... you wouldn't understand.


BTW let us know how long your ZZR engine lasts.

[scott-sts]

I know more than a few guys who are at both ends of the spectrum.  One guy I ride with regularly has a 2002? Road King with over 50k miles on it.  But I also have friends who have three or four year old Harleys with less than 2500 miles on them, for whom the ride to Rabbit Hash (about 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati) is a long day on the bike.

True.  
There seems to be an awful lot of late model sport bikes for sale with 3000 miles on them.

[eye.surgeon]

Before I bought my K1200GT I would put 300 mile plus days on my boulevard cruiser. Very comfortable and fun for touring. Just not as well-suited as my BMW.

[ridingfar]

I believe its a state of mind - the more you ride the more you realize how much or far you can ride. Thinking about something may be quite different from actually doing it. And then there's being prepared, having the right and/or good equipment,...

That being said it a hoot to see some peoples reactions when you tell them far you've gone or are going...

[cbsnbiker]

......but still a study in contrasts:

A long-standing dear friend and co-worked bought a Harley eight weeks ago....not a full-dress FXTYTRYUYTDDGYTRD kinda thing but a slim, simple Dyna Wide Glide (I think).  He's done all the right things like taken a MSF, etc etc and today, after 8 weeks, he finally reached the 500 mile mark on the bike.....he was proud because 'break-in was over' and in our conversation, he asked me if I had been riding recently, given the great OR weather.

I told him that Sunday afternoon I did a 'WCRM warm-up' ride of 206 miles, this in prep for a 570 mile stint next Friday the 18th and his jaw dropped to the floor, he stammered and incredulously asked 'you did 200 plus miles in one day and are planning to do almost 600 miles in one day??!!'

Ahh, the wonders of sport-touring......
 

Invite him to accompany you on some trips. Start off with a reasonable distance, then gradually work up to longer and longer trips. See if he's game.

[JTM]

hey it might be good for both of you

[cworley5150]

 

So was it after the 2nd or 3rd motor he realized he had a POS?
I'm confused  
Would someone PLEASE help me understand why????????????????

If I have to explain... you wouldn't understand.


BTW let us know how long your ZZR engine lasts.

No shite!  200k miles is a lot for any bike.  Although that is an average engine rebuild every 67k miles.  Not that unreasonable.  I wonder what kind of shape other components like suspension, brake calipers and electrics etc. are in?  I wonder when/if they were replaced?  May have been cheaper to just replace the bike with a new one.  

I've never kept a bike for any more than about 30k miles.  My BMW will probably be the first to go beyond that.  I'm already over halfway there in less than a year.  It will be interesting to see how long things go before turning to crap.  I would be happy to see 67k with no problems.

[BigBore4ST]

If I have to explain... you wouldn't understand.


BTW let us know how long your ZZR engine lasts.

1K,
You're probably right. I may not get much more than that out of the ZZR.
With that being said, it was wrong for me to call it a POS based on that alone.

However, I can buy 2 ZX14's for the price of one loaded Electra.
So if one is no more reliable than the other, where's the price justification.
I could also buy 2 jap cruisers instead. That part is just a matter of preference.

So I ask again, would someone please explain to me this phenomenon known as HD.
And yes, I've ridden them before. A Road King and a 1200 Sportster.

[JTM]

Well like many things American, it just is. How is that for an HD explaination. I need to check and see what the mileage is on my dad's 71 Electra Glide, hey it still has the original motor and it has only been rebuilt 3 times (2 of those rebuilds were back to back my grand father had a stroke and never broke it in after rebuild #2 so my dad is doing rebuild #3 to replace the seal that failed because the bike sat up for nearly 2 yrs.

Hey it can still do wheelies.

[1KPerDay]

However, I can buy 2 ZX14's for the price of one loaded Electra.
So if one is no more reliable than the other, where's the price justification.

You could also buy a buttload of potato salad, or one legal machine gun. They all have different purposes and do different things.

You could get 10 civics for the price of one Saleen. You could get 4 chickens for the price of one rutabega peeler. 2,134 abacuses for the price of a used Wankel rotary engine.

