# Don't let fear and common sense stop you



## Ditch (Apr 14, 2011)

Finally got the bike out yesterday. The hilly back roads around here are a really fine ride, got her up to 90 MPH a time or two. It's hard to find a straight stretch of pavement around here, but that makes it more fun.


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## Foxee (Apr 14, 2011)

Ditch you look almost exactly like a guy I used to work with. He could only wish for a bike like that, though. Looks great! I know my little bro gets the bike out at the drop of a hat.


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## Custard (Apr 14, 2011)

That looks awesome and shiny. Back here we have straight road that runs through town, its almost five km long. A couple of my friends race regularly on it.

 P.S you do have a helmet right?


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## garza (Apr 14, 2011)

potato potato potato potato potato

jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous


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## Ditch (Apr 14, 2011)

I do have a helmet, but don't wear it unless I'm going into the city. I figure my days are numbered like the hairs on my head. When it's my time, God will call me home.

I was real busy hooking up two mobile homes to water, sewer and electricity, stretching fence and everything else. The bike was on hold until yesterday. But it gets about 34 miles to the gallon and that's going fast. The faster I go, the better my wife likes it. She rode her horse, the Harley then her horse again yesterday so she had a good day.

Today I'm ordering a wireless doorbell and painting my sign. A lot of people go to the big sand bar just down the road. I'm kicking off River Rat's Tube rental. I'll shuttle them 6 miles upstream and rent them a tube for $15.00. They will wind up back at their car and can ring the bell when they return. I'll give them back the small deposit on the tube. They will have to sign a release of course such as...

I realize that tubing the river can be dangerous. Hazards include, but are not limited to, strong currents, alligators, snakes, powerboats, drunk rednecks, lightning, trot lines, underwater obstructions, flying dragons, aliens, bigfoots, wild animals, whirlpools, parallel universes, black holes, meteorites, comets and other celestial hazards. I release River Rat's Tube Rental from any liability and promise I will not pollute the river.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 14, 2011)

What's a trot line?


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## Foxee (Apr 14, 2011)

Ditch said:


> Hazards include, but are not limited to, strong currents, alligators, snakes, powerboats, drunk rednecks, lightning, trot lines, underwater obstructions, flying dragons, aliens, bigfoots, wild animals, whirlpools, parallel universes, black holes, meteorites, comets and other celestial hazards. I release River Rat's Tube Rental from any liability and promise I will not pollute the river.


 This ought to be on your marketing materials!


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## Ditch (Apr 14, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> What's a trot line?



A long, strong line with drops attached with hooks on them. You bait the hooks with weenies or whatever you want. then tie one end to a tree. You stretch the line out and sink the other end. The next morning you run the line and get your catfish, the girl in the video calls it a "trout line" but it's actually a trot line. look here...YouTube - Blond Girl Trot Lining


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## Ditch (Apr 14, 2011)

Actually, if you stay away from the shore, you won't get snagged by a trot line, or a bigfoot.


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## Gumby (Apr 14, 2011)

Ditch said:


> Actually, if you stay away from the shore, you won't get snagged by a trot line, or a bigfoot.


 
Well yeah...but you still gotta worry 'bout those aliens beamin' you up.

Nice bike.


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## KangTheMad (Apr 14, 2011)

Or black holes spawned by the LHC.

And I agree, that's a nice ride.


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## garza (Apr 14, 2011)

But apparently no one here understands potato potato potato.


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## Ditch (Apr 14, 2011)

That's the sound of a Harley Garza, there is a hilarious audio of that but I can't find it right now.


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## garza (Apr 14, 2011)

Well, you have to qualify a bit. That's the sound of a properly tuned Harley at low idle on a clear cool Spring morning with an endless stretch of open highway waiting for you.


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## InsanityStrickenWriter (Apr 14, 2011)

You should all watch the south park harley bike episode


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## Deleted member 33527 (Apr 14, 2011)

You look like Hulk Hogan! 

Nice bike. I love the color.


