The Harley cult verses the others–doctor808 -plastic surgeon hawaii

My Stock Harley "the rocker"

Well as many of my readers know I am somewhat of a motorcycle enthusiast. I think what has me interested more then the   speed, power and pure hedonistic pleasure is the History. Many cultures around the world look down on the American Culture as “cowboys” or non-sophisticates. Yet at the same time envy for America to the point of saying all types of bad things is the norm. Believe me when I say,  I have plenty of bad things to say about the USA as well. However I do respect what was the pioneer spirit and the inventiveness of the few here  although that has changed it seems recently. In the early 1900’s when most of the world was running around drowning in protocols, inbred governments bureaucratic nightmares and politics the American scene was full of freedom lack of restrictions social and other wise for most Americans. I suppose because the country was still fairly new and had not yet become the Roman empire in decay.

Out of the freedom new inventions , new ideas and many companies came about by “doers” who had ideas. One can simply search on patents that arose during that time to see the wide variety of new ideas. In 190o William S. Harley, age 21, completed a blueprint drawing of an engine designed to fit into a bicycle. This later evolved into Harley Davidson briefly preceeded by only a few years by the “Indian” and a french design of motorized bicycle and the bone crusher of Gottlieb Daimler . His idea took off.

Harley Biker Bar

Well the American version of the motorized bicycle eventually evolved into one of the most solid companies and more importantly a solid “cult” grew up around it. There simply is no match to the “Culture of Harley” in the world today. The Japanese bikes such as the Honda and the Suzuki etc were all world war 2 spin offs of the American ideas. In some ways better engineering, better performance and indeed more owners. Yet the cult of Harley is unmatched anywhere. The Harley Davidson is a personal statement about the individual to some degree. It means different things to different people. All I can say is that I have rode Harleys, Hondas and other Asian bikes in various parts of the world but the Harley people seem to have the most cohesive ideas, -independence, honor and some rugged individualism. If a harley was a profession it would be soldier or a cowboy while if a honda was a person it would be lawyer or politician. You can draw your own conclusions from there. One has honor as a high idea a rugged independence and the other gets along to get along. Truth and Honor type things like the Roman legion before the decay with Harley guys.

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

Let me create a small thought expieriment to illustrate what I mean. Pretend for a second your alone with your  children in a bad neigborhood. Some local gangsters come around and if your woman start making remarks and teasing your kids and in general being local type rif raf types harassing you. Your alone and you have two buttons on a device. one summons two different gangs. The red button if you push it , ten guys on Hondas show up to help you. If you push the black button ten guys on Harley’s show up to help you. Which button do you push? See my point –somehow the ratty tat ratty tat sound of ten hondas coming to your side  is just not quite as reassuring as ten rumbling Harley Davidson’s. It is just something you know in your gut.

HARLEY RIDERS

WE ARE COMING TO HELP

I guess what got me thinking about all of this was my recent purchase of some parts to take my Harley to the next level. Now I am customizing it making it with my “Signature” and not the stock issue parts. Every Harley guy does it to some degree. I guess that is why there really are no stock Harleys out there after a few years of age. However i do not know of any customized Hondas. ( there are I just do not know any).

Do not take me wrong I like the speed of the Japanese bikes and some the European bikes as well. So in the future I may even obtain a nice Decati or BMW as these are interesting fun machines. Yet for me I had to customize a Harley first as that is a motorcycle.

DOCTOR808