Back in the day when
Indian and
Harley Davidson were pretty much the only choices for American motorcycle buyers: ...Say before 1950. That's a loose date....
Indian was winning most of the races on the track. Some people were referring to Harley as:
" Hardly Abelson". 
This is History. I have found over the years that most people that ride have little knowledge of the past.
Sad.
My last two touring Motorcycles were
Yamaha Ventures. My first Venture was a 1983 which we did our first two cross country's and went 123,000 miles. The last Venture was a 1990..We did our last cross country on that one. By then I was feeling age creeping up on me.
We always rode alone. We were not a member of any group. When you go this way..you can go anywhere you want. No need to have a committee meeting. Our first cross country
"Theme" was to follow the
Oregon Trail as close as we could. We did. We like History.
We did the Oregon Trail..then turned south down the west coast to Needles California where the temperature in the Mojave desert was 115...then up to Grand Canyon where we arrived on July 4. Temp only 100.
We also had a very nice
1956 Ariel Square Four.
Just remembering...NB