MikeM said:
Its not the make of the motorcycle. Its the inconsiderate idiot on it.
I will agree that there are a large amount of inconsiderate knuckleheads that ride Harley Davidsons. I will tell you that I am not one of those.
I do have an HD in my garage, right next to my Commando.
Some people buy a Harley and immediately buy into the "lifestyle" thing, which includes pack riding at below-limit velocities. You rarely see them ride solo, and their treks are mostly short distance, TT-type (tavern-to-tavern). Of course, not all Harley riders are dim bulbs, but some seem to forego intelligence when they get in a group. I suppose the urge to fit in with one's "peers" is, at times, stronger than ordinary common sense.
P. Egan (I tend to quote him often) once told a story about riding his own Harley and getting jammed up by what he assumed was someone driving a motorhome on a rolling two-lane highway. When he was finally able to pick off all the four-wheel vehicles in the conga line one-by-one, he discovered the problem to be a pack of Harley types riding nose-to-tail, necessitating the high-speed blast past to get around. Later, he was at a Harley dealer getting something for his bike when he heard two riders discussing an incident where another Harley rider had blasted by their group at high speed. "No lane discipline", muttered one as the other nodded in agreement. Realizing it was himself they were referring to, he recounted a "similar" incident he had experienced in which a pack of slow-moving Harleys had forced him to fly around them en masse, since they afforded no space to pass singularly. He told them after he had gotten home, he called several friends to relate the incident and told them if he ever held up traffic while riding any motorcycle, they should just shoot him in the head, because life as he knew it was over.