How true, AMF almost killed Harley while Beemers were building two wheeled wonders.

My neighbor has a late model R1200C, it's pretty awesome, and quiet. Once a month, he goes on a several hundred mile ride with fellow BMW....people. He wants me to go, but I don't think my old R50/2 with 24 hp could keep up with those guys.

you would need a commitment ..... or a tow rope!

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I have had a '70 Honda CL350, '79 Honda CB750, '74 Honda CB 450, and a '69 honda s90. They were all a joy to work on and ride, and you could still get parts easily for them. I'm sure they were all smoother than a Harley too.

I've since sold them all except the s90 due to concerns about being smashed by morons in SUVs talking on cell phones.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

I restrict my riding to Sunday mornings, real early, but late enough so that the drunks have already passed out. During the week, it's too darned scary to ride. People must have those cellphones surgicaly attached, and they just don't pay attention.

I even had had a soccer mom roll down her window and scream at me, because she couldn't use her phone due to the drag pipes on the Sporty. I kept saying "huh?' to her until she was red in the face. I almost wanted to do a burnout, but I know she would have called the fuzz on me.

You guys must be weak, getting up in years or just don't live right. I just took out the latest scoot to work the other day. It was about 35 degrees and snow drifted across the road in places. The stupid looking fairing works great.

I never got into the Harley thing. Too much of the macho image for me. I would rather own a bike because it works great, hardly needs any maintenance and nobody else has one. The ONLY reason I tolerate HD is because they have 2 wheels.

To each his own.

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'85 300SD (formerly california emissions)
'08 Chevy Tahoe
'93 Ducati 900 SS
'79 Kawasaki KZ 650
'86 Kawasaki KX 250
'88 Kawasaki KDX200
'71 Hodaka Ace 100
'72 Triumph T100R

No longer the case, unfortunately. Airhead GS's with Paralever drives (basically 88-95) have predictable driveshaft failure at 30-40k intervals, reportedly due to the driveshaft angle on these bikes (higher ground clearance than RT, RS, etc). On recent oilhead 1150GS's, final drive bearing failure's again become epidemic, as it has on the K1200LT's; the other oilheads and K's seem to be fine. There are still driveshaft bearing failures on the new generation hexhead R1200GS's, introduced in 2004, including a number of riders on cross-country trips, returning from the AlCan rally, etc. It's sort of become a joke; BMW, as always, denies there's a problem. It's gotten to the point where I'd rather have a belt (and BMW is using belts on the new F800 parallel twins).

BMW's are durable bikes, but the Japanese have caught up with them in that respect, and exceeded them in pure reliability. BMW's taken up the role of technology innovator to justify the price premium, and that's led to problems. I'm still an obsessive fan (and have two right now), but I'm getting frustrated, so are a lot of other riders. BMW wants to push upmarket and revise the motorcycle brand image to reflect the cars; the bikes' design and technology justifies that, but the reliability issues don't.

Meanwhile, H-D (aside from the sales and market domination) has drastically improved the quality of its bikes. I think the company realized in the '80s that while the true believers would put up with the crap construction of the Shovelhead/Ironhead era, quality had to exponentially improve to successfully reach the current lay audience. The sales figures show their success in making the transition. The bikes look the same, but they're different underneath. I never would have owned an old Harley, but I've briefly owned a TC88 Dyna and an '05 rubber-mount XL1200R Sporty in the last couple of years, and I've been impressed. I'll buy Harley again.

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81 300SD
08 MDX Tech
93 525i

05 F650GS

Sounds familiar to anyone who has a newer model Mercedes, and used to drive a older one.

that it does.

too much complexity.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I guess the bottom line for me is the price. Rather, what you get in return for the price. I can't justify plunking down $15k for a new big twin when I could buy 5 to 10 other bikes that I would have waaaaaaaay too much fun on.

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'85 300SD (formerly california emissions)
'08 Chevy Tahoe
'93 Ducati 900 SS
'79 Kawasaki KZ 650
'86 Kawasaki KX 250
'88 Kawasaki KDX200
'71 Hodaka Ace 100
'72 Triumph T100R

dave you forgot about the transmission input spline issues that bmw denies also.

I love it when that happens. My bike has a 100 cu engine with straight turn- outs on it. The dirty looks at stop lights are priceless. If they get too nasty looking, I just rev it a little.

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I really gets fun when they all don't run

84 500SL
99 Jeep XJ
93 Jeep YJ
03 Custom Softail

Seems like there a quite a few of us who enjoy the two wheel world. You guys ever get to any of the rally's around, it might be fun to all meet up sometime.

The only one I have been going to for the last few years is Sturgis (mainly because my son's want to go) but there are a lot of regional ones around.
My avitar pic was taken in a campground over looking Rapid City at the rally two years ago.

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I really gets fun when they all don't run

84 500SL
99 Jeep XJ
93 Jeep YJ
03 Custom Softail

My vote for Moto-Guzzi. Older ones are easy to maintain, realtively cheap to find, you wont see yourself coming and going. I had an 81 LeMans 850 and loved it. My Brother rides a 79 SP1000 with over 90k on the stock motor. Sounds great, rides great, shaft drive. Check out www.harpersmotoguzzi.com for all the info you will ever need.



This is exactly what my old bike looked like.

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"Ninja monkeys are meeting as we speak, plotting my demise."

1982 300D "Melba" 332k
1985 4Runner "billygoat" 204k

I was watching news coverage of Daytona Biketoberfest, and the camera captuerd a guy pulling up to a light and mildly goosing his motor. In the blink of an eye, two cops on bicycles pulled up alongside of presumably gave him a ticket. The irony is that all the "master bike builders" get away with murder on public streets, from what I see on tv. Those shows are so scripted anymore, the only two I ever liked were Billy Lane and Indian Larry.

Yea the cops seem to come in two catagories when it comes to bikes. In all honesty, I've never been hasseled in my 30 yrs of biking but I know of a lot of guys that just seem to accumulate tickets. My youngest son managed to get no less than 9 speeding tickets on his ZX 600 one summer when we lived in Minnesota. Took him two years to get his license back.

Indian Larry was great. Sad day when he got killed. Billy Lane built some great bikes. He just seems to believe that laws don't apply to him. Will be interesting to see how he makes out with those three felony charges. I doubt he is going to get out of the manslaughter one.

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I really gets fun when they all don't run

84 500SL
99 Jeep XJ
93 Jeep YJ
03 Custom Softail