The Americans

For a lot of us It has always been the japanese, then when I felt I needed some cross cultures, I swing to the europeans...sometimes handling a few partners at a time. Although it could be attention and monetary draining, but Motorcycling life has been nothing been more fulfilling.

Like Gengis Khan and Napolean, the conquest never ends through the world map. Same for me, after savaging the Japanese and the europeans, I am going for North America this time.

Its has been a biker's childhood dream about the Americans. Its more often the first word(s) a biker learns after the word "mama" and "papa".

The word(s) I am talking about is not Amelia or Tracy or Casandra. I am talking about the biker household name HARLEY DAVIDSON (HD for short).

HDs have well over a century of heritage, one of the few brands to not only survive the two world wars, tis brand has taken part in them. Although at the time of editing now at the year 2020, HDs are facing their biggest crisis to date, being not fast enough to accept changes to the younger population demands, we get to more details on this if we have a chance)

This marque features the classic American culture, big muscle cc, heavy weight metal, chromes, full of pride, riding it is almost like holding an American flag and flagging it in the air or visualising yourself as the golden eagle gliding thru the highway.

Fast jump thru the intro, I started my adventure seeking for that American which might run a similar fate line with me.... And I never fail to find my girl. Julia. Yes she's the girl I found. Before this little blog leads to massive global misunderstanding in my world, please do continue reading.
Julia is an ex-colleague of mine. A modern independant girl she is, she does yoga, does surfing and u guys guessed it, she rides.

To put the pieces clearer together, she worked for Harley Davidson. And naturally she rides a Harley.

As coincidence as it sounds, I had a call from her about the same time, she just bought the Sportster 48 and we had a history of sharing bikes together, so came the usual question pops up and of course, as the opportunist I always am, I agreed and fast forward again. My butt soon found my way to the seat of this black beauty, and is on my way riding up Phuket.

Harley Davidson Sportster 48. With a peanut tank (1.1gallons?), forward controls, single rider seat pad, fat front n rear tyres. This bike shouts pride and bad-ass atitude. I could feel the would-be style I would wanna be once I sat on the 48. A cool shade and leather boots are a must.

Pior to the phuket trip, its a race to accessorize 

This trip turned out to be one of the most memorable. I managed to get my hands on a rear luggage rack and fixed them just before the trip. Never had time to look at luggage options, being the anyhow me, i packed a bag and a spare tank, strapped them up and i am on my way.

I thought the spare tank comes in handy when i read about the the tank range is just a measly 80km, which in theory wise I could not even make it to the next nearest gas station when i set off from Gelah Patah RnR! True enough, i used the spare tank a few times and during the whole trip, seeing a gas station is like a god-send.

Other then the gas range issue, the other was obviously the comfort. I jolly well knew that this is never a bike to do the long haul but those were the days when i felt the proudest when i can say "...and I did just that" in fact i am still using this line now when i relate to customers about riding the long haul! haha

 So this 48 is probably the first serious sportster i had, when Julia eventually sold it cus she needed to leave SG for oversea work assignments, it left me craving for more so I went on for my next American conquest. This time, I knew more clearly on what I wanted in a sportster. My search came to this Sportster custom.

I got to know this Russian guy who was stationed here to work on a long term. He brought along his bike all the way along with him to SG, but soon after he was out looking for his next ride and wanted to sell the bike off. I got to meet you a few days after we texted a bit. The elements happened to be all right, he is in a hurry to sell and i offer him a much knocked-off price and he agrees.
I wasted no time. Those days are filled with rash decisions and almost zero logics. Soonest i remembered I was on that bike, on a ride toward Penang and thailand. Back in those days, I had 2 close pals who are riding sportsters too.

1) Gerald (if i remember the name correctly) was from a well-to-do family who he took over the family business producing plastic products, he bought a brand new 72 and was as eager to do the long haul. Well I didnt quite mentioned to him about the pain of having the peanut tank for long trips, guessed he found out himself during the trip that we were about to embarked in.

2) Daimler, a close pal i know during my Piaggio days where he is a customer. Technically incline dude and very snobbish about it. always ready to challenge me on technical issues, which i suck at it but i was always ready to have a nonsense answer to his questions. Those days he gotten himseld the newer XL1200C which the fat front tyre.

so the three were hanging out frequently those days.

coming back to that trip, i recalled the blue sportster I was riding was way much comfortable then the previous 48, much bigger tank that is able to cover almost close to 300km which made stopover planning a breeze.

Having this Sportster after the 48 set my views that Sportster will probably be the only HD i will own and ride and, this particular model (XL1200C) being the only sportster model that i will ever own. (later part in life, i learnt a term call "never say NEVER")
 

Anyway so much love i had for this bike, i name it Supfire (rhymed like the blue gems Sapphire).