Hooniverse Asks – Have Yuppie Riders Changed the Harley Persona For Good?
Marlon Brando’s character in The Wild One rode a Triumph, as did the Fonz. Peter Fonda in Easy Rider, however rode a Harley, and the image of the biker gang – all leather coats and scraggly beards- remains indelibly linked to that iconic American brand. Post WWII saw the rise of bands of bikers, who brought with them an undercurrent of seediness and criminal behavior leaving society’s orthodoxy shocked and appalled, and their daughters breathless with excitement.
But all that changed sometime in the late ’80s/early ’90s when Wall Street stockbrokers, established medical professionals (mostly dentists), and the Hollywood elite gravitated to riding Harleys as a statement of their rebellion to those very same social mores that the bearded and beer be-farted predecessors had chafed against. Or so they claimed.
Of course these weren’t the Harley riders of In the Wind, or even Hell’s Angels, no these were the weekend warriors who railed against having to wear a brain bucket but still voted Democrat down the line. Celebrity riders like Lorenzo Lamas and the Governator, Ah-nold, seemed to show up at traditional biker haunts with regularity, although none of them was ever heard to shout ‘show us your tits!’ or ‘I’d rather eat shit than ride a J*p bike!’ It just wasn’t the same.
Yuppies have ruined a lot of things for the rest of us – off-road vehicles, Star Wars movies, and beer, remember beer? It used to be that beer wasn’t something you’d spend a lot of brain power on, you’d just grab a sixer of something cold and get your buzz on. Then came yuppies and their micro-brews, their slice of orange floating in their pilsner, or god help us, their lite beer. How the hell do you expect to develop a mighty beer belly drinking lite beer?
And beer bellies and bikes go together like a hot dog dangling from a string and a biker chick on the back of a hog- it’s like they were meant to be. So what do you think, has the Harley mystique been forever sullied by the scourge of suburbia, the yuppie? Or, are they just a new form of biker scum?
Image sources: [emba42.com, anythinggauche.com]
Related posts:
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s Your Preferred Motorcycle Engine Layout?
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s a Good Summer Convertible?
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s a Good Un-Used Real Thing Car Name?
- Is this creation really based on a Harley Davidson?
- Hooniverse Asks- Now That Hummer is Dead, is it a Good Time to Buy a Hummer?
Yes, I think the new H-D riders have tainted the rogue appeal of the H-D scene. Now, I'm not a biker nor am I a yuppie. But I certainly have more in common with the traditional H-D rider than the current yuppified H-D rider. I can't help but audibly laugh when I see one of these trendy H-D riders: Brand new shiny leather jacket, fashionably spot-faded designer jeans, thoroughly and perfectly manscaped facial hair, and never with a girl on the back– most likely because their trophy wife wants nothing to do with helmet head, windblown hair or bugs in her teeth.
Harley Davidson has to sell to someone. Targeting folks with money made good sense. The "traditional" bikers I know can't afford new bikes anyway, so at a certain level the yuppies are enabling the biker lifestyle by taking the depreciation hit.
I think what's happening now is more of the opposite problem. As Harleys have come to be associated with yuppies, they have gotten less useful to yuppies as a symbol of rebellion. The motorcycle itself is a very old school design, what folks were buying was image, so now Harley has a sales problem. Whether they survive will now depend on whether their new designs can compete with the Japanese on their own terms. I hope they succeed.
Hahah yes. When I was first looking for bikes, cruisers of any kind were off the list and especially Harleys. I guess the yuppie has formed the new scene surrounding the legendary bikes much to the chagrin of the "old school" riders and Harley itself. Then again, it's unlikely Harley cares who's riding their bikes as long as they bought one. As for me, I see how this new trend is a slap in the face to those who long for the good ole' days, but times have changed and not necessarily for the worse. Any bike bought from the factory to create some sort of persona is pretty lame. It's great to see what happens when someone with some knowledge and ingenuity is able to find an older shell of a bike and turn it into their own dream bike. To me, these are today's continuation of yesterday's bikers.
And +1 on the light beer, good God, the only reason I find suitable to drink that crap is that it's cheap and to a college student that's an invaluable quality. Professional yuppies with real salaries have no excuse. Is their taste that bad?
Buppies are scum, just a different kind.
I am an avid motorcyclist. I ride in any weather as long as there's not ice on the road. I do all my own wrenching.
I also happen to ride a Yamaha.
It seems that the only time that I get any shit for my choice of ride it's from one of these assholes.
I keep my USMC license plate frame on the back even though it's a little tweaked. I earned the words on it by serving my country and the damage to it at the inattentive hands of an Explorer driver. When that bike got totalled in the accident, I put the frame on the replacement, which I ride now. My wife knew I would get another bike ASAP, their wife probably "wouldn't let them" get another in the same situation.
But somehow some of these shitweasels think they need to question my riding "cred" or my "un-American" choice in bikes. Fuck 'em. If this is the new scum, I'd like the old scum back please.
Well put, and thanks for serving in the Marine Corps.
Thanks, those hypocrites bother me. The gall of people thinking you un-American or less than them!
