tank bags and big guts

Tank Bags and Big Guts

I may have mentioned this all before, but winter again brings out the social philosopher in me....

I pulled into a small local bike night last summer on the Superduke. I had a tankbag on it. Most of the bikes in the burger joint parking lot were cruisers of various types, "Metrics" and Harleys. And a fine collection of relatively young big belly bikers. One of the rotund Harley boys is staring at my bike...staring at the tank bag like he's never seen one before. He says, 'Don't that get in the way of yer gut?" (He's probably in his mid 30's and already has proudly grown a considerable and well cantilevered gut, as have most of this crowd. I'm twice his age and compared to this crowd, I'm relatively gut free). I tell him that tank bags are real handy, comfortable and don't get in the way. He walks away still muttering about how, "I can't see how it don't get in the way of yer gut". I've been riding on the street since 1964, but I've only ridden sport type bikes and dual purpose bikes. I have never driven a cruiser, and I have never really understood the lazy-boy chair seating position popular with the Harley/cruiser crowd, feet forward, laying back, arms up on apes...but I suddenly get it..Its all about fitting "yer gut" in behind the gas tank somehow..and the "low end torque" type cruisers that run out of steam at 4000 rpm are intended to lug these huge masses around town.

I get it now. Its all about being fat and still being able to ride a bike. Fair enough...and very American...just like American football and baseball, both sports designed for fat guys...a lot of standing around in the mid-summer or Indian summer heat with brief moments of extreme "low end torque" effort...sort of like cruisers at bike night...Now I'm not saying that everyone who drives a cruiser is fat, but I am saying that these types of bikes are Designed (yes, at the factory)for big guts. Others claim the distinction in riding position is similar to the difference between English style horse riding (sport bike) and Western style horse riding (cruiser) styles....perhaps ...but I think its mostly about wedging that big gut in behind the tank...

..now, what does this have to do with the SD?...ahhh...nothing, I guess...although I have noticed some token respect for the SD coming from the Harley guys...when I first bought the SD back in 07 I found myself riding over to a Harley chopper shop on unrelated business...when I came outside, all the guys from the back, the mechanics, etc, were standing around my SD in a circle...and they all seemed real interested...but for some unexplainable reason there weren't a lot of big guts in that crowd.

Hmmm...bike nite...maybe its not the Harleys...or not Just the Harleys...maybe its also the burgers...

You forgot Robin, to mention the fact that most of "those' guy's" have the shortest leg's as well, and let's face it, a twenty three inch inseem will not work to well on a bike like the SD, so many of them can only dream a little dream and will always voice their opinion even though they know that their feet will never touch the ground on a KTM,,,

Hardley guys don't know what to think of the SD. They were probably thinking it looks like some kinda Bat Bike.!?

Love it and dont forget beards get caught in the lockstops of superbikes, which is another reason all the ZZ Top lookalikes ride cruisers and avoid cornering.

Would any other company have the "guts" to name a model "fatboy"!

Good write up!

I can't believe how many of these tractors there are here in Townsville, it must be the Hardley moving capital outside the US.

And as mentioned most of them are ridden by the gut and ZZ top beard lads....
In a way they make sense here as it is low speed straight road most of the time. The funny thing is also that a lot of them ride in T-shirt, shorts and flipflops or whatever you call them.
I wandered in the local tractor shop as they used to also sell KTM and they still had the sign up, me new to town didn't know there is another dealer selling KTM now. All the performance parts they have and are selling then they ride the tractor up and down the strand which is a 3 km beachfront with pool and so. I ask why do you need the performance parts for as it is 40km/h and full of speed bumps????

On the other hand there are heaps of performance IL4 in town too. I had a chat to a few of the riders as I wanted to find out where the twisty roads are and nobody knows. They all had square tyres....

Doesn't look good for my diablo rosso corsas when I get the bike over here. I will be mighty pissed off if the middle bit wears faster then the outside...
From the look of it I might as well put some knobblies on it and take it of road...

That was a clever write up. Poor bastards and their limited naive minds...