How do Suzuki riders feel about Harleys?

[Ext1jdh]

Originally Posted by Captain Steve

Mostly in their mid 30s and up.. it was a really mature bunch.

Is that why the dealers in my area wont even look at me when I walk in the door? Or is that just part of their selling strategy...the Kids look, the Grownups buy?

[intimid8er]

Originally Posted by Ext1jdh

Is that why the dealers in my area wont even look at me when I walk in the door? Or is that just part of their selling strategy...the Kids look, the Grownups buy?

Funny....I go in the dealership attired in shorts and flip-flops, and I get waited on hand and foot.

Go in "dressed decently", and am summarily ignored.

[drgibson]

You have to dress like a Harley rider to be treated like a Harley rider.

[Ext1jdh]

Well that is just stupid. I work (pfft) several hours a day in order to pay for the things that I have, and just because I would rather look semi-professional, I get treated like I'm not worthy of their bike?

They can bite me.

[intimid8er]

True story Joe.

I was shocked and amazed.

[Ext1jdh]

I'd really like to get a Buell Lightning but I refuse to be treated like that. If someone comes into your place of business and says "I want to give you $10,000 of my hard earned bucks" and you ignore them, that just seems like an extremely poor business practice. I'd rather buy one off ebay or from a local private seller. It just doesn't make any sense to me why anyone would want that experience.

[intimid8er]

Originally Posted by Ext1jdh

I'd really like to get a Buell Lightning but I refuse to be treated like that. If someone comes into your place of business and says "I want to give you $10,000 of my hard earned bucks" and you ignore them, that just seems like an extremely poor business practice. I'd rather buy one off ebay or from a local private seller. It just doesn't make any sense to me why anyone would want that experience.

Oh...in that case, if you want a real treat, go in attired in your ballistic or mesh jacket, and see the looks you get from the sales staff. Then tell them, if they so deign to speak with you attired as a barbarian in protective gear, that you ride a Suzuki.......M50.....

Crap...I feel my Anti-motorbike business rant coming on......

[Ext1jdh]

Come on Tim, lets go kick some ass. grr

[The Teach]

Will this antagonistic thread ever die?

It should rate up there with politics and religion.

[Ext1jdh]

No! Harley! Suzuki! Tastes Great! Less Filling! You got chocolate on my peanut butter! Its par-KAY!

[The Teach]

lol

[JRoc]

I love big cruisers
Harley makes big cruisers
I love loud pipes
There is such thing as too loud! ie. straight pipes
I bought the biggest bike I could afford
a Yamaha/Star Stratoliner
I absolutely LOVE my bike!!!

Harley should sell there big cruisers (roadkings, electra glides, etc.) for less in the US than they do over seas! Meaning a Road king here should cost about $15K and $30K overseas. Harley Davidson RAPES middle class working americans and exploits nationalism. They used to make bikes for hard working blue collar types, now they make bikes for the rich and people who can't afford them but buy them anyway in order to be good americans and accepted/admired by there Harley brotheren. Most people aren't strong enough to go against the grain, and this is the reason Harley Davidson is still around.
When I was deciding on a bike I rented and rode every big cruiser in Harley's line-up. I really like the style and look of the Road King Custom but felt it was quite a big underpowered for such a big heavy bike. When I raised this issue with the dealer upon returning the bike he said, don't worry that's something that can be addressed with there streaming eagle accessories. I told him at the price of this bike I wouldn't be able to hear the eagle screaming because my wife would be screaming MUCH louder!!! and it should be included in a bike that expensive. The fatboy, harley's number one seller, is difficult to ride in heavy wind due to the solid cast wheel, and its brakes are VERY underpowered. Now Harley jumped the cc's up quite a bit and include a six speed tranny stock in there full line. This made the decision even more difficult, but in the end I couldn't justify spending over $20K for a bike. I settled on a bike with well over 100 hp TO THE REAR WHEEL and approx 100 lbs/torque. The bike handles like a dream and is much lighter, and more powerful, than the Road King I was considering (thanks in large part to the aluminum frame and swingarm). It also didn't help that I was ignored for about a half and hour when I went into Harley, and then was treated like they were doing me a favor by selling me a bike!!! IMO it's not worth it in order to have the rights to buy $30 t-shirts and get waved at by some guy who, lets be honest, chances are is a total pOttYmOuTh!pOttYmOuTh!pOttYmOuTh!pOttYmOuTh!pOttYm OuTh!pOttYmOuTh!pOttYmOuTh!! NO THANKS.

