It’s about time

The new Harley.

Harley-Davidson is bringing a new motorcycle to market?
A V-twin of only 500 or 750 cc s?
My Cycle-World Magazine seemed to gloss over it, but as Stevie Circh (“Kurch”) used to say at the Mighty Mezz: “Big-biggity-big!”
(Circh also said the only time the Messenger would “STOP THE PRESSES” was when Bob Hope died. Thankfully, Hope died overnight, not during a press-run.)
How will this play with the Harley-crowd, the noisy bluster-kings that claim only Harley makes a proper motorcycle?
The new Harley is 60 degrees between cylinders, not 45 degrees as Harleys have been since days-of-yore.
It’s also water-cooled (Gasp!), not air-cooled like most Harley motorcycles.
This new Harley motorcycle is aimed at foreign beginners, not the vocal Harley-crowd.
No doubt it will be labelled a pansy-bike, not a “man’s” motorcycle.
This new motorcycle is based on Harley’s V-Rod, so they say.
It also looks pretty good.
Various Japanese motorcycle manufacturers have tried to make Harley clones.
They don’t get it!
The Harleys always look better.
The Harley is a big heavy motorcycle, but the imitators always look HUGE. Some have gigantic sweeping chrome tailpipes.
Harley doesn’t make that mistake.
Just about every imitator, as does Harley, has a large barn-door fairing. But on a Harley it doesn’t look like a barn-door.
The criticism of Harley is its technology is antediluvian.
What Harley does is generate gobs of torque, torque that enhances ride-ability.
Japanese sport-bikes make much more horsepower.
Although I only had one Japanese sport-bike that wouldn’t scoot at low revs.
And that was a small two-stroke on which I foolishly installed a special exhaust-pipe that turned the bike into a light-switch.
Crank it below 6,000 rpm, and not much happened.
Get above 6,000, and hang-on-for-dear-life!
Supposedly the big Harleys are douche-bags. Not much power at high-speed, at least not that of a Japanese bike. Just sheer racket, though often with little muffling.
One night I listened to a Harley and a Jap bike doing burnouts.
The bikes were comparable; both could smoke their rear-tires.
But I doubt that Harley could get over 120.
The Jap bike was good for 180 or so.
During the ‘50s and ‘60s Harley’s competition was British, but then Honda came along about 1970.
The British motorcycle manufacturers tried to respond with Honda clones, but all failed. The Hondas were a better bike. The Brits were unreliable and difficult.
So will Harley succeed with its new motorcycle? It’s the direction to take, but will it succeed?
Harley has been around over 110 years, but for me the past 40 or so has been stuck in-a-rut.
The Brits were in a rut too, and had to leave the business.
It seems like the past 40 years Harley was stuck in the rut of catering to the Harley-crowd.
And like-it-or-not the Harley-crowd is aging.
So now I sit back and eagerly await a noisy fusillade from my all-knowing brother-in-Boston, a macho Harley-dude. He’s 56.

• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over seven years ago. Best job I ever had — I worked there almost 10 years (over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern [I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well]). Steve Circh was an editor. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 14 miles away.)
• RE: “He’s 56........” —At age 69 I’m the oldest.