Reviewing Types of Harley Davidson Motorcycles

 

People who are involved in the Harley Davidson motorcycle community are going to be able to discuss the different types of Harley Davidson motorcycles at length. Many of them are going to have specific preferences when it comes to Harley Davidson motorcycles. Others are just going to be generically interested in Harley motorcycle products, including the apparel and a lot of the gear. Understanding the different types of Harley Davidson motorcycles can make a huge difference for the people who want to start getting involved in the community. They should enter the community with some knowledge of the subject.

Participating in any group of fans is going to give people something of an education. No one is going to know everything there is to know about a particular fan group from reading a few things in advance, of course. It is also true that the motorcycle fans are distinctly different from many others just because of the nature of their particular fandom. Riding a motorcycle is an experience. It is a very visceral and very emotional experience at almost any point, and it is the sort of thing that inspires a great deal of powerful feelings. Part of getting involved with this subculture is sharing in those experiences, and not just absorbing the information in an academic manner.

However, having some sort of an academic background on the subject can help. People who want to be able to talk intelligently about the subject of Harley Davidson motorcycles should at least know Harley Davidson model names and the main model categories. It is also a good idea for them to know which models have a tendency to be favored among the people who ride Harley motorcycles frequently. From there, they should have a framework for the knowledge that they will need in order to succeed within the Harley Davidson subculture.

 

Knowing Harley Model Names and Harley Model Characteristics

One of the things that is going to distinguish nearly any group of enthusiasts is that they’re going to have something of a specialized vocabulary. Enthusiasts will seem to speak the same language in a way that will make people on the outside feel like foreigners in their own homelands. Harley Davidson motorcycles really do come with their own special vocabulary attached.

 

The five model types that people are going to need to know with regards to Harley motorcycles are as follows: Softail, Sportster, Dyna, Touring, and V-rod. These are really five model families, since there are plenty of other motorcycles within these particular categories.

Many people who are new to the subculture are going to have a very difficult time telling the Harley motorcycles apart according to the model types. Looking at a cursory photograph isn’t going to cut it for a lot of people. There are certain trends to keep in mind when looking at the different model types, however, and these should be enough to guide people towards the correct identification of the Harley model types.

The Softail models, for instance, tend to lack visible shocks. As long as people are able to identify the presence of shocks on sight, they will be able to recognize the Softail bikes. For people with even less motorcycle knowledge, then the Softails can also be identified by the fact that they tend to be situated slightly lower to the ground then a good portion of the other motorcycles that people are going to see produced by Harley Davidson. V-rods have a much more elongated frame, which should make them easily identifiable to anyone who sees them.

If there is a chain or a belt on the right side of the bike in question, then it is probably a Sportster. Sportsters also tend to have an overall very narrow size and shape, which is automatically going to make them stand out among many of the other motorcycles. Sportsters tend to have noticeably narrow forks as well. Sportsters tend to have smaller fuel tanks that a lot of other bikes. They do vary in terms of their engine sizes, like all Harley motorcycles, but these are the ‘sporty’ bikes, as their name suggests. Maneuverability and grace are more important than sheer power when it comes to these particular bikes.

Some people are going to end up confusing Dyna bikes and Sportster bikes, which is the sort of rookie mistake that can actually mark someone out as a rookie who at least has a passing familiarity with the subject. However, the Dyna bikes are going to have much wider frames, and they will also tend to have larger fuel tanks and very large engines overall.

The Touring motorcycles have a tendency to have hard saddlebags and front fairing. Touring motorcycles also have a fairly long frame, at least relative to the other Harley Davidson models. The motorcycles within the Dyna category have visible rear shocks as well as left side drive.

The Best of Harley Davidson Motorcycles

As people might expect, talking about the best Harley Davidson motorcycle is the sort of thing where everyone is going to have an opinion, and it will be very difficult to get people who have differing opinions to agree. When the average biker is asked what his or her favorite motorcycle is, he or she is usually going to point to the one that he or she has been driving for all of these years. The bike may not be objectively better in any way. However, people will develop their personal preferences for these bikes for lots of different reasons.

Still, there is going to be some overlap in terms of the bikes that are favored by motorcycle enthusiasts everywhere. People who are able to praise and talk confidently about these bikes are going to win a few points with some motorcycle enthusiasts. They will demonstrate that they know what makes a Harley Davidson bike a good bike if they are able to describe why the best bikes have earned the distinction of being the best bikes.

