Meet My Motorbike

Custom motorbike?

My ride is a Harley Davidson Sportster Custom and it's that last part of the model name which has always rather annoyed me.

HD's mentality is that they can offer a model of motorbike and then tweak that model a little bit and slap the word 'Custom' after the name of it. They call them 'Factory Customs' which to me is a complete oxymoron. In my mind a Custom is a bike which somebody has toiled long and hard over, either in a custom bike outfit or (even more admirably) in his shed at home. Custom bikes do not roll off factory production lines. Grr…

Whatever the weather

I'm proud that I ride my bike every day, whatever the weather. I've been on it in the sun at 31°C and I've been on it in the snow and ice. I've even been on it at -4°C in freezing fog! I'm averaging nearly 10,000 miles per year and, possibly, the bike is beginning to look it. Alas, Harleys are really not designed to be ridden all year round in Britain. I don't care what the dealer says, when the manual describes starting the bike on a cold day as "when the temperature is below 16°C" then you know it's not for our fair isles!*

Having said that I do love my bike. I've had great times riding it and good fun pulling bits off and tinkering, like painting my exhausts. It is a much loved bike even if it doesn't look it.

* Take a look at The Met Office's Annual Average Temperature mapped for the UK and you'll notice the key doesn't mention >16°C!