Harley-Davidson Files (ISBN 0760313121)

HD files, much reading, less looking:
As a Harley collector I buy Harley books very often. Therefore I find motorcycle testreports also interresting to have and read. So I ordered HD files of Motorcyclist. The book looks good, has quality paper and many nice reviews.The pictures in this book are of very fine quality too. One problem though. There are not enough of them!!! Even some reviews don't have pictures at all. Also some reviews have the wrong pictures. Example: page 142 should how a 1991 XLH 1200 Sportster. Why a FXDB Sturgis picture here? I don't know.I would say: get the pictures on the right pages (shouldn't be too much work), add several of the specific bikes and details of it (the original reviews have that already I hope), and this book is a winner. The book gets a bit thicker and the price a few bucks more, but that's no problem, right? At least it's complete.

Motorcyclist Harley Davidson Files:
I enjoyed the selected road tests of Harleys that were assembled in this book. There are almost 40 road tests, of many different Harley models, from the late sixties to the present, in this book. A Harley enthusiast reading this book needs to remember that these tests are from Motorcyclist magazine, which is a general motorcycle publication and not one directed towards just Harleys. This is important because the bike evaluators tend to be high performance driven enthusiasts who would prefer a canyon carving GSXR or Ninja to a Harley, any day. As such, just about every test has some negative comments about the Harley in question, such as acceleration, cornering ability, braking, etc. However, most Harley enthusiasts are already aware of these percieved negative traits and have learned to adapt to them or improve them with engine hop ups, better brakes, etc. With this understanding, the text was interesting, informative and fun to read. Overall, I enjoyed the text. My complaint about this book has to do with the photos. There are simply not enough photos. Only a portion of the roadtests have any accompanying photos. Photos are critical to understanding what the magazine road testers are talking about. I wish the editors would have remembered the concept, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Also, when pictures are included, they do not look like the original photos which accompanied the orginal road test article. They are of similar models, some with customized parts. Obviously these photos were pulled out of a generic bin of old Harley photos. Some are even wrong, on page 142 the text is describing a Sportster when the photo is a big twin Dyna, on page 126 the text is on an Electraglide when the photo is of a Tourglide, etc. I would rate the text as 5 stars, the photos only get one star!

HD files, much reading, less looking:
As a Harley collector I buy Harley books very often. Therefore I find motorcycle testreports also interresting to have and read. So I ordered HD files of Motorcyclist. The book looks good, has quality paper and many nice reviews. The pictures in this book are of very fine quality too. One problem though. There are not enough of them!!! Even some reviews don't have pictures at all. Also some reviews have the wrong pictures. Example: page 142 should show a 1991 XLH 1200 Sportster. Why a FXDB Sturgis picture here? I don't know. I would say: get the pictures on the right pages (shouldn't be too much work), add several of the specific bikes and details of it (the original reviews have that already I hope), and this book is a winner. The book gets a bit thicker and the price a few bucks more, but that's no problem, right? At least it's complete.