I started collecting bikes back in 2009, bought a 1980 Honda cx500, then two months later a new Yamaha 1300 cruiser, and shortly after that they seemed to just fall in my lap, at one point up to last fall i had 18 motorcycles, my top 5 are all big cruisers like two GL1500 Goldwings, two Yamaha Venture Royales, i had a nice Virago 750 and a Yamaha Vmax, sold them.
But never a Harley. Sure everyone wants one, you cannot get an older one cheap. But the metric bikes are a dime a dozen, and the Goldwings are very easy to maintain, doesn’t matter if they have over 100,000 miles, they keep on running. The ones i have are totally ready to ride cross country. They run so well that i have not had a strong reason to buy a newer Goldwing.
It just depends on build design and quality. And no i won’t knock Harley bikes, if anything i would love to buy an Indian, now that is a collectible bike!
1965 Norton Atlas
1971 BSA 441
2002 (India built) Royal Enfield 500
And when I hit the lottery, it'll be a Vincent and an Ariel S4 of course.
When I was very much younger in the early 40s almost every motorcycle I saw was a Indian.
The much narrower wheels of Harley and other motorcycles IMHO made them less attractive to bikers in my area. (Boston)
When the bikers would pull up on a hot day and shut off the engines, some of the Indians engines, which were air cooled, would keep on kicking because of the overheated engine parts igniting the fuel. - Tom