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An Unexpected Side Effect of Riding a Ural

While I was out poking around on the Ural Sunday morning, I realized that when people would see me coming down the road – they’d often smile. I picked up on it many times. People in cars, walking on the street, bicycle riders – smiling at me. Or, more accurately, smiling at the orange Ural.

I can’t say I’ve had many people just smile at me while I’m riding the Tiger down the road or while I was waiting to pull out of a side street.  There is just something about that bright orange contraption that really seems to resonate with people.

I can’t lie – it is pretty awesome to have strangers be happy when they look your way. Every smile made me feel like a million bucks.

What Is It About Harley-Davidson That Makes Them So Polarizing?

In the Town of Port Jefferson there is a parking lot that has stalls marked for motorcycle only parking. There are a few picnic tables and benches in this area to allow people to sit and hangout. When the weather is nice the lot attracts many motorcycles.

A few months ago I snapped a picture of one of the benches on which someone wrote “Harly’s Suck.”

Do we need to talk about the murder of grammar and spelling here? If you’re going to try to insult someone, I think you should probably try to get your shit straight.

While in town yesterday, I saw that another bench has been marked up, this time with “Harly < ; BMX.”

Again, poor spelling but I have to give them an ‘A’ for consistency.

It got me to thinking~

What is it about Harley-Davidson that is so polarizing?

Harley-Davidson seems to be one motorcycle brand that many people are very vocal about their love or dislike of.

There are the diehard brand loyalists who buy and proudly wear their branded gear, bandanas, t-shirts from dealers afar. Some riders get tattoos of the company logo, have stickers on their cars and trucks and seem to see Harley-Davidson as a facet of the American dream.

And then there are the people who are pretty vocal about hating everything HD stating reasons such as – outdated technology, poor performance and peddling a lifestyle above all else.

I cannot think of another brand of motorcycles that divides people so clearly. But why?

Day 25: It’s Like They Wrote the Graffiti Just For Me! – #29in29

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Just a few more days until the #29in29 blog post challenge comes to a close. If you haven’t already, please stop by these participating blogs to see what they’ve been up to for the month of February.

Participating Blogs