“The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you
really are is that you very often succeed.” - C. S. Lewis

From:         William Vogelsang
To:              me
Subject:
Date:          March 26, 2008


If Harleys are such non motorcycles, why have all the Japanese companies tried to copy (unsuccessfully) the design of the Vtwin? Just what is it about H-D motorcycles that makes you such a hateful person? Did the dealership refuse to sell you one??? Well boohoo!!!
Take your communist ass back to where you came from. Someone will find out who you are and where you are and take you out...
Beware your site doesn't get hacked down... It can be done...

black echo??? That is a silent sound isn't it? Too bad you're not... But... see above...

 

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To which I replied

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Yawn.

What a rather dull and utterly predictable email from yet another small minded, preprogrammed, inbred hillbilly robot. Educated viewers will have easily counted the five clear and distinct references to the Milwaukee Orthodoxy in William’s email.  Five points of the Orthodoxy in just one short paragraph? Almost every sentence could be taken right out of the think-by-numbers mindset that is so prevalent among the vassal-like Harley owners. Mr. Vogelsang here is typical of the delusional, pseudo-patriotic, store-bought freedom worshipping, faux-Americans that not only give Harley Davidson a bad name but also (unfortunately) keep the Motor Company in business. In fact, it is the very kind of deep, mind-numbing, fealty-like behavior such as his that has made Harley Davidson what it truly is today; a sad, twisted parody of what it once was and what it once stood for. With that much said, let’s look closer at this flaccid cock rancher’s personal manifesto of gullibility, ignorance and just pure undiluted stupidity.


“If Harleys are such non motorcycles, why have all the Japanese companies tried to copy (unsuccessfully) the design of the Vtwin?”

Do you honestly believe that the Japanese are copying Harley Davidson, William? I’m asking because that clichéd bit of nonsense is Number 40 on the list of the approved thoughts found on the think-by-numbers Milwaukee Orthodoxy. Form follows function, William … that is, unless you are Harley Davidson where style long ago replaced engineering as the major point in their design process (after all it was their first big step in the surprisingly easy transition from being a continually failing motorcycle manufacturer to becoming a highly successful fashion designer and lifestyle provider).

You ignorantly claim that the Japanese are copying Harley Davidson and my counterpoint would be why would the Japanese ever want to copy Harley Davidson?

Sales?

The Japanese continually outsell Harley Davidson year after year by a laughably wide margin (in Honda’s case it’s somewhere near 29.4 to 1).

Innovation?

The Japanese continually introduce new models, new technology, new engineering, and new styles all the time.   Harley Davidson has been stagnant for decades now.  It's not because they won't introduce new models ... it's because they can't introduce new models.  They simply don't know how to do anything other than make copies of the bikes that they already built when Willie G.'s grandpappy ran the shop.

Performance?

The Japanese consistently win international competitions and world championships (Harley Davidson does not).

Engineering and technology? 

Harley Davidson is at least three to five decades behind the rest of the world in regards to both technology and engineering and it doesn't appear that HD is closing the gap (or even attempting to do so).

What does Harley Davidson have that Japan would really want to copy? The answer, of course, is nothing. Harley Davidson has nothing that the Japanese would ever want to copy. Japan represents success, William, while Harley Davidson represents nothing but failure. Successful businesses do not copy examples of failure, not if they want to remain a successful business.

The comical V-twin engine that you refer to is itself an inherently poor design conceived and built by people who don’t have the first clue about the process of internal combustion. Harley and Davidson should never have made a motorcycle let alone something that they tried to pass off as a “motorcycle engine” because their skills were obviously more suited to designing rural based farm equipment and simple yet hardy irrigation pumps. Even the characteristic sound that the Harley designed V-twin produces is itself a curious byproduct of the inferior design; i.e. it is the definitive sound of engineered failure.

What you fail to understand is that Harley Davidson itself has a rather long history of directly copying other manufacturers. Indeed, the first half of Harley’s corporate life was spent playing catch-up, second fiddle and hind tit to most other American and foreign manufacturers. In 1902, Indian introduced their first single cylinder motorcycle. In 1903, Harley Davidson introduced their first single cylinder motorcycle. Coincidence? Probably not. In 1907, Indian introduced their first V-twin powered motorcycle. The first practical Harley air cooled V-twin engine didn’t appear until nearly four years after Indian had introduced their own air cooled V-twin engine.