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## garza (Apr 14, 2011)

What is south park?


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## JosephB (Apr 14, 2011)

The word "episode" should give you a clue. And if you figured it out -- you can tell us again how you haven't watched TV since 1957.


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## Custard (Apr 15, 2011)

You haven' heard of south park? Its something like a more voilent and funnier version of The Simpsons. definetely something a person should watch for a laugh.


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

That's a big help. 

It's true there were episodes of tv shows in the 50s, so you're saying I'm supposed to assume it's a tv show, but there were also episodes of radio shows and movie seriels and comic strips. Now assuming it's a tv show, what's the premise that would make it an interesting setting for an episode about a Harley-Davidson motorcycle? If I tell you _The Phil Silvers Show_ was a tv series, that dosen't tell you much. But when I tell you _The Phil Silvers Show_ was a comedy series about a scheming platoon sergeant at a backwater army base whose oddball ideas were constantly getting him into trouble, then you would have some useful information. An episode of _The Phil Silvers Show_ involving a Harley-Davidson motorcycle would most likely involve Sergeant Bilko and his platoon using a motorcycle to try and cheat someone but in the end being cheated themselves.  

So what is south park? Assuming, from your comment, that it's a tv series, what kind of series? Police drama like _Dragnet_? Comedy like _The Phil Silvers Show_? Variety like _Your Show of Shows_? Family situation comedy like _The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet_? A western like _The Lone Ranger_? What?


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

Okay, Custard, I'll bite. What's _The Simpsons_? Given the present context I'm assuming it's another tv show, but what kind?


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 15, 2011)

That's like your grandpa asking who Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hope were garza, They are cartoon shows, The Simpsons for all ages, South park, adult.


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## Custard (Apr 15, 2011)

My god.... *puts his hand lightly on his head looking worried*
This is bad, have you ever watched cartoons at all? i dont know but it does seem hard for me to imagine you as a kid. To be said in the simplest words, they are cartoons rather like tom and Jerry. They are a family of stupid people (except their daughter). The combination of a dumb a** dad, voilent brother, intelligent daughter and a very nice mother make it something that is a must watch for any one from any country.


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

Of course I watched cartoons as a kid. They were part of the playbill in the movie theatres. It's probably more than 50 years since I saw one, though. 

Please remember I do not have a tv, have not had a tv for decades since my son was a little kid, and have very little interest in what is on tv. I do remember Tom and Jerry, but I don't remember either the cat or the mouse being especially stupid.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 15, 2011)

garza said:


> That's a big help.
> 
> It's true there were episodes of tv shows in the 50s, so you're saying I'm supposed to assume it's a tv show, but there were also episodes of radio shows and movie seriels and comic strips. Now assuming it's a tv show, what's the premise that would make it an interesting setting for an episode about a Harley-Davidson motorcycle? If I tell you _The Phil Silvers Show_ was a tv series, that dosen't tell you much. But when I tell you _The Phil Silvers Show_ was a comedy series about a scheming platoon sergeant at a backwater army base whose oddball ideas were constantly getting him into trouble, then you would have some useful information. An episode of _The Phil Silvers Show_ involving a Harley-Davidson motorcycle would most likely involve Sergeant Bilko and his platoon using a motorcycle to try and cheat someone but in the end being cheated themselves.
> 
> So what is south park? Assuming, from your comment, that it's a tv series, what kind of series? Police drama like _Dragnet_? Comedy like _The Phil Silvers Show_? Variety like _Your Show of Shows_? Family situation comedy like _The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet_? A western like _The Lone Ranger_? What?


 
'I got you on a 412 too, Mississippiman.'

*'A 412? What's a 412?'*

'Over-acting. Come on, let's go.'


apologies to Stan Freberg.


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## JosephB (Apr 15, 2011)

garza said:


> So what is south park?



Well, Garza, you're the reporter. If you saw the word "episode" and given this is 2011 and we're likely not talking about radio shows or movie serials -- you might come to the conclusion that it' a TV show. 

