(06-22-2015 10:35 AM)The ferret Wrote: Conversely if my father were still alive and shopping for a new bike right now, I'm pretty sure I would find him at the Indian dealer sitting on a new Scout making vroom vroom noises. His first bike was an Indian Scout and I'm pretty sure on that appeal alone, he would be a buyer.
3 generations with 3 ideas of what a motorcycle should look like, how they should sound and how they should perform.
Wonder what kind of motorcycles grandsons Riley (2) and Tanner (4 months) will be into. probably make fun of their dads "retro" FJ-09 lol
Oh, wow. This nails it.
Now I've been down on H-D motocycles; and I've caught the flack for it. One poster here even, very gentlemanly, offered to meet up with me and let me ride his (while he evaluated my vibration problem on the CB).
I don't think I'm out of line with my opinions, or I wouldn't hold them. But the bottom line, for me, is that I have no history with H-D or cruiser cycles. My old man didn't ride. None of his friends did. Non of MY friends' fathers did. There were no Harley-Davidsons, or ANY motorcycles, in my neighborhood or my childhood.
I came to it in my twenties. A long story; but it involved a small town on Lake Erie; a wonderful summer, and a Yamaha R5C for sale for $200.
And I was hooked. The UJM was THE way to go.
Had it been different; had I been brought in with the H-D crowd
(which would have been hard; H-D guys were hiding, with their shameful secret love for what was then, early 1980s, a reeling company with an obsolete product which was likely to fail)
...had I started there, I doubtless would have entirely different tastes. I'd maybe see a CB; test-ride it...think, NICE...and go back on my Electra-Glide, to wherever Harley riders go.
It's impossible to separate tastes and early experiences and potty-training days and all that...