Got to race a Harley today.

Steven

Steven

Member
Got to race a Harley today. It was dead even, although I was still in Drive mode. A while back I looked at 0 to 60 times for different bikes and many of the Harley's were about the same as the CTX, I suppose this proves it. I wanted to race him again, but this time in Sport mode, but we were going different directions.

As for which kind of Harley it was, I don't know, they look the same to me, but it wasn't one of the smaller ones and it wasn't one of the big touring models.

I guess the moral of the story is that staying up with a Harley is not a problem. There's not much difference in acceleration.
 
Harley Dividson is in trouble. Sales is down, lots of used on the market & HD is buying Ducati... probably in response to their next expected demographic customers. I can just see the "brain" surfing board room between the Italians from Modena and the HD board red necks. Can you image the HD crew wants to take off the balances to give the Ducatic more shake and break. And of course the need to take off the mufflers so the bike can "save lives".

Good luck Ducati.
 
It was inevitable. Harley had a good run and sold a lot of bikes, the streets are flooded with them, but every generation or so has it's own fads, but you said that. Imagine a 900lb Ducati with a bat wing faring? :)
 
I doubt very much this companionship will last. Ever been to Italy? Schedules for public purposes, timing windows and meetings are all suggestions. The don't believe in waiting on lines and they don't, the just walk up to the front and curses you in Italian. And NO cheese on sea food.
 
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OK is it just me or are you guys going crazy!
We have Steven racing in the streets!
Harley Davidson in trouble and buying Ducati!
And Randy putting cheese on sea food!

Whats going on here? lol
 
HD had a sport bike line, Buell, and they killed that off. They did a bad job with Aermacchi decades ago, I can't see where another Italian sport bike line is going to be a better fit for them now, unless they've had a lot of management/philosophy changes.
 
Michael Moore said:
HD had a sport bike line, Buell, and they killed that off. They did a bad job with Aermacchi decades ago, I can't see where another Italian sport bike line is going to be a better fit for them now, unless they've had a lot of management/philosophy changes.
Click to expand...

That's my point exactly Mike. I don't see how this thing will work right from the very first meetings between the two company. These 2 companies are totally 180 degree apart concerning everything about motorcycles. Just because Harley "bought" Ducati it won't make Ducati second string.
 
Not to nitpick, but I don't think that Harley has bought Ducati as yet, they are just one of several contenders I believe.
 
Yesterday I had highway pegs welded to my crash bars by my neighbor. He had a souped up Harley that looked really old. It looked like it needed a paint job so when I mentioned it, he said it was already painted, so I kept my mouth shut. A little while later I noticed that he had an old pickup truck that looked just like it. Another neighbor told me that the paint was called patina and was meant to make things look old and in the state of rust. Live and learn! BTW, his Harley was a 2002, I thought it was a lot older, so I guess the paint did it's job. He told me that it would run in the high 11's in the quarter, but it wasn't working at the moment. Apparently he souped up the pistons and cams, but it was too much for the transmission.

My other neighbor has a fairly new Harley trike (the top model) and it's been in the shop a couple of times since he got it last year. I don't know if that's typical, but if so, Harley dependability still needs to be addressed. I found this at Consumer reports:

[TABLE="width: 598"]
[TR]
[TH="align: left"]Brand[/TH]
[TH="align: left"]Percent failed[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Yamaha/Star[/TD]
[TD]11%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Suzuki[/TD]
[TD]12[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Honda[/TD]
[TD]12[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kawasaki[/TD]
[TD]15[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Victory[/TD]
[TD]17[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Harley-Davidson[/TD]
[TD]26[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Triumph[/TD]
[TD]29[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ducati[/TD]
[TD]33[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]BMW[/TD]
[TD]40[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Can-Am[/TD]
[TD]42[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Interestingly there was this:

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http://www.latimes.com/business/aut...eports-motorcycle-ratings-20160127-story.html

Curiously, despite these statistical results, the most reliable motorcycles were not the best loved by their owners. Harley-Davidson owners rated their machines second-highest, after the smaller Victory brand, among those who were asked whether they would buy the same motorcycle again.
An impressive 72% of Harley owners said they would, as compared to 70% of Honda owners, 68% of BMW owners, 66% of Ducati owners and 63% of Yamaha owners.
Of major brands, Kawasaki and Suzuki scored lowest, with slightly more than half of owners saying they'd buy the same bikes again.
______________________

 
randy1149 said:
That's my point exactly Mike. I don't see how this thing will work right from the very first meetings between the two company. These 2 companies are totally 180 degree apart concerning everything about motorcycles. Just because Harley "bought" Ducati it won't make Ducati second string.
Click to expand...

