[Sangria7]

Agreed – it was way too fast for my blood. It was a good experience not to be repeated. I just wanted to see if my muscle bike was able to keep up with the speedsters. Luckily we rode in a Texas national park area where LEOs are rare and only there for incidents. BTW we did have two guys scrub the pavement on a 25MPH turn – they took at 80mph and couldn’t stay on the road. One guy just minor scrapes. Other guy broken bones and had to get stitches on his knee. Lucky for them I was right behind them and administered first aid on the spot (i knew that combat life saver course in the army was good for something LOL).

[Munch]

“”3. Predisposed historical prejudices – I know this will be controversial but here goes. Cruisers in general were associated with the Harley Davidson motorcycles, and were considered very “American”. Opposed to sportsbikes which are mainly “rice-burners.” Case in point when I pulled up next to a HD rider he was all nice to me until he found out I had an Asian built bike; then he told me to get a real bike LOL. On the other hand, I seen Sports bike Riders call any Cruiser Rider as a “Honkey Tonk Confederate Flag Yielding Whiteboy.””

This one around my parts has more to do with everything then anything. You have to consider first that there is a huge leap between generations of riders on the road now and the mentality along with them. Most riders used to be of the baby boom generation that got brought up in a time where there were just 2 wars fought overseas. In an era of racial tension no matter which race got pegged for it anything Japanese got nosed at. Remember Pearl Harbor ….. Vietnam etc. These harbored alot of hate for the senior members that lost brothers, fathers, friends and everything in between. The kids of these parents passed that behavior on to their kids.
Enter the Gas crises in the 80’s I think?(probly wrong but hey… I spend to much time around auto chemicals anyway). Before that you were almost labeled a commy if you had anything but American, and HD was the main builder of motorcycles at the time. No real sports bikes to be found. As they started popping up (again speaking from my area of location) they were really all foreign models..or aka rice burners, jap traps etc. When the oil crises happened a lot of old ideas went wayside for the sake of being able to go further for longer times. Toyota pick ups and Honda cars were becoming popular, add in the peace loving generation now getting older and more tolerant the foreign bikes now had a chance to survive. However with the faster and more agile you also got the younger crowds wanting to “boost their ego and prove it” . Nothing un common. Look at the marketing and who they target. See any teenagers or even 20 year olds depicted in a magazine pimpin’ a Boulevard….no….surprised?
Of course then you enter the news media…as the targeted market (kids) were going faster and getting bolder with every incident the news people much like today jump at the chance to report it. Not helping the sport bike riders at all.
Motorcycles enjoy the same marketing/stereotyping that cars do… are you young…want something stylish and fast…try the new Camaro, Mustang, Miata, B’mer and so on and so forth…for the older more distinguished try Buick’s luxury land yacht or the newest bells and whistle laden Caddy. Same thing for bikes… young, fast , agile…get a Ninja… or Katana…or Busa the naming of the bikes themselves lend more to the targeted riders and even to drive the emotion and point of view on the product. Cruisers…. want to just get away from it all…take a scenic route through the mountains to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city…or newest cruiser style/ touring type motorcycle is just what you need with it’s relaxing riding position and it’s gentleman’s like handling… see what I mean.
General public that’s not riding buys into it hook like and sinker…. even a good portion of the riders buy into it themselves. When I was shopping for my V900 I heard some beefed up ‘roid monster walk by the cruiser section look at his friend and make the comment… ” you don’t want to go over their that’s the old man section”.
Look through history and try to understand the attitudes, thoughts and emotions of the generations and it’s not hard to comprehend the gap. Luckily that gap is no where near as wide as it once was.

[Sangria7]

Munch – that is a good point. I never even considered the marketing behind the bike types. They definitely contribute to the differences. This thread would probably be a good article to be put in a major magazine as this topic has been taboo – but nonetheless it needs to be aired out so the gap is bridged and understood.

Hmmm keep the thoughts coming – I might end up writing up an article to submit LOL

[Author]

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