OLD BLASTARD: It’s a business, not a belief system

When I was a budding SOB, back in the Reagan era,  I bought myself a new, souped-up and cammed over 1200 cc Sportster than ran like an ape after a most unpleasant experience in the maximum security wing of a federal penetiary.

I hung with the biker lifestyle folks at a time when it was not a lifestyle but a way of a life. And, although I wasn't really one of them being as I wore neither tattoo nor earring and my intake of illicit drugs was nil, I had a great time being accepted because, well, beats the hell out of me why I was accepted.

We wore a lot of Harley shirt back then, and one of the pasttimes was to stop a guy in the grocery store also wearing a Harley shirt and inquire as to his ride. Since there were not that many with bikes back then, but more with t-shirts, we found much room for mockery of the sidewalk commandos and wannabees.

There were favorite t-shirts. Mine was "Follow Nobody" and a buddy had one that said something like "we pledge our mutual honor and fortune together." That one really bothered me being as I don't believe you can believe in anything, except maybe close friends and family and they're suspect. I, somehow,  just didn't accept that the company, Harley-Davidson,  had any plans of keeping their side of the bargain.

Now it seems as though I was right. Harley-Davidson is considering bailing out of Milwaukee to force labor into a less expensive contracts.

That's right, Milwaukee Iron could soon become Shelbyville (Ky.) Iron. The union workers in Milwaukee could be out of a job and the great American motor company would prove to be just another conglomerate of shareholders looking for a buck.

Now defunct Buell

Granted, H-D is in trouble. They shouldn't have bought MV Agusta, they shouldn't have spent all of their profits returning it to shareholders and reinvested in the comapny and they never should have shut down Buell. (DISCLAIMER: I own a Buell. I am loyal to the company for stupid reasons, as any loyalty to a company, be it Ford or Hyundai, is stupid.) Most of all, they built their reputation as a company that cared about Americans, about workers, about tradition and now they're going to throw it all away for one thin dime.

That's so American. It's so expected. So why does it make me angry and hurt?

My first real bike was  Harley. I loved every minute of it. When the battery shook apart within a year of buying it new, I shrugged it off. When the bolts backed out of the fender mounts and into the rear tire and dug holes into the sidewall, I ignored it. When the stator croaked off at 15,000 miles and they told me the company had fixed the problem the very next model year, but didn't develop a retrofit, I still supported them.

I owned a Gold Wing and I loved it, but it never took the bloom off of Harley. When Buell came along in the 90s and built the best-ever  Sportster, I was hooked. When I took the Rider's Edge Program training in 2006, I climbed on board an XB-9R, race-style Buell that required cracking my ancient hips to get the feet on the pegs, but once they were, it was heaven.

The best Sportster ever!

I bought a Buell Blast in 2006 a-- just a little 500cc single and about 500 pounds less than my old Wing -- and fell in love with it. It is reliable.  It its underpowered. It's also the most Harley like bike I can imagine, with shifts missed at least once a day and oil leaks in silly places, but rock solid reliable.  It's like a Sportster, but easier to throw around.

I have nothing against Harley, except that, as the company relied on selling it's heritage, it also sold out its soul. Harley does not care about its tradition, it cares about building and selling bikes based on tradition and on blowing smoke up tailpipes.

That doesn't mean they don't make good bikes. I'd love me a nice H-D, especially that XR1200. Although it has less power than the XB-9 and weighs nearly 200 pounds more, it's still probably the fastest H-D out there.  It looks good too. But it isn't made in Wisconsin. It's made, I believe, in Kansas City.

It rolls and rocks

So what does Harley leaving mean to the faithful? It means that their company, their reason for riding, is just another GM, just another Chrysler, just another maker of products interested only in the shareholder's portfolio. They care about getting bikes made, getting checks cashed and returning a profit to the stockholders, just as does Wells Fargo, AIG and other large corporations.

That doesn't mean Harley doesn't make good bikes. It doesn't mean that I'd never ride Shelbyville Iron. It just means that historical trust, the emotional connection, has been severed, at least for me, much like the time I discovered that the Triumph Bonneville is made in Thailand.

I still like me that XR 1200. I still like the Cross Bones. I would ride a Dyna Glide base model with two-up saddle, some bags and a windshield and the basic Road King rocks.

But I also like the Suzuki Bandit 1250, the Kawasaki Z1000, the Honda NT700V "Dullville", the Yamaha FZ6R and Royal Star Deluxe. Without that emotional link, Harley's bikes will have to compete on power, weight and rideability, not to mention price point.

May the best bike, with the best price, win.