Growin up my Dad always had Harleys. The last new one he bought was a beautiful burgundy '69 XLCH 900cc Sportster. In those days the Sportsters didn come with an electric starter and I can still remember him workin his ass off to get that sucker fired up, even in the warmer months, in the winter .... forget it.

I remember thinkin to myself (even as a 13yr old) that if I had anything that hard to start I'd get rid of it.

When I bought my 1st bike I KNEW it damned sure waddn gonna be a Harley !

Some people love 'em. others not. My personal perspective is that even if someone GAVE me a Harley I'd sell it and buy a good bike. As a confirmed gear head I'll take the excellent engineering, stying and performance of any Jap bike and certainly a Beemer over a Harley any day.

Oh and .... every owner in the US of anything but a Harley can thank Harley for lobbying to jack up the prices of all imported bikes. Why bother making a superior piece of machinery or workin diligently to make sure it's competive in the marketplace when all you really need to do is employ lobbyists to jack up the prices of your competitors products instead.