What Is With All The Hatred For Harleys In This Section?

Notice it is never triumph vs BMW or Suzuki vs Moto Guzzi. It is always Harley vs everything else.
There are alot of reasons Harly the bike, Harley the marketing campaign, and Harley Guy, attracts the disdain, ridicule, animosity, and also just good natured ribbing.
Harley the bike is dollar for dollar, pound for pound, cc for cc, easily the worst bike you can buy. Get out the spread sheets and the harley is just embarrassing next to a modern bike or even a harley clone. It is a chrome slathered reproduction of a long outdated design.
Harley the marketing campaign. They don’t sell motorcycles, they sell a dream, a lifestyle, a status symbol. All smoke and mirrors. But harley is the top selling bike in the USA. Worst bike, highest price, best selling. Simply genius.
Harley guy. Ok, these guys are dumb enough to buy into all the hype and pay premium prices for a POS bike. Most are middle aged noob riders, who really do believe they have bought their way into elite status. They really do think the harley has awesome power comperable to none, and have no idea the loud mufflers sit behind the lowest horsepower powerplants in production. They think they are proud individualists, but look at 500 black harleys parked on a street, with fat middle aged identically dressed riders milling about and it becomes obvious that you are looking at herd animals.
It’s an endless debate, seems you have picked the tougher side to defend, gotta respect a guy for that.
What the heck does Bart look like that Harley dealers are so mean to him? The local harley mega store here hires hot young chicks who couldn’t be nicer.

Jealousy, pure and simple — although not always of the machine itself. People who ride a metric cruiser, for example, are often asked “is it a Harley?” by people who don’t own or ride motorcycles. This creates an attitude of “no, it isn’t…and I don’t want one of those anyways.”
Incidentally, Harley-Davidson makes cruisers. H-D puts more technology in their cruisers than any of the Japanese brands put in thier cruisers (fly-by-wire throttle, fourth generation closed loop EFI, Brembo sourced ABS brakes, Harmon-Kardon CD/stereo etc). That being said, they aren’t (and never will) make a four-cylinder supersport designed for the race track first and the street second – so it’s not really an accurate comparison.
Furthermore, I had more mechanical issues with my Honda’s than I have had with my Harley-Davidson’s or my Triumphs (both with similar “hatred” on forums such as this). Am I saying that Honda is a bad brand? Absolutely not – just that YMMV.

It’s fun.
The HD people are so sensitive, and always on the defensive. Ask a simple question like, “Why can’t HD keep up with the rest of the world?” They attack you, they point out the Jap HD knock-offs, they threaten to kick your a**, and try to delete your question.
I can see why Bart S picks on them.
Also, HD is an easy target. Every twenty years they update an outdated engine. The clamshell riding position is ridiculous. The idiots pull the baffles out of their mufflers. 20k buys an anachronism that you are expected to invest another 20k into. Less than half the Jap engine will match it for torque and double it for HP. People are buying into an image. The great bikes of the past were Triumph and Indian, HD just has great marketing. The list goes on.

I normally do not get involved in these “Hate Harley” – “Hate everybody else” stand-offs. but this is a good one. I started riding in 1952, a 1942 HD 45. Next was an Indian Chief. Then a couple of other Harleys, then Triumphs for several years. Was drafted in 1956, went to Germany in mid 1957, first day on base, found a Vincent Black Prince for sale, owner was getting out. Bought it, put 20K miles on it in a little over a year, shipped it home when I got out, destroyed the transmission on the first ride after getting it home. Rode/sold Triumph for a few years, then got involves with Kawasaki. Had a Triumph dealer ship from 1960 to 1965, sold it, then Kawasaki 1970s to 1984. I worked full time for a large company, was in the shop evenings and weekends, had full time help during the week. Looked like every time I got the shop going good, I would get moved. Moved to Europe mid 1980s. Back in 1989, retired in 1991, have operated the shop full time since.
The shop is a motorcycle machine shop, I repair all brands, Right now, have a 2002 HD Twin Cam,. 116 ci, with 4 valve heads I am sorting out for a chap, a Yamaha R6 with blown gear box, and a bunch of many other assorted bikes waiting, They all have good points, all have bad points, all in all, today, no one brand is better or worse than any other. (Afraid you can not say that about some older bikes.) Everyone is welcome, the coffee pot is always on. I can point out problems with most any brand, if you come in knocking Harleys, or any other, you are asked to can it, or leave.
So, just let each one ride what he will, No one has any right to to talk down any other person or his ride. Lets enjoy the ride, and the fellowship.
Tomcotexas.

I can’t speak for anybody else just myself … First of all i encourage everybody to buy anything but american so they can all be out of a job!!!! now for the bike thing ..i have rode lots of jap and english bikes in my over fifty years of riding and if you don’t know chit about a bike then a jap bike is the one because they are usually not worth fixing so you throw them away and go buy another one… Up in the sturgis they have a bike on display …1991FXRT harely just like i ride now except this one is special .. It has a million miles on it and you can find it in utube if you like .. Nine motors and 106 rear tires and i think 5 seats and three transmissions …IF jap bikes are so fkn good where to hell is thier million mile bike??? nuff said

The answer is actually very simple, childishness. Plain and simple childishness. Regardless of how old these people are chronologically, they’re acting like little kids fighting over toy blocks and these people need to grow up.
My friends and I did the exact same thing…except that was when we were in grade school! We went round and round about which truck was better, Ford, Dodge or Chevy, which tractor was better, Oliver, John Deere, International or Allis Chalmers, which seed corn brand was better, Trojan, Ainsworth, Pioneer, DeKalb and so on. We were all friends but were always going round and round about something that one had that was better than the others. Heck, one time it was even round bales vs square bales!
Sure, there are a few immature adult HD riders that act the same way about other brands, but a lot fewer than the other way around. This is probably because most HD owners are older adults and not pimply faced adolescents who haven’t yet acquired any common sense.
And as to Bart’s comments, I’m probably one of the very few people who has ever come to his defense. However, if he actually has had such bad experiences at HD dealerships, then he either visited a dealership with some real A-holes (certainly possible but unlikely) or he brought it on himself (more likely). I’ve parked my Jap bike in front of many HD shops and have always found the salesmen and staff friendly and helpful. ANY business that treats potential customers like cr@p are either idiots or have a very good reason to.
As a final note, many Americans here forget that the US is a land where we have freedom of choice. That’s the individual’s choice and not what some other dumba$$ says no matter how much smarter they think they are (ha!). Instead of pounding on HDs, why not pound on the Amish. If you think a Harley is slow, what about a horse??? And if you think HD riders look funny with all their leather, what about those Amish with their no-button trousers, shirts and big black hats??? Yeah, let’s flog the Amish for thinking what they think and living the lifestyle they want. Yeah, come on!!!! We’ll be doing them a favor because they don’t realize how misguided they are!!!

I don’t think anyone who hasn’t had a license to ride since at least the 70’s has any concept of the history of motorcycles,the infusion of jap bikes into the US,or the true dividing line between bikers and motorcyclists…but I agree,there are too many wannabe weekend warriors,spending more time polishing than riding,who think a v-twin and a do-rag make them a bad-***

just a bunch of ignorant idiots. And by the way I own and ride BOTH H.D. and jap bikes. ALL bikes and ALL cars will brake down. If it has breasts or wheels it will give you problems! [sorry girls]

Very simple. Harleys used to be a cool bike owned by individuals who simply loved to be different. Now, Harleys are overpriced status symbols owned mainly by snobs. The other well kept secret is that they are basically not very dependable and the parts and maintenance cost is ridiculous.