Some great bikes here boys! Graeme, you certainly are a go big or go home kind of guy! Nice scoots!

I bought this trailer to help get me out of the city in one piece 😀

The MAN.:flag:

My last HD post...I promise. This is a short story about how I got into bikes in 1992...

"Everybody wants a Fat Boy"

I took delivery of this beautiful 1965 FLH this morning and after we unloaded it I took the truck driver into the garage to show him my other bikes. When he saw my 1990 Fat Boy, he said, "nice...everybody wants a Fat Boy". That comment took me back 24 years to the time when I bought my first Harley. It was 1992 and Harley's were just becoming mainstream. Being a gear head my entire life, I thought they were cool and wanted one. However, I have to admit that I was afraid that they were too dangerous and that fear was stopping me from buying. As was my parent's constant reminders of every bike accident that made the news!

I was a very serious martial artist at the time and took off to a week long black belt Summer camp with my little pocket sized HD brochure in my duffle bag (I still have it - see pic below). Each night after training, I would look at the pics in the brochure trying to decide which one I liked best.

On the last day of camp, I was fighting a guy that I didn't know and was beating him pretty badley. We fought full contact to the body and light contact to the head without any protective gear. In one exchange I swept his legs out and he landed pretty hard. As I bowed in preparation for the next round, he spun in with a hook kick to my head without any warning. The kick spun me around, but didn't knock me out. However, it did break my cheek bone off and cracked my eye socket.

After seeing a plastic surgeon (who told me that I would have died if the kick landed 1 inch higher) I was given Tylenol 3's and told to go home and wait for a call for surgery. My face had a dent in it where my cheek bone used to be and I couldn't open my mouth more than a half inch due to the muscle spasms.

Having something like this happen to you makes you question your fears in life. I had trained for almost 20 years with nothing more than some bruises and a few stitches and in a split second your life could have been over....

The next morning I grabbed my HD brochure and went to Poole's Harley Davidson in Hamilton. I got some pretty strange looks walking in there with a black eye and a big dent in my head! I was looking around and these two big bikers were standing looking at a bike. I couldn't see past them, but heard one of them say, "that's a Fat Boy...everybody wants a Fat Boy". When they moved on, I went over and that was it...I wanted a Fat Boy too.

I had surgery 2 days later and got everything put back in place. Poole's wouldn't work with me on the price of a new bike, so I found a better deal at Clare's Cycle. I ordered a black 1993 Fat Boy as the '92's were sold out. I got my bike license a month later and the bike came in a month after that. I had to get my brother-in-law to ride it home for me as I had never ridden anything bigger than a dirt bike. That Fat Boy helped me through a difficult time and I still smile every time I think about it - like this morning after the truck driver's comment...

The Man and the Crew.

Zedder's comment about his parents constant reminders of how dangerous bikes are reminded me of when I got my license. I got my first dirt bike when I was 6yo. A Honda Mini Trail 50. Loved that bike... When it came time to get my street license I couldn't be more excited. Then it happened. Just before I was set to take my test, my older brother got into a pretty serious accident evading... They were going to amputate his leg. Thankfully my Dad knew that was my brother and not me, but wow was it hard convincing my mother of that...
"There are those who have gone down and those that will go down." Thirty something years later and I'm still the latter luckily though there have been some close ones. I'm hoping dirt counts. I've gone down hard on dirt bikes plenty of times...

Mert on the right?

:biggthumpup: I think that's him.

what are the two hand levers on the LH handlebar? one for clutch; and the other?

Handicap accommodation would be my guess. Hand strength issue perhaps.

Look at how crooked his fingers and thumb are in the photo.

He was already busted up.:flag:

This is cool...

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/...xr750-replica/

Mark...you just got that 65 FLH?

No Graeme, that was a story that I posted on my FB page in 2016. I just cut and pasted it here :) However, I have made offers to get it and my 70 LS5 Corvette back this week :)

Only homebuilt Pan & Knuck Choppers for me ! I did buy a 2017 Dyna Low Rider sport tho in the last year. And after talking a lot of smack on "newer" H-D"s for years , I gotta say it's a hell of a machine. But Harleys whole mystique is about the history & nostalgia. But as sad as it may be and as hard as Harley trys to market its brand & image it seems the younger guys just don't Care, or cant even afford too? My feeling is anybody who ever wanted a Harley already has one or Five ?!?! I grew up in a hard core Harley Lifestyle family and I'm afraid Harleys future is a sinking ship no matter who's in charge . the Nostalgia and History may be their only future ?

