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Posts Tagged ‘harley’

Rocket Captain’s log, star date 0621101145:

I’m on my way to meet a friend for lunch when a mini-van towing a small trailer pulls out of a parking lot to my right and swings straight across three lanes to miss side-swiping me by about 6 inches. He missed me only because I saw him coming and grabbed a handful of front brake and nearly locked up the back while swerving so far to the left I was practically rubbing the curb.

As I’m straightening my bike up and laying on the little fairy horn the Triumph factory included on the largest proprietary production bike on the planet, a dude on a Harley Davidson blows by me with the sound of canon fire belching from his tailpipes and settles in along the mini-van’s passenger side. The biker is doing the one-finger salute with both hands in perfectly choreographed alternation as he manages to keep one hand or the other on the bars – most of the time.

I can’t see the driver of the mini-van due to the black-tinted rear window but he obviously must have responded in an unapologetic manner, because the biker stands up on his right peg and begins kicking with his left foot at the passenger door of the cager with violent enthusiasm. He never makes contact, but the sheer ferocity of his attempts makes me wonder whether the door will dent anyway from pure intimidation.

Harley Dude to the Rescue

The van swerves off to the left and Harley dude veers to the right to speed off into the unknown, looking back momentarily to flash me a thumbs-up and a grin as his big v-twin thumps away, anger evidently sated with knowing he just scared a meal or two out of the mini-van operator.

Thanks for having my back, Bro, I appreciate you giving the guy a wake-up call for motorcyclists in general.

This doesn’t mean you’re going to show up telling me I have to prospect for your club now, does it?

About an hour’s drive from Beirut, over two-hundred Harley Davidson riders checked into the InterContinental Mzaar Lebanon Mountain Resort and Spa recently. They were gathered for a motorcycle rally and tour sponsored by the local H.O.G. (Harley-Davidson Owner’s Group) chapter.
Yes, I said “Lebanon”, and yes, I also said, “About an hour’s drive from Beirut…”.

It is apparent that the fraternal order of Harley Davidson fans and the successful marketing machine of the marque reaches even the most unlikely places. I presume Lebanon has regained some of it’s old glory as a hot vacation destination for Europeans; I just didn’t realize it would extend to the biker crowd so soon…even the European biker crowd.

I also may be making a wrong assumption that these are vacationers for the most part. Perhaps most of them are native Harley owners. If that’s the case, even more kudos are due the solid American motorcycle brand for some incredible outreach. The investment of time and attention by Harley Davidson for it’s owner’s groups is highly commendable.

One of the things that I had looked forward to after purchasing a Triumph motorcycle back in July was admission into rather cool sounding R.A.T. (Rider’s Association of Triumph). Alas, after several weeks of trying to get into the R.A.T. website and getting a standard reply of “it must be your browser” from whoever Triumph has outsourced their IT business too, I have given up on ever uncovering the benefits of being a R.A.T. member. From what I see in forums and just by eavesdropping on conversations at bike shops, Harley-Davidson pours a lot of effort and funding into making sure the H.O.G. chapters across the globe are active, vibrant, and have plenty of cool things going on year-round. Triumph apparently just touts R.A.T. membership to new owners as a means of collecting email addresses for future spam opportunities.

It isn’t surprising that there are a bunch of Harley riders blazing trails through the beautiful mountains and seaside roads of Lebanon.

Now I’m wondering what the H.O.G. chapter in Baghdad, Iraq is up to this week?

My brother Mike sent this today…and it’s nearly the perfect joke since it includes subjects like the left wing media, motorcycling, military service, and the biker attitude of “taking care of business”. The only thing missing is something about the second amendment! So, without further adieu (or credit to the unknown author):

A Harley biker is riding by the zoo in Washington , DC when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter addressing the Harley rider says, ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I’ve seen a man do in my whole life.’

The Harley rider replies, ‘Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right.’

The reporter says, ‘Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page… So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?’

The biker replies, ‘I’m a U.S. Marine and a Republican.’ The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

“U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH”