So what is the most "popular" bike in Europe? Sorry, not trying to derail, I just never really thought abou t Harley riders in Europe.

Pretty good question. Generally you see a lot of Naked and Sport Tourers/Half Naked bikes around. Choppers and Cruisers are not practical on many of our Austrian roads or in city traffic. By brand I'd guess it's either Honda or Yamaha, then Suzuki and Kawasaki.

Personally I think Sportsbikes on country roads is a waste as well, but that's me... if I didn't race I'd have a Twin or Triple at a litre or smaller.

I have several Harley riding friends, though I've only had Suzuki and Kawasaki. I think they are good bikes these days, in general, all hype and passions aside. Belt drive, self adjusting valves, and air-cooled are big draws for me. Simplicity and low maintenance.

I loved riding, but hate adjusting valves Every 5000 miles doesn't seem like that often, but it sure does suck the fun out of a beautiful Saturday when you could be doing something else (like riding).

I just am not a fan of the cruiser riding position. When I rode, you had to do a good bit of customization to get a standard to sporty riding position on a Harley. But looking at some of the new Sportsters, I see some bike I would definitely consider. I was thinking a Triumph Bonneville would be my next bike, but I would take a hard look at that new Harley Roadster.

Started riding again in 2007.
First Bike I bought for myself, used Yamaha Star V-Star 1300. Really nice, sold it after putting 25000 miles on it. Oil and Tires were only issues.
Second Bike, bought a used 2007 Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe. A tank. These 4Cyl engines in the Royal Stars will hit 300K no problem. Only issue was at 42K I took it in for "valve adjustment" per maintenance schedule.
Dealer made a bike that never ever leaked, leak. After 3 attempted repairs. Problem is Yamaha sold so few of these, no one knows (at dealerships) how to work on them. My buddy is riding that one now. I stopped riding it when I hit 50K on the odometer.

Now have a used 2012 HD Ultra Limited. Bought it with 9600 miles on it 15 months ago, now has 22K miles on it.
Yamaha (in my opinion) builds the best Japanese Cruisers. Style and ride are outstanding for them. However, here is where you see the real difference. You want a Star in a specific color? Fine. Here is our Black and The Other Color. (You are lucky if they come in TWO colors) Want accessories for your new bike. Here are the 25 different things we sell that you can put on them. And buy them soon, because when we unexpectedly discontinue them, you won't get them anymore.

Harley: The Harley Book, about 4 inches thick, 700+ pages of parts for your bike. You want black nuts in the shapes of Skulls for your exhaust pipe bolts? Got'em! NO ONE gives you more choices or options to customize your bike like HD. Now you are going to PAY for that, but it is hard to find any HD that looks like the two next to it.
Comfort: NO QUESTION that the comfort and ride of the HD flogs the Japanese bikes into the dirt. Everyone that ever rode with me on the other bikes, and even those that didn't, love the comfort of the Ultra Glide. (Heat by right foot only complaint)
Ride: HA! I had no idea how much better that the Ultra was over the other 2 Star bikes. Doing a 700 mile weekend is a lot harder on you on the Star than the HD. You will want to get off. With the Harley, I want to keep going. The balance and handling of the Ultra is fantastic compared to the others. A joy to ride in Dallas Traffic.
Respect: Not kidding on this. You want respect on the Freeway? Put the batwing in someone's mirror in the fast lane. They will move over. People are intimidated by HD riders. You get nothing with the other bikes. I know, recall I said that I did over 60K on them. And another thing that always made me laugh was when I was on the Tour Deluxe, I always got 2 questions (Because it is a LARGE bike and looks like a Harley)
1: "Is it a Harley?" - No
2: "Well, how come you didn't buy a Harley?" - Grrr
IT is a club that you are in just by owning one. People will treat you differently when you say you own a HD, and usually ignore you when you say you own something else. HA!


Cons: Maintenance. HD's require more maintenance and parts are not cheap. But you can do this by yourself, and there are 8 million YT videos telling you how.
Cost: Very expensive in comparison. However RESALE is the best you will find of the bikes. I can't give my Tour Deluxe away.

OG told me two things before I bought the Harley. 1 he mentioned above, you won't find people with STAR Tattoos. HA
2: When I sent him a picture of me sitting on a Victory Vision, he said "THat is like watching a transvestite rub up against your buddy!" HA x2!

I bought the Harley, I know it cost more, and I have to maintain it.
I will NOT go back. So much better than you can imagine. This is a bike you travel around the country with.

^I was wondering when Bill would surface

Beautiful Bike.

This is my 2007 Royal Star Tour Deluxe.
They stopped making these in 2009. Star has all but dropped these bikes due to lack of Heavy Cruiser sales.

dime a dozen.. save up and get a nice used custom chopper..

The Twin-shock Kawasaki was popular at one time...



Just to counterpoint Bill's lovely Harley

Oh come on now. LOL
People can't tell the difference between a typical HD and other huge ass cruisers 90% of the time. They aren't intimidated, they just know that if you tip over you'll be stuck like a turtle with your overturned behemoth and they feel sorry for you. LOL
I usually let them pass so I can see if they have those ridiculous leather tassels hanging off the bars so I can laugh at them with my wife. LOL
These days, no one is intimidated by who you assume is an executive playing out his biker gang fantasies.
No offense, enjoy what you want and the bikes are cool in a way.

Respect might not be the correct word but when I was on my chopped '48 people did move out of the way,,,of course there were twenty or more guys on HD's ridding with me. Back then I got pulled over a few times but the officer only wanted to see my bike and chat a bit, but that was the 60's, different times, different people.

To be honest, if I was younger and had the bucks I would buy a new Indian. I saw a two tone light green and beige one at the gas station and it was drop dead gorgeous.

