Remodeling Maidiac
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #101
Drove a Sportster across the country? LolAnd....you gotta have a lot of money if you have a harley, lol, cuz they break down often. Or so my old outlaw biker pals always said.And if they do....they can color their motorcyles no longer wanted because the term MADE IN AMERICA is why veterans began to buy them and become bad boys on bikes.Trump's tariffs have resulted in European retaliation against (among others) Harley-Davidson
Actually, Gracie, you might want to do a bit more research into how bikers came about here in America. Originally, Harley had a contract with the government during WWII to supply the Army with bikes, and when they came back from the war, because they were already familiar with the bike, that is why they bought one.
A few of them really missed the camraderie of being in the military, so they would form clubs and ride together. That is how biker gangs got started.
It wasn't until the early 60's that the 1 percenter (outlaw bikers) gangs started to form. They call themselves 1 percenters, because 99 percent of the motorcycle riders are law abiding, but the 1 percent are the outlaws. And, they are easily identified, because they have (usually), a black diamond patch that says 1%.
That is only the AMF models. If you got one made before 1969, or after 1981, then it is a fairly reliable machine. I had a 1991 Sportster that I bored out to a 1200, dropped a cam kit in it, S and S carb, rejetted it, and it was dependable as all hell. Rode it from Amarillo to Sturgis SD three years in a row when I first got it and never had much of a problem.
And, if you are smart enough to use after market parts rather than Harley gear, not only is the after market stuff cheaper, it's also a hell of a lot more reliable than Harley parts are.
I remember one time, I went on a trip with a friend of mine all over Colorado for a week. We went to the top of Pikes Peak on the last day, and as we were going up the mountain, he kept looking at me and my bike. We got to the top, and I asked him why he kept staring at me halfway up the mountain. He said that his bike was fuel injected which is why it never sputtered up the mountain, but mine was a carbed engine, and he was wondering how in the hell I had tuned it to be able to ride from Amarillo to the top of Pikes Peak (elevation 14,100 feet) without sputtering a single time.
Besides....................Harleys just look good, especially if you can find the right parts to make a theme. Mine was skulls. Had one on the primary cover, one on the carb cover, handlebars, and had a skeleton arm that was flipping the bird as a kickstand. Hated it when I had to sell it. It was a good scooter.
Noob bike