My father used to work for an HD supplier. HD ran the line "Made in America" somewhere in all their ads well into the '90s. Sometimes it was pretty prominent, with 100% or with pride, thrown in there for good measure. Sure they bolted them together in Milwaukee, but the vast majority of the parts/components/assemblies from the company my father worked for were assembled in Mexico, a lot of the parts were from China, and some small portion was from Germany. In the '90s there was one sole component manufactured in a small town IL factory, until about '92 I think it was, that was it after that point, nothing that company supplied to HD was manufactured in the US after that.
<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/711W24SVHYL._SS500_.gif" width="500">
My father had also read this book, guess how HD turned itself around besides the marketing to yuppies? (It's so sad it's so much about branding really.) Modeling their manufacturing as much as possible after Toyota. In fact they used some of the same suppliers as Honda did, some owned by Honda, sigh. Not much bothers me more that seeing some fancy pants on a brand new HD making a snide comment about being more American that say some guy on an older Honda gullwing made in Maryville.
THIS!!!
… and thank you for your service, Devil Dog.
This is why I bought an older Honda V30 Magna. It was $500 and too good of a deal to pass up. I'm going to take up riding because I like the way the bike feels. I'm not doing to be cool either because I am blue-collar all the way. No credit cards. No boring office job.
Your experience sounds extremely familiar to me. My ex-girlfriend was sort of the Harley-or-no-bike mindset, though open-minded enough about my own choice of bikes. But her bikes – Harley only. As a result of that (plus none of my close friends riding, plus her being far more social than I), of course, many of the people she ran with were so-called "hardcore bikers."
I found that they tended to fit into two camps. One was the truly old-school bikers, several of them Hells Angels and such. The other camp, of course, were the yuppie wanna-be types (also, a number of my coworkers fit this category). Almost invariably, the true old-school guys would admire my old KZ, and reminisce about when they had one themselves, while the yuppie posers would be the ones to give me all kinds of shit for riding first a Royal Enfield, then after it blew up, my Kawasaki. Of course, when confronted with these douches, I'd just laugh dismissively at how much more "hardcore" it apparently is to ride a Harley three times a month (but only if that month is between April and September) as opposed to using my Kaw daily as my primary transportation.
I'm with you, IronBalls….I'll take the old scum back any day.
Royal Enfields are cool… Was it an Interceptor?
Nope…it was a 2000 Bullet 500. That bike was definitely a blast, and had all the ugly DOT stuff replaced with older style parts (lighting and such), the old spring-style solo seat, and some sweet Roth/Von Dutch-style pinstriping on the tank and fenders – only the switchgear remained to give it away as a newer model. Loved the hell out of it, but just would have been to expensive to fix when the motor decided to eat itself.
BTW, I'm not trying to bag on anyone for what they chose to ride. The comment above is about a very particular subset of the two-wheeled universe. More people need to adopt "Don't be a dick." as their personal motto, including myself sometimes.
I have friends that ride HD, friends that rarely ride, and friends that don't understand why the hell I ride at all. I have no desire to give anyone a hard time except for buddies that will get a good natured ribbing. I expect the same.
One final thing… Rereading my posts, I notice some wording that is less than family friendly. Due to the fact that this seems to be a more passionate conversation, I feel it belongs. However, I am aware that not all posts need to fall into this category and will proceed accordingly.
While I have utter disdain for all things Harley, it is my belief that motorcycling is an all-inclusive life-style. Sure, there are yuppies on Hogs out there, but there are also V-Rod owners switching to Ducatis. As long as they ride their bikes, safely, I have no real problem with anyone on a bike.
Though I don't really self-identify, I'm a biker, and a bit of a hard core one (firm core?) I've done some crazy trips (5000 kms in a week, 8 hour rides in November, etc.).
I'm also 31, so I didn't really grow up with "outlaw bikers" Harley riders have always been dentists and lawyers as far as I'm concerned. Therefore, there was never any Harley mystique to ruin. A Harley has always been a very expensive way to turn fuel into noise and vibration. If they do hold together long enough to achieve some sort of velocity, they seem to be limited drag limited to 80 kph, and like the noble Canada Goose, they can only achieve that velocity when moving in a pack of 20 or more so as to share the burden of wind resistance.
In conclusion: in my experience, Harley riders have only ever been hen-pecked (and/or cuckolded) middle-aged white professionals. Therefore, as a solipsist, Harley riders have only ever been hen-pecked (and/or cuckolded) middle-aged white professionals. Vis a vis the original postulation regarding the ruination of the Harley Persona by hen-pecked (and/or cuckolded) middle-aged white professionals, it is a logical impossibility, as the persona can not be anything other than that which it has always been. QED.
Great post, and bonus points for correct AP usage of "Canada Goose".
Also solipsist and QED, making a rare but valued appearance here at the 'verse.
Seems that Harley riders now fall into three groups: the traditional Outlaw biker, the 50 year old dentist wearing full leathers, a safety vest, and a full face helmet, and the rich a-hole with a brain bucket helmet, t-shirt, and tribal tats with an open pipe bike.
