Another way to look at it is that the big boys are now competing against Royal Enfield for a piece of the retro market!! All of them are youngsters compared to us. Don't much care for the Sporster, but judged againt their sales I am odd man out on this one.
The real problem about the comparisons between all these bikes is that the complaints are all very subjective in nature. If you showed the same line up to any afficianado of those individual brands, they would lump the Enfield with all the other bikes and say, for example, the Guzzi was the best.
Also, I wouldn't call HD exactly a youngster, Enfield has maybe 3 or 4 years out of over 100 years more time in the saddle? And what about some Japanese bikes? The Suzuki Savage, excuse me, S40 certainly belongs, as do the Kaw 500 twin Vulcan and the Honda VLX 600. (which may both be gone), or do we just discount Japanese bikes out of hand?
I've heard HD lovers, for decades, simply dismiss everybodies' bikes as not being the "read McCoy", and you can't press them on objectivity, they simply justify price, or anything else, on the basis that "It's a harley davidson, man, and if I have to explain, you'll never know."
Well, I'm gonna have to kinda drop out of this, because when we disagree, and I appreciate that on this forum there are many who believe the old adage "We can disagree without being disagreeable" but the debate is informed by subjective factors only, it simply becomes an exercise in futility.
When they were new, and could be bought "cheap", for $652,000.00, was a Ferrari Enzo really worth almost three times the price of a Lamborghini Diablo, or over 8 times the price of a Ford GT? (keeping in mind Ford has just a smidgen of racing heritage, of its own?)
Of course not, except that the Ferrari prancing horse has a very high value, at least to the faithful.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the value of subjective discussions, but there is simply no end, until everybody folds their arms, says to themselves, about his or her favorite brand, "I know I'm right", and walks away.
I preach the praises of all my brands, but I also understand the OBJECTIVE nature of their existence, and will, in a heartbeat, clearly lay out the negatives of that existence. I can, and upon request, will be happy to talk about very OBJECTIVE negatives of my Sportster, my Gold Wing, and my Electra.
I understand that that is probably the essence of being a biker, that one is proud of his choice of weapon because of a name, I'm just glad I can evaluate objectively, also, and that I often feel that surge of pride because I know it is partly based on things that can be quantified, and not just qualified.
A short while back, I pulled up to a red light beside a noisy Ultra Classic, looked over and waved to the rider, and got a cold stare back. I just shrugged, cause that rarely happens anymore, but when the light turned green, and he really punched it, I did too, and in a few seconds me and my Gold Wing were so far ahead of him that I didn't have to listen to the noise.
Will he decide a Honda is better because of that - no, and he shouldn't , but I laugh when I think he believes his machine is superior IN SPITE of it. As the kids say these days, "give me a break".