FXR Motorcycles

Many people have positive memories of getting their first FXR motorcycles. Anyone who wants the motorcycle equivalent of a sports car should definitely look into this absolutely classic Harley Davidson motorcycle. It’s one of the earliest Dyna motorcycles, and could be considered almost a proto-Dyna Harley Davidson motorcycle.

The FXR is also the sort of bike that lots of people who love modifying their bikes are going to like. People who enjoy upgrades are going to be able to get a lot of mileage out of this bike, literally and figuratively. Of course, a great deal of enjoying a motorcycle is just appreciating its stance and the way that it tends to balance and position itself. The FXR looks like the truly mighty bike that it is.

The FXR did not last for a long time, so it is sort of a dream that was for a good portion of Harley Davidson riders today. Some of the younger members of the subculture might not actually have firm memories of this bike, and they may have only ridden it in the company of older Harley Davidson riders. However, this is a bike that handles magnificently well, and a lot of people are still going to have bikes like this on hand.

 

Sportster Motorcycles

The FXR is a specific bike. However, the people who are looking at different model categories of Harley Davidson motorcycles are going to want to know which of the model categories that they should try, and which of the model categories have the best bikes. Naturally, it is going to be very difficult to determine which bikes are objectively the best, given the level of subjectivity involved.

 

Different Harley Davidson motorcycle enthusiasts are also going to have different opinions. Some people might choose to favor different product categories just because they are interested in being contrarians, and some of them might have genuinely different opinions concerning the relative quality of different models of Harley Davidson motorcycles. However, of the different model categories, the Harley Davidson Sportsters have gotten the lion’s share of praise from motorcycle enthusiasts for a long time.

 

Lots of Harley riders are going to end up praising the Harley Davidson Sportster bikes. Their name is going to sound impressive even to the people who are outside of the subculture. The Sportster bikes are widely known to the people who love Harley Davidson motorcycles as some of the most versatile bikes on the market.

 

Lots of people have chosen Sportster models as their first Harley motorcycles, since some of them manage to be great for beginners. However, the people who are actually relying on their motorcycles for something as important as a commute to work are also frequently going to choose Sportster motor bikes over some of the other options. People who really like to be able to make an entrance at the average motorcycle bar are also going to frequently choose to drive their Sportsters.

 

People who are getting involved in the subculture for the first time might want to look into getting Sportsters. There are some specific models that are particularly good for the beginners. However, beginners who try Sportsters are demonstrating that they actually do know a thing or two about motorcycles already, and that they know which ones are going to deliver some of the best results for them. These are not the proverbial bikes with training wheels. These are the types of bikes that will manage to fit and flatter beginners as well as the professionals who are on the road.

 

People who want to be able to differentiate between speeds quickly and efficiently will be able to do so thanks to their Sportsters, which are great at being able to handle shifts in speed. The oldest models within this category and the newest models are all going to perform well. Sportsters really do have it all in many ways.

 

One of the keys to the popularity of the Sportster models, of course, is the simple fact that they have a tendency to be less expensive than a good portion of the other motor bikes. Beginners who aren’t sure about how they’re going to feel about this subculture should not make too much of an investment, and the Sportster bikes can certainly help in that regard. People who like to collect motorcycles are only going to want to spend so much money on the process, and the Sportster models can help with that.

 

However, in addition to being less expensive than many of the other motor bike models that are out there, the Sportster models are also more cost-effective. These are very reliable motorcycles. They’re not going to suddenly break down on anyone. People who buy them are usually going to spend a lot less on repairs than they would if they were trying to rely on other motor bike models. In that regard, people are ultimately going to end up saving even more money when they opt for the Sportster models instead of the models from the other product lines.

 

Indeed, expressing a preference for the Sportster models within the Harley Davidson product categories is going to be a thoroughly uncontroversial opinion for anyone to hold, and it is a good stance for beginners to take if they don’t think that they’re going to be able to hold their own in more involved discussions related to Harley Davidson bikes.

 

Conclusion

Harley Davidson motorcycles are more diverse than they initially appear to be, which will be evident to anyone who actually tries analyzing the product category for the first time. There are lots of other bikes even within the main product categories. The different model categories are going to vary in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, and physical parameters. However, there are still going to be preferred model categories emerging from the vast selection of motor bikes. Sportsters take the cake in the Harley Davidson fandom in many ways. Still, people will be able to find their own way in the Harley Davidson motorcycle fandom.