I had an "encounter" with the latter a few months back. His buddy on a sport bike passes me on a double yellow line. When Mr. Harley catches up I have slowed for a left turning car. Mr. Harley proceeds to pass me in the center gore area where a left hand turn lane ends, dangerous and uncalled for. This doesn't sit well with me. I think Mr. Harley was rather surprised to be chased down in short order by the cute little black convertible. (Your bike might be loud, but it isn't fast!) After riding his tail for a while at way too fast of a speed my sanity took over. He turns right I turn left. I see him at a much busier stretch of road a couple of miles later, he is still riding like an idiot. I called the cops and reported him for reckless driving.
There are a few out there who just like quirky old machines that leak oil.
Yep. H-D are fucked.
We just opened an enormous Harley Davidson "lifestyle centre" in a building abutting one of the largest Mercedes dealers in our network. In a location central to a lot of well-heeled London business commuters. This is a Harley dealership owned and run by a dealer network with franchises for Mercedes, BMW, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche, Land Rover, Jaguar and Audi.
I expect the douchebag H-D rider quotient to begin to rise almost exponentially in South-East England pretty soon.
"Lifestyle" is on my list of words that, when used in a corporate/professional context, are a clear indication to head for the exits.
"Lifestyle" is the antithesis of authenticity. It's all the dressing without the core that made it cool to begin with.
Exactly right. To market anything as "lifestyle" is to admit that you have absolutely no idea who is going to buy your vehicle/product/service.
Tell me again what you are "rebelling" against.
No, really, you need to actually defy something.
I do wonder where the rebellion factor is when all cruisers look alike to my eyes. I mean, I can tell, say, a Yamaha V-star 650 from an 1100 if I can inspect them while they're parked (it's the rear brake) but on the road it seems like each rider pursues his/her own individuality by equipping the bike almost exactly the same way as everyone else. (Says the guy who rides an overgrown/underpowered dirtbike.)
Oh, they know exactly who is going to buy their product; egotistical pricks with more money than sense who enjoy playing dress-up and pretending to be something they're not.
Which is why "lifestyle" is now a synonym for "overpriced".
I have a feeling that HD makes more money on merchandise than they do selling bikes, and for most of the people riding them, it seems like having the merchandise is way more important than riding the bike.
On the other hand, my GF's mom and stepfather sold their boat and bought a Harley. They use it a lot more, being in WI it's a different level of patriotism and Jim is no Yuppie. He's got the properly earned beer belly, a few tats and his collar has always been blue. They love that thing and take long rides all the time. In the summer they're liable to show up at our house just because they felt like a 5 hour, Sunday ride. It's lots cheaper than owning/using the boat too.
But other than that, it's hard not to have serious contempt for most of the douchenozzles having their midlife crisis on a motorcycle.
If they don't make more on merchandise, they definitely get more on accessories. In a meeting on dealer accessories, we were informed of that as a point to strive to, that H-D sells the most non-vehicle product out of any motor vehicle manufacturer.
I have a Honda CB750, circa 1980. I'm gradually turning it into a bit of a rat-bike, or a bobber, or whatever you want to call it; but even without doing anything to it, I have friends who have been riding almost identical bikes for years. With only some minor modifications to the wheels and headlights (and the removal of a badge) I've watched as the stereotypical balding, silver-haired Harley riders guessed it was an old Triumph or Norton. And that, apparently, is just fine; but if it were Japanese, well that's bad. So furrin to the right is good, but furrin to the left is bad. That's not patriotism, that's just waisis.
I've looked at Harleys quite a few times, and I just can't justify the bang for the buck. A Triumph seems to me more affordable and better looking. The Yamaha bikes are almost as stylish and more reliable with better warranties. And an old bike is, um, free, and more fun to wrench on. Which kind of explains how my choice was made, I guess.
I demand photos of this beast.
They're on my FeceBroke! You just gotta find 'em.
Nice Bike, not Crack Pipe.
Has yuppie clientele changed Harley's image? Nah, it's the same as it ever was – all hat and no cattle.
I work at a shop that actively mocks Harleys, and we're not too keen on cruisers in general.
That said, we do help a buddy motor cop with his harley, while making snide comments all the while.
The last figures I've seen show Harley made about 10-15% more from licensing and 'lifestyle clothes' than they did from motorcycles.
There are a LOT of lightly used Harleys on craigslist, since the housing disaster rolled through the SF Bay area, and you can get new ones for less than sticker. THAT must have been hard to swallow by the dealers, who slathered on chrome doodads for stupid markup… Harley will carry on, now that they've ditched Buell and MV Agusta- there will always be a market for exported American 'open spaces' exceptionalism, even if it's 99.9% marketing imagination.
I wonder how percentage of income from licensing vs. bikes for Harley compares to Ferrari licensing vs. cars?
I will say one good thing about H-D. It turns out my KLR650 uses the same carburetor as some older Sportster models. When I needed a slide/diaphragm assembly it was $45 and in stock at the local Harley dealership, saving me almost $100 and a week of waiting at Kawasaki.
But, parts availability isn't enough to put me on an H-D next time around. The Sportster XR1200 is the only product that remotely interests me, and it's about twice as much money as I'll be looking to spend.
Harley kinda changed the biker scene by itself. They made their bikes so expensive that the only ones who could afford them were the yuppies or fairly well heeled working class stiffs. Add to that the continuing deterioration of the DIY culture in this country and you get what you have today. Bikers are no longer seen as bad-asses, they are seen as "Hell's Accountants" and we all either chuckle at them or get annoyed at them for their loud, obnoxious exhaust that disturbs our worlds. Bikers just aren't cool rebels anymore-and that is why biker culture is doomed to die off.
