I’ve long been accused of hating Harleys, being un-American and generally not “getting it’ as a motorcyclist so now seems as good a time as any to get on my soapbox about that…

First, in this day and age the list of things which make me appear un-American is so long that motorcycles should be way down the list.

Second, I’ll freely admit that I’m not keen on the cruiser thing, whether its American Iron or otherwise. One of the things I like about being on two wheels is being able to lean and cruisers generally don’t fair well in that department.

Third, I could care less about fads and lifestyles, I care about riding. A motorcycle that isn’t being ridden is a sculpture. In fact, some of the motorcycles people attempt to ride are sculptures and precious little else.

With those disclaimers out of the way, let me go into detail.

First, I like some Harleys. For example, the Sportster was a fantastic bike in the ’70s. Very cool, very muscular and very (dare I say) performance oriented. The problem, as I see it, is that the modern Sportster is basically the same thing. When rubber mounting is your greatest technological advancement for the past 30 years, your R&D is moving at a glacial pace. Sure, that is spurred by Sales explaining they can sell everything they make even if it is 1950’s engineering but is that a good reason to rest on cast iron and push rods? If Hyosung can do better, so can you.

Second, I don’t spend the majority of my time in a leisure chair. As a result, having my feet above my pelvis, my ass below my knees and my wrists above my shoulders isn’t really comfortable for me. I like the big Harley touring rigs but even they manage to push the floor boards forward and the bars out at an awkward angle. I wonder if the desk chairs in the Harley design labs are all recliners? If not, it shouldn’t be that tough to build in an upright seating position.

Finally, my greatest disappoint is with Buell. I really thought that Harley was going to do something special with Buell ten or more years ago. The VR1000 race bike had a sweet motor, about half the size of the standard Harley V. Sure, the “faithful” wouldn’t want it but Buell was just sitting there as a thumb in the eye of conventional cruisers anyway. If Eric Buell can’t understand water-cooling, send him back to engineering night school for a refresher course. in 1990 it could have been a nice chassis, distinctive styling, strong brakes and a powerful modern sport bike motor. Stir together, bake on sales room floors and enjoy. By the time the V-Rod came out, the motor was a decade out of date (though still better than the *huge* Sportie derivative in the current Buells…sigh) and the innovation is more style than performance.

So that is why I’m down on Harley. If Ford was still cranking about Model-As instead of modern cars, I’d be disappointed with them too…Even Chrysler’s wildly successful PT Cruiser just looks retro while still having a DOHC, aluminum engine!

So really, I want to like Harley. I’d even own an American sport bike, if something reasonably modern was available. If not a Buell, then why won’t Victory hire Dr. Rob Tuluie back?

[image from motorcyclecruiser.com]