Do you want to talk about copying of designs? Harley is famous for copying other manufacturers!  Do you remember the "XA" model Harley Davidson military bike way back in 1942?  The U.S. Army asked Harley-Davidson to produce a new motorcycle with many of the features of the BMW's R71 side-valve engine and shaft-drive (mainly because even though thousands of HDs were going to Europe our boys chose to ride German motorcycles instead (when they could get their hands on them from fallen Nazis). Harley largely copied the much better built and more powerful BMW R71's engine and drive train and produced the shaft-driven 750 cc 1942 Harley-Davidson XA.  Due to the superior cooling of the opposed twin's design the Harley's XA cylinder heads ran about 100 °F (55 °C) cooler than its own in-house designed V-twins.  The XA never entered full production (only about a thousand were produced) because by the time that the XA was ready for service the Jeep had pretty much surpassed the motorcycle as the Army's general purpose vehicle.  In regards to the Army using a motorcycle for any of its transportation roles, the Harley WLA (already in production) was more than sufficient for its rather limited police, escort, and courier roles (roles, strangely enough, that Harleys would continue to be relegated to in the civilian sector as well).  To this day, the BMW R71 copy inspired XA remains the only shaft-driven Harley Davidson ever made, one of the best Harleys ever made during the first 50 years of the company's life, and a testament to the fact that the only really good Harley Davidsons are the ones that are copies of bikes that other manufacturers produce.

Alas, the story of the XA may be a bit old for you so I'll direct your attention to a more recent model that Harley Davidson copied from other manufacturers and added to their own lineup.  I'm sure that you are much more familiar with ... the Harley Davidson Sportster.  When the Sportster was first introduced in 1957 it was such a direct copy of then-popular European muscle bikes of the time that the gear shifter was mounted on the opposite side of the rest of the models in the Harley lineup (but the same side as the European motorcycle models that it copied).  The DynaGlide of the 1980's copied its unique styling from the Japanese power cruisers of the time in an effort to try to win back some of HD's market share that had been lost to newer, more modern looking, better built bikes from abroad (and the DynaGlide of the 1980's remains to this day probably the only HD I might ever consider owning simply because it doesn't look like the other HDs of the period).  An even more recent example of HD copying other manufacturers is Harley’s own V-Rod which is itself merely a copy of a twenty plus year old Yamaha design, the V-Max (minus half the cylinders, most of the technology and all of the inherent charisma of "Mr. Mad Max").

You talk like Harley Davidson is something original, that Harley Davidson is the penultimate motorcycle example by which to judge and compare all other motorcycles but you are laughably, terribly, and oh so ignorantly wrong. So much of the Harley Davidson corporate history and the much lauded lifestyle are comprised of nothing more than simple make-believe, a childish need to pretend to be something you are not and fanciful marketing spin made manifest and kept rolling right along by a myriad of low functioning mental dullards such as you. Harley Davidson is not about being original; far from it! Harley Davidson is all about being a carbon copy of a pretend image that never really existed beyond anything other than the silver screen. 99% of Harley owners pretend to be what only 1% of Harley owners truly are. Harley Davidson is all about copying so much so that the Motor Company even dictates what you wear, what you ride and what you think (your email is proof of the latter). Every Harley owner is merely a carbon copy of every other Harley owner yet you all claim to be individuals. How can you be individuals when so much of your life … when your wardrobe, your bike, your mindset … is merely a copy of every other rider in your flock. If you truly were individuals then you wouldn’t be riding Harleys in the first place.  If you need to ride a Harley in order to be considered an individual then you're a pretty poor excuse for a functioning human being.

Now, if ALL of the Japanese companies have TRIED to COPY the design of the V-twin models so UNSUCCESSFULLY then can you explain to me why the Japanese companies consistently outsell Harley Davidson year after year? If Harley Davidson is so successful in its design then why isn’t it number one in the world? Actually, Harley Davidson is almost in last place in the world when it comes to producing and selling motorcycles. Hell, Harley Davidson is number three in sales in its own country of origin (following Honda at first place and Suzuki at second place) and that is with little to no real domestic competition. If you want to compare the Japanese to Harley Davidson, if the Japanese were likened to retail department stores, Honda would be something like a brand new Super Walmart and Harley Davidson would be nothing more than a rummage sale in a trailer park.

