American Made BS

[BobBear]

Just wanted to share this experience I had at Bike Week in Daytona Saturday before last and rant a little about it. While touring the different manufacturers booths and stores, I was approached by a salesman of a well known American manufacturer (who I won't name because they both do it) who tried to convince me to buy one of their motorcycles because it was "American made" and "American quality".



I have owned nothing but Japanese motorcycles my entire life because I see them as superior in technology to American manufacturers and a great value. My Suzuki has ceramic electroplated cylinders, gear driven overhead cams, gear driven counter balancers, shaft drive, full liquid cooling,and a vtwin that revs like a sport bike. Just to name a few of it's qualities



Our Vaqueros and Voyagers have more features than you ever thought you could get for $10+ K less than an American made motorcycle. I have endured the scorn of rednecks yelling obscenities at me and calling me a traitor and a "dumbass" for not owning an American made motorcycle. I have heard the stories from more than one person of American bike owners damaging metric bike rider's motorcycles because of their "made in America" brainwashing.



All of it comes from the marketing departments of American motorcycle manufacturers who think it will convince people to buy their bikes for 10 or 15 thousand dollars more than their worth or hides their inferiority to metric bikes. I don't know about you but, all it does to me is piss me off because I live in reality-ville and as an engineer, trick engineering impresses me.


So, just so you know American manufacturers, some of us want to buy bikes that are well engineered, good looking, a good value, and don't need marketing BS to sell them and we don't care where they are made



Oh, and the Kawasaki booth was awesome. I can't think of another manufacturer who builds such an incredible diversity of cool motorcycles.