Given that you don't watch TV, the next thing you could do is tap into the power of the internet and do a Google search.  If I have the feeling that 95% of the world knows something that I don't -- that's usually what I do.

Or perhaps you're like my mom, who wears her ignorance of lowly pop-culture like a badge of honor -- especially if it has to do with "the idiot box." She never misses an opportunity to tell people that she doesn't know anything about it.


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## Ditch (Apr 15, 2011)

Well I found it, anyone who has ever wrapped the throttle back to the stops on a sport bike will appreciate what a good job this guy does, turn up the speakers...

YouTube - Harley Vs. Honda


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## Custard (Apr 15, 2011)

well, you really should try and search the internet it is very helpful to get a laugh nad true laughs these days are more perecious than gold. ( at least to me )


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## Baron (Apr 15, 2011)

JosephB said:


> The word "episode" should give you a clue. And if you figured it out -- you can tell us again how you haven't watched TV since 1957.


 
"The Archers" has been running as a series on BBC Radio 4 since the days of steam radio and most women's magazines still publish serials so it's not unreasonable not to automatically associate the word "episode" with t.v.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Apr 15, 2011)

Just saw the picture on the OP... Was that Sean Connery? Oh, wait, that could just be Hollywood Hogan. XD


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## JosephB (Apr 15, 2011)

Baron said:


> "The Archers" has been running as a series on BBC Radio 4 since the days of steam radio and most women's magazines still publish serials so it's not unreasonable not to automatically associate the word "episode" with t.v.



Not altogether unreasonable, I suppose -- even though Garza is neither British or a women -- at least I don't think he is.


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

I google for whatever I feel is important enough. 

Okay. Yes. I admit it. I believe U-S popular culture is boring, tasteless, useless, brainless, and any other -less descriptive adjective you wish to use. The downhill slide began shortly after the advent of tv. Early television programmes were written and directed by veterans of radio and vaudeville. There were comedy shows that were genuinely funny. Dramatic programmes starred real actors, often top quality actors from the stage and from the movies. By the mid-fifties the medium had been taken over by the schlockmeisters, the purveyors of stupidness, Around the time I went away to university in the Autumn of '56 the trend was clearly downward. I never made a conscious decision not to watch television, the medium simply has not appealed to me since the novelty of it wore off in the 50s. Why should I spend money to buy something in which I have no interest? 

The world is a big, busy, constantly changing, interesting place. Why not watch the real thing?

As for the word 'episode', for a couple of years around 2002, 2003, I wrote and produced a series of radio commercials for a local sponsor. Each of the commercials - there were five a week - was called an 'episode'. Each week was a 'chapter' with a specific theme, so there were five 'episodes' in each 'chapter'. I'm sorry for being so ignorant that tv, which I don't have and which I rarely ever see, does not pop instantly to my mind when I see the word 'episode', which I associate with radio and with movie cliffhanger shorts which were popular when I was a kid.

Edit - When I was a kid all the popular dramatic and comedic radio programmes were in 'episodes'. From the mid-40s through the early 50s I had my favourite radio programmes and I listened to every week's 'episode'. 

The world was not invented yesterday.


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## Writ-with-Hand (Apr 15, 2011)

JosephB said:


> Not altogether unreasonable, I suppose -- even though Garza is neither British or a women -- at least I don't think he is.



Close. He's a Scottish hermaphrodite.


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## Writ-with-Hand (Apr 15, 2011)

garza said:


> I google for whatever I feel is important enough.
> 
> Okay. Yes. I admit it. I believe U-S popular culture is boring, tasteless, useless, brainless, and any other -less descriptive adjective you wish to use. The downhill slide began shortly after the advent of tv. Early television programmes were written and directed by veterans of radio and vaudeville. There were comedy shows that were genuinely funny.



[spoken in his best smoked out hippies voice] You're old man! Wake up to the 21st century Dude!


How can you not like _Shameless, _garza?