The yuppies didn't ruin the HD experience. All you douche-hats with the open pipes ruined it. I stopped driving around with open headers when I was 18. South Park has it right.
Loud pipes don't save lives. You know what does? Wearing a DOT-approved helmet and something more substantial than a smelly leather vest, you pillocks.
<img src="http://www.aerostich.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/448x/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/2/8/2834_1a.jpg">
It's been said above, but for people in my generation (I'm 23), Harleys have never been anything but mid-life crisis machines. At least with Corvettes you get a legitimately awesome sports car for your balding dollar. Harleys are ridiculous. My KLR 650 is more capable than a Harley in every way (with the right tires it's even fine on the freeway), it never breaks and there's no work on it I can't do easily.
Then again, my generation is making it all but impossible to ride a sport bike without looking like a tool.
Oh, and straight pipes are just obnoxious. Here's an article purportedly written by the President of HD. He uses the word "primeval" in describing Harleys' exhaust notes. Look at that man and tell me if there's anything even remotely primeval about him. That sums up HD right there.
A friend of mine fits the mid-life crisis profile perfectly. He felt he was too good to ride a Honda so that's why I now own the Honda. He has 3 HDs and not even 40 yet.
Harley Davidson image history up to becoming a poseur nostalgia fest:
1903-1947: a bike company sometimes behind the technological pace and sometimes ahead of it, a military and government supplier
1947: returning veteran paratroopers found the Hell's Angels, practically a kind of VFW club. They like the bikes they rode on duty.
1953: The Wild One comes out, Hollywood makes hay from the romanticization of the veterans as some of them turn to founding illegal businesses with their motorcycle trappings as tough advertising image. Starting here, and already this early, the tiny group of "real" old-school riders is already supplemented with a great crowd of movie-loving poseurs.
So, at least in this sense, all the old-school riders of the great sixties era and the violent seventies were always at root just a more dedicated and lower social class branch of the nostagic enthusiasts. Or to put it more kindly, they got just as much out of the Hollywood-manufactured Harley image as did the dentists and yuppies who imitated them later; more actually, because for a lot of them it became their livelihood while for the yuppies it was always just a luxury. Basically the process is exactly like gentrification, where a cool, "authentic" neighborhood turns expensive and lame: by the time it's cool to anyone, the process is already underway.
The funny part is that Marlon Brando drove a Triumph in The Wild One.
Yeah, I don't think Harley cornered the brand identity issue in all this until well into the 60s, when they won out simply by being the last American version of the old English bike type left standing, but had also started sticking their name on everything and exploiting the tough image to sell bikes. In 53 it could still just as well have been a (last-year) Indian, a Triumph, an Enfield, etc.
"Gentrification" is the perfect way to put it. Or, "I liked Harleys before they went mainstream and sold out, man…"
I (finally) recently read The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club (which I won by writing a limerick about model bloat), focusing on these fine folks, and I can say that I honestly wish things today were as they were back then – it was a simpler time, when violence was limited to inebriated provocation and response, and crime among bikers similarly consisted of public intoxication and late-night speeding through town. It made me want a bike of my own, to some degree, though I wouldn't associate myself with one-percenters or weekend so-called badasses, that's for shit sure. You're completely right about how movements, activities, and neighbourhoods become too costly and inauthentic.
I think you've got the demographics wrong on the Harley owners. I used to live in Spearfish SD and had to deal with the rumbling pirate shitshow that was Sturgis every year. The douche quotient is strong, but it's more of a suburban, tribal tat, big truck douchefest than a bunch of democratic voting yuppies. Oh well, either way those goddamn loud bikes and the entitled shitheads that ride them have completely ruined Harley's image. In fact, I don't know if the image was ruined as those bikes have been over 15 grand since I was born and Harley riders have always bugged me.
I think you got it right. Basically upper blue collar d-bag.
Wait, are Yuppies to blame for lite beer? It's always seemed like just about everyone drinks that crap…unless they're serious about beer anyway. I've always seen Yuppies – and their 21st Century heirs – as being the Blue Moon types, most without realizing that it's just a Coors product and nothing more than alcoholic soda like the rest. (Mass produced beer is just water with concentrated extracts added. There's very little/no actual brewing involved.)
Then there's the type who drink microbrews because they have nice labels. Those are the worst. At least they make decent breweries possible, but they also support crap beer with fancy packaging.
/rant
(Checks fridge to decide if i'll have a Happy Otter IPA, Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted, or a Baltika #3 with dinner.)
Craft beer and independent breweries are awesome. My fridge is normally stocked with an assortment of Rogue, Great Lakes and Bells products. Yuppies drink Stella Artois or Blue Moon if they're feeling uppity, otherwise they're dedicated MGD or Bud Select drinkers. If they want to venture into "dark beers," they order a Killian's.
Oooh, Killian's…for the discerning taste buds.
Bell's makes a pretty good beer (Two Hearted is my favorite). I used to live in KZoo and remember when the brewery's bar area was like 10×20 and furnished with junkyard van benches. Larry's an ass and it's not as good as it used to be, but that's probably because they started catering to rich snobs. Still better than most though.
