1950 Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide - Quietly Purring.

Harley-Davidson ads from The Fifties. Come for the clothes. Stay for the irony.

Check out the bike togs on this happy, friendly Harley couple. Captain & Tenille hat. Shirt and tie. Wingy thingy on thechest. Jodhpurs. Whatpurrs? Jodhpurs. Those are those funny pants that the horsey set used to wear. They're usually  beige, with skinny ankles and giant balloon hips for some unknown reason. Apparently you needed those to ride a Harley.

Jodhpurs. A fun game:
ask anyone wearing them if
they know why they're
wearing them.

It's ironic that the idealized Harley togs looks so much like a Nazi uniform. This is not to say that Harley people are Nazis, okay? That's why I said it's ironic. You'd think that the Stalag 13 getup would have left a bad taste in the mouth of post-WWII Americans, that's all.

And now, some irony, courtesy of today's ad.

"...cruising down a scenic country road with a Harley-Davidson purring quietly underneath you." I can't remember the last time I saw a Harley that I would describe as "quiet". This makes me wonder if, for some reason, hog riders are given a free pass on the noise legislation. I was once pulled over in my VW GTI with a Magnaflow exhaust (which I hated and wanted to revert to stock). The officer had tailed me for a block or two, obviously wanting me to break the speed limit of 30 mph, but that ain't me, man. So, he pulled me over anyway to hassle me about my fifty-state-legal exhaust. When I explained what brand of exhaust it was, and how much the noise annoyed me, he told me he had a Mustang with the same setup. I'll let the irony sink in there. He had a V8 with the same noisemaker he had just pulled me over for having on my V6. He didn't give me a ticket, but he was probably just annoyed that I wouldn't speed for him. Anyway, most Harleys are twice as loud as my car used to be. Do they ever get pulled over for that? I have a feeling they don't, because "murr-cuh".

"In no other sport are friends so loyal, gals so glamorous." I'm not sure you can call cruising around on a hog a "sport". If you can be a chain-smoking old guy with a huge beer gut AND be good at something, then that something doesn't get to call itself a "sport".

But, when I'm looking for a fancy glamorous lady to take to the SAG/AFTRA awards, I go looking for a Harley woman. That's just science, people.

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