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/RoiVampire 1d ago

Back in their day Harley meant big and bad. Nobody rode Harley’s unless they were a fucking badass. Then in the early 90s Harley started making shirts and jackets way way more. It became a different kind of thing and Boomers never caught on. My father in law still doesn’t believe that you can buy Harley merch at Target and he refuses to shop there because god knows why.

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u/CyanShadow42 1d ago

I have it on good authority (my dad) that nerds also rode them back in the day. Since he had one back when they were actually competitive on tech and price.

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u/Socialbutterfinger 1d ago

Helping my MIL downsize and she was certain a Harley coffee table book was very valuable because, “anything Harley is very popular.” It doesn’t quite carry without the particular brisk, authoritative tone of certainly she uses, but still.

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u/SketchSketchy 1d ago

I helped my in laws sell off a lot of motorcycle accessories. The only stuff that sold was the Harley branded stuff. It didn’t sell for as much as they thought it would, but the non Harley stuff didn’t sell at all. N

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u/BoomerishGenX 1d ago

Kinda like tattoos and beards.