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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: PapaSoldTheHarley on September 22, 2015, 07:36:13 PM
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A scooter trip to get "Hank the Pug" his special "Canidae, Chicken and Rice Formula" kibble at Petco.
Beautiful day in West Central Florida. Down US 41 and then West along Highway 54 to the plaza..
Just turned onto 41 heading South when a pair of Harley cruisers (extremely loud ones) blew by me, also heading South.
Ended up next to them at the next light. Lots of chrome to be sure (a Fatboy and a Dyna Wide Glide).
Two rather rough looking gentlemen aboard the Hogs.
I smiled (waiting for the light to change).and was favored with more of a smirk in return. That's OK, I am "Almost Old" and I am riding a scooter :)
The light changed and the two HD's took off fast; I am at 740 miles or so, still breaking in, so I won't just roll the throttle wide open (not going to impress anyone anyway). That said I accelerate steady up to about 65 (the limit there is 50).
Two more lights and I am still right behind the duo.
We turn onto Hwy. 54 (which has construction going on) and both of them open up their bikes. I already know the construction begins right around the bend so I am doing 45, with no one behind me (middle of the day), happy as a clam.
Caught up to them at the construction, nasty, dust everywhere, machinery throwing up clouds of it. I am wearing my Yellow "Minion Head" Shoei with full face shield, so it's note bad for me. The boys however have no helmets on and are wearing their sliver size sunglasses; they are not happy as we go through the cloud of road construction dust...
Two more lights it opens up for a stretch (no equipment working) and the Harleys reed up and must have been doing 70 or 75 (in a 55). I caught them again at the Suncoast Parkway and was to their left (waiting to turn into Petco's Plaza). The left turn signal lights up green and I gently twist the grip and roll past the two big cruisers into the shopping plaza. I was going to wave good bye, but thought better of it. No need to be a smart ass. As I am listing to them revving up and then screaming forward and I am pulling in to to poetics' parking area I realized; today's traffic flow will not permit anyone to "run away from a scooter". Well, not one over 250cc's... I don't care where you are. What kind of road. what kind of traffic. If your scooter is capable of reaching 75 or 80 mph nothing is going to leave you in the dust. They may be able to pull away momentarily, but given the realities of traffic flow 250, 300 cc's and you can stay with anyone. Most that ride scooters know this. Many that don't ride and have never ridden a medium size scoot have no idea of the facts. At $5,000 in change it wasn't cheap; but given the mpg's and the lower maintenance & insurance costs. It just makes me smile even more.
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8)
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Oh, yeah! You GOT it! Like the old bull and the young bull on the hill.....young bull sez, looky at all those cows down there! Let's run down there and "get" one of 'em! Old bull sez, let's WALK down there and "get" ALL of 'em!
Karl
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E a s y Karl.
Stig
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Great post Papa. Harley's. Maybe just an expensive way to get nowhere fast.
- Wolf
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...Many that don't ride and have never ridden a medium size scoot have no idea of the facts. At $5,000 in change it wasn't cheap; but given the mpg's and the lower maintenance & insurance costs. It just makes me smile even more.
Not to mention that even though $5,000 seems steep, you can buy 3 of these scooters for the price of just one Harley.
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Not to mention that even though $5,000 seems steep, you can buy 3 of these scooters for the price of just one Harley.
The last Harley I owned (sold just before I bought the Like 200) was a 2014 Heritage Classic (Softail). It was over $18,000 out the door. The insurance was $275 a year (comprehensive coverage). It got 40 mpg the way I rode it. It's first service was $494.
The Harley would 0 to 60 in about 4.5 seconds and 110 mph was not difficult to achieve (even thought the bike weighed over 760 pound without any gear on it).
The People GT cost just over $5,000 out the door, insurance is $90 a year (with more coverage).It currently gets over 65 miles to the gallon and the dealer says that will improve slightly after breaking it in. First service was $48 in change. I don't know what it does 0 to 60 in, but it is fast enough :) As for top speed of my People 300, I may never hit that; because at 80 mph there is still a lot of throttle left (and I don't ride very often above 80 mph)... The power plant on the People and the Downtown (same) is amazing...
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The last Harley I owned (sold just before I bought the Like 200) was a 2014 Heritage Classic (Softail). It was over $18,000 out the door. The insurance was $275 a year (comprehensive coverage). It got 40 mpg the way I rode it. It's first service was $494.
The Harley would 0 to 60 in about 4.5 seconds and 110 mph was not difficult to achieve (even thought the bike weighed over 760 pound without any gear on it).
The People GT cost just over $5,000 out the door, insurance is $90 a year (with more coverage).It currently gets over 65 miles to the gallon and the dealer says that will improve slightly after breaking it in. First service was $48 in change. I don't know what it does 0 to 60 in, but it is fast enough :) As for top speed of my People 300, I may never hit that; because at 80 mph there is still a lot of throttle left (and I don't ride very often above 80 mph)... The power plant on the People and the Downtown (same) is amazing...
All points well made, and from someone with the experience on both Harley's and scooters. Thanks for sharing this with us.
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Great post Papa. Harley's. Maybe just an expensive way to get nowhere fast.
- Wolf
this is the first time I ever heard of anyone think of a Hardley Ableson as fast, aren't they a brand of oil leakin air compressor ?
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this is the first time I ever heard of anyone think of a Hardley Ableson as fast, aren't they a brand of oil leakin air compressor ?
Fast is a relative term the 103 cubic inch HD's are fast relative to most scooters. The HD's are not fast when compared to Ninjas (and most of the other crotch rocket offerings)...
The point of the post was cost for value and function received. Harley makes a solid machine and has done so party much since the end of the AMF days.
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Fast is a relative term the 103 cubic inch HD's are fast relative to most scooters. The HD's are not fast when compared to Ninjas (and most of the other crotch rocket offerings)...
The point of the post was cost for value and function received. Harley makes a solid machine and has done so party much since the end of the AMF days.
sure, blame the rep on AMF, I have an old AMF Dewalt radial arm saw, much better quality than the offerings from Dewalt today