Stella, because that's what they drank while on vacation in Europe. Probably turned down hand-pulled bitters in English pubs for French Miller.
I don't know where you are, but I can't recommend Great Lakes enough. They're not particularly well distributed, but if you see it, buy it. My MO at my local beverage center is one sixer of beer I know and love (right now I'm in to Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA) and one I've never had (I've got a couple varieties of Unibroue in the fridge right now, only one I've tried is La Fin Du Monde, quite good).
Ah Unibroue, an old favorite. Try the Maudite, but put it away for a couple of months before you do.
Sitting a few blocks from one of the Great Lakes. I've had most (i think) of their stuff and it is pretty damned good. I'll have to look into Unibroue. That looks interesting. Sometimes we can get interesting stuff here (the UP) and sometimes not. I generally bring close to $100 worth of beer back when i visit the family in Detroit.
How hoppy is the Bear Republic? If you say "very" i'll be trying it.
And i went with Hoppy Otter for dinner. I'll be damned if it isn't one of the best beers i've ever tasted.
The Bear Republic is pretty hoppy. To use the "Dogfish Head IPA Hoppiness Gauge System (DHIPAHGS), I'd put it between 60 and 90 Minute. If they made an 83 Minute, it would be about there.
Yuppies are the type of people to order something slightly more expensive than "light beer," if only to distance themselves from the crass beer-commercial bro types, but end up ordering something like Heineken or Stella only because "it's imported."
I really don't understand why anyone drinks Heineken in North America. It's fine in Holland, but WTF with the green bottle? Why would anyone pay premium prices for skunky beer?
I will drink anything you give me but I usually choose not to buy bottom of the barrel beers. I make my own beer and I want to form a brewery someday.
That was my original idea when I started brewing. Then I got fat, and realized leaving me in a brewery is akin to leaving a mouse in a cheese factory. Moderation is not in my vocabulary.
Dig. I'm not a snob. If i'm hanging out with people drinking cheap beer i'll drink cheap beer too. But given the choice, i prefer it to be worth drinking.
Lite beer is for people who don't really like the taste of beer, but just like to pee a lot.
Slightly OT (but maybe not), I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE to those who have not read this to put it on your reading list. Great stuff in here about the early Angel years and the post-war cultural phenomenon the created them.
<img src="http://thewaterbreak.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/hells-angels1.jpg">
Second. IMO it's better than Fear and Loathing, but not as as good as the collection housed in The Great Shark Hunt.
Third. Absolutely a great read.
I used to fantasiZe about really seriously injuring some of those grubbyass HD riders in my neighborhood. If they're so badass I'm sure they can cope with having their eyeballs ruptured.
Yeah, yuppie riders have devalued the badassness of HD, but HDs were never that good to begin with. HD: a love affair with "good enough".
In my area Harleys are definitely yuppie and upper blue collar toys, but I'm beginning to think the yuppies have turned to newer toys, specifically the fully expedition prepped BMW R1200GS, which disappoints me as a long time BMW rider. As for "light" beer it's an abomination regardless of origin. Fortunately in Oregon I can choose from a variety of micro brews and even 7-11 has something drinkable.
Peter Egan, R&T editor and motorcycle impresario extraordinare, once wrote an article (in my copy of Leanings) about a time when he wasn't allowed to enter a restaurant with a black leather jacket on because the manager didn't want any "One-Percenters." That's back when riding a motorcycle was socially dangerous and everybody was lumped into the same category as the "outlaws." Brando rode a Triumph, a bike that Harley riders today are more likely to sneer at. But Harleys weren't always bad-to-the-bone cruisers – hell, they were once sold to nice, young, clean-shaven people, the kind who take their girl out for a picnic instead of flipping off people in Yarises:
<img src="http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/images/2007/04/29/harley_davidson_ad_1947.jpg">
Compare that with whatever the hell this abomination is.
<img src="http://www.gnrdaily.com/upload/news/HarleyAD.jpg">
Remember, everybody's an individual, and everybody wants to capture that Brando aesthetic. But the Hells Angels are even more culturally irrelevant today than ever, and most kids want their sportbikes to do 0-60 in 2.5 seconds even if they don't know how to use that. Harley's made their impact on motorcycling culture and the industry – look at all the copycat Japanese cruisers out there, many designed especially for the American market.
And look at the stereotypical Harley rider: the fat, middle-aged, bearded, grizzled crank in his non-DOT WWI helmet and smelly leather jacket covering his beer belly and can of dip. Yuppies don't want to capture this image. But what's to say they're not yuppies either, minus the Y? Harleys aren't cheap, after all, and if every one of their riders was some backwoods hick like so many of us would believe, the company would be making bowling balls.
Harley's in danger of having their core market – literally – die off, of old age. If and when the yuppies move in, they will certainly have the same enthusiasm for a Harley over, say, a Yamaha Star or Suzuki Boulevard, two bikes that are better at capturing a young market than Harley is today. The company needs younger blood, and fast. (Personally, I'd love to own a Sportster XL1200, but then again, I'm weird in general.) And hopefully the yuppies will be nicer than the Harley riders I've met anyway, as most of them have been dicks.