[4dtvman]

Ok this weekend I drove to Boston and then took route 1
A beautiful ride thru Salem Ma to Rockport Ma. I parked next to a Hardly and both of use got parking tickets. When I got back the couple talked to me really nice I quess there was no other Hardly guys close by.

[Ext1jdh]

I had a similar experience yesterday. Got caught in the rain. Not even normal rain. This was like the hammer of God rain. He was pissed of and was gonna wash 75th street off the face of creation. Big. Friggin. Drops.

So I pulled into a BP, filled up and grabbed a Clif bar while I waited for the ocean to stop falling out of the sky. 2 Harley riders pulled up and decided to block off a perfectly fine working pump instead of the pump that was shut down. They entered the BP and commenced the complaining about how the cappucino wasn't up to snuff and why was the deli closed? Then they got on their cellphones and called up their other riding buddies to see if they had made it out of the rain. They complained, loudly and crudely, about the rain, the gas station, the people they couldnt get hold of, the dummy riding the Suzuki, his helmet, his Icon mesh jacket.

Mind you, I was sitting right next to them.

Apparently they were waiting not only for the rain to clear, but for the ground to dry and the corn to be harvested because as soon as the rain started to lighten up, I was outta there and they were gonna stay nice and toasty in the BP.

Since this is just a small sampling of Harley riders, I can't say for sure that they are all the same way, but these 2 did not make me like the brand any better than I already dont.

[TaterDog]

Not sure it's what they ride that makes them this way -- probably been this way since birth. Riding a Harley just "empowers" them act that way around strangers. Jerks are jerks no matter what they ride.

[Clint]

Oh, I'm sure that's the case. It's not that Harleys are bad bikes, or that riding one makes a person bad, but that jerks and idiots gravitate to them for their outward appeal. Bah!

[dcstrng]

These recent postings looked a bit like a troll to me yesterday, but maybe I judged in haste... like many ol’goats, I’ve ridden a bunch of scoots over the years (pretty much a bit of almost anything but Italian or Russian... no special reason to leave them out, just never rode `em) and although it is clear there are different riding styles between the sport-bikes, cruisers, full-boat tourers and whatever else... dirt bike, let alone, metric, Milwaukee and the ol’Wentwoths, whatever... I’ve not noticed any one breed has a lock on good attitude, or genteel manners either... at least not with riders who have a few miles on `em...

To be sure, Milwaukee has figured out how to attract a bunch of post-adolescent spoiled brats with too much money... and then convinced many that any bike with more than 5K miles (total, not per year...) is unacceptably old, meaning that many newbees don’t even log enough miles to be called motorcyclists... but the disease is alive and well in the metric realm as well... there was a guy (nice enough) in a riding club I used to hang out with a few years back, who had the same model/color metric as mine... his was absolutely spotless, but with something like 50K less miles... think he averages something like 1500 miles a year..

The current marque fetish and accompanying parochialism of the past decade or so is something that has done little for motorcycling... but with the advent of the weenie-button, anyone with MasterCard is an instant-biker and there are now often more shiny bikes than real riders, or so it seems... Nonetheless, when I’m on my HD, I’ve received far more gratuitous caustics from metric riders than I ever have when I’m on my Nomad from Harley riders – in fact, I don’t recall every getting anything but a compliment from HD riders... In any-case... cutting up another rider’s bike adds absolutely nothing to the sport... Not every metric rider would really have a Harley, good grief... and not every Harley rider is secretly envious of the supposedly superior occidental workmanship... Many riders are perfectly happy with what they have...

[Graywolf]

Having not ridden a Harley, I personally cannot give an opinion of the Harley Motorcycle. I do have the $ to buy one, but was put off by their rude behavior in the showroom. They totally ignored my husband and I. I do have friends who own them and they love to pick on me about my buying a Suzuki. They ALSO, in private, compliment me on the C50C. They all know that it's all about the ride with me, not what they ride.

[dcstrng]

was put off by their rude behavior in the showroom.

Have to agree with you there... any actual Harley parts I need, I order from a discounter on line, and the local Yamaha dealer sells and mounts my tires, for both my bikes... My goal in life is to not set foot in one of those RUB emporiums... but they do have one advantage, you can probably count on one hand the number of metric stealerships open on Sunday, and it is no trick to find a Harley dealer with an “open” sign... but company-wide they seem to have developed a bit of an attitude problem ni recent years... when it comes to HD, or any other bike for that matter, I tend to use a greasy-fingered indie instead...

[4dtvman]

Me and my wife stopped in at the local HD dealer, looking for coats (didn't do me any good since everything said HD on it and I have a Suzuki) we were there for about 20 min. looking never once did some one ask us if we need help. I quess I pulled in with my HONDA car and didn't look like HD owners.