It will work if HD keeps it's hands off the Ducati brand and lets them operate as a separate entity. Not doing that is what killed the Buell brand, IMO. In any event, HD has to do something fast because the average age of the HD rider is quite high.
 
DaddyDave - You're absolutely right, I've seen some fast Harley's in my day. I just get a kick out of some people that think they're fast (read next story). The CTX is the slowest bike I've ever owned, so if I beat someone, I'm excited. :)

BTW, my neighbor has a beefed up Harley, which he claims will run in the high 11's.

The most fun race I ever had was when I was 21 years old. I had a Dodge Charger with a 318 engine and I thought I was fast (youthful thinking!). One day a Plymouth Duster with a 340 pulled along side and asked me to race. Of course I said yes. The passenger in the other car dropped his hand and we punched it... I swear I thought my car had died, I had to look at the speedometer to see if I was moving, I got beat that bad. This is a true story. I really enjoyed getting beat that day, it put me in my place. That was back in the day of Mr Norm's Dodge where you could take your Chrysler product to him and he would give you as much HP as you asked for.

Actually I never cared if I won or lost, it was always fun. LOL

As for the CTX/DCT, with the auto it's pretty quick from a green light with no effort, just twist and go. Other bikes can beat me but they have to make an effort each time. Eventually they will get tired of it, well most people will. I have a stick car and cars with auto will beat me almost all of the time unless I'm trying to beat them, so it's kind of the same thing.

The one thing I like about the CTX is that what it lacks in power it makes up in handling and fun factor. Plus it also makes me want to slow down and smell the roses. I'm just as happy riding at 40 mph out in the country and I don't ever feel like I have to be in competition with anyone. Regardless of what I just said about racing, I know how slow the CTX is. The thing is that in day to day riding, a person would never know, it's plenty fast enough for that. I really like the CTX.

I should also mention that I've had faster machines (I already said that) and after a while I got used to them and eventually they felt slow. The scariest machine I ever rode was a 2 stroke 400cc Yamaha. It's not that it was the fastest machine, but it always wanted to wheely. It was always out of control.
 
On the other hand, I've smoked quite a few bigger cruisers off the line and to slightly-above legal speeds. The DCT shifting in milliseconds really helps out when you're dealing with 5-6 second sprints! Even a fast shifting rider takes half a second, and with 2 shifts down, that give the CTX a full second advantage. You can give up quite a bit of HP with that 16-20% pad in time... ;)
 
I'm too old too. Even if I would race someone, I would keep it under 60mph (40 is better lol)... short race... Besides, I figure I can't beat anyone so there's no real point.

I had a few people call the CTX a scooter, but it doesn't hurt my feelings.
 
the last i heard KTM main line china owned 51% of harley stock that,s where all the harley part,s are made that explain,s all the recall,s
 
There is one traffic light in the area that I ride often. From that light that ends a 40MPH stretch you immediately enter a two mile run that has a 55 MPH limit and two great little curves. I have never had a bike beside me, but I have never had a car beat me to the first curve and it always feels great! The link below is to the 0-60 website for motorcycles and cars for great data! They don't have the CTX700 listed, but the do have the NC700 with two times, 4.9 and 5.4. If you look closely it is in the range for our bikes and most Harley's. You can make comparisons to cars you select! https://www.zeroto60times.com/body-style/motorcycle/

Enjoy the ride!
Jimmy H. AKA Spirit 4
 
I posted a score sheet of magazine comparison of the CTX700N, a Kawasaki Vulcan S and a Harley 750 street rod in my photo area. The CTX came in second but check out the scores, we should have won, IMO!

Jimmy H.
AKA Spirit 4
 
Not KTM

ron gerhart said:
the last i heard KTM main line china owned 51% of harley stock that,s where all the harley part,s are made that explain,s all the recall,s
Click to expand...

I think that's one of those internet "facts" making the rounds that sounds good, but has no basis. Google produced the following published filings:

Clipboard01.jpg

The institutions cited above are more than 30% ownership and make up the top of the list -- no mention of KTM anywhere.
:)
 
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