Also: baby boomers dictate the market, and they like being told that buying a FLHTC Electra Glide will make them the next Peter Fonda. After all, they were impressionable teenagers when that movie came out, and now that they have the spending power, they want to know that it's not too late to capture that image – no matter how increasingly irrelevant it is.
I just have one gripe with your rant: I am not a yuppie and I enjoy microbrews. If anything, most yuppies prefer to drink the same crap their fathers and grandfathers drank.
Yup. I used to brew my own beer. That's pretty micro. And it was damn good.
I'm not sure Yuppie is the right term. Former Yuppies, or really, wannabe yuppies. Guys who were "Reagan Democrats" and switched to Toyota and Honda, but only after everybody else on the block did. The classic, snooty, E30/Audi 5000-driving '80s yuppie probably wouldn't be caught dead on a Harley. Only BMW "adventure" bikes, or perhaps a Triumph. Maybe, just maybe, a Honda Shadow, but that's really slumming.
Harley's always had white trash/one-percenter persona. Has it been wussified by middle-aged business majors who've grown a gut and need something to match their bloated F-150 and never-used boat? Sure. But that's not a big loss in my book.
Old Harleys had a reputation for quality and reliability that made Meridian Triumph owners feel good about themselves. The post-AMF turnaround was a stunning success, but today the company's in danger of becoming the Oldsmobile of motorcycles because they just don't appeal to younger riders. Easy Rider is a distant memory, and twentysomethings don't want the same bike their uncool, balding dad just bought.
I prefer the look of old motorcycles and I don't dislike Harleys. But I can't stand the Harley culture. If I hadn't wimped out, I'd probably have a Hinckley Triumph Bonneville right now. And I'd be laughing every time the 40+ guys I work with tried to tell me how much better their Electra Glides and Road Kings were.
The only people on HDs, ever, are fat old men who are desperately trying to pretend to not be fat old men.
Basically, guys who can't swing the payments on a Corvette.
You can get a late-model used Corvette for less than a lot of Harleys.
I’m not fat or old,ride a Harley,and sold my corvette because it was a piece of general motors shit. My harley is my daily driver,don’t even own a car anymore,and I always carry my prospectors pick to do bad things to the cars that people I don’t necessarily share a similar viewpoint to, perhaps like yourself drive when you try to prove how tough you are,you person I don’t agree with.
[Comment edited by Deartháir because he wants a dissenting viewpoint, but thinks we can be respectful while we disagree.]
Here's your one warning.
We do posts like this because we want to inspire discussion. We actually WANT the Harley riders to come out and tell us the dissenting opinion. This post is sharing the perception that, like it or not, is how people are seeing the brand right now. And your counterpoint is completely welcome here, but please keep it clean. The only reason I'm not deleting that comment is that we actually want a dissenting opinion, and want to encourage people to join our community of discussion in a civil manner.
So rather than attempting to prove how tough you are, which, let's face it, on the internet ain't gonna work too well anyhow, tell us how you feel about this perception, and how you feel when you DO see all those elderly accountants and lawyers trying to be "rebels" on a Harley. I'd think that you would be the exception that proves the rule. Your description of yourself is of the "old school" band of Harley riders who are gradually being edged out by the retired masses. In that regard, the Corvette is a good analogy. Corvettes used to be a bad-assed high-performance sports car for those slightly-better-off rebels who wanted a fast car with some style. Now they're being dominated by dentists and posers. While there is still that old school market for them, the dentists are gradually taking over.
So rather than calling people names, tell us how you feel about the influx of new Harley riders who are diluting the "tough-guy" image.
That's better than any number of smartass remarks about Internet Tough Guys than I had prepared in my head today. I'll leave it at that.
Yes, dissenting opinions are great; half-assed trolling, not so much.
Ok, growing up in the 70's I was surrounded by Hippies and to a somewhat lesser degree the "real outlaw bikers". As a young kid they scared the crap outta me, then I got to realize they were actually pretty cool. And real soon I realized I was right to be scared of them in the first place. F@c&#rs were crazy.
Before I knew anything about anything though, I was in love with motorcycles. Big, small, fast, slow it did not matter. My mom said I would go zombie-like and stare at bikes before I could walk. Especially the choppers. I did not care if it was a Triumph, BSA, Harley or Indian, Japanese, Itallian or Martian. If it was on 2 wheels I would gravitate towards it like a moth to a flame. And the sight of a long-hair in bell-bottoms kick-starting an old chopper with a hottie on the back was burned into my brain as the center of the awesomeverse.
My favorite uncle at the time rode a Triumph Bonneville hardtail chopper and he joined a biker gang in 75. He left saying they had WAAY to many @#$%& rules. I always remembered that, and it seemed strange for a group that supposedly took pride in not following rules.
When I got old enough I got a loan for a brand new '93 Sportster via the Navy exchange in Yokosuka Japan. Not because it was the cool thing to do, but A) because I love to ride. B) I always loved the way they sound (with a decent exhaust, straight-pipes are for ding-dongs) and C) I always @#$%& wanted one. I bought it instead of a reliable car and it was a great bike. I rode the snot out of it rain or shine, and out on mountain roads with the wife on weekends. Hell, we even drove it out to get married in Vegas. (I had an MGBGT as a regular car, the Harley was a tad more reliable). I rode it from San Diego up to Tahoe on 4th of July weekend with all my camping gear in a backpack, and actually fell asleep listening to the motor at 2 am on the way up. Woke up not on the freeway, and in a strange town. Not sure what happened there… and it kinda freaked me out.