OK, let us use a different term.
People will pay more attention to you on the Harley, and will politely move out of your way. Some give you lots of space because (told personally) they are scared the motorcycle will go down and they will run you over.
Even though the RSTD was a Bigger Bike than my Harley, it didn't get noticed as much by other drivers.

Another bonus is to look for the Harley Davidson window stickers on the vehicles. The bigger that they are, the more likely that driver will let me cut over in front of them in Stop and Go traffic.

These are not broad-brush statements, there are plenty of jerks out there too.
But I do speak from 80K+ miles of commuting to work, in Dallas traffic, on 3 motorcycles.

They aren't bad bikes, but too much money for what you're getting. The company should be rolling in the cash charging what they do for what they sell. You can buy a 400+hp Camaro SS or Mustang GT for cheaper than some of their bikes, and it's not like they're state-of-the-art and use exotic materials or something.

Plus they canned a lot of the old timers and brought in a bunch of foreigners on H-1B a few years back at a much reduced wage. I knew quite a few people that worked there, and they either got "laid off" indefinitely (aka let go) or moved to a warehouse job a huge reduction in pay. None of them work for Harley anymore. I see they're still laying people off etc. Upper management isn't done squeezing the stone yet.

I noticed this year a couple of the big dealerships in the Milwaukee area were sold to new owners as well.

That I agree with. I do feel like I need to be more careful around bikes because they're so vulnerable. Especially the ones too stupid for their own good and won't wear a helmet. I feel like I have to make up for their carefree attitude. I know drivers become blind to bikes, simply not seeing them and pull out or block them unaware, even though they're right in their faces. I was behind a guy on a bike and an old lady pulled right out in front of him. He was smart enough to set it down, but could have easily slammed into her drivers door. Naturally when she did "see him" she also slammed on the brakes right in front. I stopped to help. She was of course claiming he was flying down the road, which I knew wasn't true since I was behind him going 5 under the speed limit being a little annoyed at him. LOL I made sure the cop that showed up knew that.

Isn't this the bike you can use in Fallout 4 ??

It's a very hard thing to describe to someone who doesn't understand the love some people (including myself) have for Harley Davidson motorcycles. For me, it was a childhood dream to ride and own a Harley. Where I grew up everyone that I looked up to rode them. My uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends all rode them. There is a picture my mother has of me with the old "#1" t-shirt of Evil Knievel on when I was 8 years old. A friends dad was a dirt track racer riding a XR750 with the steel shoe and he taught us to flat track and ride hard. To many of us, Harley's are Americana and we love them. They stand for freedom and the American way. I know it sounds corny, but that's the way some of us see them.

They are a relic of a time gone by, a dinosaur with some modern refinements and in the past could keep you busy wrenching on them and maintaining them. People used to come up to me when I'd park my old Shovel at a bar and say "Hey buddy, nice bike but it's leaking oil" and I'd say "Whew, thanks, good to know and glad to hear it". They'd look at me like I had a third eye until I explained to them that if it was leaking oil, it still had some left and hadn't run out...a good sign, LOL. I lost the front drag pipe in Deadwood and had to stop traffic to recover it. My wife and I had at least 10 different groups of bikers stop and ask if we needed anything. One went to a hardware store and brought me a nut and some washers so I could reinstall the pipe and off we went. We got a flat tire riding down Spearfish canyon, blew 2nd gear in Daytona and rebuilt the trans on a picnic table in the parking lot of Gator H-D. Every time something happened to us on the road, fellow bikers helped us out, every time. It's like a family, a clan and there is a feeling of brotherhood amongst bikers that can't be described, it must be experienced.

The newer Harleys are a different animal than that old shovel was. My 2008 Fat Boy is fuel injected, never has leaked a drop of oil, starts at the first touch of the starter button and gets 55+ mpg. It's very comfortable, looks great, and still has maintained it's resale value. It has a race tuner (performance computer), a Screaming Eagle air cleaner kit and a set of Vance & Hines exhaust. It performs well, sounds great and is reliable as any other bike.

If you're looking for a crotch rocket that's whisper quiet and will go 200 MPH buy a Susuki Hayabusa and get your freak on. If you want a loud (mine is anyway), comfortable and dependable bike that looks and sounds great and can be customized like crazy than get yourself a Harley! I have a 96" Shovel that I custom built myself with a Paughco frame with 2" over legs, Delkron cases, Axtell wheels and crank pins, S&S top end, Sputhe trans case with all Andrews gears and shafts. We put a 5 speed belt drive in a 4 speed chaindrive frame, it was trick back in the day!! I can still take it to a bike gathering and people flock to it. There's just something about Harleys.

Yep. I had a shovel.

My 1948 Harley was a pan head. I bought it in the early 60's for $25 and my gramps and I picked it up in his '58 Chevy. Took several trips because it was in several boxes,,completely disassembled. That summer I put it all back together with a few modifications to look like the cool choppers I saw in the drive in movies. It was my first real motorcycle and after it was done I knew every inch of it.

My friend was a champion Harley drag racer and he built the engine for free. I had many great years with that 25 dollar bike and years later after owning BSA, Triumph, Honda and other big bikes I still missed and wish I would have kept that old Harley.


The thing is there was always something about a Harley, even today the name, when mentioned, can start a conversation.

I love pan heads. The new reproductions call to me to have a custom built with one. All the nostalgia of a pan head but with some of the new tech.

Pan heads forever.





I've seen David Allen Coe a few times at The Iron Horse at Daytona. He was a part owner and did a lot of performing there. In the old days you could hang out and have a beer with him. He always was called on to perform Panheads Forever.