Let me preface this post by saying let’s not turn this into an HD-bashing thread. This post also turned out to be way longer than I thought.I want to give my thoughts on Harley-Davidsons coming from a guy who has only owned Hondas (Nighthawk 250, 599 Hornet, 919 Hornet, and my current two)....My buddy owns a recent model Harley-Davidson Wide Glide and needed a service, so he asked me if I wanted to take a ride with him 100 miles out to the HD dealership. I hopped on my RC51 and we hit the road.Little did we know what event was going on today at this HD dealership. As we were pulling up to the dealership we noticed an 18-wheeler in the parking lot, as well as a stage being assembled. I was the only non-Harley in the parking lot, but hey I have a V-twin too!When we went inside to drop his bike off, we were informed that today was a demo day and that we’d be welcome to try out any of the bikes while we waited.This was the first time I had ever stepped foot into a Harley dealership. I immediately noticed how much apparel they had for sale and can see why so many Harley riders and even non-riders wear so much HD-branded stuff, the apparel/gear section was as big as the showroom!We grabbed coffee and went to check out the new bikes since the demo hadn’t started. The salesman kept trying to talk me into buying one or trading in my bike for a brand-new HD.”How much is your payment on your crotch rocket?””$0. Every vehicle I own is paid off.”He kept insisting that he could cut my buddy and me a sweet deal, but we had to insist that we weren’t actually looking to buy a bike. That didn’t stop him from letting us sit on a bunch of them. Really out of all the staff at the dealership, this was the only guy that I got a weird gung-ho vibe from, and it didn’t help that he spilled my coffee while I was sitting on a Low Rider.I was impressed at how many different OEM parts and accessories you can get to make your bike your own. Not nearly as much variety with the Japanese and European bikes.Then we decided to grab our gear and sign in for the demo, where they rolled out the demo fleet.The only Harleys I’ve tried was my buddy’s previous two: an 883 Sportster and Road King, each only down the street and back. Today I would do a ten-mile test ride.I tried out a Fat Boy because I wanted to see what a big HD was all about.My thoughts on this bike:It was pretty comfortable. Steering was very heavy due to the big ol’ front tire. The transmission was firm and you could feel the shifts, but it was easy to rev match. The brakes were way less powerful than I was used to, coming from a superbike that weighs 250 pounds less. I was not used to having to move my head in my full-face to see the speedometer. The turn signals were also hard to get used to with one on each bar, but pretty handy. I liked how torquey it was and it was strange to have that much pull while being relaxed in seating position, compared to my little Rebel. Once it was higher in RPM, it began to feel slower, but that wasn’t was this bike was meant for.I began to laugh my ass off when we lined up to make a U-turn and I thought of the South Park clip of the Harley ridersWe finished that test ride and had time to do another. This time I picked a 1200 Sportster.Thoughts on this one:I liked how nimble it felt compared to the Fat Boy. It also felt faster, but I didn’t care for the ape handlebars and the air box cover vibrated a lot and made my right calf numb. The bars and pegs vibrated more. The speedometer was in a better place for my liking. The brakes were better, but I wouldn’t want to spend a long trip on this one, it was worse than my RC51 surprisingly, which is actually quite nice for my size in a full tuck.After the test rides, we looked at the used inventory, and this is where I saw bikes that were better priced, yet still looked almost new since most of them were probably garage queens anyway. I chatted with the saleswoman and explained that even though I came on a Honda, I can respect and find something I like in any bike, regardless of manufacturer and country of origin, and how I wish more people in the riding community could appreciate other bikes even if they wouldn’t buy one. She thought that was a cool mentality.My buddy’s bike was ready and the service manager was curious to what I thought about the bikes I rode, and pretty much told him everything I just wrote.I also thought it was neat to ride an American-branded bike in America. I can see why that appeals to a lot of HD owners.So I can honestly say that I had fun today, and while I’m not gonna convert over from a Honda fan and sell my bikes, maybe one day I might consider adding a used HD to my stable if my funds permit, and I wanna go with a V-twin cruiser (Magnas and Valkyries are bitchin’)....TLDR: test rode a Fat Boy and Sportster, experienced what a HD dealership is like, and had fun.Edit: typos via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/9vyjaq/my_thoughts_and_observations_after_going_to_a/?utm_source=ifttt
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