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Honda.

Owned two street cruiser bikes and NEVER had any problems what-so-ever with them...ran out of gas once, if you can consider that a problem.

Aside from the reliability issues between them, the price is a lot more affordable with Japanese bikes and what you get for your hard earned money...reliability and quality craftsmanship.

Harley is nice to have "luxury" item for ordinary working stiffs.

Why pay the outrageous price for a Harley when for the same amount of money, you can buy 2 or 3 of the Japanese bikes?

Besides, "buy American" crap don't fly with me.

Hondas are made in America by American workers, just as Harley's are...my Honda VTX 1300R was made and assembled in Ohio, USA by American workers.

I won't buy any crap just because it's "made in America", I buy quality, reliability and craftsmanship for the lowest price...Harley don't fit that category.

Japanese hands down. I personally think you get a lot more out of your money with a Honda than with a Harley. "It's MADE IN AMERICA!!!! - blah blah blah". A Honda is made in America just as a Harley is by American workers, plus ten times the reliability a Harley will ever have. Come on people, why go pay $20k for a bike? Harley's are great bikes, but overpriced as heck. But hey, keep buying them so you can say "I've got an American bike, OH, BOY, how fun!! "Look at that Harley badge shine!!" Oh boy, let's go buy a piece of trash Polaris ATV because it's "American". The Japanese make the best powersports, always have, and always will. We might as well accept it.

I gotta say I really love Harley Davidson BRAKES.

And I've had three other bikes (British) that had failures in the braking system.

So I'm a tad sensitive to braking problems.

And MY Yamaha would do odd things with the brake if I forgot I was working on a rod actuated rear drum and adjusted the chain (bad, evil, nasty things). None of my other bikes had this "feature".

And that Yamaha (I loved it, really I did.) would stop shining it's headlight at odd intervals.

I really found that annoying. Especially when4n going onto the interstate with a truck behind me on a dark and rainy night (no it's not a short ~ well not a "typical short" ~ 650 specials are well known to loosen spontaneously their "reserve lighting switch's wiring harness" ~ they unplug themselves... Yamaha made these bikes from 1968-1984 or so and all of them do it I'm told, so wrap the connection tight and liberally coat it with electrical compounds from every society of geeks you can find if you have one, cause they are good bikes...).

Then there is the generator problem I had on that same Yamaha, that nearly got me fired when I was late for work because it needed a cleaning. No, it wasn't worn out, it didn't need new brushes, it just needed a cleaning...

THEN IT WORKED FINE. FOR YEARS.

This I found endearing.

But my Harley never did that. It did eat batteries. Sometimes it wouldn't start. I'd have to call a cab.

That doesn't get you fired.

Being stuck besides the road can.

The Harley regularly ATE headlamps, but only one filament at a time and it would accept standard automotive parts there so these were easy to get. So I never ran blind hundreds of yards in the dark on a twisty road in the rain, with moose all about.

Yes, in Maine people hit moose, two of my friends did.

And one of them was driving a Harley. HE walked away limping. But he got over it.

The other guy... HE was driven away in an ambulance. He still walks with a limp.

I think it's the speeds that did it. People who ride Japanese bikes tend to go faster (take it from me Jeff would have been going 20 miles per hour faster on his Yamaha, and he didn't SEE the moose before he'd practically run into it, so "superior handling and brakes" ~ not so important... maybe

(I was on the Yamaha, I literally put the bike sideways and just missed it.)

Yes, I loved that bike.

And I still resent what the fanatical Brother in Law did to it, after lying to me to steal it for $350 or so.

I was however riding that bike so long because the Harley ate a bearing. (I rode the poor thing into the ground first...).

Harley brakes though, really, really good stuff. High effort not to grabby. REAL WORLD COMPATIBLE.

Both, but I tend to like the stuff nobody wants. I owned a 2005 Sportster 1200 for a year. Nice paint, fit and finish, real steel, etc. But I was totally frustrated by its low performance and lack of anything one might refer to as "cornering clearance". Surprisingly good handling and brakes, though. Bottom line, H-D can call them baggers, factory customs, whatever: They only build one type of bike: Cruisers. Not for me.
I own 4 Buells. Fantastic bikes! Spec sheets mean nothing: They are the most fun you can have on two wheels, on the street, or on the track.
Were I to buy another H-D, it would be a 2005-2006 V-Rod Street Rod. Standard riding position--no forward-mounted controls--and one of the best motors in the M/C world (thank you for your help, Porsche!). If I were wealthy, I'd find one, and have the motor grafted into a more sporting package. Numerous companies have done this, but I don't have $30-60,000 to invest in one bike.

The Japanese bikes are great performers, reliable, fun to ride, and just totally "me too". I just can't see spending $10-15,000 to have a bike that everybody and his younger brother also owns. And i just don't see the point in buying a "metric cruiser": Would a Japanese person buy a Samurai sword made in the U.S.? It just seems bass ackward to me.

Apart from the Buells, I also have a BMW K75S with turbo, and a 1981 Honda CB750F (owned snce new) that is far from stock, and nicer than what Honda originally built.

I am not a cruiser person but I appreciate them for their good points--easy to ride, low center of gravity, a little extra comfort. I've ridden both Japanese cruisers (Honda Shadow and Magna) and Harleys (well, -one- Harley).

The Harley was definitely the nicer bike, but then it was a lot bigger than the Hondas. I'd like to compare it to a big touring V-Star or Vulcan or Shadow. And the Harley was just so danged EXPENSIVE!

The Harley has more chrome, prettier lines, etc. It really looks like no expense was spared. But the Japanese bikes are just a better deal for the money. And I would bet that the Japanese bikes would be more reliable and long-lived.

I don't have as much respect for the Harley Sportster. It's one of those bikes that's neither this nor that. It's not a cruiser and it's not a sportbike, it seems to be a 'standard' with cruiser styling. I see a lot of late-model used ones for sale seemingly very cheap. And I wonder whether people hate them and can't wait to get rid of them, or they love them so much they want to move up to a Dyna or Softail.

apples and oranges really.

round town, show off a ricer, become a blur. show off a hd, 3rd gear 20 mph and hit it.

touring, the ricers are likely to b smoother.

but i still perfer hd.

i can tow my car around the block. show me a ricer that can do that.

73 xlch. 12:1. sifton. 38mm. shorty drags. dead throttle. right hand shift.

Japanese Sport bikes. Love the lightness, speed, agility, sound of them.

harley /american

If Harley made a V Max I'd buy one.
They don't.
I bought one from the only people who did.
Yamaha.

Someday, I will buy a Softail Custom.
When I do, I'll buy it from the only people who make one.
Harley-Davidson.

I buy what I like and don't care where its made.

Harley has a feel of being substantial. Everywhere you touch it it feels solid and heavy.
Yet it rides very balanced and nimble for such a big machine.
Its never going to catch a Ninja on a curvy road, it wasn't meant to.
From initial fire up through it's lumpy idle and big everything it has an appeal all its own.
No other way to say it, It just feels Bad Assed.

I love my V Max. It's as bad assed as the Harley and hauls the freight on the express track besides.
You don't have to know anything about bikes to know what its about just by looking at it.
For once the advertising fits the product. It has all the flavor of an American muscle car delivered by way of Hamatsu, Japan.I may never catch that Ninja on a mountain pass either, but between stop lights on the street, he's mine.

I'd stick with the Japanese bikes because they are cheaper, more reliable, and have by far better performance than any Harley-Davidson. Harley's are being produced in Zongshen China and they still charge their sucker customers around $20k for a motorcycle. I don't know about you, but I'm not paying $20k for a Made in China motorcycle.