Clutch and rear brake.

I notice that every time I ride and its very discouraging. I don't know about the rest of the country but I see more and more cable barriers going up as well. Guard rails looked bad enough but the cable barriers look like something out of a Vincent price Horror movie. Grass mowing season is fixing to start too and people will start blowing heaps of cut grass onto the street (usually in a curve) for MC riders to navigate through.


Tommy

Great Piece published yesterday by Business Insider that summarizes the current situation at HD and the current electric bike market in general:

https://www.businessinsider.com/elec...ecs-2020-3#-13

A quote from HD as to the change in direction:

"In 2020 we will expand our focus from heavyweight motorcycle unit shipments to revenue from motorcycles and related products segment as a primary objective and measure for the year. This measure best reflects our comprehensive efforts to expand into new product segments and foster a customer-creation culture - one that is laser-focused on our riders and fans who are passionate about our great brand. Looking forward, our efforts will only intensify"

Link to Jalopnik article:

https://jalopnik.com/harley-davidson...ing-1842360193

With the exit of Levatich and his replacement replacement, Jochen Zeitz, coming up with the "Hardwire" plan to return HD to its core marketing segment the hiring of Edel O’Sullivan to the position of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) has many who applauded the Zeitz moves scratching their heads and wondering aloud if She has ever owned a Harley or even ridden a motorcycle for that matter.

This will be interesting to see how this all plays out because She will need to have the strategic vision to help implement hardwire, which is by design an attempt to walk back to the core owner segment that Levatich literally tried to walk away from.

Not everyone wants a "Fat Boy"...:grin: Never did, never will. My Uncle bought a '47 74" Knucklehead after he got out of the Army and still owns it. I rode on it as young boy and drove it a few times as a young man. I've had a motorcycle every year but one since 1969. Mostly Honda's until 1975, when I bought a KZ 900, and yes the speedo needle will find the 160 mark. Traded that for a 1983 KZ1100D and kept that until 1998. I bought my first Harley in 1997 and the second in 2000. I had put my name on the wait list in 1997, just a short time before I bought a 1995. I sold that to get the 2000. Both are springer fronts with real spokes, just like they are supposed to be...:flag: Only feature I can't replicate is the tank shift.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albu...080&fit=bounds

What is the name of that paint ?? I'm looking for a copper like that for my '38 coupe

You should probably send him a personal message to find an answer to this query.

As pointed out, Harley has an aging customer base that in my area is selling/ trading in Harley's for ATV/UTV Side by Side recreation vehicles. They are not attracting new customers.
I started out as a kid riding dirt bikes, wishing for the day I could buy a Harley. I started with a Sportster. That is what I could afford. My last one was a Softail. My friends all grew up wanting Harleys also.
My son started on dirt bikes but never wanted a Harley. He bought a Kawasaki Ninja 500R. His friends are all in to the same bikes. That is the real issue for Harley. How to stay relevant when your core customer base is naturally declining.

I've never owned a Harley but have loved them forever.When I was a kid in the 1950's my father was a cop on motorcycle patrol for our city's force.He drove,I think,a 1200,with a side car.Drove it in the Winter also.Had a kick start and tank "suicide shifter.I always remember him sort of jumping in the air and coming down hard on the kick start to fire it up on cold mornings.He was issued a big buffalo fur coat to keep warm while on the bike.The coats were R.C.M.P. issue from out West.He used to drive me to school while I sat in the side car.Boy the other kids sure envied me,lol.

HD needed a "cultural (global) boost. The plan was to get into popular culture by being the first in electric bikes and there by - get into the "good graces" of the global culture.

Historically one man showed the world how to wear a superhero cape and beat the cultural door down - becoming immortal within pop culture in the process while doing it. All this free publicity paid global sales dividends for HD for decades to follow.

It is not just the bikes... Knievel was a guy that the media just could not take the lens away from. Harley Davidson was the winner and so was America.

Today the programmed cultural view of America is vastly different from what it was but WHO ELSE could put the colors RED, White, and Blue, in the media's face and make them cover the spectacle right after Vietnam and the cultural aftereffects?

This--(the WHO ELSE)-- is of course a rhetorical question that I do not need the answer to.

I agree 100% 70 COPO