I'm all in favour of that, and have reached an age that a cruiser style bike is starting to appeal. Yet Harley have changed so little that they haven't had the

I'm all in favour of that, and have reached an age that a cruiser style bike is starting to appeal. Yet Harley have changed so little that they haven't had the benefits of handling and reliability all the other manufacturers have. Riding a new one is like teleporting back to my youth. Mostly for the wrong reasons. I test rode one a few years ago and it quickly told me I'll never have a Harley. To explain, the Triumph Bobber looks beautifully like an old hard tail. Like all the Triumph classics it handles and runs like a decent modern bike. It's got cartridge forks, Brembos, ABS, traction control and the reliable twin engine. There's way more ground clearance than I'm ever likely to run out of. Harleys finally actually go around corners, but still pretty reluctantly. Still way too easy to ground without trying. They'll pair the big engine with a miniscule tank for range around 100m, sometimes down near 50! They're hot, heavy, and slow, you get OK but uninspiring handling with simple suspension, but the single disc up front never felt enough thanks to all that weight. Then they charge more than just about everyone else, but still have a reputation for being unreliable. That leaves just the big V twin sound and looks to buy for. The Bobber is everything Harley could be doing, yet costs lots less than most Harleys. They have more than enough reputation, and they have more than enough decent looking bikes in their history to remake as modern classics.