Anybody look down there nose at your xs?

Who cares what that KID thinks. If he built his bike, it would be different. i took my XS to Laconia (90 mile ride),and to Sturgis, I couldn't get away from it everytime I parked. I was so sick of talking about my XS that after a while, I would park it,and get away from it as fast as I could so as to have some fun.
 
They generally shut up when I blow them off the road in the twisties. If that don't work I tell them why I quit riding Harleys. I got tired of walkin! Went from 5,000 miles a year to 25,000 by changing brands. But I'm considered a Fossil around here. Most don't dare to give me any shit.
 
I think those r the same guys who ride my ass through the hills like they're trying to run me over or prove some point. There's no way they could enjoy the scenery, they don't even know what they're missing.
 
Coming from someone who has a sportster, an xs650, and an xt500 it seems like no matter what I'm on there will always be some big twin owners with their 'king of the castle' mentality. Big twin owners look down on sportsters just the same.

What's funny is my sportster will smoke most big twins anywhere but in a straight line and my xt500 will run circles around my sportster all day long.
 
Here's a Harley I like to put around on. Harley sprint 350 street tracker. not mine
 

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I got more comments because of my kz1000 Police . After 28 years most people got used o it .
There will always be the got the attitude when they bought the bike folk .The trick is to identify them early and ignore them completely .

My XS's over the years have never been tame save for a couple of stockers . It's kind of hard to ignore or talk down to an XS that is near 70 HP and shoots flames while drinking alcohol .

Most of you are at least a little familiar with my history . I just ignore the ignorant and engage the interesting . I ride a variety of equipment from three continents and could care less about trolls and idiots.

The people I travel with , ride with , wrench with are a bit more educated than the norm or average . I rarely see any of them subject any but a complete squid or arrogant ass to anything approaching ridicule .

When you've been around long enough having to hear the "when are ya gonna get a real bike" "what kind of honda is it " " is it going to be a motorcycle when it grows up" just don't mean anything anymore .. Look it never goes away . I even hear "get a new bike and you won't have to... " from the credit card hipsters on twinkies . . I've probably had more idiots crop up around my shovel than my XS's .
 

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I understand there are some people that are into stock xs's that might look down on my cut up xs. Or so I've heard.
 
I do know quite a few Harley owners that appreciate all bikes but the" if it ain't Harley it ain't shit "attitude is big here in SD. Black Hills area. I see a lot of people with Harley jackets,boots,hats,tatoos,stickers on they're car or truck that don't even own a bike. 1time I pushed my bike to a nearby gas station because I got a flat from a nail and a guy told me it wouldn't have broke down if I didn't try to make it look like a Harley.
 
It's true Mark that I look on the cut it up just to cut it up owners with some irreverence .Do keep in mind that a fair number of my XS's have been anything but stock . I lean toward improvement of the mark rather than wholesale vandalism and destruction of a limited supply of raw material . When I speak out against irrational modification for the sake of form over function I do come off as an opponent of modification . What most fail to recognize is that I continue to help .Just don't expect me to help improve the handling of your hard tail .

~kop
 
yeah, screw what that kid says. I got more shit riding my XR1200 (they called it the "bastard bike") than on my XS. Rolled up to a bar with my XS one night and had a bunch of old Harley dudes out front...who stared at me for a bit, then invited me to come on a ride with them the next day and got a lot of compliments and "I remember when" stories haha.
 
I've done the HD thing, the buell thing as well as a variety of metrics. Never seen a more judgmental group than the HD guys...what's funny is that it has never been the older guys (that WWII-NAM era guys). The older guys are all thumbs up for the xs650 bobber and my '08 Raider. The bobber because its simple, like a throwback, and the Raider because of it power, looks and quality that far exceeds anything HD in HD's current lineup. Its the younger guys (40 or younger) who seem totally delusional on the HD cool-aid. Excluding present company on this forum..most of these younger guys fall into that "keeping up with the Jone's" category. Most of these guys don't wrench on their own bikes and don't have a clue what a good bike even is let alone how to put decent miles on one....their too busy cleaning their cookie cutter bikes and thumbing through HD's clothing catalog to ride to anything other than bike night.
 
im currently building a chop and i get the "when are you going to build a real bike" because everyone here (central south dakota) thinks you have to have an hd. and no one wears a helmet i wont ride without one they say it restricts there vision. well you wont need vision when you're head is mush.
 
I get a lot of return waves from other cyclists (H-D riders included). Gotten a few "I had one of those" comments about my XS650. She's no show bike but no rat either. I've never heard any negative comments about my ride. Nor do I say negative things of others rides. We're all in this together. Ride the same roads. Take the same risks.
 
I've built a few Harleys for customers. Hardtail sporty, hardtail evo with Springer, aeromachi flying pig, lots of maintaining and tune ups on baggers. I've had several Hondas from 250-750s, couple of xs's, old Ducati singles, Norton commando, etc etc etc. I got the first XS because I wanted to build a triumph bobber and couldnt find a donor. Fell in love with it...learned lots..got tons of attention and trophies and such. Alaska is definitely an HD heavy scene and I love being different. Many words of praise over my new cafe/tracker. One in a crowd of millions of Harley baggers. I've heard old timers bitch about buying American...so I tell them...bought it from an American...spent my money in American suppliers...built it my damn self in my American garage while humming the marine corps hymn. Lol
My fave quote I ever heard...a Japanese bike is a surgical instrument, a Harley is a farm implement. Lmao.
It's affordable, parts available, lends itself well to resto cafe or bob. Hell now I want one of each.
 
Harley has always done a great job with their marketing and dealer network. They are in a dilemma. Their customer base is aging and aged. They have now entry level low cost line up- well they do now with the Street 500 and 750s. Nice bikes actually. Breaking tradition with h20 cooling overhead cams and 4 valves per cyl. The flock Harley guys are already not happy with the customer base that HD is targeting with these new bikes. They are targeting the hipster youth and the old timers don't care for skinny jean wearing kids in the HD dealers.
 
I've not had my XS out yet, it's almost a roller so not too far away... but whenever I ride my little Honda CB360 Cafe bike I get shit-tons of compliments. It's rare that I return to my bike leaving a store, work that there isn't someone standing studying it, or a couple of guys (Usually riding Harleys) hitting me up at red light telling me "THAT is a cool ass bike". I plan to ride by XS at a few Poker runs and stuff later in the season... we'll see. My Honda has gotten tons of love with the Harley crowd.

My Harley doesn't get too many compliments, it's an '08 Ultra Classic... It's a nice looking example but there's a ton of black Ultra Classics out there. 29k on the Odometer, so she gets ridden. And the wife likes it.
 
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