Lunch Ride with Harley guys every week

With all kidding about the Harley Guys not riding here's a group that rides a few times a week, Naturally 99% Harleys and about 75% retired guys.  Every week they have a lunch ride and about 30 bikes show up.  They start at the WaWa at the intersection of Rt70 and Rt539 in Whiting NJ.
Find them at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NJMotorcycleCruisers/ on Facebook.

On the way back from lunch somewhere on Rt38 I stopped by the South Jersey Reginal Airport in Lumberton, NJ to check out the café.   Called the Runway café it's slightly smaller than the one at Flying W (which is closed) but should be able to handle it if 10 people showed up at one time.  Outside tables, but just some picnic tables stuck on the grass.  

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Picnic tables in the grass works for me. Lumberton is a nice ride for us northerners

Do any of the Harley guys realize your bike is way cooler than theirs? Ha ha
Scott

9fingers wrote:Do any of the Harley guys realize your bike is way cooler than theirs? Ha ha
Scott

I see them looking at it, likely trying to figure out how the belt drive works with the engine sitting sideways.  But no one ever asks what it is or anything about it.
Very few even know anyone makes motorcycles other that 'The Company', they walk past the Goose, look at it, and likely figure it's a Jap bike.  I was out for a ride on the Beemer a few summers ago and pulled into the Whiting WaWa.  Two of the usual Harley group were there, I asked if the Harley people were boycotting waving or something, they asked why.  I said "when I'm on the Sportster everyone waves but today on that (pointing to the Beemer) no one waved back".  They looked at the BMW (I very rarely ride it in New Jersey) and said 'They don't wave to Jap bikes".  I asked if they recognized the round blue and white symbol on the windshield.  They were shocked it was a BMW.  Admittedly they were the 'new Harley crowd' (didn't ride till they were old men), I asked if they were kidding - they weren't.   Along the same lines, I was going to the New York MC show a few years ago and asked if any of them wanted to go - One answered  "Everything I want to know about motorcycles I can learn at the Harley Dealer".

Overall a great bunch of guys, and they do ride (even if they don't go far).  Most are in it for the social aspect, and I get that.
Over the last few years I've come to the conclusion that if it wasn't for the vast influx of older, financially secure and relatively affluent (they have lawyers) people to the Harley 'life style' (as the company advertises) none of us would be riding motorcycles.  They would have gone the way of the muscle car.  So even if their not 'motorcyclists' they do serve a purpose.

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I too have found that many of the Harley guys are ignorant of other motorcycle brands. They all know Honda and Yamaha, etc, of course. But Moto Guzzi....what the heck is that? I rode into Bear (?) Harley up near Hawley, Pa, a couple of years back......my buddy's Harley died when we stopped for lunch and he had to get towed there. But I hung and and waited while they replaced his rectifier and sold him a new battery. I was on my Royal Enfield chrome 500...........no one would get closer than 25'! They would stare but not come too close. I found it very amusing. BTW, I went in and looked at the bikes and found none that I wanted to own.
Scott

Just tell them that a Guzzi is like an Italian Harley only with the engine turned the right way.

“Harley guys”…….we got some doozies in the “Guzzi guys” club also!  

It seems to me that the Full-Dresser Harley Guys are riders and are more apt to recognize and respect a Guzzi. I've had them talk to me, nod and say, "Nice Guzzi." - things like that. And that was on my Sport 1100, not even the Norge. The other Harley's and their riders I tend to lump them into a group and consider them posers. Likely not true at all, but we all have our own version of profiling...

It's not just Harley guys.

Back in the 90's one of the airheads that was in my group traveling the Blue Ridge and surrounding areas broke down (cracked ignition coil was allowing shorts in damp weather, and then he went and cracked a terminal off it when trying to "insulate" it with a plastic soda bottle - friggin' engineer).

Anyway, we were in Knoxville for the night and before we wound up overnighting a new ignition coil from the west cost (because the East Coast had shut down for the night already) we tried calling a local motorcycle junkyard to ask if they had any BMW ignition coils.

Read the following reply I got on the phone with a DEEEEEEEPPPP Southern' Accent:

Proprietor or employee of junkyard: "Siiiiir, This HERE'S a MOTO-OR-SICKLE JUNK YARD!"




Me "Yeah, That's why I called it looking for a BMW MOTOR-SICKLE PART"


Proprietor or employee of junkyard: "Thigh May-ke THOSE?!?"