Oh, this isn't a rule, this is common sense.

As a boy, the best compliment you could give a guy was, "He can really handle a motor vehicle." It was akin to being a good shot with a firearm, having a sharp knife, being able to talk to women or being good at his job. He didn't have to brag, everyone knew he was the best.

Yikes, now look at our ranks. We have RUBs with credit cards that can buy a 120-inch S&S motor for their first bike! Or guys that purchase a Hayabusa just because they can.

A bike that drags its undercarriage is dangerous to the rider and to the guys he rides with. A guy who doesn't know this or tricks out his bike so it doesn't handle is asking for trouble. A bike that won't handle at speed is simply a danger.

And I put my money where my mouth is. I have more money invested in my suspension than in my motor and my bling combined.

So where's the line? Do you want to go back to the days of spool hubs and no front brake? That looked "cool" too, and we were all inexperienced, giving up 70% of our braking power to 'break the rules.' It's a wonder there's enough old guys here for a forum...

Here's my take, I think if you decided to go without a front brake cool, but if you get wrecked than not cool, you over-rode the bike and or your abilities period. (extenuating circumstances excluded, ie drunk running a stop sign...)
If you're running along at a conservative speed and get into a situation where your abilities lean that bike over to keep a line and something starts scrapping then are you guilty of bad form?, yup. but sometimes a man's got to do what he's got to do. You know you've been on a strange piece of road and slowed down to navigate it but still a few mph over the right speed and I'm going home after this so leaning it is whats going to happen to get me home. TSSUDS bro, you seem like me in the aspect of leaning it to get home is ok, I'd skip the bag upgrade because they'd probably get good and scrapped up and not because you wanted to. I also whole heartedly agree with tourist, don't make your bike a no go show boat if you plan on riding it like it's yours. Hell, I think there are already too many road hazards out there to make your bike LESS ridable.... At least thats what I've learned the hard way (so far).
Suggestion: I have hard bags on my bike, and some of the trips I've taken, especially the camping ones I've had a storage shortage, I got the T-bag and had room to spare, no it doesn't look as cool as the long bags but loaded down I was still able to corner safely. Sometimes you got to make a compromise, I love cool, but practical is my foundation.

I disagree (politely). And I'll give you a thoughtful rebuttal.

First, The age demographic for Harley riders is the oldest. Yeah, we have a lot of RUBs and every idiot in a cut-off denim jacket thinks he's an Angel, but by and large an HD is not a guy's first bike. The average mean age of our riders is their 40s.

Second, like any other product, the modern HD is built by scores of engineers, machinists, test riders and info added by actual client feedback.

The problem here is that every fudd with a lame idea and a hacksaw thinks he knows better.

Give you an example. Last riding season here in my area got warm real fast. The bikes came out early. I went down to the shop and saw a bunch of Harleys dinged up and sitting in the service writers' area. The reason, all of these "seasoned riders" fell over. Oh, not at speed, but in turning at intersections. The early rains hadn't washed down the grit enough.

We have mentioned "decreasing radius turns." I am familiar, I have to navigate two of them just to go 12 miles to my dealer; one on-ramp and another off-ramp on 39/90/94. You could make a case that it's a bad design, and I would be more apt to agree. But that doesn't change the fact that I have to modulate my speed and keep my wits about me in the correct 'line.'

My final point. Black Betty is a 2004 Dyna. If you are familiar with that make and model then you'll know the original front end is from an outdated Sportster. It should have never been on that bike. I had it yanked off and replaced with the proper model--an inverted fork that first appeared on a 2006 CVO. It's my bike, and it's my responsibility to make sure it functions properly during its use.

Things like grit, poor road designs and substandard parts are a fact of life. But that is not an excuse for faulty user operation.

RoadKing,



Thanks for the input. That's what I'm leaning towards. I whole heartedly agree not to sacrifice functionality for looks (the cool factor). I do like the look for me. But that's where it ends, you really don't gain much room and if I do scrape the bags, that would be a shame. The only time I really need more storage space is on long trips, I have been looking at the bags witch attach to a detachable sissy bar.



Thanks again...Ride...Safe

The "T"bags, i have are the detachable bags that go on the sissy bar, Mine is made of cudora that nylon stuff, works great and folds up into practically nothing when you're not using them, also came with a sleeping bag bag thats part of the package.