[video=youtube;JQAUuqcrbXE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQAUuqcrbXE[/video]

[video=youtube;AjmEEj0hT2g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjmEEj0hT2g&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SL[/video]


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

I'm sorry. I don't find drunks and dysfunctional families funny. I've written quite a bit on those subjects, and in order to write about them I've had to interview, investigate, get to know, live amongst, and try to understand them and the root causes of substance abuse and familial disintegration. I've known too many drunks and crack-heads who started out as intelligent people who never intended becoming addicted to anything. I've known too many families with bright youngsters - youngsters who never had a chance because the parents were like that man in the first clip. That's not funny. That's sad. If this is U-S tv today it's worse than I thought. This is beyond stupid and boring. It's evil.


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## InsanityStrickenWriter (Apr 15, 2011)

InsanityStrickenWriter said:


> You should all watch the south park harley bike episode



Don't get me wrong, I probably should have clarified, but note how I used the word _watch_. I suppose you could watch a radio, but nothing much would happen.


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

InsanityStrickenWriter - Oh, but you are wrong. I remember sitting and staring at the radio, listening to my favourite programmes, and never seeing the radio. The actors were all on stage in the 'theatre of the mind', as radio promoters billed it. The exception was Lux Radio Theatre, which came on the same time as my bed time. Thus I had to lie with one ear close to the speaker of my little bedside radio with covers pulled over my head and my eyes closed.


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## Custard (Apr 15, 2011)

This is one reason I love anime so much. They make me laugh without making fun of anything controversial, absouletely lovely.


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## JosephB (Apr 15, 2011)

garza said:


> I google for whatever I feel is important enough.



It's much easier to ask the question and have someone else do the work for you. I can see that.



garza said:


> Okay. Yes. I admit it. I believe U-S popular culture is boring, tasteless, useless, brainless, and any other -less descriptive adjective you wish to use.



Throughout the history of entertainment, a large portion of what is produced isn't very good and a great deal of it is just plain awful. We really don't know about all the crap plays that were produced in Shakespeare's day. The vast majority of Hollywood movies made in the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood weren't noteworthy -- and they cranked out a lot of garbage. The movies we watch and talk about today are the exceptions. The same for the Golden Age of Televison. For every _Playhouse 90 _and _You're Show of Shows_, there were scores of mediocre-to-bad TV shows. The same with radio, for that matter. Lots of garbage there too. People only remember the good programming. You're just looking back at  it through a haze of nostalgia.

It's no different today. There are good programs and bad ones -- and some awful ones too. But today, maybe more than ever, there are a decent number outstanding TV shows. This is especially true of the shows available on HBO and Showtime. And because of the popularity of these few quality shows, the networks have made an attempt to follow suit. So actually, there's quite a bit of good TV these days. Of course you wouldn't know anything about it, because you don't have access to it and you've never seen the shows. To you, it's all garbage -- based on a lot of guesswork and vague impressions. You really have no idea at all what's out there today -- but I can see that's not going to stop you from offering an opinion.


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## Candra H (Apr 15, 2011)

Ditch, nice bike. And I'm guessing you had a world of fun on those back roads.


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## JosephB (Apr 15, 2011)

Yeah -- that's an awesome bike, Ditch. I'm not the most coordinated person in the world -- and a little slow to react. Let's just say, based on past experience, motorcycles and I don't get along. But if I had a bike, I'd want it to look like that one.


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## Candra H (Apr 15, 2011)

JosephB said:


> Yeah -- that's an awesome bike, Ditch. I'm not the most coordinated person in the world -- and a little slow to react. Let's just say, based on past experience, motorcycles and I don't get along. But if I had a bike, I'd want it to look like that one.


 
Me too. I'm not a fan of riding bikes personally, preferring four wheels and the stability they give, but I like a good looking machine regardless of type.

What past experience, Mr B? Were you playing on things you shouldn't have been?


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

Stability is no fun. 

As for tv, every time someone wants to show me something that's supposed to show the good side of U-S tv it's like the clip above.