Around the same I time I got patched into a biker gang just for the hell of it. I immediately noticed the old bikers were trying WAAY to hard to be cool, and the young kids were trying WAAYY to hard to be Bad-ass. And they had too many damn rules. Huh. Can't do this, gotta do that, blah blah blah. I soon left because of the damn rules, proving some things never change.
The other thing I noticed was EVERYONE suddenly wanted, or was buying a Harley. And they all had the same stupid mindset, as if they all copied and pasted out of the same sales brochure. "Real men ride big twins, and girls ride Sportster, I'm a member of HOG". Not a single one of them knew the history behind any of it, and that pisses me off. And everywhere you look there were suddenly white pasty ding-dongs pretending to be badasses, barely managing to keep their $30k Big-Twin Softails on the pavement.
I've never been cool, but both these groups were messing with my Mojo.
Today I have 2 bikes, a 83 GPz550, and a 77 XLCH Ironhead, and I long since stopped caring what anyone thinks. I just ride (when they are not broke).
I went back and forth between the Harley and a rigid Triumph just like my uncle had, but in the end the Harley won out because it took my breath away. I chose an XLCH because they are badass little Hemi-motors, I prefer to kick start my own (no electric start) and I never liked the Big Twins much, unless it has a Knuckle or Pan-Head. I can tell within a few minutes of meeting someone if they are "trying to be a biker" or just like bikes by the way they talk about Sporties, or even the GPz.
I'm too hippy to be a yuppie, and I do not pretend to be a "real biker". What I am is someone who loves to ride with an old Harley Sportster that I'm rebuilding with my own two hands instead of a checkbook because it calms my tiny brain.
I think Yuppies did as much harm as good to the persona of the American biker, and can't wait till they move on to something new. The older Harleys are as quintessential American-mechanical-quirky as the MG is to the British. And I think that is the root of what I like about either. Tinkering. Harley lost that with the plug and play bikes.
Also, yuppies don't have a monopoly on douchiness. When ever I asked for help building my motor from the older bikers I got the same reaction, "Well I've been building motors for XX years, and YOU have no business building a motor yadda yadda". Bite me.
The only ones who ARE still cool are the REALLY old bikers, who never really fit into the gangs during the 50's 60's and 70s. Met a few recently. They are down to earth and baddass without even trying.
I don't plan on changing my ways because people think something is cool or uncool. I just do what I like. And if more people did the same maybe others would quit calling them douchebags.
/rant
This is mine. I like it quite a bit.
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2676/3813539302_c14e02e273.jpg">
"The only ones who ARE still cool are the REALLY old bikers, who never really fit into the gangs during the 50's 60's and 70s. Met a few recently. They are down to earth and baddass without even trying."
I met several of these guys over the past couple of years as well, they're just awesome to talk to. I could listen to those guys tell stories for hours.
The sporty's sweet….now don't be a tease and show the GPz, too!
Took this pic this summer, just before I gave it a full cosmetic detailing for the first time in nearly 10 years. It looks quite a bit better now. I totally forgot to take new pics.
<img src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1189.snc4/154134_1764087266533_1369652107_1930656_6287691_n.jpg" width ="500" />
Now that's a goddamned good dissenting post.
I think the last two paragraphs pretty much summed it all up. Harley riders are at their best when they ride a Harley because it's the best bike for them. My neighbour and his wife are both Harley riders, and they pick on me for my old Honda all the time, but in a good-natured way. They've privately said they like mine, and respect the project I have going. They have brand loyalty not because of the image, but because H-D itself has treated them extremely well. They are far more badass than any hardcore "tough guy" biker I've ever seen.
They take great schadenfreude in the fact you ride a Honda?
(Does that work?)
No, but "they take great schadenfreude in the fact that you drive a Ridgeline" does, though I'm not sure whether or not it's grammatically correct.
Motorcycle riders are at their best when they ride a certain motorcycle because it's the best bike for them.
Fixed it for ya.
True! Completely agree, actually. I was specifically referring to the non-douchey Harley riders, but you are absolutely right, that does apply to everyone else as well!
My biggest problem with Harleys is the attitude of the owners regarding anyone going faster than they are. They tend to cruise the canyons out here in groups from 3 to 30ish, usually at or below the speed limit. Whether this is due to a desire to avoid issues with law enforcement, allow new riders to keep up, or simply stay within the limits of the bike's capabilities, the fact remains that I tend to be going significantly faster.
I won't drive close behind bikers; I've seen how fast a dropped bike or fallen rider decelerates. So I pass them at even greater speed. This is inevitably greeted with raised middle fingers, shouting, and the occasional thrown object (usually a bottle).
Yes, I drive a small, red, Japanese convertible. Get over it. Or buy a crotch rocket and be the one doing the passing.