Now, let’s look at some basic facts and figures, shall we, instead of the humorous lies that you have presented erroneously (and foolishly believed) as solid facts. In 2006 alone, Harley Davidson produced and sold 349,200 units worldwide which, according to company history, was a very, very good year for HD. In comparison, during the 2006 model year Honda (and just Honda) sold 614,000 motorcycles in the North American market alone. Let me put that into perspective for you … Honda sold nearly twice as many motorcycles in North America (and just North America) as Harley sold around the entire world during the 2006 model year. Now, if you want to know how many motorcycles Honda sold around the world in 2006, that’s easy: 10,271,000 units. That’s nearly ten and a half million motorcycles compared to way less than half a million Harleys.

The total number of Honda motorcycles produced in 2006 is 29.4 times the total number of motorcycles that Harley produced and sold during the same model year. Let me break that down further for you … these figures (taken from the corporate annual reports of both HD and Honda) mean that for every motorcycle that Harley Davidson managed to sell Honda built and sold 29.4 motorcycles. If Honda (and just Honda alone) is outselling Harley Davidson worldwide by a 29.4 to 1 (or greater) ratio year after year then I hardly think that qualifies as “unsuccessful.”

If any company is copying any other company then history clearly shows us that Harley Davidson itself has a long corporate legacy of copying other manufacturers. Do you want to know one of the funniest things that Harley Davidson ever copied from another corporation? After Willie G. and his Twelve Disciples purchased Harley Davidson back from AMF in a leveraged buy-out one of the first things that HD adopted on the road to success was … Japanese management and business principles! In other words, the success that Harley enjoys today exists only because Willie G. and his Twelve Disciples stopped running Harley Davidson like it was a failing company managed by a bunch of drunken inbred hillbillies and started running the company like it was an import manufacturer and that in and of itself is about as close as Harley will ever come to being like Honda in any capacity.

That’s got to really hurt your faux-American, store-bought pride, doesn’t it, William? The company that you hold in such high regard is run (and has been run) according to principles and practices and successful examples set up by the foreign people you so vehemently despise and it’s been that way for nearly three decades now.

After all, if you can’t beat them you might as well join them!


“Just what is it about H-D motorcycles that makes you such a hateful person? Did the dealership refuse to sell you one??? Well boohoo!!!”

That’s number 15 on the think-by-numbers Milwaukee Orthodoxy, William. Why would the Harley dealer refuse to sell me one bike when I could easily afford to buy three brand new Harleys were I to be so frivolous, nay, stupid with my hard earned money? There are two kinds of bikers in the world, William; those who own a Harley and those who know better.

Hateful?  Your silly little claim reminds me of a famous quote from Harry S. Truman; "I never did give them hell.  I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell."

Is telling the truth … hateful …, William? They say that the truth hurts so I guess that I have caused a lot of Harley owners some real pain over the years by clearly showing them not only what monumental fools that were but what losers they were as well. That’s not hateful behavior, that’s simply doing my natural duty as a real American to point out store-bought patriots and fashion driven posers like you when and where I see them.  If there's one thing I can't stand it is someone who thinks that their birthright can be bought or that  they are somehow a better American than I am simply for what they own.

Is telling the truth now something that can be considered hateful?

Apparently so, in our modern society.

The truth is that I dislike HD for many, many reasons but if you want a simple answer then I guess it would be that I dislike HD because it is, by and large, populated and supported by loathsomely ignorant people like you. Harley is supported by people who willingly choose to accept style over engineering, noise over performance, fashion over safety and stagnation over evolution.  Harley is supported by people who don’t think for their own self, by people who believe what they are told and never question it, by people who would rather pay for a reputation than earn one, by people who dress their selves out of a catalog, by people who look the same yet declare that they are individuals and by people who are little more than corporate branded cattle and pop culture-driven sheep.

I dislike stupid people, William, especially stupid people who not only actively choose to be stupid but also pay outrageous sums of money for the privilege to be so. People like you have taken stupidity, which is normally a bad thing, and turned that stupidity into a lifestyle choice that is trendy, fashionable, desirable and enviable (but only to those individuals of equal or lesser intellect than you).

Hate you, William?

Oh, I could never hate you, my dear sweet, misguided, uneducated, ignorant, gullible, William. You and others like you make me laugh too much to ever truly hate you.


“Take your communist ass back to where you came from.”