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## Deleted member 33527 (Apr 15, 2011)

My brother has a Yamaha R1. When he first bought it, he sold it after a couple of months so he could get a car, then realized that was a huge mistake and rebought it. Then he sold it again when my parents convinced him it was too dangerous. A few months later he went back to the dealer and rebought it. Surprising that they still had it. Now his fiance is trying to convince him to sell it.


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## JosephB (Apr 15, 2011)

garza said:


> Stability is no fun. As for tv, every time someone wants to show me something that's supposed to show the good side of U-S tv it's like the clip above.



Well, it doesn't really surprise me that you'd judge all the current U.S. TV programming based on a few 3 minute clips either.


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

Oh, what difference does it make? Even if tv were filled with high quality, well researched documentaries, serious well-performed drama, and genuinely funny comedy well-produced with talented writers and comedians, it would probably only account for two or three hours of a person's time a week. Television is not that important. There's too much real world out there to waste much time watching tv.

Look how far we are from the OP, all because I said potato potato potato potato potato...

Edit - I just thought of a sign I saw in a radio station more than 50 years ago. It said, and I quote, 'YCDBSOYAWTV-BBR'. It means 'You can't do business sitting on your aha watching tv. Better buy radio.


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## JosephB (Apr 15, 2011)

garza said:


> Oh, what difference does it make? Even if tv were filled with high quality, well researched documentaries, serious well-performed drama, and genuinely funny comedy well-produced with talented writers and comedians, it would probably only account for two or three hours of a person's time a week. Television is not that important. There's too much real world out there to waste much time watching tv.
> 
> Look how far we are from the OP, all because I said potato potato potato potato potato...
> 
> Edit - I just thought of a sign I saw in a radio station more than 50 years ago. It said, and I quote, 'YCDBSOYAWTV-BBR'. It means 'You can't do business sitting on your aha watching tv. Better buy radio.



I never said TV was "important." Currently, we only watch one program with any regularity. There are a few others we like, but we watch them on DVD when time permits -- which isn't often. So I don't "waste" any time watching T.V. And you're right, even if it was all wonderful, I still wouldn't have any more time to watch it.

So sure -- it doesn't make any difference. I guess it just surprises me that as a reporter, you don't seem to have a problem with judging something about which you have virtually no knowledge and that you never watch.


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## garza (Apr 15, 2011)

Whenever I'm in a hotel room, maybe one or two nights a month, I spend a little time going through the channels - the U-S networks, CNN, BBC, Univision. Five minutes of a U-S sitcom or a Mexican novela is usually enough to induce glazed-eyed boredom. Some Mexican comedy is very good. It has a higher energy level and the dialogue is better written than U-S comedic shows. So I'm not entirely cut off from tv. When you mention current programmes by name, though, I have to admit I'm lost. I've maybe seen bits and pieces of them in a hotel without knowing the names.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 16, 2011)

garza said:


> Thus I had to lie with one ear close to the speaker


 
Would that have been a field coil or a permanent magnet?


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## Blood (Apr 16, 2011)

Ditch, do you talk like Sam Elliott?


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 16, 2011)

As one of the ladies said it is a lovely colour and very shiny, but careful riding it too much, you will get nephritis in your fingers from all the vibration from that old fashioned engine, and they are so slow compared to modern bikes and take so long to stop. I have had 90 going down Acre Lane in the middle of Brixton on a Kawasaki, even my staid old Honda 650 courier bike, with the shaft drive, did 120 on an out of town road. Try stepping up to a 'Fireblade' Ditch and get the real experience.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 16, 2011)

Olly Buckle said:


> my staid old Honda 650 courier bike, with the shaft drive, did 120 on an out of town road.


Here's me being naïve again. "Shaft drive" sounds to me like it needs some form of geared arrangement between the drive and the axle. How does that work? It doesn't seem possible. The shaft would be turning at 90° to the axle.


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## garza (Apr 16, 2011)

xO - Shaft drive on a motorcycle works the same way as a chainless bicycle, which is where the idea originated in the 1890's. It uses four beveled gears. One at each end of the shaft, one on the output of the transmission, and one on the rear axle. 

