Me On A Harley? The “Convince Me” Challenge
Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve never been a Harley guy. Rather than spend big bucks on a loud, expensive bike with the pegs way out in front, I have always preferred the cheaper, quieter bikes with the pegs underneath so I can stand up on bumps.
Well, sometimes you have to make sacrifices. For me, as someone who writes about motorcycles, I sometimes have to ride Harleys. Just have to, you know? There’s no escaping it. Dirty job and all that.
This is just a heads-up that I’m going to be making the ultimate sacrifice in the coming weeks and I’ll be spending a lot of time on a variety of Harleys. I was talking the other day with Troy Terranova, the finance manager over at Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson, and he’s going to try to change my mind.
As Troy puts it, he believes Harleys are hands-down the best motorcycles in the world and if money were not an issue the vast majority of riders would own a Harley–just that simple. For my part, I acknowledged that I’ve rarely ridden Harleys and have never spent any real time on one. For obvious reasons, Troy can’t put me on a new bike for an extended period but with used bikes it’s a different matter. He’s going to set me up to spend some real time on a selection of Harleys, in the hopes that I’ll fall in love.
Troy’s motivation here is simple. Rocky Mountain H-D gets publicity, and it would be especially good publicity if he does in fact convince me. My motivation is to see for myself what is behind the Harley mystique that I have never experienced before. Plus, of course, it gives me good stuff to write about on all my various gigs, such as Examiner.com and RumBum.com.
So stay tuned, I think this is going to be very interesting.
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Tags: motorcycle test ride
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:16 pm
This is my first visit to your blog, and I know practically nothing about you…but judging from your comments & pictures, my guess is that you would be most happy with some type of Harley Dyna model. You don’t peg me as a Road King or Ultra Classic kinda of guy, or even one that would enjoy floor boards. Me either! Granted, I have never ridden anything but a Harley, so my opinion is probably slanted in the other direction from yours. But I totally love my bike. I ride a 2008 Super Glide. It has mid-controls and is not covered with a lot of “bling”. I like the stripped-down, pure machine look to it. With nearly 1600 cc’s its got plenty of giddyup, and the stock pipes make it not too loud but not too whiney either. The Dynas are a nimble class, yet quite versatile. They can take twisties just as well as cruise down a highway. As I am sure you can tell from my comments, I am far from a typical Harely dude. But if I were Troy, I’d set you up on a Dyna – perhaps the new Wide Glide! I get to demo one next weekend…can’t wait!