@Smokin Joe
I have always been of the opinion that above all,you HAVE to be able to ride and enjoy them on a daily basis if you are able.
Never understood the philosophy behind owning garage queens. All you can do is look at them and polish them. I guess it's ok if that is what you enjoy,but I just don't get it. I've ridden nothing but Harley's since selling by Triumph Bonneville with TT cams and pistons in 1969,but sadly it seems to me that most Harley riders these days put most of the miles on their bikes while the bikes are on trailers being pulled by their 60 grand SUV's. The Harley's are more of a item of designer clothing to be used to draw attention to the owner as they ride at a stately 15 mph down a city street or in a park than an actual motorcycle to be ridden on the road. I even had one of these dweebs try to talk down to me last week,and he doesn't even own one. He's big into those "Veteran Ride Events" even though he's not a veteran,and he told me he just rents a dresser to ride. He does own the leather Harley Vest he wears with all the ride pins on it,though. He told me he hauls the bike to the events on a trailer because "I like to be comfortable".
THIS is what passes for a biker these days.
I was camping in Spearfish City Park during the Sturgis 50th back in 1990, in a thirty dollar tent that rode down across the handlebars of my Superglide, when a massive land yacht came in pulling a huge trailer with seven bikes on it. I thought "I wonder where these people came from?" and out of curiosity wandered a little closer to catch a glimpse of the license plates....
South Dakota> spit! < "Stay home and polish it!"
Mine is an 80 inch shovel in an old Drag Specialties frame, 6 over tubes in front, low to the ground, with PMI brakes and a rubberband primary (primo 3 inch belt, no guard). I had enough of springers on 45's, just didn't like 'em, to each their own. I like a girder better, but the geometry change going around a hard turn takes some getting used to. The only disadvantage to not running a guard on the belt is that it tends to fill my left boot with water if it's raining (forward pegs/controls).
I have ridden when I scraped the frost off the saddle, in all day downpours, in hail, in water deep enough the exhaust burbled like an inboard boat, been down going forwards and backwards, and rode 50 miles holding a fat bob with a broken bracket with my knee and a bungee cord, among other minor adventures. While I haven't ridden near as much in the last few years, that kick start only 80 inch with the mag and battery eliminator is rougher on my knee than it used to be. One of these days I'm going to get a ride with the magic button you push to start the bike.
For a while, there was no way to ride it around here with 2 out of 3 vehicles on the road semis and the bike so low the front pipe drags on a right turn. If you can't maneuver hard in that environment, someone is going to be washing you out from in between the drivers.
But my leathers are put up for the day when I get that bike back up (now that the traffic is down). I have a few more 'In memory of ...' patches to sew on, if I can find room, and I'm not parading around like I'm Willie G. My AMA number is old enough they gave me a life membership, 27 years in the MRF, and I'm an ABATE lifer, too, and past District Rep.
It's kinda funny how we used to look at the scruffy poor kid wannabes who would wear Harley t-shirts and chip in for a rice burner they'd share and call themselves "bikers" even if the community motorcycle didn't run. At least they had heart, some of them. Some of those kids actually made the grade, got a decent job and bought a bike. Some we even helped along the way.
Some of us recall when you could buy a basket case 45 for a couple of hundred bucks and have a bike in a year of work and horsetrading for parts, but those days are long gone if you aren't phenomenally lucky and old school to boot.
But there is, as you said, a different breed out there, drugstore cowboys on rented rides with all the 'right' pins and patches and designer leathers who are more about appearances and impressing each other at the party than the ride, and who don't so much have the heart and soul of a biker, only the trimmings.