People pay what they want to pay for things they want. Me, I'd rather have a gen-yoo-wine H-D than a metric copy, even if the copy had more HP for less money. But I'm funny like that. I think bikes should be what they are. I don't like bikes whose raison d'etre is to be something else. But that's another thread.

[atadaskew]

You could also buy a buttload of potato salad, or one legal machine gun. They all have different purposes and do different things.

You could get 10 civics for the price of one Saleen. You could get 4 chickens for the price of one rutabega peeler. 2,134 abacuses for the price of a used Wankel rotary engine.

People pay what they want to pay for things they want. Me, I'd rather have a gen-yoo-wine H-D than a metric copy, even if the copy had more HP for less money. But I'm funny like that. I think bikes should be what they are. I don't like bikes whose raison d'etre is to be something else. But that's another thread.

 

[1moreroad]

However, I can buy 2 ZX14's for the price of one loaded Electra.
So if one is no more reliable than the other, where's the price justification.
I could also buy 2 jap cruisers instead. That part is just a matter of preference.

  ZX14 = $11.5k.  Electra Glide = $16.1k.  You can load up on options on either one, including "custom" paint jobs from the factory.  I don't know of a single Kawasaki that wouldn't benefit from a suspension upgrade, etc.

I stopped riding with most sportbike riders because 200 miles was too far for an average ride.  The group would plan a semiannual 500 mile ride.  It was semiannual because that much mileage was just too much to take.  Look at how many guys are left for the last track session of the day.  The (very limited) days I've been to, about 1/3 of the riders go home early.

[cworley5150]

You could also buy a buttload of potato salad, or one legal machine gun. They all have different purposes and do different things.

You could get 10 civics for the price of one Saleen. You could get 4 chickens for the price of one rutabega peeler. 2,134 abacuses for the price of a used Wankel rotary engine.

People pay what they want to pay for things they want. Me, I'd rather have a gen-yoo-wine H-D than a metric copy, even if the copy had more HP for less money. But I'm funny like that. I think bikes should be what they are. I don't like bikes whose raison d'etre is to be something else. But that's another thread.

 

Thank GOD we all don't like the same things.  Well said.

[1KPerDay]

 

[BigBore4ST]

Whatever makes you Randy I guess.  

[REAPER]

Well we can laugh at what SHORT riders the HD bunch is, but 6650 HD's have made IBA runs, so some of them ride long.   By the way that's the most of any brand of bike that has made an IBA run.

[highside]

By the way that's the most of any brand of bike that has made an IBA run.

That is very interesting. Thankyou for posting that.

[Albie]

I think that was a study in contrast between you and one other person, not between two different types of bike. I see *plenty* of years old sport bikes that haven't yet turned over the fourth digit of their odometer. I would go as far as to say that the perceived desireability (is that a word?) of a bike has an inverse relationship with how often it gets ridden.

In other words, the better suited a bike is to being a garage ornament the more likely it is to be employed as such. I would say that Harley's and top end sport bikes, especially Ducatis and Japanese litre bikes. are pretty equal in this status but for different demographics. I have seen a couple of wealthy sorts that have barely broken in BMW touring bikes "on display" as well.

I agree with the contrast of people. But the rest I don't. The bike is meaningless. For instance, a 570 mile day ride is not sport touring to me. It's a sport ride. I usually do that or more on my R1 in a day. Or at least I used to when I had the time to ride.    

[JTM]

You could get 10 civics for the price of one Saleen. You could get 4 chickens for the price of one rutabega peeler. 2,134 abacuses for the price of a used Wankel rotary engine.

People pay what they want to pay for things they want. Me, I'd rather have a gen-yoo-wine H-D than a metric copy, even if the copy had more HP for less money. But I'm funny like that. I think bikes should be what they are. I don't like bikes whose raison d'etre is to be something else. But that's another thread.

+1

[keystonejenks]

My buddy has a neighbor who owns an R1 Raven   In 3 years he's managed to put 200 miles on it and 3 new batteries.   My neighbor offered to buy it off of him but the guy wont' sell it.  

[Brad1445]

My buddy has a neighbor who owns an R1 Raven   In 3 years he's managed to put 200 miles on it and 3 new batteries.   My neighbor offered to buy it off of him but the guy wont' sell it.  

I have a similar friend, NEVER rides, just likes the way I have an R1 sounds to the ladies