Enjoyed my Dyna Glide because it was a comfortable, well built, reliable, motorcycle. Yuppie, counter culture, boy george and the Culture club, I didn't care about the image. It was a real solid bike and performed very well at the 4 to 8/10ths any of us ride around here on public roads. I would buy another. Product support was amazingly good.
Another great dissenting post. With a counter-argument like that, you're welcome here any time!
One of the supervisors at work is of the "anything but a Harley is junk" persuasion. I usually associate that attitude with the guys who ride big full-dress Road Glide-type bikes, but he's rocking a Sportster. Given that so many of the tough-guy Harley types wouldn't be caught dead on a Sporty, it just makes me laugh a little.
My opinion is, if you're on two wheels, that's good enough for me. I don't care if you went out and spent $28000 on a Valkyrie Rune or a Wide Glide, or $2000 for a Yamaha Vino, or found a $500 beater on Craigslist. I love the camaraderie (hot damn I spelled that right first try!) that comes with being on a bike – the little wave of acknowledgement from other bikers makes me smile every time. Tough-guys on Harleys, squids on R1s, snobs on BMWs and Ducatis – forget that noise. Buy the bike you like, the one that makes you smile every time you crack the throttle, lean into that corner, or discover that new forest road. And for goodness sake, stay under 1000cc's for your first bike. Goosing it in a corner and ending up in a tree (or in AZ, a cactus) is no way to prove how manly you are.
Right on! Nicely said.
Also, if you look at actual photos of the Hell's Angels in the 70's, you'll see most of them rode Sportsters. And back when I was in a club, it was still about 50/50. For those in the know, Sportys are dang good bikes, and comparing them to big twins to prove manliness is just retarded. It's like comparing GT40s to Excursions.
There's also the demo of the avid-in-the-1950s/60s who have gotten toned down, what with the grandchildren and the bad shoulder — I see these guys and gals on the road fairly often. I'm sure they could still kick someone's ass.
I saw an tough-looking old guy pull up on a trike once. I was going to poke a little fun at him in my head, that he was just another Hell's Angel gone to pasture. Then I noticed that there was a crutch on the back of the trike, and he had only one leg. I was pretty sure that even handicapped, he could have kicked my ass. I don't make fun of trikes any more.
When I started riding Harleys were not known as reliable machines and the company was so financially weak and technologically backwards that Reagan bailed them out with a tariff on imported bikes above 700 ccs. Then came the marketing blitz and the lifestyle push and the whole Willie G. cult and suddenly Harleys were twice as expensive as the competition. Since I'm mechanically inept, cheap and unfashionable, I've never found Harleys to be the right bike at the right time for me.
But I sure like the look of the XR1200s.
Anything that has been around long enough is bound to change. H-D is now a pretty upscale brand, and banks on its history to fill the coffers. Is this bad? While I don't applaud it, I don't condemn it. I mean, I still believe people when they play blues music though I'm pretty sure they're a pretty damn far cry, life experience-wise, from the blues originators on the back porches of swamptucky.
Yuppies are pretty much the easiest group to demonize these days. I am guessing that the majority of us could be called yuppies. I know we like to constrain the definition to Biff and Mitzy who yell "woooo!" after three beers, but working a white collar job, being under forty, and living in a city? You're a yuppie. I'm a yuppie, and I listen to Celtic Frost, thanks very much. Graverobber is a yuppie (J'accuse!) and he's a hell of a writer and a knowledgeable Car Guy. Okay I don't really know if he's a yuppie, but I'm guessing he is, and that's not a bad thing. J'accuse! one more time for good measure.
Bikers, I have mixed feelings about. There's a pretty popular shop by my work, and some of the guys who work there are cool, some are Fonzies. Same with the customers. But I won't judge biker culture by one shop. Being in SF, there's a Hell's Angel ten houses down from me. He's kind of a douche. Rides his motorcycle in the bike lane way too close to cyclists. And he put this dumb glowing skull on his bike. I can kind of forgive the skull thing (hey, I like yellow fogs, that's pretty douche too) but bicycle safety is a love of mine. Safety will never be popular with biker culture, that's my main gripe I guess. I've met a few others through mutual friends, and like everyone else, some are cool, some are not. They are definitely more on edge than most people though, as the whole advertising yourself as a biker and the biker rep as badasses results in people testing them and there either playing the role or actually being the role, one or the other. Then there's the SF Motorcycle Club (SFMC), you can ride any damn motorcycle you want and hang out with those guys. They just like to ride motorcycles and get together and drink beer. My kind of guys.
In summary, I am a yuppie and I am AWESOME. And modest. But at least I'm honest.
I have never seen H-D as a yuppie ride, and that's from the perspective of 25+ years in the saddle and somewhere between 400K and 500K all-season miles. I've owned a couple, briefly, and I even sold Harleys for a while. Today H-D is an aspirational brand for working-class folks, tradesmen, and to a much lesser extent trend-hoppers. That hasn't always been the case.
For me, the brand *and* the motorcycles come with such an incredible load of cultural baggage that no matter how good the bikes may be–and that is an endlessly debatable point–said burden is a nearly insurmountable impediment to the experience of motorcycling. For me, that's what owning a motorcycle is about. The riding. It's really, really hard to evolve from a biker into a motorcyclist when your bike is foremost a fetish object. A few hardy souls will overcome the obstacles, but most never do.