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".
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)
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.
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.
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.
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).