Heavy motorcycles, BMW or Harley? Options

[Talia Invierno]

You know the routine :D

[Hot Wheels]

I like police bikes ,but that's not necessarily game related.

[Sepherim]

Vector Vs Sports Edition, from one of the Supplemental's vehicle specials. :D

[Bölverk]

The Scorpion. It's one of the most common bikes on the road, and it's a lot less likely to be a theft target than the Blitzen.

[John Campbell]

What, the Honda Viking doesn't even get a poll option?

My Nordic dwarf sorcerer was recently in the market for a bike... I really wanted to get a Viking, just for the name. I couldn't convince myself that it was worth paying the extra 7,000Y for a bike that had slightly better handling, worse acceleration, worse sig, and worse load than the Scorpion, and had been pre-tweaked just to get that performance, though.

The Electroglide is a really nice bike, but I'm not sure it's 70kY worth of nice. It's certainly not 70kY worth of nice on my current budget. And it has a stupid name.

I waffled between the Blitzen and the Scorpion for a while... finally went with the Scorpion (actually a Nissan Khan... our rigger's day job is at a Chrysler-Nissan dealership, so we've got connections there) just because it's cheap. I probably would've gone the other way if I were looking for a bike for actual combat driving, but I just wanted decent transportation.

[Snow_Fox]

HD- in 2063 they will have 163 years of quality bikes.

[snowRaven]

The Harley-Davidson Wolverine (Gaz-Niki White Eagle variant) - maybe not quite as heavy as the mentioned three, but excellent handling, not a speed-monster, and good milage coupled with a sizeable tank. Plus the name rules!

Of course, it still needs some custom work... :grinbig:

[Talia Invierno]

Oops. I hadn't been thinking of the Honda Viking in that context. Had I started a "medium" bikes thread it would have been on it, but as was already pointed out it's almost completely an arbitrary choice. (I'm going roughly by BD and to some small extent CF - and thus amount of BD that can be added.)

I could wish some of the versatility of the White Eagle had been built into some of the other designs. Ah well, they say you aren't really a rigger unless the machine has none of its original parts.

I'm also wondering how much the choices made here are the result of brand-name loyalty. Until I was reading the comments in the other thread, it wouldn't have occurred to me to include the Scorpion at all in this poll - it just doesn't come across to me as that good of a bike based on what you pay. Handling and range might be highest on my list - explaining the choice of the Electroglide - signature next, speed need to be high but comes close to last.

Truth be known, I haven't really heard very many good things about the currently existing Harley-Davidsons - and maybe heard all too much about their propensity to leak oil (don't know how true that is). I wonder (never having been on a Harley myself): how much of the HD reputation is purely as a result of either great bikes in the past and/or its legend?

[Cochise]

But the Blitzen should be in the "medium" league as well ... It's more or less a Yamaha Rapier with an increased payload

[John Campbell]

I was just going by the chassis type. I figured Chopper = Heavy motorcycle, Racing = Light motorcycle. And in the Viking's case, I think anything that comes troll-modified by default has to qualify as "heavy". Also, I imagine that it's the successor to the current Valkyrie, which is a pretty sizable bike.

As far as the Scorpion's appeal... it's a cheap bike that doesn't outright suck like the Scoot and the Papoose, it's got a decent amount of space and load available to provide room to grow, and it's a chopper rather than a crotchrocket. That last is an important stylistic concern... I can see my PC riding a chopper, but I can't see him on a crotchrocket. For some characters, it'd be the other way around, but Sven is Sven. And, yeah, the Blitzen kicks the Scorpion's butt in pretty much every category, but it also costs twice as much... and while 13kY may not mean much to an A Resources sammy or decker or rigger, it's a pretty hefty chunk of change for a D Resources mage.

And as to brand loyalty... only insofar as it tells me what kind of image the bike projects. And I was a bit biased towards bikes that had a Nissan skin this time, but that's special circumstances...

[Lilt]

I'd go for the Harley Davidson Diablo. It is one of the similar models to the BMW Blitzen (the bike with arguably the best stats) and it's a Harley Davidson (meaning it is cooler).

Also: A dwarf driving the HD Viking? LOL. The Viking is an Adjusted Controls (troll) bike... :rotfl:

[Solidcobra]

then you adjust the controls to dwarf instead! OMG! TEH EXTRA MONEY PAID!!! NOOOO!!!!!!! *runs from paying 1000 :nuyen: extra*

[John Campbell]

[Lilt]

[snowRaven]

One thing about Harley's (today - or rather, ten-fifteen or so years ago...I am not up to date) is that they are more or less meant to be tinkered with. No one I know has had an unfixable problem with leaking oil (although I recall it does occur). But as with alot of famous brand names, you end up paying extra money for the name, without getting any actual quality for those money.

Many of the older models are built primarily to be used as choppers; for moderate-speed highway crusing. I hear they are changing that with the newer models, however. I remember reading about the jubilee model and it is supposedly innovating and fast and reliable (and yes, it was an independent journalist...) - truly a bike for the 21st century - so it seems that HD are answering the challenge that has arisen against it in the past decade or two. :elims:

That said, I am a great Harley fan myself, seeing as I grew up in and around the biker culture. In my mind, the only thing beating a Harley for coolness factor is an (original) Indian... :smokin: and Triumph comes as a close runner up after those two.

[lodestar]

Other-

Ural with sidecar. :P

[Shockwave_IIc]

I always thought the blitzen was a monster of a sports bike.
I got SO disapointed when they changed it to a chopper (or was it always a chopper and i missed it?)

[John Campbell]

[NightWind]

Do you even have to ask? Harleys!

Being a rider IRL of Harleys, I can honestly say that, if they've survived THAT long a a motorcycle. The rep and the tude are worth it in my book.

NightWind

[Subterfuge]

If it ain't a Harley... It's crap... :)

[=-_RaVeN_-=]