As for the speaker in the radio, it was a permanent magnet in the little bedside radio. Our big parlour radio used a speaker with a field coil, which served as the filter choke for the power supply. That was a late '30s model that tuned from the broadcast band out to 18 mHz. Of course we called it 'megacycles' in those days. It was on that floor-standing parlour radio with about 20 feet of wire strung through the attic for an antenna that I first heard BBC World Service and Radio Moscow.  

Olly - Only a Harley gives you the real experience. You can't see them in the picture, but the starboard twin pipes give you exactly the correct sound.


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## Ditch (Apr 16, 2011)

Ditch, do you talk like Sam Elliott?

Exactly, or I should say that he talks like me. I've even had people tell me that.

As one of the ladies said it is a lovely colour and very shiny, but  careful riding it too much, you will get nephritis in your fingers from  all the vibration from that old fashioned engine, and they are so slow  compared to modern bikes and take so long to stop. I have had 90 going  down Acre Lane in the middle of Brixton on a Kawasaki, even my staid old  Honda 650 courier bike, with the shaft drive, did 120 on an out of town  road. Try stepping up to a 'Fireblade' Ditch and get the real  experience. 						

Slow is a relative term, it'll do 124 which is fast enough for me. That "old fashioned engine" is what makes Harley Davidson so popular. All other manufacturers now have copycat versions of cruisers, but they are laughable. There are still 100 year old Harleys that are running, most Hondas and Kawasakis are recycled into plastic toaster ovens after 6 or so years. When was the last time you saw a 50 year old Honda that was running? 

That old fashioned engine has 88 cubic inches of pure torque, the power band between 3,000 and 5,000 rpm is strong as a mule. I have Vance and Hines exhaust, the carbuerator is jetted with a larger jet and the K&N filter gives a lot more air. I've ridden faster bikes but wouldn't trade the Harley in for a dozen of them, to me it is the only "real experience" all of the others are just copycats now. The horsepower/speed race has been put to sleep with the Suzuki Hyabusa, but I don't feel the need to do 180 mph, I'm real content doing 80 and the Harley rides like it's on rails at that speed.

I was passing an 18 wheeler doing about 70 once when a 2X4 came loose from underneath it. It slid in front of me and that 650 pound bike pinned it to the highway, stopped it in it's tracks and I went right over it. Had I been on a Japanese bike, I probably wouldn't be sitting here today as there were cars right behind me.


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 16, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> Here's me being naïve again. "Shaft drive" sounds to me like it needs some form of geared arrangement between the drive and the axle. How does that work? It doesn't seem possible. The shaft would be turning at 90° to the axle.


 
Exactly as garza says, the downside is the transmission is not nearly as efficient as a chain, the upside is that it needs far less maintenance, which is a big thing if you are clocking up a couple of hundred miles a day as a courier. Chains need continuous oiling and then pick up all the road dirt which wears them out, having a chain break at the wrong moment can be a very nasty experience, I know some one who lost a big chunk of calf muscle to a broken chain. The best answer I came across was a Scott Oiler. That delivers a continuous drip of oil to the chain when the bike is running, powered by the vacuum from the carburettor, and keeps the chain oiled and clean, but they still stretch and need regular adjustment.

Hey Ditch, I am only kidding, each to his own, I know people who are devoted to their Harleys, and I know people who are just as devoted to their Hondas. I actually think that the best bike I ever owned was a Honda 70, a little blue and white step through with a full screen and leg shields, and a top speed of about 45mph. But it was as smooth as silk, good in any weather, trouble free and for a while I did about 25K a year around London and got about 150 miles per gallon out of it. When you earn a living with a bike that's hard to beat, oh, and a back tyre lasted forever and cost about £15.


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## Ditch (Apr 17, 2011)

Harleys use a belt drive now, it is a kevlar composite and very durable. I had a Yamaha Maxim inline 4 cylinder 650 that was a nice bike.


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