Confirmation that I am a dinosaur of a biker

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worntorn said:
Your Commando is much higher performance than a stock bike.
How would your modern Harley compare to a stock Commando?
I suspect a bone stock Commando would need very twisty roads to keep up with a well ridden Dyna.
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Agreed and at half the displacement it stands to reason.
 
Another thread gone off into the weeds just the way god planned it.

I rode a Harley once. Far smoother ride than I expected.

Seems to me throwing around a Harley to stay in front of a Commando on a winding mountain road would be far more work than it is worth. Ground clearance is an issue with that much weight. Also the ass pucker factor braking one of those things into downhill hairpins would be annoying. To each his own. Probably a more reliable touring ride than a Commando though.

I put out a hand to every motorcycle I see out on the country roads. Most of them do the same. I did one brother/sister hood of the motorcycle wave Tuesday leaned into a nice left hander. That was kind of fun. Made me feel 30 years younger for a couple of seconds. I don't care if they acknowledge my existence.

Way off topic: One thing I noticed when out on one of the very first sunny summerlike days this year in the pacific northwest was there are a lot of scooters out there. The type that look like a soap dish on steroids. They are everywhere. I wave to them too.
 
Schwany said:
Another thread gone off into the weeds just the way god planned it.

I rode a Harley once. Far smoother ride than I expected.

Seems to me throwing around a Harley to stay in front of a Commando on a winding mountain road would be far more work than it is worth.
Click to expand...
Harley has a lot of models.
Some are a lot more capable than others.
The really huge machines like the Dynaglide Ultra are made for turnpike cruising.
A group of us went riding on a really great BC road called the Duffy Lake road. It's like a giant racetrack in the mountains with huge elevation changes and hundreds of challenging corners.
There were 2 BMWs, an 1150 GS, an R1200 rt, a Harley Dynaglide Ultra a Honda 750 v twin thing ( very slow) and my Triumph Thruxton.
The two BMWs and the Thruxton rider had a lot of fun.
This was an overnighter so we planned more fun on different mountain roads for the next day. The Harley and Honda riders just wanted to go home, so they did.

Glen
 
Duffy Lake hairpin.
As I recall, there are three consecutive hairpins at this spot. Somewhere here years ago my Commando completely lost front braking. I went home and ordered the Madass kit.

You really don't want a floorboard bike on this road.
We were on a similar road some years ago 5 Vincent's being ridden hard and an older fellow on a big Yamaha touring bike trying to keep up. He touched a floorboard and slammed straight into a rock wall. The bike was totalled. He survived but was seriously injured, riding days over.

 
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Nigel and I have more in common then I thought. I own two Harley's but am the anti -Harley rider. Never catch me in a Harley t-shirt. But open 70 mph highways I'll ride my Streeglide. Remember they have a fine chain of repair centers. Having fun Norton! Around 2000 I bought a 91 883 Sportster it was cheap. A buddy dusted my ass on his worn out 750 Triumph. $5000 later it'll make any bike work for the 1/8 mile win!
 
Fast Eddie said:
This dude takes a a tad too serious IMHO, but c’mon… who’s having the most fun…

Click to expand...

Hi all,
Now that’s impressive! Just goes to show, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog’ if you take my meaning.
Earlier in this thread I wrote a rather rambling response that seemingly drifted off topic. It was rightly accused of lacking a clear point. I think I was trying to say that people choose different bike brands for all sorts of reasons. They have varying levels of brand loyalty, commitment to riding and understanding of the camaraderie that (may or may not) exists between riders on the same and different brands of bikes. Therefore it’s not surprising that some riders enthusiastically wave to others while others have a misplaced elitism and don’t deign to initiate a salutation to the rider of a ‘lesser’ brand.
Marketing departments enthusiastically exploit this human trait when selling their bikes, ergo, ‘You meet the nicest people on a Honda’, or the ‘lone wolf’ appeal exuded by some ‘bad boy’ Harley that promises to transform the most meek and mild citizen into a dangerous rebel, whenever they sit astride their objectively rather poorly performing iron horse.
The point is with us dinosaurs riding long extinct old pommie iron, that for whatever reason we choose to own a Norton, it’s not because we are being hoodwinked by some slick marketing campaign.

