ISSUE 191
/In the last few years, I have seen lots of changes in Harleys and in the people who ride them. Back in 1993 when I bought my first Harley, my perception was that I was either a Harley rider or ‘not’.
Those under the heading of ‘not’ didn’t ride with Harley owners, or at least the owners I knew. We didn’t even read the same magazines. But that was okay. We HOG members got The Enthusiast for free in the mail.
As I found over the years you didn’t have to be in a club or group. What mattered was that you became mates with people like you guys (the readers), and the things we had in common. Me being a HOG member in both the USA and Australia, I saw membership was often a fleeting passion. You found your mates and rode with them. It didn’t matter if you rode a Wide Glide or a GS 1200.
Nowadays I see heaps of my ole Harley mates riding lighter, faster and easier to ride bikes … and still riding with their ole Harley mates. All that said, it seems that since Willie G retired in 2012, the Motor Company has been trying everything under the sun to find its new buyers rather than keeping the ones they have. And taking care of its small town mum and pop dealers. Or just bringing into the fold like-minded people replacing those that have passed and fallen off the perch.
Since my first Harley, the naysayers have been crying Harley sales will fall with the demographics of old age riders. I hate to tell them this but they are wrong. Seventy is the new 50. The real Harley buyer is and always will be the people, male and female, with the deposable income to ride what they want to ride. If you build a great bike or a car that makes you feel alive, people will buy it. Stick to your core values. Forget electrics except as city commuters. Give me a potato-potato to ride all day with my mates.
What has really changed today are all the bells and whistles on the bikes. And now, they have great reliability. It’s a lot more work and distractions with Apple CarPlay and smartphone connections on Touring bikes, helmets and GPS units. And that is how I came to write Cybercycles for HEAVY DUTY magazine.
Going back 23 years, in early 2000, I was called first by Doc Robinson and then Chris Beattie. Chris offered me an opportunity to write a column in the magazine called HOG Central about the Harley Owners Groups in Australia. At that time there were heaps of good HOG chapters but no one-stop newsletter for the entire region. Anyway I accepted as it seemed to fit into my hobbies and writing about riding and having fun.
Then a couple months later Chris had a another great ideal. Since a lot of what I wrote about in HOG Central was borrowed off the new-fangled thing called the Internet, Chris thought I should also write a sidebar called Cybercycles, way back in Issue 51. Who would have thought some two plus decades later Cybercycles would still be around in Issue 191!? That’s 140 issues!
Funny, of the six websites I listed in Issue 51, only one still exists today: www.heavyduty.com.au
Even Hog Central was discontinued in 2009, when Harley came out with its own HOG magazine for Australia and the world.
On that note, let me recount the history of all official Harley publications and what it may mean for all of us today and the future. The first publication was The Harley-Davidson Dealer in 1912. Then came a couple of false starts like The Motorcycle News and Harley-Davidson Bulletin. Following those was and still is the longest continuously printed motorcycle magazine, The Harley-Davidson Enthusiast, launched in 1916.
Then in 1984, HogTales joined The Enthusiast. Following in 2009, HOG magazine combined them both. Then Harley restarted The Enthusiast title in 2021. About a print later, the HOG magazine ceased with only a digital version remaining and called again The Enthusiast Magazine “A Re-Designed Publication to Inspire Riders and Celebrate Motorcycle Culture.”
For HOG members, check out members.hog.com or on your smartphone app. Best read on the app.
Today HEAVY DUTY magazine still roars along and is still proudly printed in Australia. Its original website and of course social media are an adjunct to its printed presence. Most of the print magazines of the 1990s in the USA have all but closed and switched to the Internet and social media. That said we are still lucky to have HEAVY DUTY on our coffee tables to read and share with our mates!
I guess my love of Harleys came from Willie G and his generation and ideas. Nothing ever changes, just the name of the players. When I got home from the National Rally at The Bend, I started researching my final Cybercycles, and to my delight and amazement I saw wonderous things happening in The Motor Company world.
How did I see them, just like you can and do today. Using all the smart stuff at your fingertips. You now can just say, “Siri, who won the battle of the baggers?” Or, “Siri, Harley Softail rear shock recall.” You don’t need me, just what you and the new generation of V-Twin riders do everyday with your technology. It’s all there.
I am still old fashioned so I go to my new search engine called YouTube and subscribe to blogs like Harley-Davidson and its Thrashin Supply, Screamin’ Eagle, Ohlins suspension; as well as everything else new that Harley is selling.
Or just Google the ole fashion way “87 Fernandez Super Hooligan” for Harley’s RevMax 1250 engine right off a Pan America and bolted on to the front fork and swingarm of the yet-to-be-released Bronx. Voilà, you have created a Super Hooligan race winner against the Indians and even the Japanese.
Now as I did with Hog Central, the time has come for me to ride off into the sunset. Let me leave you with these websites and blogs that keep me up to date:
h-d.com/au/en/content/the-enthusiast.html
view.e-mail.harley-davidson.com/
click.e-mail.harley-davidson.com
www.facebook.com/watch/hdmuseum
