r/BoomersBeingFools • u/CyanShadow42 • 1d ago

What is it with boomers and Harleys?

Some background: I am a lifelong motorcyclist, who likes to do lots of different kinds of riding, so I have a few different bikes. I'm also a bad influence and people who spend much time around me usually end up riding too, so my wife now rides and has a bike of her own. Between us we've got 5 bikes in the garage, all different types, and none of them Harleys because all of them together don't add up to the price of a new Harley and if I wanted that kind of bike I'd rather buy a Royal Enfield for all the 1940's tech without the $25,000 sticker on the gas tank.

The other day my MIL, the boomiest baby boomer to ever boom, upon seeing our garage, comments that she's "never seen so many motorcycles" with disgust almost dripping from the words. I point out that in her own neighborhood, I've seen a few garages with several Harleys that look almost identical except for color and a few accessories and suddenly having multiple bikes seems okay in her mind. I wish that was the only case of boomers being like "motorcycles bad but Harleys good" I've experienced, but it's just one of the more obvious and recent instances. Make it make sense please.

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u/TheRealSatanicPanic 1d ago

Harley is a boomer brand, like Jack Daniel’s and Gibson guitars. It’s a symbol of their youth. I think you’d need a time machine to know exactly why, it must have been in some movie. 

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u/Madrugada2010 Gen X 1d ago

Was it Easy Rider? But those weren't Harleys, were they?

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u/KombuchaBot 1d ago

I think Harley Davidson made some rather savvy moves during and after WW2 by supplying bikes to servicemen and after the war helping to build social groups of bike enthusiasts. This contributed to their social capital

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u/Madrugada2010 Gen X 1d ago

Ooooh, this would explain it, some post-war PR campaign gets them very time.

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u/TheRealSatanicPanic 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don’t think they were but it’s been a long time since I saw that movie. Maybe it’s all the neon signs in dive bars. Who knows 

Edit- ah I stand corrected 

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u/weemachine 1d ago

They were Harleys that were modified.