Nowadays we often get a lot of oohing and arhing when we pull up on a Commando. Everyone of a certain age will claim to have some association with the bikes. But here’s the rub! For the first two decades after buying my pommie bike (Trident) in 1977, it was the subject of derision from riders and non riders alike ( at 198 cm you would want to be a bit careful of what you say). ‘It’s not leaking oil, it must be broken’, ‘how many bit’s fell off getting here?’, has it rattled the fillings out of your false teeth?’ Etc etc. You can imagine that these attitudes led to some very spirited riding on my part. Quite a few riders on Italian Stallions and stove hot Jap bikes discovered that, like the Harley in the film clip, an ageing Trident or Commando can still give a good account of itself.
So times change, as does people’s perception of bikes and their riders. Let’s not lose too much sleep over who waves and who doesn’t.
Hope this makes sense.
regards
Alan
 
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Alan L said:
Hi all,
Now that’s impressive! Just goes to show, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog’ if you take my meaning.
Earlier in this thread I wrote a rather rambling response that seemingly drifted off topic. It was rightly accused of lacking a clear point. I think I was trying to say that people choose different bike brands for all sorts of reasons. They have varying levels of brand loyalty, commitment to riding and understanding of the camaraderie that (may or may not) exists between riders on the same and different brands of bikes. Therefore it’s not surprising that some riders enthusiastically wave to others while others have a misplaced elitism and don’t deign to initiate a salutation to the rider of a ‘lesser’ brand.
Marketing departments enthusiastically exploit this human trait when selling their bikes, ergo, ‘You meet the nicest people on a Honda’, or the ‘lone wolf’ appeal exuded by some ‘bad boy’ Harley that promises to transform the most meek and mild citizen into a dangerous rebel, whenever they sit astride their objectively rather poorly performing iron horse.
The point is with us dinosaurs riding long extinct old pommie iron, that for whatever reason we choose to own a Norton, it’s not because we are being hoodwinked by some slick marketing campaign.

Nowadays we often get a lot of oohing and arhing when we pull up on a Commando. Everyone of a certain age will claim to have some association with the bikes. But here’s the rub! For the first two decades after buying my pommie bike (Trident) in 1977, it was the subject of derision from riders and non riders alike ( at 198 cm you would want to be a bit careful of what you say). ‘It’s not leaking oil, it must be broken’, ‘how many bit’s fell off getting here?’, has it rattled the fillings out of your false teeth?’ Etc etc. You can imagine that these attitudes led to some very spirited riding on my part. Quite a few riders on Italian Stallions and stove hot Jap bikes discovered that, like the Harley in the film clip, an ageing Trident or Commando can still give a good account of itself.
So times change, as does people’s perception of bikes and their riders. Let’s not lose too much sleep over who waves and who doesn’t.
Hope this makes sense.
regards
Alan
Click to expand...
Whoa ! That video scared me good.
 
I was not hoodwinked or that impressed by models laying or sitting on bikes. I was young and fearless. What made me buy a Norton was watching the San Jose mile at the San Jose fairgrounds listening to that Red Norton win its first heat. Damn impressive to a young man full of beer at the time. Had to get me one. Fortunately, my brother had most of one in boxes. And so it began.

That video did not end like I thought it would. Just saying
 
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I had to look up split tail.
It has at least two meanings
1. A Californian market fish
2. A derogatory term for vagina.

You could just say " attractive woman".

Glen
 
Alright I'll edit it for the sensitive new world many men live in and the thousands of women and children that visit this website.
 
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Confirmation that I am a dinosaur of a biker
 
Richard Tool said:
Just returned from a ride on my 1950 ES2 - absolutely beautiful day . While riding happily along at 55 , which it will do all day long I was passed by a small group of Harley riders . The guy out front smiled and gave a thumbs up as he passed but the rest would not even turn their heads . Caught up with them in traffic and passed most of them . The mommas on the back smiled but their men folk wouldn’t even make eye contact. What’s up with these guys ?
Hard to conceal my smirk …
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Since most of the Harleys have radios blaring while they ride, I'm thinking "Macho Man" may be on all their playlists. :cool:
 
The marketing plan that sold me back in late 60’s was , while walking home from school guessing which bike was approaching from behind us Commando stood out ! later on the next easy was the Kawi triples …. took a long time to finally own a Norton and I got the one I had wished for a ‘72 Combat ! …. I sold that ride last fall after nearly 30yrs as it was still a good bike and I had moved on to the Italians which were always number 2 on my list and much harder to find here , started looking for a Duke GT in 2010 , got a ST3s that year , did the cross country ride on it and taught myself to work on Dukes with that one , last fall finally got a GT and am happy , miss the Commando dearly but , doubt at this point I will have another , although is a nice ‘74 850 not far away …. We all have our stories and it fun to think back , am very glad I did own and enjoy my Commando as long as I did …. nothing is forever
 
worntorn said:
I had to look up split tail.
It has at least two meanings
1. A Californian market fish
2. A derogatory term for vagina.

You could just say " attractive woman".

Glen
Click to expand...
It was meant to be a bird reference like chick which is how it was used around other men I hung around with moons ago. I suppose chick could also be considered derogatory by the easily offended that are compelled to tell people what and how they should think.
 
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