Hi Toph & Jeff, been watching the mag with great interest, Luv the info on the new Victory's(got to love that you broke the news first, as far as I know) Looks like the Cross Roads & Cross Country are going to give H-D a run for their money.
Yeah, I know they control 70%+ of the "Heavy" touring market, but your readers need to know about viable alternatives.
Along with the Victory's, Kawasaki has the new Voyager & Nomad 1700's and I've seen news from Star about a new Stratoliner with a fairing and hard bags. Choices are expanding & you just can't be locked in/focus on one thing. besides why should Billy B. have all the fun? This is your market, Baggers, Right?? Let's see what some of the other makers have & let the public/buyer's decide ?????  
Your Pal, Max in Cinti....  

MAX,

Trust us, we are working on getting all of these other types of baggers to test ride so check the mag often!  

Hi Jeff, thanks for responding...
Looks like I'm not the only one who see a discrepancy on "Bagger" Coverage. The letter on the "Letters page" in the mag was a LOT more strident than I was, but he captures the frustrations of the rest fo us who because of money / circumstance / choice, etc, choose NOT to ride H-D. And as the economy tightens there are more of us everyday.
As far as getting your hands on the different models mentioned, if Billy Bartels
(a confirmed H-D guy), Andy Cherney & J. Josuha LaPlaca can get em',you guys should be able to also. And to be fair, thanks for the Reader's Ride photo on the Kaw Vulcan Nomad with "The Death Dealer" custom paint, Very Cool, and not the only one
(custom metric bagger) out there. despite what the "hardcore H-D letter writer had to say. Take care & Tell Toph I said "Howdy" & to let you ride the Street Glide every once in a while.  Max  

Hi Jeff, thanks for responding...
Looks like I'm not the only one who see a discrepancy on "Bagger" Coverage. The letter on the "Letters page" in the mag was a LOT more strident than I was, but he captures the frustrations of the rest fo us who because of money / circumstance / choice, etc, choose NOT to ride H-D. And as the economy tightens there are more of us everyday.
As far as getting your hands on the different models mentioned, if Billy Bartels
(a confirmed H-D guy), Andy Cherney & J. Josuha LaPlaca can get em',you guys should be able to also. And to be fair, thanks for the Reader's Ride photo on the Kaw Vulcan Nomad with "The Death Dealer" custom paint, Very Cool, and not the only one
(custom metric bagger) out there. despite what the "hardcore H-D letter writer had to say. Take care & Tell Toph I said "Howdy" & to let you ride the Street Glide every once in a while.  Max  

I agree with "firefighter" to a point. See my entry on "Viable Alternatives" on this site. There are lots & LOTS of alternatives to the standard H-D bagger, argue the merits, as you may, but I have to agree with Toph & Jeff that the majority of Customized baggers are of H-D origin. Therefore the question is "is it just customized baggers in this magazine or baggers in general"???
On one hand Toph defends the review of the Kawazaki 900 to an irate H-D reader (see letter section in Jan. mag) & that is fine, but the augument, from my point of view is, who cares about a 900cc bike? We are "Heavy" riders who want big cc's power & comfort, with some music doo-dahs & whatever thrown in. What's the saying "There is no replacement for displacement"! Anyway, where is the coverage of the new Kaw Nomad/Voyager, the new Star Road/Stratoliner with fairing & bags, the Triumph Rocket 3 tourer and the new Victory Cross Country & Roads the like. Forget about the middleweights, that not who buys this magazine, I want to hear educated honest opinions about apples to apples, not apples to grapes, Nomad vs Roadking vs Cross Roads (I think thats the one with just the windshield) but you know what i mean. If this is a true bagger magazine then let's get some honest to goodness true to life big A$$ baggers in in. And yes, there are customized Metric baggers out there, I just happen to ride one, 07 Nomad 1600 with among other things, Cobra duals & hand painted accents