Oh dear. Number 28 and Number 31 in the think-by-numbers based Milwaukee Orthodoxy, William. Let me see if I can tune into your exact frequency of retardation; I don’t like Harley Davidson therefore I’m a “communist” and because I am a “communist” I should therefore leave this great country and go back to some unmentioned country where they don’t have Harley Davidsons (like Harley Davidsons actually represented liberty and freedom).  Did I hit it on the head?  Pretty much.  Trust me, if there is a country that doesn’t have Harley Davidsons then I’m pretty sure I would label that particular locale as an ideal vacation spot.  Imagine how quiet it would be and the people would have more things to talk about other than NASCAR.  Why, I could guarantee that a country that was free of Harley Davidsons would also have a much higher per-individual IQ than our dumbed down country. 

Communist?  I’d really be surprised if your fifth grade education gave you the background required to fully understand the concept of communism let alone to know what a “communist” was.  In hindsight, your attempt to define "communism" is humorous albeit incorrect.

For what it is worth, my ass isn’t communist, William, it’s 125% red blooded, God fearing, deep thinking, staunchly individualistic, well educated, non-Harley owning, non-trailer park living, non-NASCAR watching, non-AOL using American and the truth is that I’m far more of a God fearing, red blooded, flag waving American than you ever will be because I use my God-given brain to question what I am told.  I don't accept without thinking ideas and concepts that I know to be ludicrous, even if not accepting those ideas puts me at odds and firmly against the mindset of the rest of the herd-like populace as a whole.   I am more of an American than you ever will be because my heritage is based on my birthright and not on what I own, what I choose to ride or what company I choose to support.

Educated difference of opinion = “communism.”

Yawn.

William, you and your kind are nothing if you aren’t pathetically predictable.


“Someone will find out who you are and where you are and take you out...”

Ah.

I wondered when your email would resort to threats of violence. That’s Number 30 in the think-by-numbers Milwaukee Orthodoxy, William. You should know that when you say really, really stupid stuff like this the only thing your words do is further strengthen my argument that HD has moved way, way beyond being an upstart fashion provider and that Harley Davidson truly has become what amounts to an out of control, trailer park fueled, pagan religion filled with overzealous, easily brainwashed imbeciles and co-dependent materialistic morons who willingly brand and scar their body for their rather simple (yet erroneous and easily disprovable) market spun beliefs. The threat of violence has become so cliché now that it really has ceased to be even remotely amusing even though it is always anticipated and even expected in the emails that I receive from you and your kind.

You and your kind threaten me because you cannot debate me, you cannot out-argue me and you cannot disprove my points of contention. You threaten me because you cannot refute the facts that I present or rewrite history so that the failures of Harley Davidson never happened. All you can do is subscribe to your make-believe lifestyle and hope that other people don’t look deep enough to see through your façade and discover the scared little losers and timid posers that you truly are. You threaten me because you are Luddites and you would rather destroy the truth that would set you free than you would to give up your make-believe way of life.  You threaten me because it is really the only thing you have at your disposal.

For what it is worth, William, my address and my home telephone number are both listed on my website and they have been posted there for many, many years now. I’m not scared of Harley-tards (especially those like you) and never will be. If you want to ride hundreds of miles, show up at my doorstep and start some trouble all over a silly difference of opinion you read on the Internet then I hope that you will have had at least the foresight to have brought proper identification along somewhere on your body … for your next of kin’s benefit, that is. The powers that be will need that information to know who to mail your Darwin Award to, posthumously of course.

Of course, it takes balls and guts to present and maintain a website like mine, let alone to present all of my personal contact information (rather than making empty threats while hiding behind a computer like every Harley rider (including you) inevitably does). For what it is worth, the difference between us is that while we both can claim to have a set of balls hanging between our legs only mine are real.

In order to illustrate this, I’ve prepared this simple chart for your review.
 

“Beware your site doesn't get hacked down... It can be done...”

Oh, I’m sure that it can be done just as I’m equally sure that you’re not smart enough to do it.

If the only resort you have to respond to my criticisms of your ridiculous make-believe lifestyle is the threat of physical violence or the threat of vandalism to my website then I’ve already won my argument hands down, William. Of course, someone like you is probably too stupid to realize that simple fact which is what makes maintaining this website so much fun.


“black echo??? That is a silent sound isn't it? Too bad you're not... But... see above...”

How is a “black echo” a silent sound, William? What you just said makes absolutely no sense at all (much like the contents of your email). How can a sound be silent? “Sound” and “silence” are direct opposites, much like “intelligent” and “Harley rider”.  If “Black Echo” was a “silent sound” then logically it would be “Quiet Echo”, now wouldn’t it?

And that, my dear William, was a professional, educated, intelligent (and humorous) reply to a simple difference of opinion. Too bad your email wasn’t … But … see above …

 

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