199742 Resource 106832 108325 108325 1205788225525 1205788225525 Controlled Harleys vs The Other Motorcycles

Tradition and Authenticity

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Once again I've been reading about the history of the chopper, the bobber, the fall and rise of Harley Davidson, and the annual rituals of Sturgis, Laconia, and Daytona.&nbsp; (Bad year at Daytona for rider safety - more about that later, probably).<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No matter how many times I go through it, it is a fascinating story.&nbsp; The cultural conclusion that being &quot;authentic&quot; as judged by &quot;tradition&quot;, and somehow this explains everything.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Whenever I think that Harley riders are just like other riders, the least bit of exposure brings me back to my senses.&nbsp; For example, can you imagine a sport rider with a leather vest?&nbsp; Even the build of the Harley rider is different.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The tradition, of course, predates many.&nbsp; For those of you who are unaware, it began when Uncle Sam released bikes after the war.&nbsp; There was a general shortage of transportation, because the car manufacturers converted to producing equipment for the war effort, and there was a shortage of workers as well as buyers.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Those army green motorcycles were the stuff of ads in comic books for decades after, claiming that you could buy them as low as $250.00.&nbsp; Of course, they needed to be modified, so chopping, bobbing and painting pretty readily developed into a culture.&nbsp; Fast forward half a century, ad technology, and Voila!&nbsp; Speed Channel and Discovery Channel, with untold numbers of wannabes imitating movie stars who themselves are imitating icons from the past.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Very confusing scene now that so many bikers have gotten older.&nbsp; However, the basics remain the same.&nbsp; Anything that looks &quot;real&quot; is good, and works.&nbsp; Anything that is imitative, and lacks &quot;authenticity&quot;, is bad.&nbsp; Arlen Ness is the real thing.&nbsp; But for $40K, more or less, Arlen will make a &quot;real&quot; bike, but sell it to an inauthentic person, but that person may actually ride it, and become &quot;authentic&quot;.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; All of this is a lot of fun, of course, and it all works, providing that we remember the important thing, as always:&nbsp; the ride.<br /> 10 application/xml false Arlen Ness authentic bobber chopper Daytona Harley Davidson Laconia Motorcycle Sturgis the ride. tradition Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 mpadway 63.205.182.177 false true false false true 201650 false false true false false false true 106832 blog blogsite/MichaelPadway/web