I've never understood the mindset of people thinking they "need" a huge bike. If its gonna be used for freeway touring, I can see that...but for an all around bike?
The "mindset", as you call it, has a whole different set of definitions for each of the decades from 1903 to the present (11 of them).
In general & I repeat - In General - most people in each of those decades chose to ride a harley davidson simply because they WANTED a harley davidson. Period. They wanted no othe bike. It wasn't a choice between THIS one & THAT one.
Now, with all the huge multitude of things that have happened to us or been forced on us or brainwashed into us in the past 100 years & especially the last 30 or so, the REASONS people chose to ride a harley would fill volumes.
Many STILL buy & ride harleys simply because they want to ride a harley. Or multiple harleys.
Look at me fergod'ssake. My first ride on a harley was on a '47 knuckle at 11 years old in 1949 behind a friend of my mother's (& lifelong friend of mine until he died) & I've been a harley rider & harley history buff since & now I ride an Enfield & I love the damn thing & have a grin on my face every time I ride it (except today. I froze my nuts off & just barely made it home). Explain that
[/img] And why do I also ride a kick only '77 harley I spent 2 years building after I sold the last one I built? (a mistake). For exactly the reasons people say they wouldn't dream of owning "that thing", that's why. And because I WANT to. I enJOY doing the maintenance most are scared to death of or too lazy to do nowadays. Plus now you can't work on most of them even if you WANT to.