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Irrational Decisions illustrated

Today driving to work I had to merge into a lane to pass into a tunnel. Happens every day. Usually quite uninspiring.

Today in my mirror I saw two motorcycles once I got in the lane. One was a Harley with a big windscreen and “ape hanger” bars. The other a 4 pot Japanese street racer. The contrast could not have been greater.

I had motorcycles years ago. My license is still valid. I have not ridden one in years as well lets just say I am lucky not to be dead. I am still interested though.

There are many flavors of motorcycles. There are classics, nakeds, cafe racers, sport bikes, cruisers, and of course Harleys. Those are unique, expensive and actually very old technology. The choice to buy one type over any other is not a rational process.

If you want power, speed and reliability, Harley is not going to give that to you. They tried a few years ago and got Porsche to help design a V twin that could compete with sport bikes. It put out about 100 hp which is over double the normal Harley motor. I remember it lost a race on TV against a 30 year old two stroke 3 pot Japanese bike. It lost even though the Factory sent a pit crew to assure it was tuned optimally. They discontinued it last year as the usual customer base did not like it.

The highest power stock Japanese bike is north of 200 hp. Hell even Italian bikes are good enough to win races. V twins too. I like Italian Bikes.

But buying a Harley is not about those things. It is about attitude. It is about noise and the feeling while riding it. Put a few custom parts on it or even chop it and you are telling the world what side you are on or want to appear to be on. I remember a clutch of riders were pulled over by the highway to be checked out by police. Turned out they were Dentists on a vacation.

It is a similar esthetic to people who love to turn tires into smoke in cars with over 700 hp. Or the type that build fancy hot rods. Noise and attitude are the goals not a reliable or even high performance machine.

My foundation Philosophy is that there are no rational decisions. Dig down deep enough and every decision is somebody saying “I want”, and they cannot describe why they want.

So here in my mirror were two opposites going down the same road.

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