Harley's Sport Bike

While working for Avon Tyres, it had put me in contact with some really great people and some interesting situations. Prior to the development of the European Economic Community, the German government had a TUV standard that tires had to pass; today it is the ECE75.  This was because of the high speeds that could be obtained and sustained on the Autobahn. 

In Europe, the motorcycle manufacturers also recommended specific tires for replacement on each model. Therefore, every year the bike and tire manufacturers would get together to test tires. Harley was just starting to sell quite a few more bikes in Europe and at Avon we were having clearance problems with some model tires rubbing on certain model Harleys.

All the tire manufactures made tires in compliance with the ETRTO (European Tire and Rim Technical Organization) which gave the industry some standards for both the tires and the motorcycle manufacturers. However Harley was not going by the rules for the “tire envelope” and parts of the bike were contacting the tires.  Harley had a meeting Milwaukee to discuss this problem. 

So there I was, sitting in this very fancy  meeting room waiting for some of the engineers and the first thing I noticed was that there was a noise coming from the floor above us that sounded like someone was moving boulders around on steel wheeled carts. One of the guys said it was the engine painting department.  He went on to say that the EPA wanted to shut them down but they were “grandfathered in’. I was anticipating someone falling through the ceiling during our upcoming meeting!.

The same guy then says to me, before the meeting started, “What do you ride?”.  I responded “I ride a sportbike’.  At the time I was riding a new Honda CBR600F2 but did not disclose what I owned.  He then responded “Oh, we have a Sportbike!”  

I was familiar with their line of bikes and it was before they owned Buell so I am sitting there running down the list in my mind and not coming up with anything and he adds…..”The Sportster”.           “Oh right” I responded.

One needs sometimes to look back on history because there was a day when the Sportster came out that it was the fastest thing on the street. But times have changed - but the Sportster?  Not too much.

Sportster Then

Sportster Now

Stay tuned for information about "The Britten"!!

And, don't forget, you can know look up your Ventura Motorcycle Dealer on a Map online at www.ventura-mca.com!  Until next time!