Harley Owner Encounter...

[Bumblebee]

I'm not a fan of cruisers whether metric or HD but have ridden a few over the years for some reason or other. I found HD to be no less capable than a metric cruiser, some are better, some are worse. I don't personally get the ape hanger style bar as I would find them hard on the shoulders but to each their own of course.

At one time there were more Yamaha V-Star 1100s around here than pretty much any other cruiser, some of them were well set up but all of them were pigs on fuel. One fellow I knew had a Yamaha Road Star 1300 and it was a brilliant bike, he had "elk horn?" bars on it and it was de-badged and set up like an HD, if you saw it go by, you'd think it was an HD....big white wall tires, tractor seat and all....

 

[Zerks]

I'm not a fan of cruisers whether metric or HD but have ridden a few over the years for some reason or other. I found HD to be no less capable than a metric cruiser, some are better, some are worse. I don't personally get the ape hanger style bar as I would find them hard on the shoulders but to each their own of course.

At one time there were more Yamaha V-Star 1100s around here than pretty much any other cruiser, some of them were well set up but all of them were pigs on fuel. One fellow I knew had a Yamaha Road Star 1300 and it was a brilliant bike, he had "elk horn?" bars on it and it was de-badged and set up like an HD, if you saw it go by, you'd think it was an HD....big white wall tires, tractor seat and all....

I think that is the definition of a "poser".

 

[Zerks]

...they are, lmao

I even had the pleasure of riding my buddies "Teacher" a few times. What is a "Teacher"?

Its some kind of custom theme bike with an S & S stroker. It had a short springer front end on it and a little extra rake... you know... to make it look cool. It also had twin disk Brembo brakes up front and they seemed decent enough. The gas tank was on the small side and it was a solo bike with the tractor style seat on it... I can't remember if it had a rear fender... I don't think it did. With few exceptions you had to hang on with tendons under pressure to sufficiently grip the bars that rose up to shoulder hieght. When going down a steep incline you could relax your grip, or, if you were braking enough to shift your bodies center of gravity you could relax the grip a bit. What I did like about was the torque.... just a small blip of the throttle and let the clutch go... no finesse required... it won't stall.

 

[busafan08]

The Apes are a deal breaker for me... the decreased ability to precisely control the steering is not something I am comfortable with.

Not really back in the day my road king had 14 inch mini apes which were comfortable for me with no steering issues at all I guess as long as you don t go overboard they are fine I wrote a friend s springer once with 18 inch apes to my surprise it wasn't to bad of a ride I do dig the easy rider captain America look

 

[SSGT_B]

 

[Bumblebee]

View attachment 1653577

View attachment 1653577

That's probably for fording rivers where the rider needs to stand on the seat, they probably double as an engine snorkel......

 

[sixpack577]

That's probably for fording rivers where the rider needs to stand on the seat, they probably double as an engine snorkel......

...and that's probably true too, lmao

 

[SSGT_B]

 

[Bumblebee]

View attachment 1653579

It certainly takes all kinds.....it goes to show even that generation had it's fair share of weirdos too...