I popped into my local Harley dealer's cafe in Plymouth today and you know what.... there were numerous Harley guys and gals enjoying a chat over breakfast and coffee on a Saturday morning. Some came on their bikes despite the weather and others by car. Thinking about the other brands at local dealers in Plymouth this just doesn't happen. Often my Ducati is the only Ducati parked up at the dealer's on a Saturday. Whatever you think about Harley Davidson bikes doesn't matter, the social side of Ducati ownership in the Plymouth area, and probably other places, sucks in comparison to Harley. Some of you wouldn't be seen dead with Harley patches but you are nowhere to be seen anyway. Is this common for the rest of the country? If you have a good Ducati social scene in your area, is it a Ducati Owners Club thing, a dealer organised thing or just a casual but well known meet up on a Saturday at the dealer's cafe? GT in Plymouth have sold oodles of Ducatis so there could be an active social side of Ducati ownership here but I wonder if the usual age of Ducati owners is lower than say, Harley, and younger owners don't give a t**s for the social side of brand ownership? Comments appreciated, preferably not the usual anti Harley ramblings.
We've a few of us in Kent who get together for a few rides and events. We meet under the DOC banner, but I couldn't tell you who's a member or not. To be fair, even as the branch organiser I never asked and couldn't care less!
Does there have to be a social scene with bikes? Personally, I like biking for the solitude. Love the forum of course, but I can't think of anything worse than tying up your weekends with bike meetings. I kinda like the fact I'm the only guy that turns up down my favourite boozer on a bike.
I like both, but I enjoy riding with a few other people, and stopping for a brew and a natter along the way. The Harley lot do seem to have it wellsorted though, probably because HD themselves push the owners group.
I don't think I'm mentally prepared for the bikey social scene, I've still got some teenage angst to get rid of via the medium of the throttle...
It is, at least partly, a brand thing. The kind of people who buy HD's are (forgive the massive generalistaion) into the whole "bike scene" thing... They are either genuine, hard-core, rally-going bike riders, or they are estate agents and corporate bankers who like to prettend that they are hard-core bike riders. Either / iether they all seem to latch onto the HD image thing. Ducati riders aren't like that; they are far more likely to be into racing and, has already been said, riding bikes for the fun of it instead of posing about at local bike shops. Also - I'm willing to bet that a fair number of the people who hang around at Plymouth HD are Plymouth Bike Club memebers - and don't even get me started on that lot !
I suppose we should embrace all of our two-wheeled loving brethren. However, I'm not sure about the whole Harley scene and the strange leather accoutrements that go with it. Lots of guys have HD's in my part of the world. Their bikes sit in the garage, gathering sand, for 364 days of the year and on the one day of the year that they finally get to turn a wheel, the end up 2 clicks down the road at the nearest Starbucks. The "bikers" then sit, for hour on end, talking about how great their bikes are and how wonderful it is to be an HD owner. Personally, I think they are ugly big pieces of pig iron. I don't like the bikes either !
Oh, I know of some pretty hardcore Harley riders. I kicked a couple of Harleys over when I was a teenager to save my mates from a beating (we'd been taking the piss out of them in the pub), Christ, them fat bastards chased me for fookin' miles
As seen on Facebook recently - "If you really do live to ride and ride to live" why is your Harley on a trailer ?
im pretty sure if something was arranged for a meet for ducati owners locally round Plymouth most of the locals would come along, maybe a breakfast meet on a sunday at louis,s , jaspers or something like that, maybe from next april , im out a lot on my 996 and talk to lots of people with ducatis who have never heard of ducati forum and the such and would be interested in a meet, kev
Or maybe they are at home drinking T looking at their polished collection Harley know what brand means, and 80% plus of their worldwide revenue is not metal related. Even to the point where finance is heavily used to buy accessories even when people don't own a bike. Power of brand. Something to be admired...unless of course someone is elitist and wants no one else to be as special as them...
But that's the whole point of ridiculing Harley riders, they're all nomads, just like all the other pensioners that went to that shop that day. With the wife. And the credit card. There ain't much difference with Ducati owners to be fair, or MV owners, or...well any other biker. The difference is the rest of us are aware that double denim is a faux pas...
I think it also depends on the dealer, Oxford Harley just down the road from where I live, used have a huge social scene, now it's been sold to the Blade Group, it's not even open on a Sunday.
If i want to be part of any social bike group i tend to hammer it upto the midway cafe near whitchurch not a fancy place but good food the owners a biker plenty of parking with the raven cafe next door as well and some great roads plus demon tweeks at wrexham isn't far away if you go on a saturday but other than that i go out really early to miss the traffic so a lot of places aren't open or most bikers are sleeping the hangover off still.
Me too, we have the H Café in Dorchester on Thames, just south of Oxford, great bike nights throughout the summer on a Monday, however I prefer a bacon sarnie and a mug of tea on a Sunday morning, all sorts are there and you can always find someone to have a natter to.
